The Barbados Ephemera Collection includes over 1000 objects that cover the decades following the Independence of Barbados (1966) and the subsequent transition from colony to independent state. Items in this collection, now openly available for use by scholars, teachers, Barbadians and others around the world, reflect and document the lives of ordinary people beyond elite voices at a foundational period in the history of Barbados. While items in the collection are specific to Barbados, they address broader global movements of the 20th century, including civil rights struggles, women's rights, identity formation, and political realities. Digitized as part of the Modern Endangered Archives Program.
The Arab Image Foundation (AIF) has selected a collection for digitization that represents a large range of photography methods-- from commercial studio use by professionals to personal use (e.g. family shots) by non-professionals. The materials represent a visual and social history of Lebanon and the Middle East that showcases the diversity and complexity of cultural practices captured via photography. Through the AIF's digitized work, users can access not just the practice of photography in Lebanon, but also a wider range of concepts representations of self-image, intimacy, domesticity, and the development of modernity in Lebanon. This collection contextualizes these ideas through visualizations of tension between private and public space within and outside of Lebanon, including countries such as Syria, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. Lebanon’s current socioeconomic crisis has caused a rift in social unrest and has put cultural heritage, such as this collection, at risk of damage or loss of access. The AIF’s work to preserve these photographic materials is absolutely essential and will allow users to explore spaces throughout Lebanon and in a variety of other countries.
Richard Josef Neutra (1892-1970) was born in Vienna. He was the city architect for Luckenwalde, then worked as a draftsman-collaborator with Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin before immigrating to the United States in 1923. He worked with Frank Lloyd Wright (1924) before settling in Los Angeles. His most productive years were during 1930s and 1940s. In the 1960s, Richard J Neutra worked in partnership with his son Dion. The collection consists of correspondence both personal and professional belonging to Richard J Neutra as well as his wife Dione Neutra, travel records and sketches, publications, drawings, blueprints, oversized rolled plans, audio recordings, and photographs.
This collection includes 895 editions of the Humun Bichig newspaper, the only newspaper still published in the traditional Mongolian script today. The collection covers the period 1992 - 2013, documenting the transition of the nation of Mongolia from socialist era to democracy and market economy. The collection also reflects the nationwide attempt to get rid off the Russian Cyrillic script and shift back to the traditional Mongolian writing system.
Dr. Louis and Nancy Dupree, husband and wife, spent over fifty years capturing photos of the evolution of physical structures and social life of Afghanistan, documenting the country’s transition from the pre-war era to post-conflict. The late Nancy Dupree gifted the ACKU with this collection of approximately five thousand photographic slides. The images document the nature, architecture, culture, and history of Afghanistan throughout the second half of the twentieth century-- a time when the country was a key location for the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War (1947-1991). The photo collection records the destruction and cultural consequences of the war through rare visual materials of Afghan cultural heritage, Kabul architecture, landscapes, archaeological materials, art, and even objects from the Kabul Museum.
From 1976 to 1983, military dictatorship in Argentina overran the population with politically-charged attacks and threats of imprisonment against citizens. In response to this regime, various human rights organizations (HROs) were created. Memoria Abierta is a collective alliance of nine of these HROs that aimed to denounce social injustice and support victims of repression. This online collection includes written works from these groups. The materials document and reflect (1) the history of the HROs and their members, (2) forms of organization and intervention, and (3) the roles that these groups played in a sociopolitical context. The publications include magazines, booklets, newsletters, and newspapers from the 1970’s to today. Publications in the collection include but are not limited to the Magazine of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (a newspaper covering politics, human rights, and justice advocacy), Bulletin of Relatives of the Disappeared and Detainees for Political Reasons (a periodic publication on missing persons, human rights violations, and HRO activities), and “Paz y Justicia” (a periodic bulletin on human rights in Argentina and Latin America). These publications allow users to explore the history of the human rights movement as well as the sociopolitical context of organizations and interventions within the movement. The materials contextualize the HRO’s within their foundation histories, the challenges that they faced, and the actions they carried out against injustice. For this collection, Memoria Abierta has selected materials that reflect Argentina’s dictatorial state and its consequences that led to organized resistance. The content is especially significant in light of modern-day right-wing governments regaining presence within and surrounding the country. This political climate has created some set-backs in making accessible Argentina’s grim, repressive history. However, this archive takes a huge step towards highlighting the voices of those that advocated for a more democratic and inclusive system-- an ideology that echoes into the present day. Digitized as part of the Modern Endangered Archives Program.
This digital collection focuses on four personal collections: Raúl Ampuero, Marcelo Croxatto, Sergio Insunza and Patricia Verdugo. These collections includes minutes of meetings, correspondence, brochures, legal documents, press, publications, flyers, posters and audiovisuals.
SOUL Publications was established in 1966 in Los Angeles by Regina and Ken Jones. The impetus for SOUL was the Watts Riots, which inspired local newsman Ken Jones to develop a vehicle for documenting and expressing the African American perspective in a self-representative way. Equipped with his vision and the industrious drive of his wife, Regina Jones, the company initially focused on providing promotion and recognition for Black musicians, who received scant publicity at that time. Its publications grew to include other aspects of Black cultural production, including film, television, literature, and the visual arts.
Collection consists of original photographs and negatives of various 19th and 20th century photographers covering a broad range of subjects and includes portraits, landscapes, panoramic views, cityscapes and buildings from various geographic locations and photographs from various historical periods. A few of these photographs have been digitized and are offered here.
