Online Archive of California (OAC)

Special Collections and University Archives is pleased to announce that the Online Archive of California (OAC), a core component of the California Digital Library (CDL), now includes finding aids for all of our processed collections: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/institutions/San+Diego+State+University.

The OAC provides free public access to detailed descriptions of manuscript and archival collections maintained by more than 150 contributing institutions throughout California. As California's central repository for collection guides, the OAC is a vital resource that serves everyone interested in California's rich history, allowing them to browse online, search for information about specific items and their location, and learn how to access them no matter where in the state they are housed.

Our contributions have especially enriched the OAC's holdings documenting the San Diego region, and will enable all OAC users to discover our collections. Additional collections are added on a continuing basis.

A June Bouquet

These lovely blooms are scanned from Special Collections' copy of a rare horticultural journal of the early nineteenth century called The Floricultural Cabinet and Florists' Magazine. Joseph Harrison, head gardener for Wortley Hall in Sheffield, founded several British gardening magazines in the 1820s and 1830s in response to rising interest in the hobby of flower cultivation and fine gardening. The Floricultural Cabinet was one of the most successful of these publications and ran for over twenty-five years, finding many upper-class Victorian readers who admired the high quality of its articles and illustrations. Though the periodical is rather small in size, these full-page, hand-colored lithographs and engravings are stunning even to the modern reader. Produced before the dawn of the chromolithograph later in the century, these watercolors make The Floricultural Cabinet one of the high spots in the history of botanical illustration. 

Special Collections has many of these high spots in the Norland , Orchid, and Herbals Collections; stop by the Reading Room to peruse them today!

On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, 1543

This week marks the 466th anniversary of two events: the publication of Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), and the death of its author. San Diego State added its copy of this landmark edition as its one millionth volume in 1992. Generously purchased by the Friends of the Library, this book is the jewel of our Historic Astronomy Collection.

De revolutionibus marked the beginning of the scientific revolution, for in it Copernicus overturned the Ptolemaic theory of a closed universe with a fixed earth at its center around which all celestial bodies rotated, in favor of the heliocentric model. This theory had been proposed before, by the Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos. But Copernicus was the first to formally document the rotation of the Earth on its axis, the correct positions of the planets, and the rotation of the moon around the Earth. Copernicus died the week of the book's publication, but legend has it that he was able to hold a copy in his hands on his deathbed.

Though the book was not particularly controversial when it appeared, in 1616 it was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Catholic Church pending corrections that would recharacterize the work as more hypothetical than definitive. However, the next edition of the work, issued the next year, did not contain these corrections, nor did any subsequent editions; and so the book remained on the Index until 1758. San Diego State's copy is particularly special because it contains the recommended corrections in a contemporary hand, with the questionable passages and headings censored in ink (see image).

San Diego State also has the second edition of 1566 among the other 800 volumes of the Historic Astronomy Collection, along with many other rare and important first editions by Kepler, Brahe, Galileo, and Newton. With these and the wonderful Zinner Collection, San Diego State boasts truly remarkable resources in the history of astronomy--stop by our Reading Room to find a treasure!

A Collection of the Cold War

This magazine is part of the recently processed Gwartney American Legion and Anti-Communism Collection, a treasure trove of materials dealing with patriotism issues from the 1940s through 1960s in America, including the Second Red Scare and McCarthyism, atomic power, and and the Cold War. Donated by B. E. Gwartney, both the manuscript and the book collections are wonderful resources for students researching propaganda in America during this period. Titles in the book collection include How to Prevent Your Young Person from Becoming A Communist, What Can I Do? To Combat Communism, and A Handbook for Responsible American Citizens: A Plan of Action for Maintaining Freedom in America. The manuscript collection includes fascinating correspondence regarding the educational efforts of the American Legion Americanism Committee and the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, as well as wonderful scrapbook documenting the Southern California School of Anti-Communism, a sold-out, four-day event in Los Angeles in 1961 which 16,000 persons attended. The collection also includes eleven pristine posters from the United States Food Administration during World War II encouraging citizens to conserve food and to guard state secrets. American history, political science, and even art students will find useful and interesting materials in this great collection!

