The exhibition "Alternate Takes: Community, Underground and Alternative Newspapers, Zines, & Comix at the CSUDH Gerth Archives & Special Collections," is now open in the Library Cultural Arts Gallery. The exhibition is focused on alternative and community newspapers and publications, and the history told and preserved within their pages. Through these periodicals, the Gerth Archives aims to showcase how communities in Los Angeles and across the world documented their lived experiences through an array of publications, ranging from newspapers to comics, zines, and more. An opening reception will be held on Oct. 5, 2023, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. "This exhibition reflects the ... Read More
Gerth Archives
Gerth Archives Marks New Milestones in Documenting History
The CSUDH Gerth Archives and Special Collections, noted for its preservation of Southern California histories and cultures, has had three major developments toward its mission of making materials more accessible to the public. The Archives is inviting the campus community and public to explore the newly completed Japanese American Digitization Project online, as well as the “Know Justice, Know Peace” exhibition currently on view in the University Library. In addition, the Archives recently received a $150,000 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commissions to catalog the L.A. Free Press collection. More information about each of these developments is ... Read More
Gerth Archives Wins New Grants
The CSUDH Gerth Archives and Special Collections has been awarded two grants to assist in cataloguing several of its notable collections. The archives received a $100,000 grant from the California State Library to support CSUDH's LGBTQ History Access Project. The funds will enable the archives to hire an archivist to catalog, arrange, and describe several collections related to the Southern California LGBTQ community. They will also allow the Gerth Archives to stage a speaker's series related to the collections. “The Archives is very pleased that we were able to get the grant because there are a limited number of prominent LGBTQ archives in the state,” says Greg Williams, director of ... Read More
Gerth Archives Obtains L.A. Free Press Collection
The CSUDH Gerth Archives and Special Collections just got a lot “freakier” with the acquisition of the archives of the L.A. Free Press, one of the first and most important underground newspapers of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The collection had belonged to Art Kunkin, the publisher and editor of the Free Press from its inception in 1964 until 1972. When Kunkin passed away in 2019 at the age of 91, his daughter began looking for an archive to house the large collection. She chose the Gerth Archives due to their dedication to archiving alternative voices from the local community. “The L.A. Free Press was really one of the first newspapers for the community during the 1960s,” says ... Read More
CSUDH to Receive Mayme A. Clayton Collection of African American History and Culture
(Carson, CA) - California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) signed a historic agreement with the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum (MCLM) board of directors to house the Mayme A. Clayton Collection of African American History and Culture on campus in the Gerth Archives and Special Collections. The university intends to begin immediately cataloguing and archiving the collection so that it is more visible and accessible to the public. The collection contains more than 2 million rare books, films, documents, photographs, artifacts, and works of art related to the history and culture of African Americans in the United States, with a significant focus on Southern California and the ... Read More
