– Special Collections & Archives – Peek in the Stacks

SCA Blog posts tagged with: rare books

Cover page of comic “Dita in the Chelsea Girl”, from Sex by Madonna, ML420.M1387 A38 1992

The Most NSFW Pop Culture Moment in the Archives? Madonna’s Sex Book.

September 30, 2025

juridical tracts

Juridical Tracts Collection

September 9, 2025

mill explosion

Miniature Magic: 19th Century English Toy Theatres

August 26, 2025

swimming pool

Works of Ed Ruscha

August 12, 2025

chess instructions

Chess in the Archives

April 22, 2025

Cover of the miniature book The Little Land, PR5489 .A3 1983

The Little Land Little Book

February 4, 2025

Detail from the cover of War Heroes Comic, Chase Craig Collection

Heroes

November 26, 2024

Detail of the cover of Put It In a Blender by the Spring 2019 Printmaking III: Relief class with instructor Jamie Russom, N7433.4.P88 2019

Representing the Creativity of CSUN Students in Special Collections & Archives

November 5, 2024

Bulletin of the History of Medicine. Vern L. Bullough papers, Box 276 Folder 7

Menstruation: Misinformation, Fear, and Folklore

September 17, 2024

Plate 21 Cypress Grove, 1938" photographic print by Edward Weston, F868.M7 W4 1950

Two Photographers and a Poet in Point Lobos

March 26, 2024

Wood engraving from the Yolla Bolly Press edition of My First Summer in the Sierra, QH31.M9 A3 1988

Hiking through the Archives with John Muir

February 27, 2024

On a serving platter, the Djedjad-Imer ready for the dinner table, Recipes of all nations, TX725.A1 R43 1935

Honey Recipes in the Archives

December 5, 2023

Bartender illustration

The Savoy Cocktail Book

November 14, 2023

Detail of the frontispiece from the Pennyroyal edition of Frankenstein, “A Stream of Fire” wood engraving print, PR5397 .F7 1984c

Monster or Human? Pennyroyal’s Frankenstein

October 31, 2023

Detail of the cover illustration from Unknown featuring the story None but Lucifer, vol. 2 no. 1 September 1939, P1. U554

None But Lucifer

October 24, 2023

Detail of the cover illustration for The New Atlantis, PS648.S3 S463 1976

"Gathering Wild Oats and Telling Stories": Ursula K. Le Guin's Literary Meals

October 17, 2023

Annual reports of the CSUN Counseling Center for 1972 to 1973 and 1973 to 1974

Suicide Prevention Week

October 3, 2023

Detail of the marbled endpapers from The Castle of Otranto, PR3757.W2 C3 1786

The Castle of Otranto

September 26, 2023

Detail of cover illustration from Weird Tales Volume 29, Number 1, "Children of the Bat"

Weird Tales: A Sexualized Scare

September 19, 2023

Detail image from the cover of The Fold-Away Doll House and Play Book of Cut-Out Furniture, TT174.5.P3 F6 1949

Dolls and Toys in Book Form

September 12, 2023

Cover of Detective Comics: Batman Robin and Batgirl “Challenge of the Man-Bat!” Issue #400

Batman issue number 400 “Challenge of the Man-Bat!”

September 5, 2023

Detail of the illustration on the cover of Weird Tales, v.25 no.5, May 1935

Weird Tales and The American Sherlock Holmes: Craig Kennedy

August 29, 2023

Cover (detail) of Gourmets Guide to New Orleans, TX715.2.L68 S36 1951

Creole Culture in New Orleans, Louisiana

July 18, 2023

Portrait of William Shakespeare, from The first collected edition of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, by William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, 1866, PR2751 .A15 18664

Lend Me Your Ears: Shakespeare in Special Collections

May 9, 2023

Detail of an illustration from The Ladies Medical Guide

Women's History: 19th Century Gender Roles for Women

March 14, 2023

Detail of Anatomy Plate 1, AE25.E551 Vol. 2

The Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment

March 7, 2023

Detail of a pressed flower from page 1 of Emily Dickinson's Herbarium

Emily Dickinson's Herbarium

February 28, 2023

Illustration of a calendar from Los calendarios mexicanos by Mariano Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia

Sunstone, Eliot Weinberger’s 1991 translation of Octavio Paz’s Piedra de sol

November 1, 2022

Cover art from "Fabulous Farmer, The Story of Walter Knott and His Berry Farm". S417.K62 H6

The Boysenberry and The Chicken Dinner

April 26, 2022

Illustration by Irving Block in Season of Green, 1979.

Francesca Lia Block & Irving Block

April 12, 2022

Frontispiece, Drops from Flora's Cup, or the Poetry of Flowers, with a Floral Vocabulary by Miss Mary M. Griffin, PN6110.F6 G7 1852

Floriography: The Language of Flowers

March 3, 2022

A Collection of Confection and Other Receipts, page 44. TX705 .C735 1700z

What is this place?

