Resources Near USC and the Downtown LA Area

The J. Paul Getty Trust is a privately operating foundation dedicated to the visual arts and the humanities.

Research Library. Special Collections and Visual Resources contains rare books and archival materials as well as rare photographs, prints and drawings for the study of the visual arts and culture. Included are early guidebooks, emblem books, festival books, prints, and drawings. Specialized photographic resources focus on festivals, travel, international expositions, colonialism, architecture, and urban development.
The Getty Research Institute for the History of the Arts and Humanities. The history and culture of LA are important foci for many of the Research Institute's public programs and research projects. It conducts collaborative research projects with community arts organizations, public libraries, and other cultural institutions in LA. Programs open to the public have included dialogues, workshops, panels, readings, film screenings, and performance art.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, & Botanical Gardens: A Research Center for the Study of British and American History, Literature, Art History, and History of Science. The Library is a research institution for the scholarly study of British and American history, literature, art history, and history of science. It has extensive collections of manuscripts, rare books, photographs, prints, and ephemera. In research materials for historical study, all periods of American history, from the period of discovery to the present, are represented.

The Los Angeles Public Library. The LA Public Library is located in downtown Los Angeles and can be quickly and easily reached from the USC campus on one of the city's DASH buses, shuttles which currently charge a fare of 25 cents. Historical collections include:

The History & Genealogy Department. Over 200,000 volumes in the history book collection with especially strong collections in biography, wars involving the United States, the West, Native Americans, and LA area history. The California File, a retrospective card file and current computer database, provides detailed indexing to help patrons find information on local people, events, buildings, issues, and neighborhoods.
Annenberg Gallery. The Map Collection is one of the largest in American public libraries, with 80,000 maps, 2,000 atlases, 1000 gazetteers and over 1000 books supporting the study of maps and mapping. The collection features U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps for the entire United States, historic street maps of LA back to 1849, and street guides back to 1929, and the Library of Congress collection of Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases on microfilm covering the state of California. The Library's collections include 350,000 photographs of LA beginning in the 1880s and the 2.5 million-photo morgue of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner newspaper.
The Rare Books Collection. Rare books has over 16,000 volumes dating from the fifteenth century, most of which were published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Core collections include California History, Mexicana, Pacific voyages, and American Indians. Special collections include WPA photographs by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.

County of Los Angeles Public Library

California Collection. This reference collection about the history and culture of Southern California and California in general contains over 15,000 books, magazines and microfilms, as well as pamphlets, periodicals, and oral history. Special emphasis is given to local history materials about LA County, including individual cities and unincorporated areas.
Ethnic Resource Centers. Specialized resource materials focusing on the American Indian, African American, Asian Pacific, and Chicano communities
Japanese Relocation Collection. There are about 100 theses and 80 newspaper and periodical titles dealing specifically with the World War II internment camp experience.
Judaica Collection. Materials on the history and culture of the Jewish people with a focus on the Holocaust.

The Los Angeles City Archives. The LA City Archives houses the official municipal government records of the City of LA, including city council files, city ordinances, and city council minutes. The archives also contain the records of cities that have consolidated with LA and are now considered communities. Its records date back to 1827, when the area was governed by Mexico.

The Japanese American National Museum. The Japanese American National Museum is the first museum in the United States dedicated to sharing the experience of Americans of Japanese ancestry. The Life History Program collects oral history materials for research. It is housed in the Museum's new Pavilion, a state-of-the-art building that is home to an oral history recording studio and of the National Resource Center, where oral history materials are available to the public.

Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. SCL is Southern California's library and archive on radicalism and social change. It documents and preserves the history of labor, women, communities of color, peace, civil liberties, civil rights, and other progressive movements in greater LA. The Library has approximately 30,000 books and 3000 periodical titles that range from 1930 to present on subjects that include labor, women, civil rights, civil liberties, people of color, left culture, peace, and radicalism. It is also a major archive for materials on social change, with an emphasis on LA. Special collections include 25,000 pamphlets, 1500 posters, 2000 photographs, 100 documentary films, 100 videos, 3500 audio tapes, personal papers of activists, and extensive subject and organizational files.

The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library is part of the UCLA library system, located within minutes of USC. It is a rare books and manuscripts collection, with particular strengths in English literature and history (1641-1800), Oscar Wilde, and fine printing.