A Grand New Acquisition

Special Collections is pleased to announce an exceptional new acquisition, titled A Woman Hit By A Meteor. Produced in 2001 by the Brighton Press, this stunning book is one of several collaborations between SDSU faculty Sandra Alcosser and Michele Burgess. Japanese bound in ruby silk, this massive book measures 44 x 31 inches, and is truly breathtaking to encounter. Responding to the awe-inspiring etchings by Burgess, poet Alcosser says that "one must look up to enter these etchings, tip one's chin, exposing the throat. The brain, the crown, moves off center, lifting the heart, permitting correspondence with the darkness."

A Woman Hit by a Meteor was donated to San Diego State by two long-time friends of Brighton Press, Sonja Jones and Helen Faye. Because of their generosity, students in both Alcosser's Form and Theory of Poetry class and Burgess' Art of the Book and Printmaking classes will gain inspiration and delight for years to come, and will see the dramatic possibilities of a talented collaboration between artist and poet.
(Thanks to Brighton Press for use of the above images.)

A New Tool for an Important Collection: The Hotel Del Coronado Subject Index

The Hotel del Coronado Collection in Special Collections is an extraordinary and varied collection, documenting the early history of this notable San Diego landmark. A highlight of the collection is the eighty-nine volumes of bound outgoing correspondence, dating from 1888-1907. This correspondence is extremely valuable for the insights it provides into the early day-to-day management of the Hotel, the emerging urban landscape, and the lives of the people living in San Diego and environs at the time. Though a partial index of correspondents' names is included in the collection, until recently, the incredibly rich content of the letters has been opaque to researchers unable to spend the significant time required to browse the volumes. However, a comprehensive subject index to the first six years of the correspondence has recently been released in Special Collections.

Through this index, the remarkable life of the young Hotel del begins to come to light. These subject headings allow us to see the wide range of issues facing the early managers of the Hotel, some of which are important even today. There are extended entries on agriculture in the area, water and irrigation, immigration, labor, marketing methods for the Hotel and for Coronado, and companies and services in the developing city, such as sanitariums, railroads and electric streetcars. Some of the more intriguing subject entries include: air pollution, hot air balloons, desalinization, evangelists, the Hay Fever Association, parachutists, anti-Chinese racism, saloons, shipwrecks, and the World's Fair in Chicago. Researchers pursuing the correspondence listed under the subject entries will certainly find fresh insights into the role of the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, and exciting new perspectives on enduring topics in San Diego's rich history.

Originally a card file, this subject index was microfilmed as part of a preservation project in the early 1990s. This microfilm has now been scanned as a searchable PDF of 1371 pages (a large file). When searching the subject index, it is recommended that you mark the checkbox to "include comments" in Adobe Reader. We are excited to release this wonderful new tool!

Our Newest Digital Collection

Special Collections is pleased to announce our newest digital collection, the John and Jane Adams Trade Card Collection. Trade cards, also known as advertising cards, were wildly popular collectibles in the later half of the nineteenth century as consumer culture took over America. Advertising a huge variety of manufactured goods in bright chromolithography, trade cards were produced by advertisers to encourage recognition of brand names and to stimulate demand for the products advertised. Though trade cards sometimes feature rather generic Victorian images of flowers or birds, these attractive pieces of ephemera often feature comic little vignettes with punchy slogans, or instructions for catchy games to be played using the card. Some are die-cut, and some have folding or moveable pieces--features that surely made great fun for their collectors.

Special Collections' Adams Trade Card Collection has examples advertising brand names still recognizable today: Arm & Hammer Soda, Heinz 57 Varieties, and Kellogg's Cornflakes, for example. However, most products in the collection have long been discontinued (for good reason!); Eilert's Extract of Tar and Wild Cherry, Borg's Sure Cure Pepsin and Bismuth Chewing Gum, or the mysteriously named Dr. Price's Locust Buds are examples of patent medicines represented in the collection.

Trade cards can be used to study an incredible variety of social and cultural topics--depictions of women and femininity, domesticity and the American home, advertising methods and consumerism, social mores, race relations, humor--all are made extraordinarily tangible in these fascinating pieces. The Trade Card Digital Collection can be viewed in Luna, along with the University Archives Photograph Collection and the WPA Murals Collection. (Be sure to turn off your pop-up blocker before viewing images in Luna.)

