The department has broad holdings relating to government and politics at both the national and local level for California generally and Los Angeles locally.
Papers of General William Starke Rosecrans and of U.S. Senator Cornelius Cole are major resources for the 19th Century. The books, pamphlets, and ephemera of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and the papers of Dr. Haynes and Franklin Hichborn document early 20th century California and Los Angeles reform politics, complemented by papers of Edward A. Dickson and Katherine Philips Edson. The Clifford E. Clinton papers and the Joseph Shaw papers document, from different perspectives, reforms of the 1930s and 1940s. Papers of a number of local congressmen carry the record forward: Anthony Beilenson, Augustus F. Hawkins, Carlos Moorhead and Edward Roybal. Records of the California Democratic Council and the California Republican Assembly provide material for the study of the important grass roots politics of California from the 1930s on.
The Mayor Thomas Bradley Administrative Papers (1963 - 1993) record the administrative activities of Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley, whose tenure in office covered a record five terms.
Katherine Philips Edson. The Actual Operation of Woman's Suffrage
in California; by Mrs. Charles Farwell Edson. Los Angeles, 1912? 1 folded
leaf. "This paper was read at one of the sessions of the convention of the
National Municipal League held in Los Angeles, Cal., July, 1912." In: Edson,
Katherine Philips, 1870 - 1933. Papers, 1909 - 1934. Box 6 f.2 Katherine Edson began working with the Friday Morning Club and was appointed
to state office by Governor Hiram Johnson. Although Mrs. Edson worked very
much within the two party establishment, she suffered as much discrimination
at times as Alice McGrath and Dorothy Healey, who did not.
Views of Clifton's: Pay What You Wish, Dine Free Unless Delighted
[cover title]. [Los Angeles: Clifton's Cafeterias, 1951?]. In: Clinton, Clifford
E., 1900 - 1969. Papers, 1934 - 1969. Collection 2018. Box 10 f.3. Also other Clifton's ephemera from about the same period. Views of the cafeterias, both in downtown Los Angeles: "Pacific Seas" on Olive Street,
now demolished, and Brookdale, on Broadway. Views include the "Redwood trees"
of Brookdale and at Pacific Seas, the "DINING ROOM through one of the neon trees"
and "RAIN-HUT ... where it rains every twenty minutes."
Crime and reform
politics entered the unlikely arena of cafeterias when restauranteur Clifford
E. Clinton served on the Grand Jury investigating vice in Los Angeles. He
then worked for the recall of Mayor Frank Shaw and the election of Fletcher
Bowron, who would be mayor 1938 - 1953, serving longer than any one until
Mayor Tom Bradley. But before the reform was accomplished, the car of an
investigator Clinton hired was blown up. This was reported in "They Bombed
the Lid off Los Angeles" and a series in Liberty Magazine, "My Husband's
War with the Vice Czars of Los Angeles."
U.S. political campaign buttons. 1950s. In: California Republican Assembly.
Records, 1936 - . Collection 2039. Box 8 f.6 Included are buttons: "Ike and Nixon," "Ike and Dick" (both 1952), "I Like
Ike" and others (1956). There are records of this organization beginning
in the 1930s and there is a wide range of material through the years of
Ronald Reagan in office as governor and president.
Various members of the
California Republican Assembly have been interviewed by the UCLA Oral History
Program.
California Democratic Council. Organization Committee. California
Democratic Council: The First Eight Years. First Organization Conference,
Santa Monica, March 4th 1961. 1 folded leaf. Also shown is a portion [photo
copy] of the memo sent about electing officers at this conference. In: Gant,
Charles G., 1916 - . California Democratic Council records, 1960 - 1967.Collection
1073. Box 9 f.1 Gant was one of the first persons to give records of the CDC. Others were
then given by various officers, such as Joyce Fadem.
Gant and others were
interviewed by the UCLA Oral History Program.
Western Publishing & Novelty Co. City Hall, Los Angeles, California.
Los Angeles, 1930s? No. at head of title: 152; code: 1A - H417. In: Collection
of California postcards, 1890 - . Collection 1351. Box 11 One early version of the image which has been identified with the city,
the highest building in the city when built in 1926 - 1928 until codes were
relaxed in 1957.
Photographer unknown. Tom Bradley on victory night, first election.
1973. Black and white photograph, scanned from copy negative and enlarged.
In: Bradley, Tom, 1917 - . Administrative papers, 1963 - 1993 bulk 1973 -
1993. Collection 293. Box 986.Photo album no. 1 (f.19) [UCLA photo album no.
5 negative no. SC 395] UCLA alumnus Tom Bradley occupied City Hall as its first African American
mayor and for five terms.
References
References