Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Holiday greetings, 1966
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
This collection contains personal papers, business records, correspondence, photographs, prints, and ephemera that relate to Los Angeles theatre impresario, Lynden E. Behymer. The materials date from approximately 1850 to 1998, with the bulk of the collection ranging from the 1910s to 1940s. A small portion of the collection consists of biographical information about Behymer and his family. The Personal and biographical materials series contains albums, scrapbooks, clippings, and correspondence relating to Behymer's birthdays, tributes, and other celebratory events. Of note in the collection are the Business records and Correspondence series. The materials primarily relate to Behymer's involvement in managing musicians, actors, actresses, dancers, singers, theatres, and organizations in the music and entertainment industry in California and abroad. Included are approximately 2,400 pieces of correspondence with organizations such as the California Grand Opera Company, the Chicago Grand Opera Company, the Los Angeles Repertory Theatre, the Merola Opera Company, and the San Francisco Opera Association. Formats consist of account books, ledgers, receipt books, agreements, contracts, correspondence, and notes by Behymer. A significant portion of the collection consists of programs, which are organized by theatre programs, movie theatre programs, and souvenir programs. Theatre programs are one of the largest series in the collection, and consist of theatres based in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, as well as other states and international countries. Many of these theatres (Grand Opera House, Los Angeles Theatre, Burbank Theatre, Philharmonic Auditorium, Chicago Opera House, etc.) are also represented in the Press clippings and Theatre scrapbooks series. Souvenir programs are incorporated into the Music, dance, and drama series as they primarily pertain to performers and musicians such as: Anna Pavlova, Ballets Russes, Ruth St. Denis, La Argentina (Antonia Mercé y Luque), Trudi Schoop, Sarah Bernhardt, Helena Modjeska, Mei Lan-Fang, Ignace Jan Paderewski, and many others. Additional materials in the Music, dance, and drama series include librettos, prompt books, plays, poetry, sheet music, and correspondence with various music organizations and clubs. The collection also contains approximately 3,000 photographs of performers and performances. The photographs range from signed portrait photographs, to play and set designs, musicians on stage, and some press photographs of the Behymer family at events and premieres. A small number of prints, drawings, and ephemera are also found in the collection. They include Behymer's personalized book plates and stationery, travel tickets, memorabilia, invitations, celebrity signatures, business cards, travel guides, postcard albums, greeting cards, drawings, prints by Alfred Frueh and Max Reinhardt, and costume designs.
mssBehymer
Image not available
Manuscripts
The collection is comprised of personal and professional papers of Lily Chen that deal with her personal life and document her 50-year career of service to her community. The papers highlight her social work with Los Angeles County, her campaign for and tenure on the Monterey Park City Council and as Mayor, and her activities with the Democratic Party, and her activism. The collection contains correspondence, personal diaries and journals, education and employment documents, travel and immigration records, fliers, political campaign material, newspaper and magazine clippings, personal notes, speeches, ephemera, photographs, and photograph albums. The personal papers consist of correspondence by family members and friends, much of it coming from China; immigration papers for Chen family members; material about Chen's education and employment, her work with Voice of Free China, and her time in the United States attending the World Youth Social Welfare Conference in 1956; and a large subseries of personal photographs. There are also three published biographies of Lily Chen. Also included are correspondence and other writings by Paul Chen, his father Chieh Ching Chen, and Lily Chen's father Yaolin Li. The professional papers deal with Lily Chen's campaign for Monterey Park city council and mayorship; her work against a petition in Monterey Park to declare English the official language of the city; the push-back against the use of malathion in Medfly spraying in Los Angeles County in the 1980s; Chen's attendance at the Democratic National Convention in 1996 and 2000; her efforts to bring an Olympic event to Monterey Park during the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles; and the Red Cross relief work after the Taiwan earthquake in 1999. There is also material related to, and some material written by several California and national Democratic leaders such as Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Walter F. Mondale, Tom Bradley, Gil Garcetti, Gray Davis, Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Al Glore, Jimmy Carter, Kenneth Hahn, Ed Edelman, Geraldine Ferraro, Gerald Ford, and Nancy Pelosi. There are also photographs of her with Ronald Reagan, George Deukmejian, and Michael Dukakis, as well as famous actors, prominent artists, performers, journalists, and broadcasters. There is also material related to Chen's work with other organizations such as the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Asian/Pacific Women's Network L.A., Pacific Council on International Policy, and the California Democratic Party Asian Pacific Caucus. Due to the nature of the collection, there is anti-Asian and anti-immigrant material that uses racist language and images.
