Institution Type: Archive, Church/Mosque/Synagogue/Temple, Historical Society, Museum, Religious Organization, Research Center/Institution

Web site: http://www.archivalcenter.org/

Archives and Collections

Description:
The new Archival Center that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles built at the San Fernando Mission and opened in 1980 is a measured response to the church's obligation to collect and preserve records associated with the human activities constituting California's Catholic heritage. The center houses papers, documents, correspondence, and related materials generated since 1840 by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and its antecedent jurisdictions. The center's archives include a relatively modest photographic collection as well as micro-?lm holdings that number in the hundreds of thousands. The center's library presently comprises about fifteen thousand books primarily on California history, American Catholic history, bibliography, archives, and archivism. Eleven digests of the center's archival documents have been published, and more than ten thousand of the library's books are classified and described in The Literary High Spots of Mission Hills, California (1998). Various objects from the center's holdings are on exhibit in the center's Historical Museum. It is the Archdiocese of Los Angeles's "hope and prayer that the books, documents, manuscripts, and historical memorabilia housed at the Archival Center will become the means for as-yet-unborn generations to stand taller upon the shoulders of their predecessors."

Regions Covered: Not specified

Type of Materials: Books, Diaries/Journals/Personal Papers, Films/Videos/Moving Images, Institutional Publications, Manuscripts, Official Records, Photographs

Time Periods: Pre-1848, 1848-1899, 1900-1920, 1921-1949, 1950-1963, 1964-1980, 1981-Present

Languages: English, French, Italian, Latin

Sectors of the Population: Religious

Management

Catalog System: We have issued eleven volumes of Calendars which contains digests of documents from 1840 to 1970 and a book entitled The Literary High Spots of Mission Hills, California which classifies and describes the 10,213 books in the Library.
Repository/Depository: Yes
Exhibited: Yes
Outreach: Brochures/Flyers/Pamphlets, Newsletter