UCLA Special Collections was among the first departments in a public institution to collect photographs, primarily historical, but including portraits of historical and literary figures, primarily from southern California and relating to other aspects of the collections.
Miscellaneous Los Angeles photographs are among the most used items in the Dept.'s collections. Staff member J. Gregg Layne's collection of books and about 2,000 photographs of early Los Angeles came to the Department upon his death in 1952. These were added to and used extensively as almost the only publicly held and available collection until large local private collections were given to public institutions decades later.
In the 1960s the department hired a photographic consultant to add to the holdings and the Boni gift was given. Photograph collecting duties were later transferred to the department curators. Several important gifts have added to these holdings, from individual photographers, including archival prints by Barbara Morgan, and from businesses, including the Los Angeles Daily News and the Los Angeles Times. These in turn have become widely used.
Several Watkins photographs were purchased in the early 1970s, at the beginning of James Mink's term as head of the department with the support of University Librarian Page Ackerman. During this same time, money was obtained for the conservation and preservation of the photographs.
- Bohem, Hilda. "Albert Boni 1892 - 1981: Innovative American Publisher and UCLA Benefactor." In: UCLA Librarian. v.34 no.8 (1981 September), 59 - 60.
- ______. "California Photographer Collection Augmented." In: UCLA Librarian. v.34 no.8 (1981 September), 60 - 61.
The second article gives some information about Viroque (Pokey) Baker, a woman photographer who at one time had a studio on Olvera Street with photographer Ernest Pratt. Their photographs included records of the landscape architecture of Mark Daniels. They shared a building with Forman Brown's book shop and his Puppet Theatre in the early 1930s.
- Cox, James R. "'Mirror with a Memory.'" In: UCLA Librarian. v.26 no.12. (1973 December), 64 - 65.
This describes an exhibit done by members of the Department and Mary Dabney Wilson, with the advice of Robert Weinstein. Albert Boni was present.
- Luckenbill, Dan, ed. With Connie Bullock; assisted by Bernard Galm and Joel Gardner. Seven Years of Community Support 1971 - 1978: Some Gifts that Have Helped the UCLA Library Grow from Three to Four Million Volumes. [Los Angeles: University of California Library, March 1979.]
Entries throughout on the history of photography, including the work of Barbara Morgan.
- Mink, James V. "Early Photographs of Los Angeles." In: UCLA Librarian v.19 no.1 (1966 January), 2 - 3.
- Oral histories: Barbara Morgan (unfinished, see University Archives)
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