CSUDH Library Blog

The Gerth Archives and Special Collections has recently processed physical collections that are open for research! To view one of the collections below, or other collections in the archives, you can make an appointment or walk in. Our hours are 9 am - 12 pm and 1 pm - 4:30 pm Monday-Friday. Need more information on how to navigate an archival collection guide and inventory? See the LibGuide on finding aids!   

Battle of Lincoln Place: A Community Defends its Affordable Housing
The Battle of Lincoln Place: A Community Defends its Affordable Housing contains court cases, court proceedings, court documents, newsletters, memorandums, reports, letters, flyers, meeting minutes, notes, articles, and other documents; as well as photographs regarding the Lincoln Place housing community located in Venice, California. A majority of the material in this collection relates to Lincoln Place Tenants' Association and tenants; and their battle to save Lincoln Place from evictions and demolitions initiated by various developers and owners who purchased it; which resulted in numerous lawsuits spanning almost fifteen years.

Ace Lundon Collection
The Ace Lundon Collection (1862-2013, undated; bulk 1990-2013) is a collection about Ace Lundon, a writer, actor, singer, and entrepreneur from South Dakota. It includes personal papers, business records, manuscripts, photographs, audio-visual materials, posters, and more primarily concerning writer, activist, journalist, teacher, entertainer, and entrepreneur Ace Lundon.

Torrance Refinery Action Alliance (TRAA) Records
This collection contains reports, flyers, fact sheets, articles, emails, memorandums, and other material regarding Torrance Refinery Action Alliance (TRAA), an organization formed in the aftermath of an explosion on February 18, 2015 at the ExxonMobil Torrance Refinery (now PBF Energy's Torrance Refining Company). TRAA's mission is to ban hydrogen fluoride (HF) and modified hydrofluoric acid (MHF) from two refineries (Torrance Refining Company and Valero Wilmington Refinery) in Southern California.

L.A. Watts Times
The L.A. Watts Times contains issues of the L.A. Watts Times, a newspaper that originally began publication under the name Watts Times, following the Watts Rebellion in 1965. It later became the L.A. Watts Times after Charles Cook purchased the publication in 1976.  

Sue Doro Collection
This collection is related to Sue Doro, a woman who worked as a machinist for over thirty-five years, and wrote poetry about her experiences as a machinist, and her life. It includes newspapers and publications related to her poetry books, appearances, and poetry readings; permissions; copyright; publications; correspondence; and other material related to Sue Doro and women tradeswomen.

To the left image of Sue Doro in 1976. Image from “Move Over Bob.”

International Programs Collection (CSU Archives)
International Programs Collection related to the CSU International Programs. Includes reports, memoranda, correspondence, surveys, and guides to the several study abroad programs within the CSU system. Also contains administrative documents for the Office of International Programs.

P.S. If you are on the fifth floor of the library, outside of the Gerth Archives and Special Collections is the new exhibit, Archives 101!! Don’t forget to grab a mini-zine!

The exhibition, “Alternate Takes: Community, Underground and Alternative Newspapers, Zines, & Comix at the CSUDH Gerth Archives & Special Collections,” is now open in the Library Cultural Arts Gallery through May 2024. Located on the first floor of the University Library (LIB1940), this exhibition is focused on alternative and community newspapers and publications, and the history told and preserved within their pages. Through these periodicals, the Gerth Archives aims to showcase how communities in Los Angeles and across the world documented their lived experiences through an array of publications, ranging from newspapers to comics, zines, and more. An opening reception will be held on October 5, 2023, from 4pm to 7pm.

“This exhibition reflects the vast diversity of the Gerth Archives collections relating to the political and cultural landscape that is often ignored or forgotten in the mainstream press,” according to Greg Williams, Director of the Gerth Archives and Special Collections Department in the CSUDH Library. “Through the display of politically radical and cultural expressive publications, this exhibition presents a snapshot of how often powerless populations reached out to express themselves and eventually gain power.”

Exhibition materials have been selected from several collections across the Gerth Archives. This includes the Art Kunkin / Los Angeles Free Press Collection, the Holt Labor Library Collection, and the LGBTQ+ Collection. Material on display also comes from the Feminist Resource Collection, the Zines Collection, the Kaye Briegel Chicano Publications Collection, the Right Wing and Conservative Publications Collection, and the Black Panther Newspaper Collection. Further material on display comes from collections focused on Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, and Native Americans as well as CSUDH campus periodicals.  

