"WHERE ARE YOU FROM? ' MAP EXHIBITION OPENS IN LIBRARY

A new permanent exhibition of antique maps has just opened on the second floor of the CSU Dominguez Hills University Library. Entitled "Where Are You From?" the exhibition documents the vast information that be gleaned from maps. Looking for New Granada? Since it is now the country of Columbia you probably can't readily find it on MapQuest, although it is represented on a map now on display in the library. Need to find where Russian Tartary or "Hindoostan" was? You can find them in the exhibition. With 15 maps dating from 1747 to 1946, the exhibition covers the entire world. These maps show how the world was viewed throughout the last 250 years and surprise the viewer with accuracy as well as inaccuracy and whimsy. They invite praise for their art and design, confusion when a familiar place is named something else and serve as a gateway for critical thinking.

The exhibition features one 1847 map that shows the Mexican border reaching Oregon while another 100 years earlier is unable to show Northern Canada and Alaska because the map stated that they haven't been discovered yet. Many of the maps focus on Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, while others focus on California and Los Angeles. One 1788 map shows the Philippines and Borneo. While many of the maps were used to chart courses, others were created for fun and education(Jo Mora's California, 1945) and others were published to promote California tourism (Roads to Romance) or industrial locations (Unique Map of California). Some maps published before automobiles and without any need to chart a ship, were created for an atlas to teach physical geography.

One 1796 map has the longest title: “A general chart, on Mercator's projection, to shew the track of the Lion and Hindostan from England to the Gulph of Pekin in China, and of their return to England: with the daily statement of the barometer and thermometer as observed at noon: containing also the limits of the Chinese Empire as extended by the conquests of the present Emperor Tchien-Lung.”

Another map is entitled: “A New and Accurate Map of America drawn from the most approved modern Maps and Charts and adjusted by Astronomical Observations. Exhibiting the Course of Trade Winds both in the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans,” 1747.

The maps are part of the Library's Archives and Special Collections Map Collection. Additional maps are on display in the on the fifth floor. The Library collaborated with the Promoting Excellence in Graduate Studies Program (PEGS)to put the exhibition together. The maps can viewed during regular library hours.

Don Hata Talks about Issues in "Building Evidence" Exhibition

On November 29, 2011 Dr. Donald Hata, professor emeritus of history addressed the largest group of students ever assembled in CSUDH's Archives Reading Room. Hata spoke on Japanese American incarceration during World War II and issues raised by the Archives current exhibition entitled "Building Evidence."

Dateline Dominguez Article on Exhibition "Building Evidence."

For more than 40 years, historians and archivists at California State University, Dominguez Hills have been gathering materials documenting the lives of Japanese Americans in the South Bay and Los Angeles. Consisting of photographs, yearbooks, and artwork, as well as documents such as letters and property leases, “Building Evidence: Japanese Americans in Southern California During Mid-Century – 40 Years of Collecting, An Exhibition” —on view now through March 2012—focuses on the lives and obstacles faced by Japanese Americans in the South Bay and Los Angeles prior to, during, and after World War II.


Topics covered in the materials collected include the location of Japanese American tenant farmer families on Dominguez/Rancho San Pedro lands before World War II and the removal of those families after Pearl Harbor; the mass evacuation of citizens and incarceration in concentration camps such as at Manzanar in California and Granada, Colorado; and letters from various Japanese Americans searching for jobs and places to live after the camps were closed. Several of the recently rescued Ninomiya Studio photographs show Japanese American life in the 1950s. In addition, the exhibition features the artwork of Mary Higuchi, Henry Fukahara, and H. Takata, as well as a scale model of a camp barracks made by former Torrance resident Min Sueda.

There are two talks related to the World War II component of “Building Evidence.” On Nov. 29, emeritus professor of history Donald T. Hata will speak on the issues surrounding the incarceration of Japanese Americans in the exhibition and in the fourth edition of his book, “Japanese Americans and World War II — Mass Removal, Imprisonment, and Redress” (with Nadine Ishitani Hata). He will speak on Nov. 29 at 4 p.m. Mitch Maki, acting provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, will speak on the Japanese American redress movement and its meaning for all Americans on Feb. 16, 2012, at 3 p.m. Both events will take place at the Archives and Special Collections Reading Room on the fifth floor of the south wing of the University Library.

A lease for 17 acres of the Rancho San Pedro between Ichiro Haijima and Carson Estate Company contains the notation, "Tenant Evacuated by U.S. Gov't 3-1-42." Courtesy of University Archives and Special Collections

Greg Williams, director of Archives and Special Collections at CSU Dominguez Hills, says that the exhibition connects the national injustice of Japanese American incarceration during WWII to events of similar outrage that took place locally.

“Many South Bay families were kicked off Rancho San Pedro lands that they had cultivated for a generation,” he says. “Our research has been able to map out where specific families lived on Rancho lands in the 1930s.

“The preservation of newsletters, photographs, and recently donated letters ensures that students will have access to new sources for today’s students to study from their own generational point of view,” Williams continues. “While the exhibition documents an enormous outrage against the rights of Japanese American citizens, it can also be viewed in the context of civil rights after 9-11 and the most recent laws against immigration in Arizona and Alabama. The purpose of this exhibition is to show students the relationship of the past to the present and how democratic principles are always at risk.”

