Collections in Calisphere
All of the items in Calisphere are organized into collections. Collections bring context to images, documents, videos, and audio recordings. Some collections represent a particular topic or format, some have items created by the same person, and some showcase an institution’s special project or initiative. Use the tabs below to explore the hundreds of collections in Calisphere.
Curious about where these collections come from and how they’re described? Learn more about the collections in Calisphere, including: how primary source records are described; how shared community values and standards guide access to historical materials; how we strive to provide responsible access to digital primary sources--and how you can help!
James B. Case slides of highway construction in California
Collection comprises 102 35 mm color Kodachrome transparency slides documenting construction of highways in Los Angeles, Orick, and San Francisco, California; training at Fort Ord army base; and a Case family vacation and recreation in Orick, California taken by James B. Case between 1949 and 1953. Case worked for the California Department of Transportation when taking many of these photographs. The bulk of the collection shows the construction and completion of the Hollywood Freeway and the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles and the Bayshore Freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area. A selection of images depict the final stages of ...
Institution: California Historical Society
102 Items
James D. Phelan Papers
The James D. Phelan Papers, 1855-1941 (bulk 1906-1930), contain materials documenting Phelan's political career as San Francisco's Mayor and a U. S. Senator, his involvement in relief efforts following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, his business and financial activities, and his philanthropic efforts. The bulk of this collection consists of correspondence. Other types of records include financial statements, insurance and tax forms, newspaper and magazine clippings, agreements, reports, notes, and published and unpublished writings by Phelan and others. Although the collection contains materials dating from 1855-1941, the bulk of the materials range from 1906-1930.
Institution: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
9 Items
James D. Schuyler papers
Reports regarding irrigation of lands from the Colorado River and overflow into the Salton Basin.
Institution: UC Riverside, Library, Water Resources Collections and Archives
7 Items
James Osborne South Bay LA & California Postcard Collection
This collection includes photographs, postcards, ephemera, and memorabilia gathered by James H. Osborne, a resident, educator, and historian of Los Angeles County's South Bay. Osborne's family has lived in the South Bay since the end of the 19th century, and he has been an enthusiastic collector of all things related to his home region. The collection contains photographs showing everyday life in the region, often offering candid images of citizens attending major events, or dealing with hardships such as the devastating 1933 earthquake. The growing collection is especially rich in its number of historical postcards. While many of these contain ...
Institution: California State University, Dominguez Hills, Archives and Special Collections
836 Items
James Howard Collection
Photographs and documents from the collection of James Howard, a mining foreman with the Amparo Mining Company who lived in Guadalajara, Mexico and worked in the Bolaños region starting in 1889. The papers include a few blueprints and plans for mining equipment; photographs of the regional landscape, towns, mine operations, and people; and a personal journal from Howard. The collection also includes a small amount of biographical material about Howard, including personal correspondence and a genealogical chart for the Howard family. Three documents are written in Spanish.
Institution: UC San Diego, Special Collections and Archives
45 Items
James Stewart Papers
James Ronald Stewart was a pioneering diving instructor and consultant who contributed to the standardization of scuba diving protocol and training in the United States. In the 1950s he was a research diver for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). Stewart was appointed SIO Diving Officer in 1960 after Conrad Limbaugh's untimely death, and went on to host the first statewide class on scuba diving at UC Santa Barbara. The images in this collection include scans of photographs and slides documenting Stewart's dives off the La Jolla coast, early SIO fieldwork and research expeditions, formal portraits, and cold-water diving in ...
Institution: UC San Diego, Special Collections and Archives
146 Items
Janet Gray Hayes Collection
Janet Gray Hayes papers document her political life while serving on the San Jose City Council and as the first female Mayor of the City San Jose from 1970-1982. In 1970 she was elected to the San Jose City Council, where she served as the Vice Mayor under Norman Mineta, before running for the office of mayor in 1974. She served two terms, with a landslide victory in her second term. She left politics in 1982, but continued as an environmental volunteer for the “League to Save Lake Tahoe,” for which she was honored in 2000, and was named as ...
Institution: San José State University, Special Collections and Archives
50 Items
Japanese American Archival Collection
The Japanese American Archival Collection is comprised of approximately 2,100 original items, including letters and other textual documents, photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, newsletters, art work, clothing and artifacts. The collection provides valuable insights into the history of Japanese American communities in northern California, particularly in the town of Florin, California from the late 19th century and into the 20th century. The collection contains significant documentation related to the internment of Japanese born and Japanese American individuals during World War II.
Institution: California State University, Sacramento Library
1,310 Items
Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records
Consists of surplus copies of U.S. War Relocation Authority documents, including publications, staff papers, reports, correspondence, memoranda, press releases, and a few photographs. Also includes material collected and/or generated by the Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement Study, University of California, Berkeley, including evacuee diaries and letters, and staff correspondence, reports, and studies.
Institution: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library
5,641 Items
Japanese American Incarceration Images, 1941-1946
This collection of photographs from the Hearst Collection of the Los Angeles Examiner in the USC Regional History Collection, documents the incarceration of Japanese Americans in California during World War II. These 222 photographs provide a glimpse into the lives of Japanese immigrants and native born Japanese Americans (a.k.a. Nisei) residing in California from 1921 to 1958, with primary emphasis on 1941-1946. Much of the coverage documents scenes of: the mass removal and incarceration process; life in camps at Manzanar, Santa Anita, Tanforan, and Tule Lake; post-war repatriation to Japan. The original captions from the photographs, many of which were ...
Institution: University of Southern California Digital Library
221 Items