Loyola Marymount University, Dept. of Archives & Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library

The Department of Archives and Special Collections, of the Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University, acquires, organizes, and opens to research, primary source materials in the arts, humanities, education, and religion. Collection strengths center on rare books, ranging in date from incunabula to the present, including Los Angeles history, religion, and culture; historical manuscript collections, especially those related to the political, cultural, and religious history of Los Angeles and Southern California; postcard collections; audiovisual collections; university records, and art and artifacts. Within the over 12,000 volumes of its rare book holdings, English literature of the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries is emphasized, as well as other areas such as Jesuitica, which includes some of the earliest histories of California, and book collections of Californio families such as the del Valles. Manuscript holdings are especially strong in documenting the history of the Los Angeles’ urban development, with the Fritz Burns and Daniel Freeman papers; of important Roman Catholic families in Los Angeles, such as the Workmans and Dockweilers; and of the entertainment industry of Los Angeles, including, for example, the papers of Hollywood producers Arthur P. Jacobs and Samuel Z. Arkoff. The University Archives document the history of Los Angeles’ oldest chartered institution of learning and contain materials from the 1860s to the present. The audiovisual collections document Los Angeles politics and social and cultural history. The department’s million postcard collection provides additional sources for the study of Los Angeles as well as cultural and architectural history of locales world-wide, and of the history of the postcard itself. The holdings in art and artifacts range from Japanese woodblocks and prints to German Expressionist art to movie props to religious vestments used during the Californio era.