The California State Library, comprising sections including California History, Information Services, Government Publications, and the Witkin Law Library in Sacramento and the Sutro Library in San Francisco, holds a wide variety of materials relating to the history of Los Angeles, including manuscripts, rare books, maps, photographs and other visual resources, ephemera, vertical files, and…

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 Santa Monica Historical Society was founded in 1975 as part of the city’s centennial celebration with the mission of collecting and preserving the history, art and culture of the Santa Monica Bay Area. In 1988, a Museum was established to house the Society’s growing collections of artifacts, documents, rare books, newspapers, textiles, artwork, and photographic images. Currently, the Museum’s…

SPARC’s MREC is one of the country’s largest repositories of information about murals and other forms of public art. SPARC produces, exhibits, and preserves public art works and is particularly committed to enhancing the visibility of work which reflects the lives and concerns of American’s diverse ethnic populations, women, working people, youth and elderly. We have an extensive collection of…

UCSB professor David Gebhard (1927-1996) founded the Architecture and Design Collection in 1963. Today it is one of the largest architectural archives in North America with more than 1,000,000 drawings, as well as papers, photographs, scrapbooks, models, decorative objects, and furniture. The focus of the collection is the design and architecture of southern California from the late 19th through…