A New Research Guide

Special Collections has recently prepared a new research guide to Children's Literature for our collections. The guide can be found under the "Special Collections" tab in the main Children's Literature Research Guide, prepared by children's literature librarian Linda Salem. Use this tab if you're looking for materials especially for young ones in our collections, including beautiful pop-up and movable books, exciting nineteenth century boys' adventure series, or historic children's periodicals.

Also featured in the Special Collections tab are some of our manuscript and archival collections dealing with children's literature, including the papers of Peter Neumeyer, and the papers of San Diego author Madeline Tabler. Our popular Edward Gorey collection is also linked from the research guide. And be sure to contact us or stop by the department if you have questions about this or any of our other research guides! (Image from John Martin's Book, a children's magazine, 1918.)

Welcome Back!

Special Collections welcomes students and faculty back for Spring Semester 2009. We're ready for an exciting semester!

To celebrate Black History Month in February, we'll be featuring the exhibit "Creating Community: African Americans in San Diego." Produced through a Presidential Leadership Fund grant, this exhibit will use captivating selections from manuscript collections held in Special Collections. (Reverend George Walker Smith Papers, Alpha Pi Boule Records, Carlin Integration Case Records, Leon Williams Papers, and Records of the School Integration Task Force). Through photographs, newspaper and magazine articles, letters, legal documents, and brochures in these collections, "Creating Community" illustrates how San Diego's African Americans transitioned from being a small group of geographically scattered individuals and families to the thriving community of today. Education, culture, business, and economics are just some of the many aspects of the community covered in this exhibit. The exhibit will begin January 22nd in the Donor Hall and run through June 15th. Within Special Collections, a complementary exhibit on the history of African Americans at San Diego State will be on display, using items from the University Archives about student organizations, academics, events, athletics, and alumni. To launch these exhibits, Shirley Weber, chair of Africana Studies at SDSU, will discuss “Building African American Communities: A Legacy of Resistance and Resiliency” on February 4 at 5:30 p.m. in Room LL430 of the SDSU Library.

We are also hosting a full schedule of classes once again this semester, and as usual we're really looking forward to meeting new students, showing all the amazing materials we hold here, and teaching strategies for how to find and use them effectively! We wish you a productive Spring Semester, and encourage you to drop by the Reading Room to get to know us better.

The Henry James Manuscript Collection

Special Collections is proud to announce the completion of the Henry James Manuscript Collection. Discovered last year among a backlog of unprocessed manuscript accessions, this collection of fourteen letters from The Master will be a research treasure for James scholars for years to come. John and Jane Adams donated this small collection of manuscripts in 1984 as part of their comprehensive collection of first editions of and scholarship about James.

The collection contains letters from James to five different correspondents: William Colles, Josiah Holland, Leonora Lang, Lady Caroline Blanche Elizabeth Lindsay, and Dame Ellen Terry.

The letters to Dame Terry and to Lady Lindsay are particularly intriguing. Terry, a beloved British actress, worked with James on his dramatic flop Guy Domville, and asked him in 1895 to write a play for her, which became Summersoft and later the story Covering End. She paid one hundred pounds for it at the time, but they later argued over her rights to the play and their relationship was strained because of this. One of the letters to Terry in this collection (the first page shown here) may allude to an early manuscript of Summersoft. James complained in a letter to H. G. Wells (9 December 1898) that Dame Terry kept the manuscript for "three mortal years"--perhaps the letter in this collection may pardon Dame Terry of this, as here James assures her, "Don't take the trouble to send back my Scenario." The notes contained in the collection will certainly give new insight into this interesting relationship.

The letters to Lady Lindsay are equally fascinating, and give glimpses into James's thoughts on a range of topics, including publishing, friendships, and travel. Lady Lindsay was a socialite, artist, musician, and writer, and published many volumes of poetry and short fiction during her friendship with James. Steven H. Jobe, James scholar and author of The Online Calendar of the Letters of Henry James and a Biographical Register of Henry James's Correspondents, reports that SDSU's James collection is particularly useful because "none of the SDSU letters to Lady Lindsay are even hinted at" in the papers of Leon Edel, James biographer and editor.

Also present in the colleciton are an early manuscript book review, and letters from both William James and Henry James, Sr.(the latter concerning his views on spiritualism). Please stop by Special Collections to take a look at this important new collection!

