Highlights at the Archives Bazaar: 10 Fascinating Southern California Collections and Historical Organizations

Visitors poured over vintage photos, old city maps and historic artifacts shown by over 70 history organizations at the 17th annual Archives Bazaar last October. Every year, Southern California museums, libraries and archives come together to show off historic items from their collections, all under one roof. Co-hosted by USC Libraries and L.A. as Subject, this annual event gives history-minded Angelenos an opportunity to dive deeper into the collections housed in local archives scattered across the region — from Calabasas to Claremont and the neighborhoods in between. As L.A. as Subject's Executive Committee Chair Jessica Gambling explained, "the Archives Bazaar not only lets the public know that these resources, places and groups exist, but it gets people comfortable with the idea of interacting with them."

Here are a few archival highlights from the presenters and exhibitors in hopes that these collections will inspire researchers and storytellers to visit these rich collections and explore how their own personal archives play a part in the story of Los Angeles.

Filipino American History in L.A.: Doheny Library

As attendees meandered through the maze of booths in Doheny's Reading Room, others filtered in the Faculty Room to listen to panel discussions highlighting local archives. The legacy of Helen Summers Brown (1915-2011), a Filipina educator and librarian who established the Filipino American Library in 1985, was the focus of the first morning panel. Brown amassed the first and largest collection of Filipino and Filipino American reading materials in the country. A Doheny Library exhibit currently features photos, programs and a vintage map of Little Manila — all from the Filipino American Library collection. USC Libraries has been digitizing the collections, including this interesting series of community portraits from the 1970s titled "Leading Filipino Americans of the Greater Los Angeles Area." In 1978, LAUSD's Visitacion Bayan created these poster portraits of scientists, politicians, academics, musicians to educate and inspire students about the accomplishments of Filipino Americans.

An Oral History of Latinos in Theater: Voces del Teatro

At the Voces del Teatro booth, visitors listened to oral history interviews of Latino theatre directors and veteran actors in Los Angeles. Voces del Teatro has been documenting the city's Latino theater history by creating an oral history archive that reflects the city's larger modern theatrical history as well as local political history. A number of the Latino theater companies were inspired by the Chicano movement, including Teatro Urbano — a grassroots theater troupe started by Rene Rodriguez in 1974. In the 1970s, Teatro Urbano produced a production about the killing of Ruben Salazar at the Chicano Moratorium called the "Silver Dollar," which continues to be produced annually.

In this Voces del Teatro interview, Rosemary Soto Rodriguez speaks about the history of Teatro Urbano.

Introducing Youth to the Power of Archiving: Color Compton and Lost LA Curriculum Project

Archives are an integral thread to Color Compton's work in centering and empowering students to document their neighborhoods' past and present. Color Compton executive director Abigail Lopez-Byrd and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Noel Lopez spoke to a packed crowd at Doheny's Faculty Room about their work introducing students to archival work and how their stories can fill the gaps of Black and Brown voices in local archives. One of its programs is the Community Archiving Fellowship in which a small group of students work over a few months to explore photography, storytelling, history and archiving as they develop a project that documents an aspect of their Compton community. One cohort documented all the students' favorite taco spots while another photographed local food trucks — creating an archive that speaks to their personal histories in Compton.

Educators will be interested in the Lost LA Curriculum Project showcased at the Archives Bazaar. Daniel Diaz, Director of the UCLA History-Geography Project, spoke about building a "teacher-archivist community" as he led a panel with teachers who developed lesson plans based on KCET's "Lost LA" episodes about the Shindana Toy Company, the lost Red Cars and Crenshaw's Japanese American community. As one teacher explained, using these "Lost LA" episodes in the classroom emphasizes the importance of archives and primary resources to students. Lesson plans can be found here.

Remembering the Forced Incarceration of Japanese Americans: Visual Communications

Long-time Archives Bazaar exhibitor Visual Communications has been empowering Asian American voices in media since 1970. The organization has amassed an amazing archive of its work and brings highlights from its archive annually. As part of its booth, Visual Communications displayed these cubes from Robert A. Nakamura's 1970 photographic sculpture "America's Concentration Camps," commissioned in 1970 by the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). At the time, JACL was leading a campaign to repeal the 1950 Emergency Detention Act, which allowed the government to detain anyone assumed to be a national risk. The "Cubes Exhibit" became an integral educational tool during the 70s and 80s in raising awareness about the forced incarceration of Japanese Americans during WW2. Visual Communications has revisited this 52-year-old project by transforming these photos and quotes into an online exhibit accompanied by a teacher's activity guide.