Sections highlight a variety of interesting periodicals and publications along with the vast scope of coverage in from their collections. This includes highlights of the Black Panther Newspaper, and its evolution over the years through the artwork of Emory Douglas, the paper’s designer and illustrator; issues from the Los Angeles Free Press highlighting its in ushering in the underground press revolution in the Southern California area; a variety of colorful graphic from underground newspapers of the 1960s and 1970s from Los Angeles all the way to West Germany and Hong Kong covering topics ranging from the Vietnam War to New Age beliefs; Japanese American newspapers from incarceration camps during World War II; and socialist publications from across the 20th century. 

Additional exhibition materials are located in the Gerth Archives Reading Room on the 5th Floor of the Library, Room 5039.  

In the years during the pandemic, the Gerth Archives collections relating to alternative periodicals change have grown exponentially. The collection growth is the result of the conviction that archival collections should reflect social and community movements that reflect the values and the diverse populations of those communities. Such collections also veer away from mainstream thought and give students the opportunity to analyze alternative views. This growth has led to the acquisition of the Holt Labor Library Collection, the Art Kunkin / Los Angeles Free Press Collection, the LGBTQ Publications Collections, the Black Panther Newspaper Collection, the John Weatherwax Collection, the Chicano Publications Collection, the Ligon Aquarian Bookstore Collection, the CSU Japanese American Digitization Project, the Filipino American Digital Archive, and many other activist collections.  

The exhibition is in the Library Arts Center, University Library Room 1940. Monday-Friday 10-4. Call 310-243-3895 for more information. The room also serves as the Faculty Development Center and is located next to the large globe sculpture outside the library. Guide tours are available for classes and other groups. Students and the public are welcome to tour the exhibition on their own. The exhibition will remain open through Spring 2023. 

This exhibition was curated by Lindsay Anderson, Priscilla Avitia, Noel Lopez, Lucas Madrigal, Yoko Okunishi, Tom Philo, Deena Marie Santos, Shawne West, and Greg Williams. The Gerth Archives has over 500 collections of archival materials and 85,000 digital objects on a variety of subjects related to activism local history and CSUDH and CSU history.   

New collections open for research at the Gerth Archives and Special Collections! 
By Karen Clemons and Jennifer Hill 

The Gerth Archives and Special Collections has recently processed physical collections that are open for research! To view one of the collections below, or other collections in the archives, you can make an appointment or walk in. Our hours are 9 am - 4:30 pm Monday-Friday. Need more information on how to navigate an archival collection guide and inventory? See the LibGuide on finding aids! 

Janice Yen Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress Collection
The Janice Yen Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress Collection  includes flyers, newspaper clippings, organizational documents, press releases, issues of "Banner," digitized photographs, and other material related to the Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress (NCRR), formally known as the National Coalition for Redress and Reparations. It also includes material related to the Little Tokyo People's Rights Organization (LTPRO), Japanese Americans, and Japanese American redress. This collection contains some digitized material.

Compton Time Capsule
The Compton High School Time Capsule Collection includes information on the cornerstone, correspondence, city maps, pamphlets, school and club yearbooks, history on the city of Compton, school and city newspapers, information on the 1933 earthquake, and club and organization's list of officers and members.

Tawa Family Letters
The Tawa Family Letters consists of mainly letters to Sukegoro and Chiyoko Tawa from their family and friends between the 1920s and 1960s. Also included are wartime documents issued during the Tawas' incarceration and copies of Sukegoro Tawa's case file as well as family and friends' portraits, and haiku poems. 

Horita Family Papers
The Horita Family Papers contains documents from the Horita family, a Japanese American family from the Los Angeles area. The collection focuses on married couple Chitoshi “Harry” Horita (1896-1990) and Marue Nakashima Horita (1901-1982) and their extended family and includes records of the family’s incarceration at the Poston (Colorado River) incarceration camp, research into the family’s history, photographs, and correspondence.

Pat Williams Collection
This collection documents the academic and professional life of Pat Williams- a former union operating engineer. Also an advocate for women in trades, Williams has participated in the labor and non-traditional women’s occupation movement in Southern California. Materials in this collection include: correspondence; personal papers; materials related to International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE); newsletters; magazines; and  other documents collected from trades unions; and tradeswomen and related organizations; materials concerning career development including apprenticeship programs; materials regarding events and conferences; photographs; videocassettes; and ephemera such as stickers, t-shirts, pencils, and hats. The bulk of the materials in this collection relate to Pat Williams’ involvement within IUOE Local 501 and include IUOE Local 501 contracts and agreements; as well as magazines and newsletters. Some of this collection is available online.