Image not available
Manuscripts
This collection contains personal papers, business records, correspondence, photographs, prints, and ephemera that relate to Los Angeles theatre impresario, Lynden E. Behymer. The materials date from approximately 1850 to 1998, with the bulk of the collection ranging from the 1910s to 1940s. A small portion of the collection consists of biographical information about Behymer and his family. The Personal and biographical materials series contains albums, scrapbooks, clippings, and correspondence relating to Behymer's birthdays, tributes, and other celebratory events. Of note in the collection are the Business records and Correspondence series. The materials primarily relate to Behymer's involvement in managing musicians, actors, actresses, dancers, singers, theatres, and organizations in the music and entertainment industry in California and abroad. Included are approximately 2,400 pieces of correspondence with organizations such as the California Grand Opera Company, the Chicago Grand Opera Company, the Los Angeles Repertory Theatre, the Merola Opera Company, and the San Francisco Opera Association. Formats consist of account books, ledgers, receipt books, agreements, contracts, correspondence, and notes by Behymer. A significant portion of the collection consists of programs, which are organized by theatre programs, movie theatre programs, and souvenir programs. Theatre programs are one of the largest series in the collection, and consist of theatres based in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, as well as other states and international countries. Many of these theatres (Grand Opera House, Los Angeles Theatre, Burbank Theatre, Philharmonic Auditorium, Chicago Opera House, etc.) are also represented in the Press clippings and Theatre scrapbooks series. Souvenir programs are incorporated into the Music, dance, and drama series as they primarily pertain to performers and musicians such as: Anna Pavlova, Ballets Russes, Ruth St. Denis, La Argentina (Antonia Mercé y Luque), Trudi Schoop, Sarah Bernhardt, Helena Modjeska, Mei Lan-Fang, Ignace Jan Paderewski, and many others. Additional materials in the Music, dance, and drama series include librettos, prompt books, plays, poetry, sheet music, and correspondence with various music organizations and clubs. The collection also contains approximately 3,000 photographs of performers and performances. The photographs range from signed portrait photographs, to play and set designs, musicians on stage, and some press photographs of the Behymer family at events and premieres. A small number of prints, drawings, and ephemera are also found in the collection. They include Behymer's personalized book plates and stationery, travel tickets, memorabilia, invitations, celebrity signatures, business cards, travel guides, postcard albums, greeting cards, drawings, prints by Alfred Frueh and Max Reinhardt, and costume designs.
Image not available
Manuscripts
The collection is semi-cataloged and consists of 987 items in 6 boxes with the manuscripts and correspondence arranged alphabetically by author and the ephemera arranged alphabetically by type. The manuscripts number 54 items. The manuscripts consist of some original poetry, reminiscences regarding the founding and settling of Woodland, Idaho, and various manuscripts related to the city. The memoirs relate the trip to Woodland and the family relations of the people who settled it. Correspondence numbers 413 items. The majority of the correspondence is to or from the Austin S. and Sarah Haskins George Family. There are many postcards to Estella Haskins George, mostly regarding birthday wishes. The letters mostly deal with the concerns of farmers in Nebraska, Kentucky and Idaho. Many detail everyday life of these farmers and their families in the 1890s. The Ephemera consists of 522 items. This section includes unsent postcards representing a variety of types from the turn of the 20th century. The research material related to the book Tales from Sarah's shoebox includes photocopies of photographs, articles and documents. There are also photographs of Sarah Haskins George's family and that of her husband. Other material includes items relating to Woodland, Idaho founding and early years. Many of the items in the collection have been published in Tale's from Sarah's shoebox by Donna Utter.
mssGeorge family papers
Image not available
Visual Materials
The Nancy and Henry Rosin collection of valentine, friendship, and devotional ephemera contains materials from Europe and North America dating from 1493 to the late 2010s. The bulk of the collection consists of greeting cards exchanged on Valentine’s Day, dating from approximately 1840 to 1930. Early handcrafted valentine cards found within the greeting cards subseries demonstrate folk art methods of pinpricking, paper cutting, paper folding, painting, puzzle making, and illustration. Other cards dating from the Victorian era include comic or “vinegar” valentines, paper lace valentines, cobweb valentines, and cards created by various printing, embossing, and assemblage techniques. Many of the late 19th-century cards are dimensional and mechanical paper constructions, made with a combination of die-cut scraps, honeycomb tissue paper, and levers, strings, or wheels that enable the cards to pop-up or move. Also included in the collection are greeting cards exchanged for other holidays and events, friendship cards dating from the Biedermeier era, friendship albums with locks of hair, language of flowers almanacs and booklets, matrimonial documents, sachets, verse writers, religious devotional items, mourning cards, scrapbook albums, and correspondence relating to love and courtship. The collection also contains artifacts and three-dimensional items such as fans, jewelry boxes, shadow boxes, and additional items, some of which include fragile, glass components. Smaller portions of the collection include educational ephemera, such as rewards of merit and bookmarks, and American Civil War ephemera, such as greeting cards and song sheets. Additional materials include artist and organizational files relating to illustrator Catherine “Kate” Greenaway, printer Louis Prang, and 20th-century greeting card companies Rust Craft and Norcross. The last series of this collection contains research materials compiled by valentine scholar Charles Albert Reed and by Nancy Rosin. The materials consist largely of secondary sources, notes, and newspaper clippings.
priRosin
Image not available
Visual Materials
Includes anniversary cards, Mother's Day cards, Thanksgiving cards, and other holiday greeting cards.
priRosin
mssChen
mssBehymer