Reflections from Library Special Collections CFPRT Scholars (2016-2017)
Over the 2016-2017 academic year, graduate students from across campus engaged in a variety of special collections projects in the Center for Primary Research and Training. Several of them discuss their experience below.
Tori Maches, Digital Archives Program Scholar, Information Studies
Since last summer, I've worked in the Digital Forensics Lab, where I've been developing digital preservation workflows, an archives-focused user guide for the device we've been using to connect legacy floppy drives to our computers, and outreach and training materials for curators to use in acquiring born-digital materials.
Building and testing digital preservation workflows involves a lot of fascinating trial and error, and sometimes feels like archaeology with computers. For instance, we just started testing software that turned out to be able to open files we captured last summer from floppy disks in the Center for the Study of Women's administrative files. We'd spent the entire year thinking they were a database, but they were actually letters, and notes on projects and events from the early 1990s. None of the software we had last summer could open them, so we weren't sure if we'd ever find out what they were, which made that moment of discovery all the more exciting and rewarding. Digital preservation is about 70% puzzles, and my quarters in the CFPRT have given me a better sense of what those puzzles are like.
Photo of KryoFlux, the circuit board used to connect legacy floppy drives to workstations.
Jesse Siragan Arlen, V. Vale and Minasian Processing Scholar, Near Eastern Languages & Cultures
My interest in working at the CFPRT came through a slightly roundabout fashion. The twin experiences of having worked on manuscripts as a researcher along with having read too many of the provocative works of Borges, Derrida, and Foucault that centered on the archive, planted a strong desire within me to pull back the curtain on this institution to see how it worked from the inside. Yet more important than satisfying the somewhat voyeuristic desires I had from my fictional and theoretical reading were the benefits I gained as a researcher by actually learning how to archive materials and address the many questions and issues one encounters in this craft through the archival work I did on two very different collections: the V. Vale Collection of Search and Destroy and RE/Search Publications Records (1927-2014) and the Caro Minasian Collection of Armenian material (1600-1968). While I cut my teeth as an archival processor on the former collection, the latter proved much more personally rewarding as it intersected with my own research interests, and has enriched my perspective on various facets of Armenian cultural life and history in this period due to the exposure to the unique and valuable primary-source materials in this collection. What surpassed my expectations most of all, however, was the methodical, caring, and engaged training and oversight of my experienced and kind supervisors and the sincere and meaningful relationships I developed with my co-workers, most of whom—due to their connection to the Information Studies program—could offer valuable insight on issues encountered in the archival process. Learning the archival craft through the CFPRT program has expanded my own horizons as a researcher, as well as enriching my graduate experience through the professional training I received and meaningful relationships I developed here.
Image of correspondence from the V. Vale collection and a document from the Minasian collection.
Molly Horne, V. Vale Collection Processing Scholar, Information Studies
A haiku for the Vale Collection
mystery matter
unfit for tender scholars
now safely entombed
Photo of original tubs of materials from the V. Vale collection.
Sabrina Ponce, Processing Scholar, Information Studies and Latin American Studies
I worked on updating the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives collections during most of my time at the CFPRT. That consisted of rehousing some of the materials and updating the finding aids; when they were migrated to our current data management system, some elements got lost in translation. It was an enriching experience to work with the letters, artwork, manuscripts, and posters – even dolls – of such a tight-knit community of women in struggle and in solidarity. Jessica and I showcased some of the materials from these collections in an exhibition for International Women’s Day; I’m glad others were able to see them!
Photo of CFPRT Women’s Day exhibition.
Jessica Tai, Processing Scholar, Information Studies
While completing description enhancement and further physical processing on collections from the Mazer Lesbian Archive, I had the opportunity to work with a number of collections documenting the lives of, as the Mazer Archive describes, “the everday, just-trying-to-get-by, lesbians.” These incredible stories coming from the grassroots lesbian/feminist community are ones that have traditionally not been told within the context of an academic library special collections, and it has been such a privilege to play a part in further preserving and making accessible these previously invisible histories. A number of materials from these collections were used in our craft event, Activating the Archive, where participants created buttons, zines, and other crafts using materials reproduced from UCLA Library’s archival collections. It was heartening to see many students gravitate towards the Mazer materials, their message of feminism, women’s rights and solidarity resonating with so many young people today. This was reinforcement for me that archives hold great social relevance in our contemporary lives, and that archivists have the opportunity to facilitate meaningful engagement for their patrons and communities at large through creative and innovative avenues.
Image of buttons from the Cheryl Nassar papers.
María Daniela Jiménez, Ruth McCandless Digitization Scholar, Chicana/o Studies and Information Studies
Since the beginning of winter quarter, I have been digitizing the Ruth McCandless Collection on Nyogen Senzaki that was originally processed, organized, and described in the fall. My role as a digitization scholar was to determine, in consultation with my supervisor, which items in the collection would be most beneficial to scan for future researchers, keep track of the scanned content, and provide corresponding metadata that reflected the structure of the collection’s finding aid while also meeting digitization and subject and name authority standards. Nyogen Senzaki was a well-respected Japanese Zen Buddhist who introduced the beliefs and practices of Zen Buddhism to a United States audience. Ruth McCandless was one of Senzaki’s students and together, they wrote several publications and help build the Zen Buddhism community in California. The collection is rich in correspondence, photographs, art, and gives researchers an insight into McCandless and Senzaki’s years of friendship and spiritual practice. My favorite pieces in the collection were the portrait photographs of Senzaki taken by the established, Los Angeles-based photographer, Toyo Miyatake; they are beautifully composed and capture the calming insight and strength Senzaki conveyed through his writing and lifestyle. Even when Senzaki was sent to Heart Mountain, an incarceration camp set up in Wyoming during World War II, the letters he and McCandless shared illustrate the hope he had for the future.