Lyle Fulks Collection
The Lyle Fulks Collection includes material collected by Lyle Fulks, a member of the Socialist Workers Party and Solidarity. It includes material from the Socialist Workers Party, Solidarity, as well as other Socialist organizations including, Workers Power, Socialist Action, and International Socialist. The collection also includes teaching syllabi, articles, personal material, and other material related to Socialism, Communism, Marxism, labor, and social justice. 

Luis Seligson Caricatures
The Luis Seligson Caricatures contains caricatures illustrated by Luis (Lou) Seligson, likely during the 1960s. A number of these illustrations were for the Socialist newspaper, The Militant.

Black Panthers Publications and Related Articles 
The Black Panther Publications and Related Articles Collection (1966-1981; undated) contains material mostly related to the Black Panther Party and its members. Series One contains materials directly written, published, and distributed by the Black Panther Party. It contains insight into their ideology and other important matters at the time. Series Two contains materials directly written by Eldridge Cleaver and Huey P. Newton, two central figures of the Black Panther Party. Also included is an interview of Huey P. Newton. Series Three contains material published by outside sources, but directly related to actions and ideas of the Black Panther Party. Magazines and newspapers in this series are not entirely related to the Black Panthers, but do explicitly mention the Party or its members. Series Four contains material from outside sources and in the majority of the materials, there is no explicit mention of the Black Panther Party or its members. However, it is clear that the material is inspired by the ideology and tactics of the Black Panther Party to push for the rights of several other groups.

The Black Panther Newspapers
The Black Panther Newspapers contains over 400 newspaper issues from 1967 to 1980, organized by the Black Panther Party (BPP). The newspaper covers a variety of topics, from community to global events. It was also used to distribute information of the BPP's ideologies and their support for different groups fighting oppression.

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) San Francisco Chapter Papers
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) San Francisco Chapter Papers (1964-1965; undated) contains 22 documents mostly related to activities of the San Francisco Chapter of CORE. A majority of the documents are in regards to an agreement between Community Dry Goods Relation Association and CORE, and CORE's belief that the terms of the agreement were not met due to discriminatory hiring practices; board meeting minutes and agendas; and a listing of some of CORE's activities from 1962-1965. Also included are documents regarding the Citizens United Against Poverty (CUAP) request for a meeting with Mayor Shelley; two essays entitled "American Slave Revolts" and "The Haitian Revolutions" by Nancy Lamberson; and other documents.

Special thanks to Priscilla Avita, Cecilia Contreras, Jesus Padilla, Allison Wall, and Shawne West for processing and creating the collection guides for some of the collections listed above. 

By Karen Clemons and Jennifer Hill 

New collections open for research at the Gerth Archives and Special Collections! 
The Gerth Archives and Special Collections has recently processed physical and digitized collections that are open for research! To view one of the collections below or other collections in the archives, you can make an appointment or walk in. Our hours are 9 am - 4:30 pm Monday - Friday. 
Need more information on how to navigate an archival collection guide and inventory? See the LibGuide on finding aids!

Bass Family Correspondence Collection
The Bass Family Correspondence comprises the correspondence and family documents of the Bass Family from Nebraska, who were involved in early American socialism and the labor movement. The collection documents the family history through the eyes of descendant Jeanne Morgan, a community advocate, author, and artist who conducted thorough research into her family's genealogy throughout her adult life. The collection documents the story of the Bass family through letters, documents, heirloom textiles and objects, and hundreds of photographs. Also included in the collection are personal papers and records from Morgan's life and career, including mixed manuscript material.

California Labor Federation AFL-CIO Collection
The California Labor Federation AFL-CIO Collection contains convention booklets and leaflets, voter information fliers, training manuals, organization constitutions, and other materials that provide insight into the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.

Charles H. Eilers Collection
The Charles H. Eilers Collection contains materials related to Charles "Carl" H. Eilers (1875-1948) and his family. The Eilers family owned and farmed Rancho San Pedro lands between Dominguez, Alameda, Del Amo, and Santa Fe streets in what was to become Carson, CA from 1889 to 1958. Included in the collection are deeds and title papers, tax reports, receipts, statements, court papers and legal documents, ledgers, correspondence, photographs, newspaper articles, and books. 

