Rare Book Room

The new Rare Book Room in Archives and Special Collections at the CSU Dominguez Hills Library is available for class presentations and other meetings relating to the study of materials in the Archives. The Room houses the Glen Schwendeman Collection of history and exploration, the Buckner Collection of Newberry Award Winners and the early 20th century bestsellers collection. In addition the Archives reading room has California History and Latin American History titles for research.

New Headquarters for the CSUDH Archives

On April 29, 2010, the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the University, the Archives and Special Collections department moved into its spacious new headquarters in the new South Wing of the library. The new Archives consists of a much larger reading room (with windows!), a rare book room, a preservation room, and expanded archival storage areas with appropriate environmental controls. The new Archives allows for expanded opportunities for research, class presentations and preservation of historic materials. The expanded space allows for more space for staff and interns as well as for new collections.

CENTENNIAL OF AVIATION MEET, 1910 - 2010 Los Angeles International Aviation Meet

Large color poster that was used for the first aviation meet in 1910

CENTENNIAL OF FLIGHT ON THE WEST COAST JANUARY 10,1910-JANUARY 10, 2010

AT DOMINGUEZ FIELD

For eleven days in January 1910, the Dominguez Hills area was the focal point of the Aviation world. Seven years after the Wright Brothers achieved the first successful airplane flight, 226,000 people came to see aviators, balloonists and dirigible pilots fly above Southern California for the first time.

The Los Angeles International Aviation Meet at Dominguez Field was the first aviation meet in the United States. Most Californians had never seen a machine flying through the air. The Air Meet boosters built a huge grandstand, an aviators’ camp, and improved train passenger platforms so citizens could get from downtown to Dominguez Hills.

The Air Meet took place 50 years before CSU Dominguez Hills was founded and about 125 years after the first Spanish Land Grant in California was awarded in 1784 to Juan Jose Dominguez. At the time lands surrounding this area were owned by members of the Dominguez, Carson, Watson and Del Amo families.

Spectators at the Air Meet saw renowned French aviator Louis Paulhan, Glenn Curtiss, Charles Willard and others break records for altitude (nearly a mile), endurance (1 hour, 49 minutes), fastest speed with a passenger (55 mph), and quickest start.

The Los Angeles Times, capturing the enthusiasm for the event, claimed that the meet was “one of the greatest public events in the history of the West.”

Additional information and photographs are accessible on the CSUDH website at http://archives.csudh.edu or www.1910dominguezmeet.com.

The Committee hosts a website that includes historical information, as well as short film clips from the first meet.

"Biplan Farman" Drawing of front and side of Farman Biplane


Charles Willard with Curtiss Biplane, 1910


Roy Knabenshue dirigible in flight, 1910


Aviators in Group, 1910 from left: Hilary Beachey, Col. Johnson(?), Glenn Curtiss, Louis Paulhan, Charled Willard, Didier Masson, Lincoln Beachey, Roy Knabenshue, Charled Hamilton.


CSUDH Marker Plaque, 1974


Air meet colored drawing, 1910

See the CSUDH Digital Collections for more photographs, slides, news clippings, programs, postcards and other aviation ephemera.



Permission to publish images must be obtained from the CSUDH Archives as owner of the physical item and copyright. In instances when copyright ownership is not clear it is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain copyright permission.

Recently Cataloged Collections

In recent months the Archives have been busy cataloging a wide variety of smaller collections that document diverse subjects, but nevertheless may be of importance to students of particular areas of history.

All of these collections have finding aids on the Online Archive of California.

These collections include the Judson Grenier Photographic Collection. Jud's materials, scholarship and judgement are not just in this one collection....they are scattered throughout most of the collections in the CSUDH and CSU Archives.


Judson Grenier Photograph Collection
The materials of this collection contain primarily photographs depicting general city views of the Los Angeles Metropolitan area: residences, buildings, parks, universities, museums, points of historic interest as well as events and scenes from every day life to the1980s. Many of these photos were either published in A Guide to Historic Places in Los Angeles County (Kendall/Hunt, c1978) and the Manhattan Beach historical series publication, or belong to Dr. Grenier’s academic project African American Related Sites & Images while additional images were used for the 18-minute film Pueblo of Promise, which can be seen at the Sepulveda House Visitor’s Center, in Downtown Los Angeles

The Gripsholm Exchanges (Manuscript). Memoir by Atushi Archi Miyamoto
Manuscript. Atushi Archie Miyamoto memoir entitled The Gripsholm Exchanges: a short concise report on the exchanges of the hostages during WWII between the United States and Japan as it relates to Japanese Americans. These hostage exchanges took place between July 1942 and August 1943 in Lourenço Marques, Mozambique and Mormugao, India respectively. The author was a child passenger of the second exchange aboard the Swedish liner S.S. Gripsholm which was used as repatriation ship between the warfaring nations. Mr. Miyamoto returned to the United States as a teenager in 1948 and served as a lieutenant colonel in the US army until his retirement. This collection came to the Archives with the assistance of Dr. Donald Hata.

