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The Janus Press collection is a fine arts book collection of limited editions
of literary classics, new poetry and prose, and books of art. SDSU has a complete
collection of Janus Press books which combines the written word with art, printed
works, and handmade papers. Claire Van Vliet, founder of Janus Press, received
her art degree from SDSU and printed her first book on campus in 1955.
The Historic Astronomy Collection has at its foundation the collection of Dr. Ernst Zinner (1886-1970), who donated his personal library to SDSU in the 1960s. Zinner was professor of astronomy at the University of
Munich, and built an impressive collection emphasizing astronomy,
but including horology and the history of science. The collection consists of
over 3500 books and is rich in rare books dating from 1485.
The Chater Collection consists of over 4,000 volumes of science fiction and fantasy books and periodicals, ranging in dates from the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries. The collection is distinguished by a number of
rare first editions of authors in the genre who have achieved fame, as well as complete runs of rare fanzines in the genre.. Elizabeth Chater, professor emeritus of English at San Diego State University, began donating
her collection in 1977 and Special Collections continues to actively develop this collection.
The Reginald S. Davis Orchid Collection consists of over 2,000 volumes of books
and periodicals on the growing, classification, and description of orchids from
around the world. The bulk of the collection was presented to the Malcolm A. Love Library in 1971 by Reginald Davis, a prominent orchidologist for several decades. His travels with the State Department took him to many countries of the world where he studied indigenous orchids and collected books, journals and other materials about them. The collection includes scientific treatises, rare and scarce items, splendidly illustrated volumes and practical works on the cultivation of orchids, as well as Davis' own work, Philippine Orchids and several of his journal articles.
Calvert Norland was professor of zoology at San Diego State University from
1947 to 1976. The collection consists of his extensive personal library and
includes over 3,000 volumes on the biological sciences, medicine, zoology, and
natural history. For more information on this collection, consult the inventory.
The Alternative Religious Movements Collection brings together several previously existing collections of rare materials in Special Collections, including the Krishnamurti Collection and gifts from the Institute for the Study of American Religions and Religious Studies professor Rebecca Moore. The collection primarily documents non-mainstream religions in America, including Theosophy (with particular emphasis on the Point Loma Theosophical community in San Diego and associated persons); scientology; esotericism; spiritualism and channeling; modern witchcraft and magick; Rosicrucianism, and various other small religious groups, especially those in California.
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Since its opening in 1888, the Hotel Del Coronado has served as one of the
leading resort hotels in the United States. It has played a major role in
the development of the city of Coronado and in the San Diego community as
a whole. In 1970, the hotel was designated a California State Historical landmark.
The collection documents not only the development of the hotel, but contains
valuable materials for the study of the history of the greater Southern California
and Northern Baja California region. The collection includes correspondence,
guest registers, memoranda, financial and personnel records, photographs,
and published miscellany. There is also a subject guide to the first six years of Hotel correspondence, available here. (This is a large .PDF file; make sure to include comments when searching.) For more information on this collection, consult
the inventory or
the PAC.
Rebecca Moore, an associate professor of religious studies at SDSU, and her husband, Mr. Fielding M. McGehee III, donated to the
University Library their personal collection of materials relating to Peoples Temple, a religious movement that flourished in
California in the 1970s, and that ended in the tragic deaths in Jonestown , Guyana , in November 1978. Materials include audio tapes
prepared by the group; tape summaries and transcripts; Freedom of Information Act documents from the U.S. State Department, the U.S.
Air Force, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation; and primary sources generated by Peoples Temple itself. A finding aid to the
collection and an index to Names on Tape were prepared by Jennifer Martinez and religious studies majors Angelique
Korobi and Mark Fein. For more information on Peoples Temple and Jonestown, go to the website “Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple.”
Tish Sommers was most known as an advocate of women's rights, especially older
women's rights. She chaired NOW's Task Force on Older women in the 1970s,
and in 1980 founded the Older Women's League (OWL). The papers include speeches,
and working papers, extensive correspondence with legislators and women's
movement activists, photographs, drafts of published and unpublished manuscripts
and research papers, newspaper clippings and publicity materials, organizational
papers, audio visual material, awards, personal items, books and periodicals,
and other miscellaneous items. For more information on this collection, consult
the inventory,
or the PAC.
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was a spiritual lecturer and author who, as a
teenager, was hailed as the "coming Messiah" by the Theosophical Society. In
his early 30s he renounced his role and spent the rest of his life traveling
the world teaching his spiritual beliefs. The collection includes promotional
material, photographs, correspondence, audio cassettes and albums, newspaper articles,
and one video. For more information on this collection, consult the inventory.
