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Peek in the Stacks: san fernando valley

Santa Susana Mountain Park Association

Less than seven miles northwest of the CSUN campus lie the Santa Susana Mountains, a craggy transverse range which runs east to west, separating the San Fernando and Simi Valleys, the Santa Clara River Valley to the north, and the Santa Clarita Valley to the northeast. Rich in natural, historical and cultural significance...

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Brad Pye, Jr., Los Angeles Sports Journalist and Community Advocate

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 L.A., 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...

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S.F.V.S.C., November 4, 1968

Many are unaware that the campus unrest of the mid-1960s and early 1970s left a lasting impression on the campus of 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...

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Van Nuys, Then and Now

Los Angeles is a key shaped city spread cross a large swath of Southern California. Encompassing almost 470 square miles, the City has almost twice the landmass of Chicago. One of the more interesting aspects of the area is its multitude of smaller districts, towns, and neighborhoods that fan out from the city proper. Van Nuys is one of these towns....

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Publications by Monsignor Francis J. Weber

Monsignor Francis J. Weber is a distinguished Catholic scholar, an Honorary Chaplain to His Holiness, and the archivist for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the San Fernando Mission, as well as a former professor of history at Queen of Angels Seminary. Special Collections and Archives houses over 100 titles...

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Northeast Valley Oral History Project

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 largely funded by the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Regional Arts Grants Program. As a key component of the workshop, elder citizens ...

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The Campus Unrest Collections

The 1960s was a time when the status quo was quickly becoming unacceptable, and change seemed inevitable. By 1963, more than 16,000 American soldiers were stationed in South Vietnam with an even larger presence in Korea. Americans had grown tired of foreign wars, and protests grew as the Draft grew into a large concern for young people...

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Slum Neighborhoods in Los Angeles

1938 marked one of the most economically devastating years of the Great Depression, shortly following the recession of 1937, but preceding swift economic growth brought upon by the United States’ entrance into World War II. In addition, the 1930s brought dramatic population growth in California due to...

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20th Anniversary of the Northridge Earthquake

The 6.7-magnitude Northridge Earthquake occurred at 4:31am on Monday, January 17, 1994. Its epicenter was around Wilbur Avenue and Arminta Street in Northridge, about a mile from campus. The earthquake and subsequent aftershocks caused extensive destruction to the Northridge and Sherman Oaks areas. Numerous buildings on the California State University, Northridge ....

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The Merle H. Cunnington Collection

Political cartoons are valuable sources that can distill the social and cultural norms of an age. This distillation occurs because political cartoons portray common issues and events in terms that are meant to be easily understood by the general readership of a given publication, or publications. Their use as primary sources requires the understanding of several concepts including symbolism, metaphor, irony, and caricature....

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