Count Carlo Zanardi Landi Collection
Count Carlo Zanardi Landi (1876-1953) was an Italian nobleman who worked as a Marine Superintendent for the Ocean Salvage Company Limited, a marine salvage company based in London. During World War I, Count Landi was commissioned by the British Admiralty Salvage Section to recover ships primarily stranded in the British Isles and the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The correspondence and photographs concern the steamship salvage business after World War I. Subject matter in the collection include marine accidents; salvage vessels; steamboats; the Admiralty of Great Britain; historic ships, and salvage missions in the Black Sea, British Isles and Mediterranean Sea.

Abraam Krushkhov Collection
The Abraam Krushkhov Collection documents Krushkhov’s achievements in local, national, and international levels of urban planning. Materials (1933-1987) include speeches, writings, correspondence, education papers, and urban planning files relating to numerous U.S. and international regions including the plan for the new capitol of Nigeria in the 1980s.

California State Curriculum Commission Papers
Records of the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission, commonly called the California State Curriculum Commission (CC), relating to textbook purchasing for California elementary, middle and high schools in the mid 1960’s. In 1965, “Land of the Free” was submitted as a proposed history textbook for use in eighth grade classes throughout California. Written by three professors, John Walton Caughey, John Hope Franklin, and Ernest R. May, the textbook was admonished by some, such as the then Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Max Rafferty, and praised by others. The content of the textbook brought about discussion about how the depiction of African American people and their history in the United States should be characterized in grade school textbooks.

California State University Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association (CSU-ERFA) Collection
The California State University Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association (CSU-ERFA) Collection documents the activities of this advocacy organization of retired and emeritus faculty members. Materials (1985-2007)




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Glenn Anderson Papers Guide Online!

The Archives and Special Collections Department are please to announce the publication of the Glenn Anderson Collection finding aid on the Online Archive of California. the Finding aid can be found at http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt4x0nd9xg&doc.view=entire_text&brand=oac.

The largest collection in the Archives, the materials document Anderson's contributions to California and the nation. Anderson, Lieutenant Governor of California during the 1960s and South Bay Congressman during the 1970s and 1980s, was an important figure in modernizing roadways in Southern California and bringing education to Californians. The Glenn M. Anderson collection (1928-2000) contains papers and materials documenting Anderson’s long career in California and national politics. Anderson became involved in the California Democratic Party in the 1930s, when the Republican Party was dominant throughout the state, and from his earliest days he worked to strengthen his own party on the local and state level. In 1940, at age 27, Anderson became the youngest mayor in the United States and, except for a couple short periods, he remained in elected politics until 1993. During this time, in addition to his years as mayor, Anderson served as State Assemblyman, Lieutenant Governor, and United States Congressman. In addition to holding elected office, Anderson worked on behalf of the Democratic Party as Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, and he was one of the founding Chairs of the California Democratic Council, which helped vitalize the Democratic Party throughout California.

The Collection is divided into 10 series as follows:

Series I. Personal/Political Files (1921-1994)
Series II. Mayor of Hawthorne Files (1940-1941)
Series III. Democratic Clubs Files (1938-1940)
Series IV. State Assembly Files (1937-1950)
Series V. California Lieutenant Governor Files (1959-1983, bulk 1959-1967)
Series VI. U.S. Congressional Files (1969-1992)
Series VII. Subject Files (1943-1991)
Series VIII. Artifacts (ca. 1946-1994)
Series IX. Photographs (1870s-1990s)
Series X. Anderson Committee Files (1993-2001)

The collection is available for researchers and students to use in the Archives.

Finding Aid Tutorial

This screencast provides a quick tutorial of a finding aid based on the 1910 Los Angeles International Aviation Meet Collection.

Finding aids are great ways of doing research within archival collections.

From the Archives: The Rancho San Pedro Collection

Dominguez Homesite

One of the original Spanish land grants, Rancho San Pedro is located in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, which now includes Torrance, Compton, and Redondo Beach, among others. Featuring the history of the Rancho along with the Dominguez family and its heirs, who owned the entire Rancho from 1784 through the middle of the twentieth century and to this day manage some of the land in the region, the collection includes photographs, slides, maps, and legal documents.

Tractor Hauling Grain on Rancho San Pedro

Dominguez Wilshire Building

Dominguez Adobe Chapel

Oil derrick

See the CSUDH Digital Collections for more photographs, slides, maps, and legal documents

Permission to publish images must be obtained from the CSUDH Archives as owner of the physical item and copyright. In instances when copyright ownership is not clear it is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain copyright permission.