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| California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives | |
|---|---|
| Name | California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives |
| Established | 1988 |
| Location | University of California, Riverside |
| Type | Archives, cultural repository |
| Director | (varies) |
| Website | (see university) |
California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives is a distinctive archival program housed at the University of California, Riverside that preserves primary-source materials documenting the histories of diverse communities in California. The archives collects manuscripts, photographs, audio-visual recordings, and organizational records that document experiences of Asian American, Black, Chicano/Chicana, Filipino American, Native American, Pacific Islander, and LGBTQ+ communities. Its holdings support scholarship and public history projects linking regional narratives with national and transnational events.
The initiative emerged amid activism by scholars and community leaders associated with University of California, Riverside, Bancroft Library, Chicano Movement, Asian American Movement, Civil Rights Movement, United Farm Workers, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Japanese American Citizens League, Filipino American National Historical Society, Black Panther Party, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Congress of Racial Equality, American Indian Movement, and Gay Liberation Front. Early supporters included scholars from UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, University of Southern California, California State University, Long Beach, California State University, Los Angeles, and community activists connected to Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Grace Lee Boggs, Larry Itliong, Richard Aoki, Al Robles, Earl Derr Biggers, Carlos Bulosan, Maxine Hong Kingston, Asian American Studies Center (UCLA). Funding and advocacy came from foundations such as the Ford Foundation, Getty Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and city agencies in Riverside, California and Los Angeles, California.
Holdings span collections relating to individuals and organizations including papers and ephemera from figures like Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yamasaki, Isamu Noguchi, Diane Wakoski, Ruth Asawa, Yuri Kochiyama, Philip Vera Cruz, Philip Kan Gotanda, Herbert K. H. Lyman, Sonia Sotomayor (notes on outreach), and groups like the Filipino American National Historical Society, Chinese Historical Society of America, Japanese American Citizens League, Korean American Coalition, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, La Raza, Young Lords, Brown Berets, Japanese American Redress Movement, Asian American Theater Company, Bilingual Review Press, Gothic Writing Group, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. The archives houses audiovisual collections from productions by Luis Valdez, Esther Hernandez, Anna May Wong, Bruce Lee, Sessue Hayakawa, Anna May Wong's materials, recordings of speakers such as Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, bell hooks, and oral histories featuring elders from Okinawa, Manila, Tijuana, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Special collections include organizational records of United Farm Workers, photographs related to Chinatown (San Francisco), manuscripts by poets associated with Asian American Writers' Workshop, and ephemera from festivals like Lowrider Show and Nisei Week.
The archives collaborates on exhibitions with institutions such as the Autry Museum of the American West, Japanese American National Museum, California Museum, Museum of Latin American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Getty Research Institute, Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), Skirball Cultural Center, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and local galleries in Riverside. Past exhibitions have featured themes tied to Japanese American incarceration, Mexican American civil rights, Filipino American labor history, Chinese Exclusion Act, Korean American immigration, Pacific Islander voyaging, and LGBTQ+ history. Educational programs include lecture series with scholars from University of California, Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, Pomona College, Claremont Graduate University, Harvard University, Yale University, and artist residencies with practitioners connected to Tijuana Border Art, Zócalo Public Square, Creative Capital, and California Humanities.
Researchers from institutions such as Princeton University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, New York University, Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, British Library, National Archives and Records Administration, and local archives use its holdings for work on subjects ranging from immigration law (case histories involving Exclusion Act cases), redress for Japanese Americans, and labor history tied to United Farm Workers campaigns. The archives employs preservation methods aligned with standards from the Society of American Archivists, National Archives, and Association of Research Libraries and collaborates on digitization projects with Digital Public Library of America, HathiTrust, Internet Archive, Calisphere, and university press partners such as University of California Press and Stanford University Press to increase access for scholars and students.
The archives partners with community organizations including El Centro de la Raza, Chinese Progressive Association, Korean Resource Center, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Japanese American Citizens League, Pilipino Workers Center, National Coalition for History, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, and neighborhood history projects in East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Chinatown (Los Angeles), Little Tokyo (Los Angeles), and San Gabriel Valley. Public programming includes oral-history training with groups such as StoryCorps, student internships with Teach For America and academic service-learning courses at University of California, Riverside, and community digitization workshops funded by Institute of Museum and Library Services and California State Library initiatives.
The archives operates within administrative structures at University of California, Riverside and receives support from donors including private philanthropies like the Sandler Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Annenberg Foundation, regional support from California Arts Council, and federal grants from National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities. Partnerships include exchanges with other archival repositories such as Bancroft Library, Huntington Library, The Bancroft Library, Bowers Museum, and research collaborations with academic centers like the Center for Latin American Studies (UCLA), Asian American Studies Center (UCLA), Black Studies Program (UC Santa Barbara), and the Center for Oral and Public History (Cal State Fullerton).
Category:Archives in California