A popular television and radio personality for over 60 years, SDSU alumnus Art Linkletter starred in two of the longest running shows in broadcast history, House Party (CBS-TV and radio for 25 years) and People are Funny (NBC-TV and radio for 19 years). He was particularly adept at interviewing children, whose unrehearsed and sometimes painfully honest remarks formed the basis of several popular shows and publications. In 1957, he published a collection from these interviews, Kids Say the Darndest Things, which remains one of the top 14 best sellers in American publishing history. The Linkletter Papers document Linkletter's professional career as a radio and television personality, author, and public figure. The papers date from approximately 1940-2005, with the bulk of documents created in the 1960s and 1970s. The collection consists of subject files, scrapbooks, photographs, and memorabilia, and includes items in several differing media.
An online exhibit exploring Linkletter's life and career has been developed.
The exhibit is based upon materials in the Linkletter collection and materials in University Archives.
Donna Barr, an accomplished artist and prolific writer, was born in Everett, Washington in 1952, and began drawing as a child in 1954. She has been a respected presence in drawn-book publishing throughout her career. Her drawn books, which cross the boundaries between art and writing, redefine traditional novels, artist's books, graphic novels, and book design and illustration. Her background in 20th-century German culture and language, literature, world mythologies, history, and religion informs her artwork, which is influenced by Japanese woodcuts, European fine arts, Victorian novels, Chinese poets, and Russian mystics. She works in pencil, ink, watercolor, and silkscreen. She is best known for her two series Stinz (1984), The Desert Peach (1986), and most ambitious work is a series of handmade ornate, stitchery-covered bound sketchbooks, called the Black Manuscripts (1991-1999). For more information on this collection, consult the inventory.
The Jewish Historical Society of San Diego Archives was created in 1999 by Stanley and Laurel Schwartz with the support of Dr. Lawrence Baron, then director of the Jewish Studies Program at SDSU. The Schwartzes, under the Society’s auspices, had been acquiring materials since 1996 from individuals regarding their personal and organizational activities in the San Diego Jewish community. With the archival space made available by the Jewish Studies Program, the Society, which remains an independent non-profit entity, was able to preserve and catalog what grew into over 60 collections and make them available at SDSU to researchers and scholars. The collections consist of documents, papers, correspondence, books, photographs and other materials. The materials document congregations, clergy, men’s and women’s organizations, and include Jewish newspapers, oral histories, as well as personal and family materials, dating from the late 1800's into the 21st century. The Jewish Historical Society of San Diego Archives are gradually being transferred to the custody of Special Collections. To view the collections transferred thus far, search Jewish Historical Society of San Diego in the search box of the Finding Aid Database. To view collections currently held by the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego, consult the JHSSD Archive.
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During his lengthy career, Edward Gorey illustrated more than 100 of his own books and more than 60 by other authors. His characteristic style, which mixes humor with horror and mystery, is widely recognized by readers of all ages. Special Collections holds an extensive collection of Gorey’s drawings, proofs, and collaborations with other authors. A selection of the Edward Gorey Collection is cataloged in the PAC.
This highly varied collection of postcards from around the world has been arranged into the following series: San Diego, California, United States views, publisher, foreign views, topical, and card types (albums and sets). There is a particularly comprehensive collection of postcards of San Diego and California, including more than 4,500 postcards of San Diego County and 8,500 images of other California cities and natural wonders. Of particular note are the hundreds of views of the 1915 Panama-California and 1935 California-Pacific Expositions held in Balboa Park in San Diego. Mexico, Italy and Germany are among the most represented foreign countries, and postcards depicting pioneer aviators, actors and actresses, holiday greetings and political campaigns are also included in the collection. For more information on this collection, consult the inventory or the PAC.
This collection contains approximately 58,000 sheet music titles, in the form
of individual popular songs, music from movies, from Broadway shows, and from
television and radio shows. Many of the pieces are significant for their cover
artwork as well as for the music contained within. A database for this collection
will soon be under construction; the collection is currently accessed through
an in-house card catalog.
This collection contains a collection of West Coast zines with a focus on gender
topics, alternative and popular culture, politics and music. For more information
on this collection, consult the inventory.
The Comics Collection at SDSU is a growing collection with an emphasis in drawn books, independent, small press and mini-comics as well as materials that document the history of comic book culture, and the creative process behind comic book production. We aim to preserve and provide access to these unique publications. Materials in this collection will not circulate beyond the library, but are available to all researchers.
The Surfing Collection at SDSU is distinguished by both its comprehensiveness and depth, with extraordinarily rich and rare examples of surfing’s literary, cultural and visual record. The collection is particularly strong in books and periodicals. The book genres run the gamut from historical to biographical to fiction and poetry, and include photographic collections and a variety of “how-to” guides. The periodicals include classics such as Surfer and Surfing dating back to the late 1960s as well as periodicals from Japan, Brazil, Portugal, France, Germany and Australia. The collection also contains ephemeral items, games and other materials documenting pop-culture’s embrace of the surfing lifestyle. In addition to the mystery and romance of surfing, the collection also documents the rise of the surfing industry and the enormous impact that surf culture has had on Southern California. For more information on this collection, consult the inventory or the PAC.
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