Each week, these CityDig posts share a historical image from Southern California’s rich archival collections. Now is your chance to see those historical materials in person. This Saturday, librarians, archivists, and private collectors representing more than 80 L.A. as Subject member institutions will unpack rare and unique artifacts from their collections for the 8th annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar.
Many of the items on display reveal surprising connections within Los Angeles history. Take Ayn Rand, for instance. Before The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged earned her legions of followers, the Russian immigrant lived in Los Angeles and penned Hollywood scripts for Cecil B. DeMille, Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. This Saturday, the Irvine-based Ayn Rand Archives will be displaying memorabilia related to her early screenwriting career, like the Love Letters poster featured in the slideshow below.
Other featured materials have connections that are more obvious: As in past years, the LA84 Foundation will bring a torch—its flame safely doused—from the 1984 Summer Olympics. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, meanwhile, will display the official program from a 1913 ceremony commemorating the opening of both Exposition Park and the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
Free and open to the public, the Archives Bazaar runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in USC’s Doheny Memorial Library.
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An Olympia De Luxe typewriter used by Robert Bloch to write the 1959 novel “Psycho,” the basis for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic suspense film of the same name. Courtesy of the Writers Guild Foundation Library and Archive.
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Hand-held signboard for May 1 (Labor Day) demonstrations in Cold War Hungary. The Wende Museum in Culver City maintains one of the leading collections of historical artifacts from Cold War-era Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Courtesy of the Collection of The Wende Museum and Archive of the Cold War.
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Photo of a peaceful anti-Vietnam War demonstration that took place on Wilshire Blvd. on April 22, 1972. Courtesy of Visual Communications.
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Photo of USC’s 1925 commencement ceremonies in front of the Bovard Administration Building. The view looks north up University Avenue (Trousdale Parkway) from what is now Childs Way. Courtesy of the USC University Archives at the USC Libraries.
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Circa 1960 photo of Conjunto Huasteco de Uclatlán, the UCLA Music of Mexico ensemble. Courtesy of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.
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Official program from the Nov. 6, 1913 opening ceremony for the Los Angeles Aqueduct, Exposition Park, and the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Museum Archives.
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Torch from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Courtesy of the LA84 Foundation.
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Offset poster designed in 1989 by Sylvaín for Justice for Janitors, an organization that fights for the rights of janitors throughout the United States and Canada. Courtesy of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.
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Poster for 1945’s Love Letters. Ayn Rand wrote the screenplay for the film, based on the novel “Pity My Simplicity” by Chris Massie. Courtesy of the Ayn Rand Archives.
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Photo by Frank Rolfe of workers on the Los Angeles Aqueduct, ca. 1905-1906. Courtesy of the Frank Rolfe Papers, Braun Research Library Collection, Autry National Center; MS.210.
Nathan Masters of the USC Libraries blogs here on behalf of L.A. as Subject, an association of more than 230 libraries, cultural institutions, official archives, and private collectors hosted by the USC Libraries and dedicated to preserving and telling the sometimes-hidden histories of Los Angeles.
