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Peek in the Stacks: urban archives

June Renovation Update

This summer, Special Collections and Archives is beginning a two phase renovation project. We'll be posting monthly updates here about the the project throughout the summer. When both phases are complete, Special Collections and Archives will have a new, environmentally controlled and secure closed stacks area for our rare books, artifacts, and archival collections ....

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Voices and Vices: The Reverend Wendell L. Miller Collection

Reverend Wendell L. Miller was a Los Angeles minister and political activist who strongly believed that the church should play a major role in the social and political agenda of its community. In 1937, Miller became involved in Los Angeles politics, holding community-wide meetings to address gambling, prostitution, and corruption in local government. Joining ranks with ...

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Thanksgiving Traditions

Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrated in the United States, in which family and friends gather together to have dinner and give thanks. Special Collections and Archives holds several items that relate to how people celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. While some people have family traditions that include...

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The Study of Antisemitism

Antisemitism is a form of discrimination which is directed at people of the Jewish faith or at Judaism in general. People who express hostility or hatred toward Jews are considered antisemitic. Special Collections and Archives holds several publications and manuscript collections that are useful for the study of antisemitism in the 20th century...

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The Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Guild Collection

The Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Guild (MPSCG), then called the Hollywood Screen Cartoonists, created its constitution in 1937. Acting as an advocate for animators, the MPSCG fought for member representation in wage and hour disputes, and aimed to establish itself as...

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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 Longshore Strike of 1934

Over the course of the 1920s, attempts were made to unionize West Coast Longshoremen. However, it wasn’t until passage of the short-lived National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) in 1933 that West Coast Longshoremen had effectively organized. By early 1934, longshoremen across the length of the Coast from San Diego to...

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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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