The Los Angeles Latino Families Photo Project was launched at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) spring 2012. It is an extension of an earlier initiative launched in 2007 to combat the invisibility of the Mexican American contribution to Los Angeles and California history predating the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s within textbooks, trade, and academic books and articles. With the generous support of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, the CSRC was able to digitize close to 3,000 images from the Edward R. Roybal Papers and the Yolanda Retter Vargas Collection of Orphan Photographs. The first collection documents Edward Roybal’s public service career from the 1940s to the 1990s as a Los Angeles city councilman and a U.S. congressman. The second was collected by the previous librarian, Yolanda Retter-Vargas, who found the photographs at various flea markets. This collection consists of “orphan” photographs—images with no provenance information. They appear to belong to six families. Both collections have been completed and are available on the UCLA Digital Library. <br><br>After completing this project we quickly realized that Los Angeles Latino history is incomplete without the stories of its citizens. The Los Angeles Latino Families Photo Project was developed as a way to fully capture the complexity of this city’s history as well as address the issue of preservation through the digitization of vulnerable image-based collections. The photographs found in this particular collection were digitized and preserved during a Friends of the Library workshop held at the Chicano Studies Research Center spring 2012. They highlight the day-to-day lives of Latinos and Latinas living in Los Angeles over time. They document their families' histories and cultures capturing their movements between the United States and Latin America. One of the project’s goals is to provide the opportunity for community members to contribute additional photographs and information for the archival record. <br><br>For more information regarding this project or these photographs contact the CSRC Archivist & Librarian at lguerra@chicano.ucla.edu
Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) was a prolific writer of novels, essays, poetry, criticism, and screenplays. The Aldous Huxley Papers portion of the collection consists correspondence between Aldous Huxley and publishers Harper & Row, personal correspondence, holographic notes, literary manuscripts and personal effects. Laura Archera Huxley (1911-2007) was a musician, author, psychological counselor and lecturer. The materials in the collection that comprise the personal papers of Laura Archer Huxley include personal correspondence, holographic and typewritten notes, manuscripts, collected articles and clippings and interviews. As well, there are photographs and audiovisual recordings of both Aldous Huxley and Laura Archera Huxley.
Collection of approximately 800 digitized photographs and other items collected by Walter L. Gordon, Jr. and given to William C. Beverly, Jr., who donated the collection to UCLA. Collection includes photos given to Walter by his former boss, Charlotta Bass, publisher of the California Eagle, as well as other photos he collected. Photos largely depict African American social life and family life in 1940s Los Angeles and feature celebrities, athletes, politicians, lawyers, and other notable people of the era.
Henry Hebard West was a Los Angeles resident, Southern Pacific Railroad employee, and candid photographer. His photograph album contains images of Los Angeles and vicinity, but also includes many photos of travels to Northern California, the Midwest, and New England. Most of the photos are portraits of the West family in Los Angeles, where they lived at 240 S. Griffin Avenue, in a house built by the photographer's father. The photos provide a first-hand look at the architecture, interior decoration, furniture, clothing, hair styles, and transportation of the period. They document the life of the West family over a span of forty years, as they age, marry, raise children, enjoy outings to nearby city parks, beaches, hotels, and missions, and vacation together in Northern California, returning again and again to places like Yosemite, Silver Lake, Gem Lake, June Lake, Convict Lake, and Minnelusa to camp; sled; hike; trout fish; and hunt deer, rabbits, doves, and sage hens.