Deloris L. Holt Collection
The Deloris L. Holt Collection contains documents from the life and career of Deloris L. Holt, an educator, author, and activist who dedicated her career to sharing the history and achievements of Black Americans with the world. She was the founder of Kinderpress and published books and teaching resources with an emphasis on Black History and Early Childhood Education. This collection includes documents relating to her many publications, including original manuscripts, as well as extensive teaching resources gathered during her 43-year teaching career and personal documents such as personal, activist, and business-related corresponce, awards, and newspaper clippings. Material types include: print materials, cassette audio recordings, image slides, and other mixed media.

Ed Pearl, Ash Grove Collection
The Ed Pearl, Ash Grove Collection contains material belonging to Ed Pearl, founder of the Ash Grove venue. The majority of material related to the Ash Grove includes documents regarding efforts to create a new Ash Grove in the 1980s, as well as in the 1990s on the Santa Monica Pier; and material related to Ash Grove produced events, the Ash Grove Foundation, and Ash Grove music archives project. Also included are documents regarding Pearl's career as a producer for San Francisco Mime Troupe, KPFK-FM radio station, and for a few benefit shows and events; and clippings related to Pearl's interest in folk music, and politics- particularly during the Gulf War.

Irene and Johns Burns Family Collection   
The Irene and Johns Burns Family Collection contains material belonging to the Burns family who are based in Southern California. A majority of the collection contains letters that were written from 1943-1946 by John J. Burns and sent to Irene Burns while John was serving in the United States Marine Corps. Also included are material related to John and Irene's wedding such as RSVPs and greeting cards; as well as family photograph albums, Woodrow Wilson High School yearbooks (1940, 1942), and a personal diary belonging to Irene.

Mendel Krim Collection
The Mendel Krim Collection contains the photographs and papers of Mendel Krim, M.D., who served as a United States Army doctor in Korea and Japan from 1947-1949. Papers include letters, certificates, and records of Krim's military service, while the extensive collection of photographs capture Krim's experiences abroad.

Michael Wyman Green Party of California Collection
The Michael Wyman Green Party of California Collection contains correspondence; proposals; policies; ephemera; mailers; financial records; flyers; meeting minutes; material related to presidential and California elections; and other material regarding the Green Party of California and Green Party of the United States.

Pasadena Buddhist Temple Photographs  
The Pasadena Buddhist Temple Photographs contains photographs and panoramic photographs of the Pasadena Buddhist Temple and members of the church's congregation. Also included are photographs at different Buddhist churches, conferences, and anniversary events around California. All of the items in this collection have been digitized and some are available online.

Nick Green South Bay Soccer Collection
The Nick Green South Bay Soccer Collection documents soccer events in the South Bay and Los Angeles covered by the reporter and columnist Nick Green. The bulk of the material is devoted to soccer related events held in the stadium located at CSU Dominguez Hills, formerly known as Home Depot Center, which opened in 2003 and is now called Dignity Health Sports Park. The stadium hosts soccer games by the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer, U.S. men's and women's national soccer teams, and men's and women's college soccer. It was also home to two defunct clubs, the MLS team Chivas USA and Los Angeles Sol of the women's professional soccer. The extent of the collection consists of media guides, game programs, gameday information distributed to the media only, MLS official programs, press clippings, books, DVDs, magazines, and other related items.

The Gerth Archives and Special Collections acquired the archive of the L.A. Free Press in August 2021. The newspaper was founded by Art Kunkin in 1964 and was in publication until 1978. The L.A. Free Press, or the "Freep" as it was also called, gave voice to perspectives from the anti-Vietnam War among other movements associated with the counter culture, and was one of the first underground newspapers of the 1960s and 1970s. Publishing articles about the Black, Chicano, LGBTQ and leftist communities from 1964-1978, the L.A. Free Press offered a point of view into communities not covered by mainstream news outlets such as the L.A. Times. Gerth Archives staff travelled to Joshua Tree, California to acquire the archive of newspapers and other materials related to the operation and history of the paper, and will be processing the collection over "several years." 

Read more about the Gerth Archives and Special Collections' acquisition of the L.A. Free Press archive on the CSUDH Campus News page.

