Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Drawing room only : a book of cartoons
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Visual Materials
The Banning Family Collection of Photographs, Part II, 1814-1979, consists of 1204 photographs and 23 photographs albums. The three most substantial categories of images in this collection are views of Santa Catalina Island; Banning family properties and residences in southern California; and portraits of family members and relatives. Of special significance are the Catalina photographs documenting the development of the island from a natural enclave with a few inhabitants to a thriving tourist resort. Volume 7 in the Family Album section contains images of the devastating effects of the Catalina fire of 1915. Also of particular interest are photographs of the George S. Patton family.
photCL 451
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Manuscripts
mssHM 19745
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Manuscripts
This collection contains the papers of Los Angeles author and gay activist Joseph Hansen and includes drafts of published and unpublished work; correspondence; manuscripts of works by some of Hansen's friends, family, and students; professional papers primarily related to publishing; and personal and family papers. The bulk of the material dates from the 1940s through the early 2000s. The collection includes works by Joseph Hansen, which consists of chiefly typescript drafts for most of Hansen's novels (including those published under the pseudonyms Rose Brock and James Colton), poetry, essays and articles, and television and play scripts. While there are some handwritten edits and corrections among the drafts and proofs, the majority do not have annotations. There are also two boxes with copies of various publications, primarily literary magazines and newspapers, containing Hansen's published work. There are two boxes with various manuscripts of work by friends and family of Hansen including poems by FrancEyE, and drafts of novels: In Search of Truth by Chris Gugas and People Talking to Themselves by Armine D. Mackenzie. There is also a ledger and manuscript by Belle Race from the early 1900s, who presumably was a relative of Hansen's wife Jane Bancroft Hansen. The correspondence in the collection includes both personal and professional letters sent and received by Hansen. There is a sizable amount of correspondence between Hansen and his publishers and agents including Collier Associates, Countryman Press; Holt, Rinehart & Winston; Harper & Row; the John Johnson Agency; Joan Kahn; and Penguin Books. In addition, there are also five folders of rejection letters sent to Hansen. Within Hansen's personal correspondence, notable correspondents include: British author Beryl Bainbridge, who befriended Hansen in the 1970s while Hansen was living in London; English composer and musician Richard Rodney Bennett; the publisher Brandon House, who put out Hansen's Colton books; gay filmmaker Arch Brown, who collaborated with Hansen on a playscript of Hansen's novel Backtrack, which was not produced; American crime fiction writer Dorothy Salisbury Davis, with whom Hansen corresponded regularly; poet, and girlfriend of Charles Bukowski, FrancEyE (aka Frances Dean Smith); American author Philip Gambone who published a profile of Hansen in Something Inside: Conversations with Gay Fiction Writers; poet and literary critic Diana Gioia; gay activist William "Billy" Glover, who worked at One magazine and after helped form the Homosexual Information Center in 1968; poet and literary critic William Harry Harding; gay activist Ross Ingersoll; poet Bill Mohr; critic Terry Teachout, who reviewed some of Hansen's novels; and crime writer Charles Ray Willeford. There are also insignificant pieces of correspondence from well-known individuals: James Blish, James Broughton, Sue Grafton, Tony Hillerman, George Plimpton, Julian Symons, and Andrew Vachss. Professional and personal materials include a variety of materials related to many different parts of Hansen's life, including business, publishing, and financial documents; miscellaneous ephemera, research materials; family papers, with writings and papers by Jane Bancroft Hansen as well as the Hansen's only child Daniel Hansen; press features on Hansen and reviews of his publications; materials related to Hansen's KFI radio program "Stranger from the Sea"; documents related to Hansen's teaching, chiefly at the UCLA extension school; miscellaneous materials related to Hansen's involvement with the gay community such as the Gay Community Services Center and the homosexual Information Center; and some materials related to his work on a 1970 issue of the literary magazine Beyond Baroque. The collection contains one box of photographs with images of Hansen throughout his life, as well as family members including Jane Bancroft Hansen and Daniel Hansen, and some friends and residences. The collection also contains approximately 70 drawings on paper presumably by Jane Hansen from the 1960s, of which many may have been created as part of art class.
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Visual Materials
This collection contains the papers and architectural drawings of Los Angeles architect Wallace Neff, whose career spanned 56 years, from 1919 to 1975. The collection is divided into five series: Personal papers, Professional papers, Project records, Wallace Neff Jr. papers, and Additional donations. The materials include over 100 sets of drawings and plans, Neff's project files, writings and correspondence, job lists, daily journals, sketches and renderings, and photographs. The majority of Neff's work was residential architecture in Southern California, but the collection also contains materials on many types of institutional buildings and other structures Neff designed. Most projects are in California, with some material on projects in Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. The Airform project files discuss building in Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, and other countries. Residences represented include those for Edward L. and Estelle Carrie Doheny, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Amelita Galli-Curci, Fredric March, Frances Marion and Fred Thomson, Groucho Marx, and King Vidor. Other projects include the Edward L. Doheny Memorial Library; Manresa Jesuit Retreat House; Ojai Valley Country Club; Saint Elizabeth Church; and buildings for Loyola Marymount University and Pomona College. There are many records on Neff's Airform buildings: contracts, drawings, patents, licenses, correspondence, and photographs. The collection also includes the research files of Neff's son, Wallace Neff Jr. (1930-2013), related to his father's career and works. Neff Jr. compiled this material while working on his 1986 book "Wallace Neff, Architect of California's Golden Age" (text by Alson Clark). Neff Jr.'s files contain many photographs, notes and articles on Neff buildings, as well as Neff family history, and transcripts of talks he gave on his father. In addition, Neff Jr. commissioned contemporary renderings of his father's buildings, which were painted approximately 1991 to 2007 and are part of this collection. The Additional Donations series contains drawings received from other sources after the primary donation in 2006.
archNeff
mssHansen