Meet the Bookeye!

Last week, Special Collections was delighted to receive the newest member of our team--the latest walkup model of the Bookeye, an amazing overhead image scanner. With the Bookeye, patrons in our Reading Room will be able to easily digitize images from items in our collections, then email these images to a valid email address, or save the images to a USB drive (a jump drive/flash drive/thumb drive).

Images can be created at low (100dpi), medium (300 dpi), or high (400 dpi) resolution. (600 dpi scans may soon be available on the Bookeye, but are still available for order in Special Collections). After scanning, images can be easily manipulated in the Edit feature. Here, you can zoom in to a high level of page detail, and crop the image to include just the portion you wish. Images can be scanned as jpeg, rtf, png, or pdf files, and you can even make searchable pdfs right from the machine--an incredible option when scanning a large body of material or when completing research on limited time. Most amazingly, files can be saved as auto-read mp3s for visually disabled patrons.

The Bookeye has a extremely user-friendly touch-screen interface, and though Special Collections staff will always be on hand to walk you through the process, it's easy to get comfortable with the scanner right away. Perhaps the best part about the Bookeye is that all scanning is free. Print copies of digital files will still be available at $.10 each. Special Collections staff will evaluate each item you'd like to copy for copyright and fragility reasons, but most items from the collections will be possible to scan. We'll also help you set up bound items in the cradle for the best possible binding support.
Come by Special Collections and try out the Bookeye!

We'll be closed for Thanksgiving!

Special Collections and University Archives will close at 5pm on Wednesday, November 26th for the Thanksgiving break. We'll reopen Monday, December 1st at 10am.

The images here come from the John and Jane Adams Postcard Collection, which is an extraordinary collection for both its size and its scope. The Postcard Collection has over 200,000 rare examples of postcards from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, and not only includes traditional travel-themed postcards, but also a huge, highly varied range of topical postcards. Holiday greetings make up a large portion of this topical series, but postcards are also grouped under interesting headings like "Lovers," "Farming," "Disasters," "Women's Suffrage," and "Political Cartoons." Postcards and similar ephemera can be used as primary sources in a wide range of American historical and cultural research, such as the history of holidays, sentiment, nationalism, feminism, technology, advertising, religion, and travel and tourism.

John and Jane Adams spent a lifetime collecting American ephemera, and donated their incredible collections to Special Collections in the 1980s. Other collections we're grateful to have include the John and Jane Adams Trade Card Collection (coming soon in digital form!), the John and Jane Adams Greeting Card Collection, and the John and Jane Adams Autograph Album Collection. These benefactors are also responsible for a wonderful collection of artwork, as well as the valuable Henry James Book and Manuscripts Collections.

Thirtieth Anniversary of the Jonestown Tragedy

This week marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Peoples Temple massacre at Jonestown in Guyana. Special Collections holds a large collection related to Peoples Temple, including audiotape transcripts and summaries, audiotapes, photocopies of original unclassified documents from the federal government, and newspaper and magazine articles related to Peoples Temple. The two largest portions of the collection are the audiotape transcripts and summaries, prepared by SDSU Religious Studies professor Rebecca Moore and Fielding M. McGehee III of the Jonestown Institute, and the unclassified government documents obtained by Moore and McGehee through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The materials of this collection are extremely powerful primary sources. The transcripts, including those of phone calls and radio broadcasts from Jonestown and Jim Jones, are especially important documents for future scholarship about the massacre, the people of Jonestown, and the study of alternative religious movements.

Image "Jonestown Houses" from The Jonestown Report.

The University Archives Photograph Collection

The University Archives Photograph Collection
includes over 30,000 photographs, negatives and slides as well as glass negatives and lantern slides. The images depict San Diego State University throughout its history, from its beginnings as a Normal School in the late 1800s and early 1900s, to when it was San Diego State Teachers College, to today - the largest campus in the California State University system. Also included in the collection are images of the San Diego area.

The collection continues to grow as SDSU offices and departments deposit their materials. SDSU student assistants are working to scan the remainder of the collection and have completed nearly three-quarters of it. Students are also assisting in the creation of descriptive keywords and other information about each photograph in order to make the collection fully searchable.