Photographs appear courtesy of Mike Risner from the Ninomiya Collection.

Local Filipino Americans Visit Archives to Discuss History Collections

The website Bakitwhy.com covered a visit to the archives on November 19, 2011 by local Filipino Americans interested in local history collections. See http://www.bakitwhy.com/articles/csudh-archives-and-special-collections-build-filipiniana-collection.

Building Evidence: Japanese Americans in Southern California During Mid-Century. 40 Years of Collecting. An Exhibition, October 2011-March 2012.

Building Evidence: Japanese Americans in Southern California During Mid-Century. 40 Years of Collecting. An Exhibition, October 2011-March 2012.
Archives and Special Collections, University Library, CSU Dominguez Hills.
Leo Cain Library North (New) Wing, #5039. Fifth Floor, University Archives.
For over 40 years historians and archivists at CSU Dominguez Hills have been gathering materials documenting the lives of Japanese Americans in the South Bay and Los Angeles. A large segment of material focuses on the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, but there is also material on Japanese Americans before and after the War.
Consisting of photographs, yearbooks, artwork, letters, leases, the exhibition focuses on the lives and obstacles faced by Japanese Americans in the South Bay and Los Angeles prior, during and after World War II. Topics include the location of some Japanese American tenant farmer families on Dominguez/Rancho San Pedro lands before World War II and the removal of those families after Pearl Harbor; the mass evacuation of citizens and incarceration in concentration camps such as Manzanar and Granada, Colorado; letters from various Japanese Americans searching for jobs and places to live after the camps were closed. Several of the recently-rescued Ninomiya Studio photographs show Japanese American life in the 1950s. In addition the exhibition features artwork of Mary Higuchi, Henry Fukahara and H. Takata as well as a scale model of a camp barracks made by former Torrance resident Min Sueda.

Archives Bazaar Oct 22, 2011 at USC. The Airship image at the Top of the Poster is from the CSUDH Archives Collection.

CSU 50th Annivesary Website

http://www.calstate.edu/50th/acknowledgements.shtml

Youthful Jerry Brown Found Camping in Archives Outdoor Photos

In his inauguration speech this week, Gov. Jerry Brown talked about his ancestors, who toughed it out on the frontier as they migrated to California. In the 1960s, the Brown family was still roughing it out over the land, but as enthusiastic campers who wanted to see the natural wonders of the Golden State. During his administration, Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown took annual treks into the California wilderness. Joining him were his son and future governor Edmund “Jerry” Brown, Jr., and several state officials including Donald P. Loker, one of the longest serving supporters of California State College, Dominguez Hills and later, California State University, Dominguez Hills. The Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Student Union is named in honor of Loker and his wife. Also along on many of the elder Brown’s excursions was William E. Warne, who served Brown’s administration in many functions.
The William E. Warne collection arrived at the CSU Dominguez Hills archives a few years ago and was recently processed. A finding aid to the Warne Collection will be published with the university’s other 100 archival collections on the Online Archive of California. The Collection will help students research California water resource issues along with issues relating to Warne’s diplomatic career in Iran, Brazil and Korea during the 1950s.
During the processing of the collection, archivists came upon several photo albums of camping and horseback trips taken by Warne, Gov. Brown and others. In one of the albums, several photos of a young Jerry Brown holding his catch of fish were found. In the photos, the future governor is 22 years old and about to embark on his last year at University of California at Berkeley. Another album had photos of Loker.
Operation Trinity Alps was established by the California Department of Fish and Game for Gov. Pat Brown to get acquainted with various issues relating to fish and game conservation, located on Canyon Creek Lakes in Trinity County. The camping trip in the university’s photos took place in August 1960. The album was presented to Warne, then director of the Department of Agriculture by Walter T. Shannon, director of the Department of Fish and Game. Warne later became director of the California Department of Water Resources. The photo album from the trip contains approximately 75 snapshots of the Browns’ excursion with 18 other state officials and members of the press.
In July 1966, Loker in his role as Small Crafts Harbor Commission chairman joined Gov. Brown and Warne for the Governor’s Pack Trip between Wades Lake and Little Jamison Creek in Plumas County. Participants included state officials, television station newsmen, and other members of the media.
Warne was born in Indiana in 1905. He earned a degree in English from the UC Berkeley in 1927 and worked as a reporter for several California newspapers from 1925 to 1935. He then worked for the Bureau of Reclamation as an editor and chief of information until 1942, and served as its assistant commissioner from 1943 to 1947. He was then appointed to assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and held that position until 1950. He was a U.S. diplomat to Iran (1951-1955), Brazil (1955-1956), and Korea (1956-1959). Warne also worked as director of the California Department of Game and Fish from 1959 to 1960, the California Department of Agriculture (now California Department of Food and Agriculture) from 1960 to 1961, and the California Department of Water Resources from 1961 to 1967. He served on many commissions and boards relating to water, development, and pollution control. Warne died in 1996.
- Greg Williams