The Research Library is a special collection of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. Originally acquired by donations from local and California coastal shipbuilding companies, shipbuilders and industries, selections from the Library’s collection of manuscripts, architectural drawings, maps and charts are available for viewing by researchers. The collection of manuscripts has value for research in the…

This collection is limited to material from, and relative to, the history of the Los Angeles Police Department. The collection consists of retired and replica police vehicles, a retired helicopter and police motorcycles. Uniforms, equipment and artifacts dating to the beginning of the LAPD are also held within the collection. The non-public archive houses annual reports, photos and motion picture…

The History and Genealogy Department of the Los Angeles Public Library maintains a variety of resources related to the history of Los Angeles. The History Collection includes hundreds of books related to social, cultural and political aspects of Los Angeles’ storied history; the department also maintains both the California Subject and Biography Indexes, retrospective databases indexing selected…

Our core rare book collections include California history, Mexicana, bullfighting, Pacific voyages, food and wine, costume, travel in North America, Europe and the Near East, history of the book and printing, ornithology and Native American culture and history.