The Claremont Colleges, Honnold/Mudd Library, Special Collections

The Special Collections holdings reflect the diverse communities of the Claremont Colleges and the local area and region. Among the collections especially pertinent to Los Angeles and Southern California are the following:

• McPherson Collection: books on California history, particularly Southern California and Orange County; records and papers, the bulk of which are about agriculture and avocado culture, and miscellaneous correspondence, 1773-1856
• Mission San Gabriel Marriage Investigation: manuscript records of matrimonial investigations, 1788–1861
• Lindley Scrapbooks: documentation of business and civic events in Los Angeles, late 1800s–early 1900s, compiled by Dr. Walter Lindley, founder of the California Hospital, mayoral candidate in 1904, and board member of the Los Angeles City Library
• Kewen Dorsey Collection: twenty-five manuscript diaries, 1879–1904, documenting Dorsey’s life in Spadra, Pomona and Los Angeles
• Archives of the Claremont Colleges: includes publications, records, photographs, and ephemera that document the history of the seven Claremont Colleges (Pomona College, Claremont Graduate University, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College [formerly Claremont Men’s College], Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences), 1880–present
• Claremontiana: early documents, maps, photographs, oral histories, and publications of the town of Claremont, circa 1887–present
• Congregational Church Records: institutional records, circa 1888–1963, from a number of Congregational Church organizations in Southern California; papers from women’s organizations account for more than one-third of the collection
• Rude-Frankenfield Papers: papers that present the daily lives of at least six generations of the female side of the Rude-Frankenfield family, circa 1895–1971
• Water Resources Collection: includes ephemeral materials on the distribution, augmentation, and use of water in Los Angeles and Southern California, circa 1900–present • George Martin Scrapbooks: one hundred three scrapbooks, 1900–1962, assembled by this California banker and civic leader
• Elbert A. Wickes Collection: materials from this Los Angeles-based impresario and manager of lecture tours for celebrities who also acted as the American representative for various English and Irish theatrical groups, including the Abbey Players, early 1900s
• H. Jerry Voorhis Papers: papers, circa 1919–1984, from this founder of the Voorhis School for Boys in Claremont, U.S. congressman for California’s twelfth district (1936–1946), member of the Dies Committee on Un-American Activities, and head of the Cooperative League of America after losing his congressional seat to Richard M. Nixon in 1946
• Zamarano Club Keepsake Collection: publications from book collectors, printers, and librarians who are members of this famous Los Angeles book collectors club, 1928–present
• Marion Parks Papers: historical photographs, some possibly by Charles Fletcher Lummis; manuscripts and printed pamphlets, 1930s–1950s, used by Parks while researching for publications and historical pageants on Southern California
• Rev. Walton E. Cole Papers: correspondence, newspaper clippings, and publications by this Unitarian minister from Toledo, Ohio, who in the 1930s challenged through radio broadcasts the pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic views of “radio priest” Father Charles E. Coughlin
• Howard D. Mills Collection: documentation of the U.S. government’s World War II finance efforts, including war bond drives, in Southern California, 1940–1945
• Carey McWilliams Collection of War Relocation Authority Records: reports, opinions, books, periodicals, and correspondence with evacuees that were assembled by McWilliams while he was writing Prejudice (1944), as well as sixty-six volumes of newspapers from War Relocation Authority centers and the minutes of the Japanese American Citizens League National Conference; 1942–1947

Claremont Colleges Special Collections is a participant in the LAAS and ONE Archives Hidden Histories project.