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Peek in the Stacks: scrapbooks

A Servicemember’s Best Friend

A number of collections in the Old China Hands Archives document the lives of American military personnel serving abroad in the 20th century, primarily in China but also in other countries in Asia and the Pacific Islands. Alongside photographs of local sites and fellow servicemembers, dogs make fairly frequent cameos. 

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Music Scrapbooks

Scrapbooks are handmade keepsakes that preserve memories for the future. Special Collections & Archives holds a wide range of scrapbooks pertaining to many different subjects. Here we will focus on a few music scrapbooks from three different collections: the Mimi Melnick Collection, the Peggy Gilbert Collection, and the Harriet Ware Collection

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A Look Back at a Previous LA Housing Crisis

According to the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, in 2019 the number of unhoused people in Los Angeles County rose 13% from the previous year to over 66,000 people. It remains to be seen what the numbers will look like for 2020, which saw the highest rise in unemployment on record since....

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James F. Dargan Civil War Diary and Scrapbook

James F. Dargan was born in the town of Randolph, Norfolk County, Massachusetts in 1843. Dargan was the eldest of six children born to Irish immigrants, and by the age of seventeen worked as a boot maker in his father’s shop. On September 17, 1862, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted in the Union Army, 4th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry, and on that day began a four volume diary of his experiences in the American Civil War...

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Journal of a Trip from Liverpool to San Francisco

Special Collections and Archives holds many unique and interesting diaries which chronicle the adventures of travelers from all over the world. One of these, entitled, Journal of a Trip from Liverpool to San Francisco, was penned by a young Englishwoman visiting the United States for the very first time. The journal chronicles her trip from April to June of 1895, beginning with a trip across the sea on the “luxurious” S.S Teutonic...

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The History of Scrapbooks

The evolution of the scrapbook dates back centuries, as people began to document their lives, the places they visited, and the significant events that shaped their daily lives in the unique format. Special Collections and Archives holds a wide variety of materials that illustrate this evolution, including scrapbooking's historical roots and the merging of storytelling...

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