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Peek in the Stacks: photographs

The Legacy of Brad Pye, Jr.

In 1943, at the young age of 12, Brad Pye, Jr. paid a friend who transported cars to California $5.00 for a ride from his home in Plain Dealing, Louisiana to Los Angeles. Once in LA, Pye continued his education, completing both junior high and high school while working as a gas station attendant in the evenings. During World War II, housing accommodations were tight, and Pye rented space to sleep on an army cot in a freezing hallway. Nevertheless, he did not let his age or hardships deter him from pursuing his passion for journalism...

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American Imperialism in the Philippines

Spain established its first permanent settlement in the Philippines in 1565. Spanish colonial control of the Philippines continued until 1898, when the United States took possession of the islands as a territory after winning the Spanish-American War. The Philippine Revolution, a struggle for independence from...

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San Fernando Rey de España at Achoicominga

Between 1769 and 1823, under the authority of King Charles III of Spain, Franciscan priests established twenty-one missions in California, to colonize the territory and convert its indigenous inhabitants to Christianity. San Fernando Rey de España (San Fernando Mission) was established at...

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Northeast Valley Oral History Project Collection

In 2002, writer Emory Holmes II set out to establish a Poetry and Writers workshop at the Northeast Valley Senior Center in Pacoima, California. The project, entitled “Stories from my Hometown,” was funded in partby the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department's Regional Arts Grants Program....

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John Broesamle Suddenly A Giant: A History of CSUN Collection

In 1988, CSUN professor John Broesamle reluctantly accepted a commission to deliver a “real history” of the campus at the urging of then-Library Dean Norman Tanis. Broesamle’s initial apprehension to accept the offer stemmed from CSUN's relatively short life (in historical terms) of three decades...

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Richard Cross Photographic Collection

The Tom & Ethel Bradley Center holds the archives of the Richard Cross Photographic Collection. Twelve thousand of those images are being made available on the Library Digital Collections website. Unlike many of the photographic collections in the Bradley Center, the Cross images are not geographically confined to Southern California. Nevertheless, the Cross Collection does have ...

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Antonio and Luz Mendez Calvo Family Collection

In our personal lives, important documents are often kept private and tucked away.  When studying immigration and family life, it is helpful to move beyond the readily available rhetoric and look at primary sources. The Antonio and Luz Mendez Calvo family Collection, which has been digitized as part of the Latino Cultural Heritage Digital Archives, offers that opportunity...

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Julian Nava Collection

The Julian Nava Collection documents Nava's wide personal and professional interests in education, Mexican American affairs, Latin American history and Chicano politics. Dr. Julian Nava (1927- ) was born and raised in Boyle Heights to Mexican immigrant parents. In 1945, he volunteered for the US Navy Air Corps at the age of seventeen and was accepted as a pilot candidate, however the war ended before ...

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Richard Neutra's Fine Arts Building

This week's blog post focuses on the Richard Neutra Fine Arts Building, which was completed in early 1960 and was demolished in 1997 after the damage it received from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. You can find images of the no longer standing Fine Arts building and many other campus buildings in the Library Digital Collections. ..

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Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Part 5

The Los Angeles Community Relations Committee (CRC) was founded in the early 20th century to work with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), B'nai B'rith, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the American Jewish Congress, the Council of Jewish Women, and other Zionist organizations to fight anti-Semitism in the United States. The core mission of the organization's founding continued as a through line, but by the close of the 20th century CRC's focus expanded to include additional pressing international issues...

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