The CSUDH Gerth Archives and Special Collections’ California State University Japanese American Digitization Project (CSUJAD) has been awarded the 2021 Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) in recognition of the project's scope and success.

The CSU Japanese American Digitization Project collaborates with campuses in the 23 campus-wide CSU system as well as historical societies, archives and museums to make archival materials related to the Japanese American experience during the 20th century available online. Specific subjects include migration from Japan to the United States, the Alien Land laws under which Japanese Americans lived, incarceration during World War II, and the Redress Movement. 

More information about the CSU Japanese American Digitization Project can be found on their website csujad.com.

Read the CSUDH press release about the 2021 Philip M. Hamer and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan Award from the Society of American Archivists (SAA) here as well as the press release from SAA here. 

The Fourth Annual South Bay History Symposium took place virtually on November 14, 2020 with close to 50 participants. The symposium, titled The South Bay 1920-2020: 100 Years of Change, was hosted by the Compton 125 Historical Society and the Gerth Archives and Special Collections at CSU Dominguez Hills.

The program featured Dr. Alison R. Jefferson, author of Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era, who spoke on Bruce’s Beach in Manhattan Beach; Brett Fallentine spoke on his documentary “Fire on the Hill” about the equestrian history of Compton; James Preston Allen, publisher of Random Lengths News focused on the labor movement in San Pedro in the 1920s; Luis Fernandez, Director of the Dominguez Adobe spoke on the Dominguez Family; and Greg Williams, Director of the Gerth Archives spoke on the CSU Japanese American Digitization Project. Additional speakers included Stephanie Brasley, Dean of the CSUDH Library, Charles Brown, President of the Compton 125 Historical Society and Robert Lee Johnson, historian for the Compton 125 Historical Society.

Watch a recording of the symposium below or on YouTube.

An article detailing the transition of the Gerth Archives' exhibit "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" from a physical space to an online platform has been published in Performance!, the Society of American Archivists Performing Arts newsletter. The article was written by Music Archivist Beth McDonald, who curated the physical exhibit and developed the online version. Read the article to learn more about the exhibit, or visit the online exhibit.

The Gerth Archives and Special Collections and the Department of Women's Studies present the new Exhibit "100 Years of the Women's Vote"

This exhibit honors the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment, highlighting historical and contemporary successes and struggles as they relate to the enfranchisement of women and marginalized groups. In the fall of 2019, students in WMS 320: Feminist Principles spent the semester studying women's movements on a local, national, and global level. Working with staff from the CSUDH Donald R. & Beverly J. Gerth Archives & Special Collections, students collected information, materials, and images to create posters and display cases related to the Suffrage Movement and women's political participation over the past 100 years. Students also researched and interviewed local organizations and individuals in order to highlight contemporary women and women’s issues that are relevant to our current political moment and the continued fight for women’s rights.

The final project culminated in the posters, display cases, and zine that are featured in this online exhibit. Students in WMS 100: Gender, Sex, the Body & Politics also contributed to the creation of the posters on contemporary women's issues, as well as art images for the exhibit's zine. 

The physical exhibit will be on display at the Gerth Archives and Special Collection on the 5th Floor of Library South through 2021.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org.

Recent Press: CSUDH News

Documenting COVID-19 in Southern Los Angeles County, Gerth Archives & Special Collections

Help the Archives document COVID-19. Tell us your story!

Recognizing the historical significance of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gerth Archives and Special Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) is inviting Southern Los Angeles County and Toro Nation community members to document our individual and community coronavirus experiences by submitting materials to digital collections. The Gerth Archives and Special Collections will make these submissions available to researchers and the public as we collectively put together the story of this unprecedented time in history.

As you prepare materials for submission, consider how the evidence you’ve collected during the pandemic tells the story of COVID-19 and its impact on your personal, academic, and/or professional life. How do your materials reflect the changing dynamics or routines in your home, workplace, or community? We encourage submissions from diverse perspectives that illustrate daily life during quarantine. Potential subject matters include social distancing, the transition to alternative learning formats, relocating from student housing, what it is like to be an essential worker, or changes in daily routines, family dynamics, and interactions with others.

Submissions may include:

• Digital photos or scans
• Video and audio recordings
• Letters, emails, and other correspondence
• Journal and diary entries
• Social media posts, publicly accessible web pages, and PDFs
• Creative art such as drawings, paintings, and poetry
• Any other digital media that illustrates the effect of the pandemic on your academic, social, family, and extracurricular life

Thank you for helping us with this important project. Your contributions are a crucial part of telling the story of the COVID-19 pandemic in our community.

