[Suffrage] [Early Photography] Original silver gelatin photographs capturing women’s suffrage, social gatherings, education, and everyday life during the Suffragette era to the 1920s. This archive of 22 photos depict groups of women in various settings, including suffrage parades, outdoor excursions, college events, and community celebrations. Archive of snapshot and postcard.....
California protest press photo archive documenting antiwar, anti nuclear, and student civil disobedience demonstrations during the height of Cold War anxiety and the emerging student protest culture of the 1960s. The group captures demonstrators participating in nuclear disarmament activism, mass public protest, and sit in actions connected to broader fears.....
Carquinez Bridge construction photo archive documenting the industrial development of the 1927 cantilever crossing at the Carquinez Strait, a transportation project driven by California’s rapid automobile growth and the mounting inadequacy of the Vallejo ferry connection between the Bay Area and Sacramento. By the early 1920s California vehicle registrations had.....
[Latino History] [Photography] [Popular Culture] Unidentified photographer, Southern California motorcycle culture photographs, circa 1970s document Chicano and white working class leisure, mobility, and community formation within West Coast biker subculture. The images record a multiracial group of riders engaged in mechanical work, travel, and social gathering across Los Angeles and.....
Leslie, Reva C. My Memories of School Days album and photograph scrapbook, 1923–1927, documents female student life, social networks, and extracurricular culture at Lincoln High School in Los Angeles during the 1920s. The material captures daily experiences of a young woman engaged in school activities, including dances, athletics, and clubs.....
California photograph and postcard scrapbook, 1920s–1950s, documents the development of regional identity, tourism, and youth leisure culture during a period of rapid population growth and national attention to the American West. The album captures informal social life alongside curated views of California’s built and natural environments, including missions, urban centers.....
California college graduation photograph, circa 1880s, documents the presence of an Asian student within a formally posed graduating class at a time of legalized anti Chinese exclusion and widespread racial discrimination in the American West. The image shows ten graduates holding diplomas, with men in formal evening dress and women.....
California Imperial Court System coronation program archive of drag performance and community-based organizing ephemera of LGBTQ activist and mutual aid networks during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Produced between 1976 and 1981 by regional courts in Long Beach, Monterey, and Stockton, these materials record ceremonial and social functions central.....
[Japanese-American] [California] Japanese American family photograph archive, a mid-twentieth-century record of Japanese American community life in California before and after the wartime incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry under Executive Order 9066 during the Second World War. The photographs mostly date between 1937 and 1940 with a few dated 1952.....
Archive of identified Japanese American wedding photographs documenting postwar Nikkei community life and the rebuilding of Japanese American social and commercial institutions in Northern California during the early 1950s. The material captures formal wedding celebrations and social relationships within Japanese American communities during the years following World War II incarceration.....
California photo Album documenting 1930's roadside commerce's, Oil and logging industries, and desert sightseeing across Southern California and Death Valley, circa 1930s. Include logging photographs made when steam power still ran the woods, before the gasoline tractor and chainsaw displaced the steam donkey engine and the logging railroad. The photographs.....
Whittier public development and labor photo archive documenting street paving, culvert construction, and bridge work by municipal laborers in during the Progressive Era of workers' rights in 1917 Southern California. This group records work on South Painter, Lemon Street, and North Washington as crews of men grade roadbeds, pour or.....
[Photo album] [California] Vernacular Photo album of travels and vacations, filled with 256 images from around California. 1914-1920. Original cloth boards. 11.5 x 15.5 in. “Photographs” in gilt on front cover. 256 original silver gelatin print photographs of various size, from 2 ½ x 2 ½ inches to 5 ½.....
Various editors, California Voice: The Responsible Gay Press, 1983–1984, documenting LGBTQ+ political activism, cultural life, and public health response in San Francisco during the early years of the AIDS crisis. The material operates in Cultural/Representational Mode, illustrating how a community newspaper articulated gay identity, organized political response, and reported on.....
Women Suffrage Early pamphlet, from the "California Federation of Women’s Clubs. A Survey of the Results of Woman Suffrage in California". Made by the Committee of Political Science Mrs. Seward A. Simons, Chairman. 1916-1917. This large early 4 page pamphlet, 12 ½ x 9 ½” (sheet unfolded). Gives updates on.....
[LGBTQ][Gay Activism][Drag] "Miss Jessie" photo archive chronicling 30 years in the life of San Diego drag performer and gay community activist Edward “Jesse” Taylor. The archive documents 30 years of Taylor’s life, as well as images from his 1987 title as Empress XVI in the California Imperial Court, and his.....
[Japanese American] [California] Japanese American family photograph archive, 1950s, documenting everyday life in Southern California during the decade following the forced wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans under Executive Order 9066. The photographs record domestic routines, family celebrations, and recreational outings among a Nisei and Sansei generation rebuilding community life after.....
[Post WWII] [Japanese American] [Los Angeles, California] Japanese American family photograph archive, 1952–1953, documenting the rebuilding of Nisei and Sansei community life in Los Angeles during the decade following the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans under Executive Order 9066. The photographs record a network of relatives and friends living in.....
[Japanese American] Post-war intergenerational Japanese Americans visiting northern California natural landmarks, ca. 1960s. Comprising 20 original silver gelatin and chromogenic prints, most measuring approximately 3.5 x 3.5 inches, this collection includes black-and-white and color images of group travel to Yosemite National Park, the Wawona Tunnel Tree, and other iconic Sierra.....
[Mexico] [Photography] Vernacular photograph album documenting daily life, labor, and civic culture in Mexico and California, 1906–1908, with substantial visual material from the late Porfirian era preceding the Mexican Revolution. The album records markets, religious architecture, rural labor, and public spectacle across central Mexico, alongside views of communities in the.....
Motorcycle club in a mountainous Western setting circa 1950s photo archive. Five original silver gelatin black-and-white prints. All photos measure approximately 4.5 x 3.25 inches with deckled edges. These striking images document a moment in American youth subculture centered around postwar motorcycle clubs. A standout image features a man in.....
Unidentified press photographers, San Quentin Prison textile mill photographs, 1955, document penal labor practices within California’s mid-twentieth-century prison system, supporting research into carceral industry, state-managed labor, and the economic functions of incarceration. The images provide direct visual evidence of organized industrial production carried out by incarcerated individuals, illustrating how prison.....
[Biker Subculture] Carson California biker community photo albums documenting motorcycle culture, social gatherings, and everyday life of a working class Southern California riding club, 1985-1986. The albums record the social world of The Backyard Bikers, a group centered around custom motorcycles and community rides, with captions identifying some dates and.....
[Biker Subculture] Southern California biker community photo albums documenting motorcycle culture during the 1970s and 1980s, a period when custom chopper building, club rides, and regional motorcycle gatherings characterized a flourishing biker subculture in the post Vietnam era. The photographs record a network of riders with heavily customized motorcycles participating.....
[Subculture][Motorcycles] Two Mighty Carson Alley Bikers photo albums chronicling the Southern California motorcycle subculture in the 1980s. The albums record custom motorcycle craftsmanship, organized rides including the 1985 Yuma Prison Run, and the social networks of biker subculture. The images show community among working class motorcycle enthusiasts in Southern California.....
