Community Organization

The Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research primarily documents and preserves the history of twentieth-century radicalism and social change through progressive movements in the greater Los Angeles area. The materials held by the library relate to the labor, peace, social justice, civil rights, women’s, gay and lesbian, and various other grassroots movements. While the library’s print holdings—numbering approximately thirty thousand books and three thousand periodical titles—range well beyond the subject of Los Angeles to socialism, Marxism, and the Cold War, its special collections focus on Los Angeles. These collections include twenty-five thousand pamphlets, fifteen hundred posters, two thousand photographs, one hundred documentary films, one hundred videos, thirty-five hundred audio tapes, organizational files for Los Angeles and national grassroots groups, and extensive subject files containing newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and reports. Among the library’s major archival collections are the papers of civil liberties defender Leo Gallagher, California Eagle editor and publisher Charlotta Bass, and Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research founders Emil and Tassia Freed, as well as papers from the Los Angeles chapter of the Civil Rights Congress, the Los Angeles Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, the Los Angeles International Ladies Garment Workers Union, and the Los Angeles Congress of Industrial Organizations. The archival collections on the Watts Rebellion of 1965, the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panthers, and Chicano activism are heavily used, as are the documentary films of the 1930s from the Film and Photo League and those of the 1960s from the Newsreel (SDS) collective. The library is committed to making its collections on the multicultural history of Los Angeles widely available and to working with other institutions and organizations to ensure that a broadly based historical record of the city’s people is preserved for future generations.

The UCLA Geography Air Photo Archives houses two of the most extensive collections of historic oblique aerial photography available to the pubic anywhere. Oblique aerials are taken at an angle and are easily understood. The Fairchild National Collection contains most cities in the United States and many towns circa 1922 through 1965. The Spence Collection contains coverage of the Western Region of the U.S. but is concentrated on Southern California circa 1920 through 1971.Together they comprise an unsurpassed visual record of mid-twentieth century American urban development. We have over 80,000 prints and 113,000 negatives. We also have Thomas Brothers map guides dating from the 1940s to the present. Please call for appointment @ (310) 206-8188.

The Orange County Historical Society (OCHS) is a non-profit group which collects, preserves and shares the history of Orange County, California for the benefit of its members and the general public.

The collection at the museum is an eclectic assortment of items from the 1800's through the 1900's. There are tools for the home and farm, furniture, household accessories, office equipment, documents, photographs, and all types of clothing. Many items have been contributed by local residents over the years and have a direct connection to the "Upper San Gabriel Valley" and its residents.

The Aerospace Legacy Foundation is a volunteer 501c3 organization dedicated to preserving the history of the Aerospace Industry of southern California. We maintain archives of documents, graphics, photographs, and artifacts from the industry and especially the original Downey Industrial site. Collections include; Emsco, Vultee, North American Aviation, Rockwell, Boeing, NASA, etc. A number of personal collections have been donated by individuals who worked at the Downey site.

Los Angeles was the western terminal of the trail, which served commerce and immigration between Santa Fe, NM, and Los Angeles. Much archival data about the OST resides at the Huntington Library, the Autry National Museum and other So Cal institutions.

Little Tokyo Historical Society commemorates the Japanese American history and heritage related to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles through archival collections, photos, videos, gallery exhibits, lectures, and workshops. "Los Angeles's Little Tokyo (Arcadia Publishing, November 2011). "Little Tokyo: The 1930's Golden Years", 2013 calendar now on sale at www.littletokyohs.org.

The Sierra Madre Historical Archives collects, preserves, and provides access to a variety of materials that tell the Sierra Madre story: photographs, slides, postcards, scrapbooks, city directories, maps, letters, periodicals, posters, works of art, sound recordings, moving images, and ephemera. The archives collection includes the Sierra Madre Oral History Project in which residents describe Sierra Madre social life and customs. The collection's subject area strengths include San Gabriel Mountain resorts accessible via local trails and Sierra Madre art and artists. The local history collection is built on a partnership. It is jointly owned and maintained by the Sierra Madre Historical Preservation Society and the Sierra Madre Public Library.