Museum

The California Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections, founded in 1968, has a mission of facilitating understanding of Caltech’s role in the history of science and technology. Our collections include the papers of Caltech researchers; photographs, film, audio, video, websites, and publications documenting Caltech’s history; scientific instruments characteristic of research at Caltech; and rare books anchored by the Rocco Collection of early modern physics and astronomy. We have been collecting oral histories of Caltech faculty and other affiliates since 1979, and have published approximately 200 transcripts on the web. Caltech has also made publicly available on the web the papers of astrophysicist George Ellery Hale, founder of Mount Wilson Observatory; aeronautical engineer and pioneer of human-powered flight Paul MacCready; and Nobel Prize-winning particle physicist and molecular biologist Donald Glaser.

The Edith R. Wyle Research Library of the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) was donated to the L.A. County Museum of Art Research Library in December 1997 during a period of consolidation for the Museum. (CAFAM reopened in April 1999 under the auspices of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.) The Edith R. Wyle Library's holdings reflect the exhibiting and collecting interests of the Craft and Folk Art Museum. It's holdings pertaining to traditional folk art, international contemporary craft and design, professional museum practice, cultural diversity, and cultural context are significant. It's particular strengths are in the areas of Mexican and Japanese folk art, masks and masking worldwide, and the history of folk art and craft collecting. Altogether the Wyle Research Library's holdings comprise approximately 5,500 books as well as exhibition catalogs, journals, newspaper clipping and pamphlet files, posters, biographical files on contemporary craft artists (including slides), and biographical files on self-taught artists. In 1994 the Bead Society of Los Angeles donated the library collection of about 200 books, catalogs, and ephemera on beads.

The Museum of Social Justice is located in La Plaza United Methodist Church, on the site of the oldest section of Los Angeles. The Museum’s historical collection consists of documents, photographs, artifacts, and other materials created by La Plaza Methodist Church at the beginning of the twentieth century. The collection features over 2000 photographs that capture the work of the founders of the church, its community center, medical clinic, and the predominantly poor Mexican immigrant population the church was founded to serve. The documents provide a look into the poor living conditions that existed near the Plaza and how La Plaza Methodist Church's social justice practices improved the lives of many of the immigrants living on and near the Plaza. Among other items, the photos feature the first integrated drinking fountain in Los Angeles and the founding of Goddwill Industries of Southern California.  

The California Historical Society collects materials of enduring historical and cultural value in support of its mission to inspire and empower Californians to make the past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives. In our North Baker Research Library, we hold some fifty thousand books and pamphlets, four thousand manuscript collections, half a million photographs, as well as ephemera, periodicals, posters, maps and more. For Los Angeles and the surrounding area we have nearly 23,000 photographs from the Title Insurance and Trust Company (TICOR) and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce (LAACC) housed and managed for CHS by the Regional History Center at the University of Southern California and viewable through the USC Digital Library (digitallibrary.usc.edu). Documenting development of the Los Angeles region from 1860 to 1960, the TICOR collection includes the work of many prominent local photographers, including C. C. Pierce. The LAACC collection includes promotional images in addition to depicting the growth of the city and the transportation system. Besides these two important collections and other photographs, Southern California is represented chiefly by printed books and pamphlets, periodicals, and ephemera, including many early promotional pieces with gems such as the 1888-89 Southern California Tourists’ Guide-Book, and an 1885 pamphlet entitled The Great Interior Fruit Belt and Sanitarium of Southern California, San Bernardino County, and Valleys Tributary Thereto.

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 Mojave Desert Archives preserves the history of transcontinental travel to the Los Angeles region through the Mojave Desert of eastern California. Route 66, National Old Trails Road, the Mojave Wagon Road, the Santa Fe Railway (now BNSF), Union Pacific Railroad, and Interstate highways were and are major transit routes through the desert terminating in the Los Angeles basin. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Los Angeles area residents traveled through and returned to the Mojave Desert over these routes to deliver mail and supplies, engage in military campaigns, harvest natural resources, graze cattle, homestead, and run roadside businesses. Today, the Mojave serves as an important transit region for Angelenos seeking recreational opportunities in Las Vegas, on the Colorado River, or to simply enjoy the solitude and sublime beauty of our vast desert.

The Wende Museum collects artworks, artifacts, and personal histories that record daily life, creative expression, and political developments in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the Cold War period. The collection comprises a variety of media including design objects, works on paper, ceramics, paintings, sculptures, posters, furniture, textiles, photographs, films, videos, sound recordings, books, periodicals, and archives. Special projects and collections relate these artifacts to Los Angeles history and its residents, including Cold War Culver City, documenting local historical sites from the Cold War, and From Red State to Golden State: Soviet Jewish Immigration to the City of Angels, an intergenerational oral history project and documentary film. We are also the repository for the oral histories collected by the Albanian Human Rights Project, a Los-Angeles-based organization dedicated to collecting, filming, and preserving the testimonies of Albanians who were politically imprisoned or interned from 1944-1991 during Albania’s communist regime.

History of early California, the Dominguez family and early Aviation

Collection includes materials related southern California tourism, the Mission Revival movement, peace movement (1st half 20th century, citrus industry, and materials related to specific collections,including fine art, statuary, bells, crosses, dolls, aviation, Native American basketry, and Asian arts.