UCLA Library Special Collections
For information on archival moving image materials, please see also the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
- UCLA Library Special Collections
Collections and access information for UCLA Library Special Collections, including papers, records, and manuscripts on a range of topics
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Online Archive of California (OAC)
Finding aids for primary source collections in all UC campuses and other contributing institutions, including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California. - Performing Arts Materials in Library Special Collections
Guides to archival collections related to animation, film and television, theater, dance, and music.
- African American Studies in Library Special Collections
Library Special Collections holdings on African Americans include significant collections which reveal the influence of individuals, organizations and institutions and their role in the development of Los Angeles.
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Requesting Duplication of Library Special Collections Materials
Additional Special Collections and Archives
- ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new windowSearches finding aids for historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in libraries, museums, and archives around the world. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.
- Black Resource Center (LA County Library)The Black Resource Center (BRC) was established as a special service of LA County Library in 1978 to serve the informational and educational needs of African Americans and the larger population by supporting research and study on social, historical and cultural aspects unique to the African American experience.
- California African American Museum (Los Angeles)CAAM’s permanent collection consists of over 5,000 objects ranging from the 1800s to the present. It encompasses paintings, photographs, film, sculpture, historical documents, and artifacts, and it spans nineteenth-century landscape paintings to modern artworks to contemporary mixed-media reflections on cultural and political events.
- Calisphere This link opens in a new windowOver one million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more from the collections digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (NYPL)The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, one of The New York Public Library’s renowned research libraries, is a world-leading cultural institution devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences.
- WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window
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OCLC FirstSearch catalog includes citations for books, journals, manuscripts, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, computer files, newspapers, slides, videotapes, archival material, etc., in libraries around the world.
Film & Television Archives
The UCLA Film & Television Archive holds over 350,000 motion pictures and 170,000 television programs, spanning the entire course of film and broadcasting history. The collection includes independent and studio-produced shorts and feature films, documentaries, local and network TV programming, commercials, news and public affairs broadcasts, LGBTQIA media, and 27 million feet of newsreels produced between 1919 and 1971.
Not all of the Archive's holdings are listed in the public catalog, so contacting the Archive Research and Study Center directly about holdings and access is recommended.
- UCLA Film & Television Archive Catalog
Motion pictures (silent era, classic Hollywood, independent cinema, LGBT collections, documentaries and newsreels, animated cartoons, foreign and contemporary American films), television (American telecasting from 1945 to date), and news and public affairs programs (1950 to date).
- UCLA Film & Television Archive Research and Study Center
Includes help on using the Archive's catalog and arranging research viewing appointments at Powell Library (when in-person operations resume).
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African American Film and Television Collections
A collections guide to UCLA Film & Television Archive materials. - UCLA Film & Television Archive: Explore Collections
Includes help on using the Archive's catalog, as well as profiles of major collections by topic.
- UCLA Film & Television Archive Online Collections
Includes KTLA news footage documenting local history, the LGBTQIA series In the Life, selected L.A. Rebellion and UCLA student films, and more.
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L.A. Rebellion: Watch L.A. Rebellion: Streaming video from Project One films and interviews with filmmakers from the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
- Hearst Metrotone News Collection (UCLA Film & Television Archive) This link opens in a new window
Newsreels from the UCLA Film & Television Archive. In cooperation with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, the Packard Humanities Institute is developing this website as part of a joint project to make the Hearst newsreel collection more easily accessible to the public. Includes newsreels shown in theatres from 1929 to 1967.
- Black Film Center & Archive (BFCA)"The Black Film Center & Archive is the only archival repository in the world that is wholly dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making available historically and culturally significant films by and about Black people. We promote scholarship on Black film and serve as an open resource for scholars, researchers, students, and the general public. We encourage creative film activity by independent Black filmmakers and both undertake and support research on the history, impact, theory, and aesthetics of Black film traditions."
- Separate Cinema ArchiveThe archive documents African American cinema history from 1904 to 2019. Encompassing more than 37,000 rare items, the archive includes a major selection of original film posters, lobby cards, film stills, publicity material, scripts, an extensive reference library, and more. It is currently held by Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which is under construction in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park and set to open in 2025.
For more information:
Separate Cinema: the First 100 Years of Black Poster Art by ISBN: 9781909526068Date: 2014-10-06This magnificent volume is a celebration of the first 100 years of Black film poster art. A visual feast, it honors the 40th anniversary of the Separate Cinema Archive, the most extensive private holdings of African-American film memorabilia in the world, containing over 35,000 authentic movie posters and photographs from over 30 countries. The book features stunning images that recount the diverse and historic journey of the Black film industry from the earliest days of Hollywood to present day.
Separate Cinema Archives: A Black Film Time Machine: Article by Janna Zinzi detailing the contents of the Separate Cinema Archives
Museum Exhibits
- Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971 (2022)From Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles. Available in website form.
- Now Showing: Posters from African American Movies (2019-2021)From National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC.
- Taking the Stage (ongoing)From National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC.