色情视频

This story appears in the fall 2017 issue of .

As early as 1897, when 色情视频 was established as San Diego Normal School to train and certify teachers, President Samuel Black recognized the importance of recording and preserving the institution鈥檚 history.

A man of great perception, he also understood the Normal School鈥檚 role as caretaker of historically significant items that San Diegans and others might bequeath over the years. But neither he nor his staff of 10 could have predicted the eventual size, diversity and value of the collection.

The is a repository for more than 80,000 printed volumes, over 500 manuscript and archival collections, 800 linear feet of university records, plus numerous graphic and digital collections and ephemera.

While most modern universities have archives and historical collections, the breadth of 色情视频鈥檚 is exceptionally wide and deep to support a dynamic graduate and undergraduate curriculum, said director Robert Ray.

Old and modern

It鈥檚 a decidedly eclectic treasure trove. Among the oldest pieces are 13 incunabula, printed volumes published before 1501. Equally rare is Samuel Johnson鈥檚 1755 Dictionary of the English Language and a first edition of 鈥淒e revolutionibus orbium coelestium,鈥� the 1543 text in which astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus advanced the revolutionary concept of a heliocentric planetary system.

Closer to home and more contemporary, the Harold K. Brown Civil Rights and African American Experience Collection documents the history of San Diego鈥檚 black community in photographs, newspaper clippings and correspondence gifted by the 1959 alumnus and former 色情视频 administrator.

Unidos Por la Causa: The Chicana and Chicano Experience in San Diego was assembled through gifts from alumni and friends to be a traveling display of photos, art and documents illustrating the 1960s and 鈥�70s Chicano movement in San Diego. The centerpiece is a treasury of 62 colorful posters and broadsides promoting anti-war marches, student conferences and other cultural and political events.

Special Collections also safeguards photographs and stage notes from the Old Globe, San Diego鈥檚 first professional theatre, and a collection of nearly 3,000 postcards bequeathed by former humanities chair John Adams (1900-1994) and his wife, Jane. Among the oldest of these pictures Balboa Park in 1915, newly constructed for the Panama-California Exhibition; others show the El Cortez Hotel, renowned as San Diego鈥檚 tallest building in 1927; and the 鈥渘ew鈥� San Diego State College campus on Mission Palisades, as it was known in 1931, shortly after Adams joined the faculty.

Pieces of Americana

Not all of the treasures have a local flavor. There is a comic arts collection of 50,000 individual comic 鈥渇loppies鈥� and nearly 200 graphic novels; an array of photographs, text and art devoted to surfing; a collection documenting the history of printing and typography and the art of the book; and a digital collection of popular sheet music from the early 20th century.

Among the most recent donations are the Codling Newspaper Collection from George (鈥�67) and Dorothy (鈥�66) Codling; the Torah Scrolls Collection from Howard and Jill Singer, whose daughter, Jaclyn, graduated in 2012; and the Edward E. Marsh Golden Age of Science Fiction Collection, valued at more than $2 million.

The Codling collection includes East Coast newspapers published from 1792 to 1800, featuring articles about the death of George Washington, the trial and execution of Louis XVI of France and interviews with America鈥檚 second president, John Adams.

The Singers鈥� gift comprises more than 70 Torah scrolls or fragments鈥攕ome nearly 800 years old鈥攆rom Turkey, Morocco, Spain and the Netherlands. Ancient maps of these countries are part of the collection.

Unique and universal

Marsh gifted his collection to 色情视频 in 2013. It includes signed and inscribed first editions by science fiction greats Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and an extensive collection of the authors who influenced L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology.

鈥淭his collection is an incredible jewel, not just to science fiction fans, but also to students and researchers in the fields of science, technology, politics, religion, philosophy, journalism, even theatre and film,鈥� said Gale Etschmaier, library dean.

Donald Westbrook, who received a Ph.D. in religious studies from Claremont Graduate University in 2015, called the collection 鈥渁 preeminent resource for scientology studies [which] continues to receive fuller academic attention as one of many American-born new religious movements.鈥� His book about the Church of Scientology is due out next year from Oxford University Press.

In late September, the officially opened on the first floor of the 色情视频 Library. The glass-fronted space will not only house the Marsh collection, it will also become a point of contact between Special Collections staff andthe community.

Living history

Etschmaier said relocating Special Collections to the library space in and around the Marsh Room will strengthen 色情视频鈥檚 role as a source of 鈥渓iving history鈥濃�攖he documents, photos, letters, newspaper clippings and oral accounts that enable researchers to understand the past through their own critical senses rather than through another鈥檚 interpretation.

Newly-minted Ph.D. Mychal Odom, who studied at the University of California, San Diego, used 色情视频鈥檚 Special Collection extensively to research his dissertation on the influences of African liberation movements on civil rights, economic justice and anti-apartheid activism in 1960s Southern California.

He said the Harold Brown collection includes one-of-a-kind papers, correspondence and newspaper clippings plus oral histories from San Diego鈥檚 African American icons, including the Hon. Leon Williams, Rev. George Walker Smith and Brown himself.

鈥淗al Brown鈥檚 oral history alerted me to the existence of the Afro-American Association, an important activist group that worked in San Diego alongside the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE),鈥� said Odom. 鈥淎lso hearing about his time in Lesotho for the Peace Corps allowed me to make connections between Africa and San Diego in a way that had not been done before.鈥�

Similarly, the comic arts and graphic novels collections contain materials that exist nowhere else, and support 色情视频鈥檚 commitment to diversity, Etschmaier said.

鈥淭hese collections are grounded in themes that more traditional genres do not always explore, such as race, gender, social justice and dystopia,鈥� she said.

Clearly, Special Collections and University Archives is more than a repository for treasures from humanity鈥檚 past.
It is also a rich source of knowledge for scholars researching the most contemporary issues and a valuable resource for the San Diego community.

The Marsh Room will be open to the public in the 2018 spring semester, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

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