Chapbooks are small books that were sold on the street for a penny or less from the 17th century to the 19th century. Publishers created the books with cheap materials and with woodcut illustrations that often didn't relate to the subject matter. People of the lower socioeconomic classes could afford to read literature printed in them...
Unrest on campus in the mid-1960s and early 1970s left a lasting impression on San Fernando Valley State College (now CSUN). Special Collections is home to several books and archival collections that discuss this discord, including two books representing different sides of what is known on campus as...
Margaret Sanger was one of the most influential advocates for the suffrage movement and women's rights in the twentieth century. Yet interestingly, Sanger's views on women's rights did not always coincide with the National Woman Suffrage Association and other suffrage groups that were primarily made up of middle and upper middle class white women. Sanger's early experiences as one of eleven children and her career as a visiting nurse in the slums of East Side New York...
American Sign Language, the predominant sign language used by deaf communities in the United States and much of Canada, began in the 19th century. Prior to its creation, local sign languages were developed and used in the US and around the world. Our knowledge of these early sign languages is contained within contemporary written works that primarily described what are called "manual alphabets," or fingerspelling systems....
In Greek mythology, Atlas was the god condemned to hold up the heavens for eternity. In modern culture, we think of an atlas as collection of maps, usually bound, that can be a window to the world packed with colorful maps and guides. In Special Collections and Archives, we have many interesting atlases, including...
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote hundreds of works in his lifetime that were forgotten for more than a century after his death. It wasn't until Felix Mendelssohn, well-known composer and pianist of the 19th century, stumbled upon Bach's music by chance and brought it back to the public to enjoy once again, that interest in Bach’s music was reignited. Bach’s music was cherished once again, and many composers ...
Special Collections and Archives holds many rare books that capture the unique history of specific events. This post focuses on the Woman’s Board of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition hosted by San Francisco in 1915 as told by Anna Pratt Simpson and John Henry Nash in Problems Women Solved: Being the Story of the Woman's Board of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition ..
The scholarly study of prostitution began to flourish in the mid-1980s sparked by public health concerns over sexually transmitted diseases, the need for legislative protections against sexualized violence and sex trafficking, and a growing awareness of relationships between sex work, substance abuse, and mental health. The regulation of prostitution in the United States is not ...
In honor of Black History Month, this week’s blog post highlights just a few African Americans who have contributed to the development and culture of the City of Los Angeles. These figures have roots embedded deep in the history of Los Angeles, some well before California was even part of the United States. Special Collections and Archives holds many interesting items that capture this history...
Primers were a type of textbook used to teach beginning students how to read. Early examples of primers date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, at which time they bore little resemblance to textbooks used for the same purpose today. Their contents typically consisted of word lists, catechisms ...