February 1, 2022

Roman type S using geometry

The Influence of Type

September 7, 2021

Cover, The Writings of St. Patrick

Saint Patrick in the Archives

March 10, 2020

Crop from Candle Lightin' Time

Early African American Poetry and Fiction

February 4, 2020

"Art of Self Defence...," Egan’s Life in London...

George Cruikshank

January 28, 2020

Cover, REM Gospel: Gospel According to Massmann, 1900z

What is this place?

December 16, 2019

The Moon is Down, first edition, 1942

John Steinbeck Highlights in Special Collections and Archives

December 10, 2019

The Book of Werewolves

What About the Werewolf?

October 29, 2019

Page from Three Trips to Alaska scrapbook

The History of Scrapbooks

October 22, 2019

Left Book Club insignia

The Left Book Club

October 15, 2019

Cracker Jack Chronicles

Miniature Books

October 9, 2019

The Drunkard's Children, Plate VII

The Temperance Movement

October 1, 2019

The Giants of Sequoia and Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

May 14, 2019

Sketch of cannon guarding Madrid in All the Brave

Spain's Conflict with Fascism

April 30, 2019

Poem on silk screen with photograph by Judy Miranda

Poetry and Perspective

April 23, 2019

Newsreel cover

Is Little America on Your Bucket List?

April 16, 2019

Winking nun

Les Surréalistes

April 9, 2019

Cover, Helps Over Hard Places: Stories for Girls

Early Children's Literature

April 2, 2019

Delilah L. Beasley

Delilah L. Beasley and the Trail She Blazed

February 19, 2019

14 Songs of Love with Guitar

"How do I love thee?"

February 12, 2019

Cranberry salad from Fashions in Foods in Beverly Hills

Please Pass the Cranberries

December 18, 2018

London Jingles and Country Tales, for Young People

Chapbook Collection

December 4, 2018

Sundial, November 5, 1968

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

November 13, 2018

Margaret Sanger

Margaret Sanger and the Women's Suffrage Movement

September 18, 2018

the canons of the fingers title page

"The Naturall Language of the Hand"

September 11, 2018

View-Master viewer and reels included with Atlas of External Diseases of the Eye

Window to the World

April 27, 2018

Segovia’s arrangement and transcription of The Chaconne. Vahdah Olcott-Bickford Collection

Bach, Segovia, and the Rise of Classical Guitar on the Concert Stage

April 17, 2018

A View of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition from Presidio Heights

Women's Work at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915

April 3, 2018

Rosa May, in The Redlight Ladies of Virginia City, Nevada

The Oldest Profession

March 13, 2018

William Grant Still is shown sitting at a piano looking at a sheet of music. Central Avenue-Its Rise and Fall: Including the Musical Renaissance of Black Los Angles, Bette Yarbrough Cox, ML 3556 .C75 1996

Celebrating Black History in LA

February 20, 2018

C is for Cat

19th Century Primers

January 23, 2018

Fragment of a Torah scroll

The Torah

December 19, 2017

Arm band identifying Gloria Watson Curtis Kliene as a British national

Civilian Internment in China, 1941-1945

December 5, 2017

Brunswick Stew

Please Pass the Corn

October 24, 2017

The USRM Thomas Corwin

USRM Thomas Corwin

October 10, 2017

Cover, How We Won the Vote in California

Women and the American Electorate

September 19, 2017

Jesse James’ Race for Life or Trailed by the Vigilantes

The Jesse James Adventure Series Collection

July 24, 2017

Construction of fan braces, in Guitarmaking, Tradition and Technology by William R. Cumpiano and Jonathan D. Natelson

Classical Guitar Building

May 16, 2017

Philosophy professor, Jake Hale, as Miss Angelika

Exploring Sex, Gender, and Cultural Norms

May 2, 2017

Photo of pink-petaled flower

California Flora

April 25, 2017

Photograph of a crumbled St. Luke's Episcopal Church

San Francisco Earthquake, 1906

April 18, 2017

Strive and Succeed Book Cover

Horatio Alger, Jr.

April 11, 2017

Tales of the Dark Knight

BOFF! THWACK! KAPOW!