Please comply with the county and state’s safer-at-home order when self-documenting.

Submit Materials

For other questions, please contact us by email at archives@csudh.edu or phone: (310) 243-3895.

The Gerth Archives and Special Collections presents “Will the Circle Be Unbroken: The Sacred Music of the African American Diaspora,” an exhibition that explores the role that local African American musicians and their music has played in the cultural institutions of Los Angeles’ black communities. The exhibit will open Feb. 3 in the CSUDH Library Cultural Arts Center.

Donated to the Gerth Archives by Albert McNeil, founder of the celebrated Los Angeles-based choral music ensemble the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, and Hansonia Caldwell, emeritus professor of music at CSUDH, the exhibit will also showcase the way music has impacted politics, social structures, and the history of African Americans in Los Angeles and the surrounding area. 

Opening Reception: The Gerth Archives will host a reception for the exhibit Feb. 20, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. in the CSUDH Library Cultural Arts Center. The event will also honor McNeil and celebrate his 100th birthday with a performance by the Jubilee Singers. 

“Will the Circle Be Unbroken: The Sacred Music of the African American Diaspora” has been curated from the collections that make up CSUDH’s African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians (ADSMM) program, and the Georgia and Nolan Payton Archive of Sacred Music. The exhibit is sponsored by Sallyanne Payton, one of the founders of the ADSMM and the Payton archive.

The Payton archive consists of music, books, periodicals, documents, audio and visual materials, posters, and photographs from notable figures in L.A.’s music world, including McNeil, Caldwell, and (deceased) Los Angeles music icons Don Lee White, and Jester Hairston.

The materials in the collections are available for research in the CSUDH Gerth Archives and Special Collections. Additional information about the collections, including finding aids, are available at http://libguides.csudh.edu/archives-topic-sacred-music.

For more information, please visit our Current Exhibitions webpage→ or contact Beth McDonald emcdonald@csudh.edu or Greg Williams gwilliams@csudh.edu at (310) 243-2431.

The Donald R. and Beverly J. Gerth Archives and Special Collections has received $282,102 from the National Parks Service’s (NPS) World War II Japanese American Confinement Sites. 

Learn more at CSUDH News. 

The Tommy Irvine Jazz Collection (1908-1981; bulk 1940-1953) contains approximately 444 records held in 76 album sets with performances from musicians, many of which fall under the musical genre of jazz. Most of the records are 10" Shellac, 78 RPMs. Notable musicians featured in this collection include: George Shearing, Billy Eckstine, Nat King Cole, Erroll Garner, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Lester Young, Norman Granz, Teddy Wilson, Glenn Miller, and others.

Learn more at CSUDH News. 

The Gerth Archives has acquired the Holt Labor Library along with a $200,000 donation to catalog, process, and maintain the library, founded by Apple, Inc.'s early employee, Rod Holt.

Learn more CSUDH News and the LA Daily News.

Part of the California State University Japanese American Digitization Project, artist Alan Nakagawa's exhibit is a culmination of research in the Ninomiya Photography Studio Collection at CSUDH.

Learn more at CSUDH News. 

CSUDH is one of three campuses receiving part of a $680,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). 

Learn more at CSUDH News. 

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) awards the project a two-year $238,520 grant.

Learn more at CSUDH News. 

by Alexandra Arai Cauley and Christina Pappous, Archives Processing Assistants at California State University, Dominguez Hills