Conversations About Water in the Owens Valley: Metabolic Studios

Metabolic Studio's booth overflowed with notebooks and photos related to its IOU series, a series named for the debt that Los Angeles owes Payahuunadü (the Owens Valley). As Metabolic Studio develops its current public artwork "Bending the River Back Into the City," these IOU archival items drew attention to the organization's 14-year history working in Owens Valley. Items displayed included a notebook about Metabolic Studio's "100 Conversations About Water," its 100 Mules Project that marked the Los Angeles Aqueduct centennial and information about the IOU radio plays with Owens Valley residents (available online here).

Pasadena Art and Science: South Pasadena Public Library and Pasadena's Art Center

The South Pasadena Public Library brought a taxidermied baby ostrich from its collection related to the Cawston Ostrich Farm that was once operated in South Pasadena. It was on this ostrich farm that the first successful use of a commercial solar engine occurred. The library now holds the Solar Motor Company collection which operated in South Pasadena from 1901 to 1910. While its testing was successful, the solar energy company couldn't compete with "oil fever" infecting Los Angeles. In this new collection, researchers will find company documents along with newspaper and magazine clippings.

Pasadena's Art Center showcased two of its archives at the Archives Bazaar. Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography (HMCT), the largest educational letterpress archive on the West Coast. One highlight was this beautiful work created for the Los Angeles bicentennial in 1981 by Vernon Simpson, a typographer and printer who produced books for a number of important artists.

L.A. Punk History From the 1970s to Today: Art Center and UCLA Library

Art Center's Jules Bates Artrouble Center booth featured the photographic work of Jules Bates, a photographer who documented emerging punk, alternative and new wave music in Los Angeles. Before he died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 27, Bates established the creative agency ArtTroube that influenced the look of fashion and music photo shots of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Researchers can dive into his work in a dedicated space called the Jules Bates Artrouble Center that opened last year.

The Punk Archives at UCLA Library was a popular table at the Archives Bazaar with video clips, photos and a zine full of details about their collections of punk history. Highlights include the Tequila Mockingbird LA Punk Museum collection, the V. Vale Collection of Search and Destroy records, and The American Hotel and Al's Bar Project.

Still standing at the corner of Hewitt Street and Traction Avenue, the American Hotel once hosted Al's Bar, owned and operated by Marc Kreisel. A 1997 LA Times article dubbed Al's Bar "the club that is the soul of Los Angeles" as musicians like Los Lobos, Hole, Ry Cooder, Beck, the Misfits, Red Hot Chili Peppers (to name a few) once performed on the bar's stage. UCLA Library's collection spans from 1976-2004 and consists of flyers, posters, photographs, correspondence, scripts, Rolodexes, calendars, theater programs, press releases, financial records, and bar memorabilia.

California's Booming Citrus Industry: Claremont Colleges Library

Located on the county's eastern edge, Claremont Colleges Library's Special Collections brought items illustrating the powerful role the citrus industry played in Southern California. The library's David Boulé California Orange Collection includes packing house photos, crate labels, citrus souvenirs and advertising promotions, all illustrating the subtle and not-so-subtle ways the citrus industry grew into one of California's major industries. Religious studies researchers will be interested in the library's new Gomez Mormon Mexican History Collection, the most extensive collection in the world of Mormon history among Spanish-speakers (outside the Mormon church).

Hundreds of California Maps: Calabasas Public Library

Map lovers will appreciate the library's Calabasas Public Library's new collection of over 300 historic California maps recently donated by Matt Jaffe, former Sunset Magazine employee and family. These USGS maps cover Southern California — from Ventura County to San Diego County— with the earliest one dated 1917. These maps can be viewed in the recently opened special collections room available to the public by appointment.

Los Angeles Family Archives Brought to Life: Shades of L.A.

Los Angeles Public Library staff members spoke about the 30th anniversary of the Shades of L.A. project, now an online exhibit. In 1991, LAPL's photo curator Carolyn Kozo Cole and the newly-established LAPL Photo Friends worked to fill the gaps in the library's photo archive that illustrated more of the city’s historic headlines and less about the histories and daily life lived in the city's culturally diverse communities. Families were invited to "Photos Days" to share their family photos to LAPL's photo archive resulting in almost 10,000 images from over 650 donors. In this relatively new online exhibit, these Shades of L.A. photos are shown with 12 oral histories that bring these family images to life.

Audio-visual fans were busy on Doheny's Library second floor with Basement Tapes Day and Home Movie Day. These two events encouraged visitors to bring their old cassette tapes and home movies to share with Archives Bazaar audiences. Listening and watching these audio-visual vignettes were wonderful glimpses of people's personal archives while also stressing the importance of preserving our audio and video heritage still stored in Los Angeles closets and garages.

Writer's note: In reflecting on the Archives Bazaar, I'd like to take a moment to remember Todd Gaydowski (1967–2022), Los Angeles City Archivist and President of the Los Angeles City Historical Society who passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. He was always a friendly fixture of the Archives Bazaar, always eager to chat about the city's archives and upcoming events for the historical society. His helpful presence was missed.