Portraits of Nyogen Senzaki from the Ruth McCandless collection.
Joyce Wang, CFPRT Undergraduate Assistant
As the undergraduate assistant, I had the chance to work with a fantastic group of grad students and professional archivists on many different types of collections, from faculty papers to the eclectic holdings of SF punk publisher V. Vale. The latter collection was a real headache to work with given the absolute state of disarray the collection came in and the questionable provenance of some of the items, but I feel that I now have some level of experience with addressing matters of archival privacy and ethics. One particularly memorable item that I came across in my time working here is a scrapbook of aerial leaflets compiled by Japanese-American Karl G. Yoneda during his time working for the US Office of War information (OWI), the agency was responsible for distributing propaganda materials domestically and abroad during WWII. These kiri leaflets in particular had been produced to demoralize Japanese soldiers during the Chinese-Burma-India theater of war, and play off a belief that the early falling of paulownia leaves was a bad omen. I feel they provide an intimate look at the very active psychological warfare being waged at the time.
Kiri leaflets.
When Frank Lloyd Wright Asks You to Buy Him a Camera, You Do It
Blog post by Maggie Hughes and Kelly Kress
June 8th, 2017 marked the 150th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s birth. In celebration, we’d like to highlight one of his best known works in Los Angeles, the Hollyhock House, with photographs taken in 1928 by Willard Morgan, from the Barbara and Willard Morgan Papers (Collection 2278).
The Hollyhock House was commissioned by Aline Barnsdall and was Wright’s first project in Los Angeles. (Wright went on to build seven other residences in the city.) He adorned the home’s exterior and interior with stylized versions of the hollyhock, Barnsdall’s favorite flower. The house is built in a transitional style, which Wright referred to as “California Romanza.” It incorporates elements from ancient indigenous architecture and illustrates Wright’s attempts to situate his evolving aesthetic in Southern California.
Barnsdall envisioned the home as one piece of a grand vision for the site, Olive Hill, in East Hollywood. It was to ultimately include an outdoor theater, a movie theater, several other residences, a dormitory for actors, and shops. However, Barnsdall and Wright clashed over budgets, design, and schedules - Wright was working on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo concurrently and Barnsdall travelled abroad frequently - and the project was halted after the completion of the main house and two secondary homes. Barnsdall donated the buildings and eleven acres of land, in memory of her father Theodore Barnsdall, to the City of Los Angeles in 1927 for use as a public art park.
Both the Barnsdall Art Park and the Hollyhock House are open to the public. The house has undergone several renovations, most recently a $4 million dollar project from 2008-2017. It was named a historic-cultural monument by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission in 1963 and became a National Historic Landmark in 2007. See the Hollyhock House website for more information and check out other FLW birthday events going on around the country this year.
In 1928, Willard and Barbara Morgan were a young couple living in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Barbara, a painter, taught art at UCLA, and Willard earned his living writing articles for magazines and taking photographs to accompany them. The Morgans were part of an extended artistic community that witnessed and participated in the architectural experimentation that characterized early modernism in LA, also moving in the same professional and social circles as Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra, two architects who came to California to work with Frank Lloyd Wright.
These photos of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House were taken by Willard but can also be considered a collaboration between the couple. Willard used a large format camera for his architectural photographs, consulting with Barbara for her artist’s eye and sense of design as he set up the shot. Some of these photos were later used by the City of Los Angeles to aid in a 1990s restoration project of the house. However, Willard was also known as an early adopter of the smaller and more portable 35mm Leica camera - a fact which also caught Wright’s attention, as evidenced by these letters.
LSC holdings include other collections that contain material related to Frank Lloyd Wright and his legacy. Here are a few:
· Lloyd Wright Papers (Collection 1561), 1920-1978: Lloyd Wright (1890-1978) was the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright. He trained as a draftsman/delineator in his father's Oak Park Studio, and studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin (1908-09). He was a landscape architect for various Los Angeles projects (1922-24), provided the shells for the Hollywood Bowl (1924-25 and 1928), and produced the Swedenborg Memorial Chapel (or Wayfarer's Chapel) at Palos Verdes, California (1946-71). The collection consists of Wright's original drawings, renderings, blueprints, photographs, models and office files. Many of the photographs in the collection are by Will Connell.
· Richard and Dion Neutra Papers (Collection 1179), 1925-1970: 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. The collection consists of travel sketches, papers, drawings, rolled plans, blueprints, audio recordings, and photographs related to Richard Neutra's career as an architect.
· David L. Clark Los Angeles Oral Histories Collection (Collection 2080), 1974-1982: David L. Clark (1945- ) taught oral history and Los Angeles history at UCLA, UCLA Extension, and California State University, Los Angeles (1974- ). The collection consists of more than 100 papers presented by students in the oral history and Los Angeles history classes taught by Clark. Includes Frank Lloyd Wright's creations in Los Angeles, Interviewer: Kane, Paula.
Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out
This blog post is the fourth and last in a series which proudly features Library Special Collections Flash Exhbits created by its 2017 Graduating Students.
Flash exhibit by Ashley Andalon-Venegas and Samantha Cordona, Class of 2017 : exhibited May 29-June 3.
ASHLEY and SAMANTHA: We took interest in the unconventional methods used in the Harvard Psilocybin Project experiments. We are interested in researching and changing stigmas surrounding both medical and recreational pyschedelic drug use due to a recent shift in societal opinions on previous banned drugs like marijuana.
All materials used in this exhibit are from the Aldous and Laura Huxley Papers (Collection 2009).