March 7, 2017

Cartoons of the first participation of American troops

WWI Publications

February 28, 2017

Inside cover of The Military Pinup Kit

Pin-Ups

February 21, 2017

Title page, Another Country, 1962

The Works of James Baldwin

January 24, 2017

Bo Peep

Nursery Rhymes

December 13, 2016

Cover, On Going Naked by Jan Gay, 1932

Living in the Nude

November 29, 2016

Group of men dressed in suits, ca. 1900

The Evolution of Men's Fashion

November 22, 2016

Cover and title page, An Historical Sketch of Los Angeles County, California, reprint, 1936

Accounting for History

November 15, 2016

Depictions of some of the tools used in whaling

A Whaling Good Time

November 8, 2016

Image in Apparitions and Thought-Transference

Getting Into the Spirit

October 25, 2016

Tattoo of actor, James Dean

Tattoos in the Archives

October 18, 2016

Silk Screen reproduction of sand painting depicting The Killing of the Great Monster

A Navajo War Ceremonial

October 4, 2016

A Lake Tahoe Record Trout

The Art of Fishing

September 27, 2016

Illuminated "A" from the Book of Revelation, ca.1300

Manuscript Bibles from the Middle Ages

September 13, 2016

Cover, The Guitar and Mandolin

Women in Classical Guitar

August 30, 2016

mother and child

In Honor of Mothers

May 3, 2016

Half-Dome in the Alpen-Glow, in Yosemite and its High Sierra

Happy Birthday, National Parks!

April 26, 2016

Frontispiece, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, 1860

Celebrating Poetry

April 19, 2016

Cover, Broadway Musicals

Musical Theater in Special Collections and Archives

April 5, 2016

Los Angeles River

A River Runs Through It

March 8, 2016

woman with floating head

Lauretta, the Little Savoyard

March 1, 2016

Crop image, title page of Slave Songs of the United States

Songs of Slave Resistance

February 23, 2016

Image of BSU member, Sundial, November 5, 1968

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

February 2, 2016

Illustration in A Short History of Los Angeles

Celebrating the City of the Angels

October 13, 2015

George Cruikshank's Fairy Library

Once Upon a Time.....

October 6, 2015

Mexican Century

Mexican Independence

September 15, 2015

Bas reliefs from Konorak, 1260AD

Religious Beliefs and Human Sexuality

September 8, 2015

Sermones de t[em]p[or]e et de sanctis. A woodcut initial letter.

Incunabula in the Library

September 1, 2015

Cover, Behind My Own Disguise

The Dawning of a New Page

May 12, 2015

Angel

The Works of John Milton

May 5, 2015

Spring Fashion 1861, from Godey's Lady's Book

Fashion and Beauty Trends Through History

March 31, 2015

Frontispiece, Twelve Years a Slave, Narrative of Solomon Northup

Slave Narratives

March 17, 2015

The Hindered Hand

Spotlight on Early African American Poetry and Fiction

February 24, 2015

Cover, Dalziel's illustrated Arabian Nights' Entertainments

Scheherazade and the Arabian Nights

January 27, 2015

Sculpture, Flor y Canto del Arte Prehispánico de México.

Mexico's Past

January 20, 2015

Daguerrotype of John Brown

The John Brown Letter

December 15, 2014

Title page of The Red Pony.

The Works of John Steinbeck

December 2, 2014

Image of an American Pilgrim

Thanksgiving Traditions

November 24, 2014

Illustration of a Telescope

Mysterious Universe

November 18, 2014

Title page of Disquisitionum Magicarum Libri Sex

Things That Go Bump in the Stacks

October 28, 2014

Cutout from The Life and Times of Junipero Serra

Publications by Monsignor Francis J. Weber

October 14, 2014

Cover, Edwin Booth: Recollections by his Daughter and Letters to Her and to His Friends

The Edwin Booth Family Collection

September 16, 2014

Pirates of Penzance Jack in the Box

Curiosities, Rarities, and Ephemera in Special Collections and Archives

August 12, 2014

Illustration of a cowboy from Cowboy Life

Cowboys in the Archives

May 20, 2014

The Terra Nova in the pack ice

The Arnold Court Collection on Polar Exploration

May 13, 2014

Initial on the first page of the Antiphonary

Liturgical Music from 18th-Century Spain

April 21, 2014

boy with dumbbells

Physical Culture in the 19th Century

April 15, 2014

The Painter and His Pug

William Hogarth: Painter, Printmaker, and Satirist

April 1, 2014

Cover, Helps Over Hard Places: Stories for Girls

Early Children's Literature

February 25, 2014

Cover, Memoirs of a Cassanova

Love and Friendship in the Archives

February 11, 2014

Hans Brinker's sister

Winter in Special Collections and Archives

December 17, 2013

Angel's Flight, 1905

From Myth to Metropolis: Los Angeles at the Turn of the Century

October 22, 2013

Illustration from The Ladies' Medical Guide

19th Century Gender Roles for Women

October 19, 2013

Cover of 66 Good Old Time Tested Pennsylvania Dutch Recipes

The Culinary Collection

April 2, 2013

Climb the Mountains

Miniature Books

March 12, 2013

Andy Warhol in Andy Warhol's Index

Art in Special Collections

February 19, 2013

Seasons Greetings

Season's Greetings!

December 17, 2012