In 2010, contractor Bob Tanabe unexpectedly stumbled upon a treasure trove. Hired by a member of the Ninomiya family, Tanabe was in the process of clearing an apartment building for renovation. It was there that the material legacy of forty years of the Ninomiya Photo Studio had been languishing since the studio’s closure in the late 1980s. Unsure what to do but cognizant of the value of these photos, the Ninomiya family and Tanabe approached the Japanese American National Museum, but unfortunately, they had no space for the collection. Lacking better options, Tanabe posted an ad to Craigslist asking any interested parties to take the collection. Local assistant director and cameraman Michael Risner were intrigued by the ad and ended up picking up about half of it, a total of around 100,000 negatives. In the intervening years, Risner made diligent attempts to finance and process the collection himself, but eventually found the work to be beyond the scope of a single person. Greg Williams, director of the CSU Dominguez Hills Special Collections and Archives recognized how the collection could enhance the CSUDH Japanese American collections, and as such, fostered a relationship with Risner with the hopes of someday obtaining the photos. Williams’s efforts paid off and in mid-2016, the Ninomiya Studio Photo Collection found its permanent home in the Special Collections and Archives of CSU Dominguez Hills. Williams was then able to secure grants from the Haynes Foundation and California Civil Liberties Public Education Program to prepare materials for digitization and inclusion in the California State University Japanese-American History Digitization Project (CSUJAD). The CSUJAD database already contains over ten thousand items, and is continually growing through contributions from campuses across the CSU system and elsewhere. Once at CSUDH, the collection underwent preliminary chronological processing before it was ready for the heavy-duty rehousing and selection for digitization.

At first glance, processing the Ninomiya Studio Photo Collection is straightforward work. We rehouse the negatives in archivally sound envelopes, label both the envelopes and accompanying prints with pre-existing identification, such as the date and the client’s name. The prints are rehoused into album boxes. Sometimes it is indicated on the back of a print which negative was picked by the sitter; however, more often than not it is up to us to select a negative to be scanned. This can be a surprisingly difficult choice to make. For example, with a set of funeral photos, great care and tact must be exercised when selecting a negative as bodies are sometimes visible from inside the casket. Ultimately, the choice is dependent upon our own judgement of what is historically and aesthetically unique, interesting or important. We try to ensure in our selection process that each sitter is properly and respectfully represented. As a team of five people (Lindsey Anderson, Matt Weisbly, Jonathan Toyoda, Christina, and Alexandra), each of us bring our own training and knowledge base to the project which thusly informs our individual selections.  The task of selecting a negative (or multiple negatives) from within an envelope is perhaps the connective tissue between the physical processing of the collection and the larger historical work at play in the collection.

It was immediately clear as we began to work through the collection that the bulk of it recorded significant life events; graduations, weddings, first formal portraits of babies, and funerals are all well represented. While this may seem on the surface to be somewhat repetitive, a closer look reveals something more complex and potent. Thinking of the broader historical context, the collection becomes an invaluable visual record of Japanese Americans in postwar Los Angeles following the immense trauma of wartime incarceration. Kinso Ninomiya, and later son Elwin, were particularly well positioned to document this from their shop on East First Street, where the yearly Nisei Week parades passed by. The Ninomiyas captured photos of other business owners standing proudly in storefronts, candid moments between newly married couples, and unpracticed grief at funerals. As the custodians of the collection, we watch families grow and change as repeat customers returned to Ninomiya for photos throughout the years.

The breadth and depth of this collection, while daunting, is truly one of its greatest strengths. One other notable outcome of this is the spectacular view it offers of the subtle changes in fashion as the years move forward. Aspects like this also influence our organization as we keep in mind researchers with a variety of interests. If there is one takeaway from working on such a fascinating collection, it is that we are its helpers, rather than its shapers. To that end, the CSU Dominguez Hills Special Collections and Archives will engage the community through identification workshops or programs on campus and other locations in Los Angeles. These broader connections to local communities and histories is ultimately what archival collections like the Ninomiya Photo Studio Collection are about.

See our Ninomiya Photography Studio Collection Finding Aid.

Beth McDonald has been hired as project archivist to catalog the records of The Georgia & Nolan Payton Archive of African Diaspora of Sacred Music and Musicians. The archive consists of music, books, periodicals, documents, audio & visual materials, and oral histories. The primary goal of the archive is to facilitate research and documentation of collections of African Diaspora sacred music (church music and religious concert music) created and/or performed by the multicultural population of Southern California. The Archival collections in this project include the Hansonia Caldwell Papers, the Nolan Archive Collection, and the papers of choral leader Albert McNeil. 

This project will consist of traditional archival re-housing, arrangement and description including the creation of finding aids for two or more collections. There may also be selected digitization work with the use of CONTENTdm. At the end of the project, the employees will produce a finding aid published on the Online Archive of California. The Archives has received collections from the Sacred Music archives for 10 years. This is the first project to comprehensively catalog and digitize the entire archive. McDonald received her MLIS from UCLA and has worked at the San Francisco Maritime Museum as well as served as an LA as Subject Resident Archivist at three institutions in the LA area.