The Tom and Ethel Bradley Digital Photograph Collections include the work of renowned Los Angeles-based African American photographer Charles Williams, who was at the forefront of photography in Los Angeles during the 1930s and 1940s. Born in 1908, Williams did not take a direct path to photography. In 1913, he relocated to Los Angeles from Fresno with his mother, sister, and brother. Williams returned....
Born from the wartime hysteria of World War II, the internment of Japanese Americans is considered by many to be one of the biggest civil rights violations in American history. Americans of Japanese ancestry, regardless of citizenship, were forced from their homes and into relocation centers known as internment camps. The fear that arose after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor created severe anti-Japanese prejudice, which evolved into the widespread belief that Japanese people in America were a threat to national security...
The CSUN Leaders Oral History Project Collection contains interviews with eight key individuals involved in the history of California State University, Northridge, including some of the university's most distinguished faculty, deans, presidents, and provosts. Topics discussed in the histories include campus unrest during the 1960s and 1970s, the 1994 earthquake, budget crises in California...
Special Collections and Archives holds several collections and publications that tell the story of the founding of California State University, Northridge. The saga has been documented by emeritus history professor John Broesamle in his 1993 history of the university, Suddenly a Giant, through photographs in the University Archives Photograph Collection, and in the Judge Julian Beck and Homer A. Halverson ...
Frank W. Bireley was born in Los Angeles in 1899. He went to school in Hollywood before graduating and going north to attend school at Stanford University. While in Northern California he looked for ways to fund his education, and started selling fresh squeezed orange juice to his fellow students to help pay his Stanford tuition. His juice business took off and ...
The Julián Cardona Collection documents the violence and economic upheaval that has engulfed United States/Mexico border cities. Cardona’s work is internationally recognized, documenting transnational economic violence in Mexico, the resulting exodus of Mexican communities, and the emergence of the new Americans in the United States. The main geographical ...
In the 1920s, the film industry exploded and Hollywood became the capital of the movie business. Young women from all over the country began coming to Los Angeles to try to make it big as screen stars. In some cases, women were exploited, taken advantage of, or became embroiled in scandals due to their youth and naiveté. Seeing the need for a safe haven, the Young Women’s ...
Have you ever wondered about that large cement canal running through the San Fernando Valley, past Griffith Park, east of downtown Los Angeles, and eventually to the sea, emptying into the Port of Long Beach? We still call it a river, the LA River. Originally, the river flowed freely along the alluvial flood plain that is now Los Angeles and Long Beach. There was rarely a set course for the river and flooding was common...
Rampant antisemitism in Europe in the years prior to World War II caused many Jews to seek refuge in countries outside of Europe, including in China. Once settled, Jews were deemed "stateless" because of antisemitism in their countries of origin, like Germany and Russia. As a result...
Activists often gather information to support their causes, and communicate that information to larger audiences to acquire support, a process that just might begin with a peek in the stacks. Archival materials in numerous collections held in Special Collections & Archives give potential activists an opportunity to recognize patterns and identify the causes of recurring phenomena, especially institutional ....
