California State University, Fresno

On October 17, 1935, The Academy met at the Hotel Californian in Fresno, California, for the first time. Businessman Thomas Risley was the founder of The Academy. He and university president Frank Thomas selected fourteen men who were the first members. The name "The Academy" was suggested by Reverend James Dowling, a charter member. The Academy's purpose was "to discuss intelligently the problems of the time." There have been prominent Fresnans among the Academy's members. Most were associated with Fresno State College (now California State University, Fresno). There were several presidents: Arnold Joyal, Frederic Ness, Frank Thomas, and Norman Baxter. …

Institution: California State University, Fresno

Between August of 2014 and January 2015, a significant portion of Arne Nixon Center's collection of cloth books was digitized. These works are now viewable online. A sampling of the e-collection is accessible from ancclothbooks.org, and the full e-collection may be accessed via Henry Madden Library's Digitized Collections directory. Made of muslin, linen, and “linen-like” paper, with publication dates spanning the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth, the cloth and cloth-like books in Arne Nixon Center’s collection represent an important but largely forgotten era of children’s publishing. Specifically, these books are important because their design and content reflects changing …

Institution: California State University, Fresno

California Revealed is a State Library initiative to help California’s public libraries, in partnership with other local heritage groups, digitize, preserve, and provide online access to archival materials - books, newspapers, photographs, audiovisual recordings, and more - that tell the incredible stories of the Golden State. We also provide free access and preservation services for existing digital collections for partner organizations with in-house digitization programs. California Revealed is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.

Institution: California State University, Fresno

Fashion plates were originally a way of illustrating current dress styles for consumers, dressmakers, and merchants. They were published in women’s magazines such as La Belle Assemblée, Journal des Modes, and the Magasin des Demoiselles. These periodicals were mostly weeklies that also included fiction and household hints along with the fashion plates. Since France was considered the center of fashion, both British and American periodicals contracted with French journals to republish their plates. Originally, the plates were engraved and hand colored with watercolors until the 1880s when color printing and chromolithographing became stylish. Fashion plates were popular until the 1920s …

Institution: California State University, Fresno

Hammer Field was the site of a World War II Army Air Corps base and then became the Fresno Air Terminal. It is now the Fresno Yosemite International Airport. Part of the photographs in this collection are copies from the collection of the grandmother of Suzanne Tietjen (a student assistant in the Map Library in 1991). The other photographs are from the collection of Robert H. Bensing who was stationed at the base late in the war. These photographs were donated by his son, Tim Bensing, in 2003.

Institution: California State University, Fresno

Harry Pidgeon was born in Henry County, Iowa. He lived and worked on a farm in Iowa until 1887, after working on various ranches in several states he then settled in the Sugar Pine-Madera-Wawona area in California where he worked for the Madera Sugar Pine Company and began his career as a photographer. As a photographer, Pidgeon took shots illustrating everyday life in the early logging community at Sugar Pine. It is uncertain how long he lived and worked among the giant sequoia (known as the Big Trees), but most of his existing photographs are from 1913 to 1925. He …

Institution: California State University, Fresno

Leon S. Peters was respected as a businessman, civic leader, and philanthropist who lived and worked according to the highest ethical standards. He cherished his community and considered its well-being his personal responsibility. As a result of his strong belief in the benefits of philanthropy and community service, Leon S. Peters took a leadership role in, as well as provided financial support to, countless charitable initiatives that to this day have improved the lives of so many in the San Joaquin Valley. Through his conduct in both his professional and personal life, Leon S. Peters has left a legacy that …

Institution: California State University, Fresno

The Leon S. Peters Papers digitized collection consists of digital reproductions of manuscript materials collected by Leon and Alice Peters during their lifetime as well as materials from the Leon S. Peters Foundation. Leon Samuel Peters was born on October 28, 1905, near Fowler, California, to parents Samuel and Lily Peters, the oldest of five children. The Peters family purchased a forty-acre ranch outside of Fowler in 1907 where Peters spent his childhood. Peters attended school in Fowler and graduated from Fowler High School as class valedictorian in 1923. Peters had planned to study law, but the death of his …

Institution: California State University, Fresno

The Leo Politi digital collection of inscriptions contains scans of original artwork created by the award-winning children’s author and illustrator Leo Politi. This artwork comes from the front pages of many his published books housed in the Arne Nixon Center. Politi often took the time to embellish each book he signed with original watercolor and ink designs. Included in this collection are Politi’s inscriptions to his close friend Arne Nixon as well as inscriptions to other individuals. Most came from Arne Nixon’s personal collection. Additional inscriptions came from books that were donated to the Center. Born in Fresno in 1908, …

Institution: California State University, Fresno

This digitized collection documenting the history of Japanese Americans who were sent to incarceration camps during World War II brings together the Success through Perseverance collection from the Fresno County Public Library and the JACL-CCDC Japanese American Oral History collection, TOMO Foundation and Japanese Americans in World War II collections from the Special Collections Research Center at California State University, Fresno. The digitized collection contains oral histories, newsletters and photographs. This digital collaborative project was made possible by a grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP) in 2008-2009 as funded by the state legislature and administered by …

Institution: California State University, Fresno