This Friday: "Lost and Found" Interactive Exhibit Opening

This Friday, October 17th, from 3pm-5pm, Special Collections will be hosting a unique interactive opening for "Lost and Found," an exhibit of book arts projects from students in Michele Burgess' Art of the Book I and II classes. This event is part of the San Diego Festival of the Book, co-sponsored by San Diego Book Arts and University of California-San Diego.

Back in March, Michele's students browsed the shelves of Compact Storage in the Library Addition Basement, and selected an outdated or obscure book that somehow spoke to them. After finding a book, they were asked to respond to the contents of the book by making a new dustjacket for it, along with inserts to be placed inside the book.

The conditions: the dustjacket and inserts must be completely reversible, must not harm the book in any way, and must fuse together the subject matter, the physical book, and their personal experiences to create a new and provocative book object and "visual conversation." The results were truly fantastic--the students responded in energetic and thought-provoking ways, breathing new life into these books and fashioning items that are incredibly original and imaginative.

At the interactive exhibit opening, the books will be placed in their original call number spots in Compact Storage in the Library Addition Basement, and visitors will have the opportunity to browse the shelves, keeping an eye out for these remarkable creations and leafing through their pages to experience the magic. Please join us if you can, to see (among others) a book about Arctic exploration "encased" in ice, a nineteenth-century guidebook to Turkey in the form of a time machine, a rhyming dictionary turned dialogue between rappers, and many more delightful creations.

Our last time in May was great fun! But if you're not able to join us for the reception, don't despair--we will be installing these wonderful items in exhibit cases outside of Compact between October 20-December 31. Some new projects from Michele's Art of the Book II classes will also be on display, and include samples from a project on "altered" books.

De Facto Segregation in San Diego: the Carlin Integration Case Records

Special Collections is pleased to announce that the Carlin Integration Case Records are available for research! The Carlin Integration Case spanned three decades, and sought to improve the ethnic balance and multi-cultural curriculum in San Diego city schools.

In 1967, parents filed a class action lawsuit against the San Diego Unified School District for alleged inequalities of educational opportunities for students of all ethnic backgrounds. These inequalities were the result of unfair housing patterns and a neighborhood school policy. The plaintiffs filed the suit in the name of ten children who represented four ethnic groups (Caucasian, African-American, Chicano, and Asian-American).

In 1977, Judge Welsh ordered the San Diego Unified School District to develop a detailed voluntary plan to alleviate racial segregation in twenty-three city schools. Then, in 1978, he created the School Integration Task Force to assess and monitor the school district's progress. In response to Judge Welsh's order, the Board of Education began improving existing school integration programs, and implementing new ones such as the Voluntary Ethnic Enrollment Program, the Magnet Program, and the Race/Human Relations Commission. Although the Board's plan changed the ethnic composition of city schools, very little social integration occurred, and an achievement gap still existed between the Caucasian majority students and the minority students.

The Carlin Integration Case Records include nearly three decades of court proceedings and research regarding segregation in San Diego City Schools. The records include court transcripts, briefs and court orders, correspondence, maps and charts of ethnic imbalance, various committee reports, court exhibits and depositions, declarations, interrogatories, enrollment statistics, student testing result studies, trial notes, news clippings, and information concerning similar court cases. The collection is divided into two series: Research Files and Court Records.

A Civil War Soldier's Perspective: the Asa Sackman Diaries

The Asa Sackman Diaries offer a wonderful account of a Civil War soldier's daily life. Asa Sackman was a private in the 44th Regiment, Company G, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Captain John M. Newkirk during the Civil War. He entered service at age 22, fought for three years, and transferred to Company G, 8th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry on January 4, 1864. His status in the Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio is listed as "veteran."

This collection consists of seven manuscript diaries, written while Asa Sackman was serving in the 44th Regiment. The diaries date from October 1861, his first month of service, to August 1862. Sackman writes almost daily about the company's movements and actions, the weather, scouting food, and camp conditions. He occasionally describes encounters with Confederate troops. In one diary, he details the punishments for unruly soldiers and deserters: "the court marchel is over and the sentance was red of at dressperade one Pattric Hart was disonerable discharged from the sirvis for offences to noumerous to mension he belonged to Co. A 44th regment and one in the ohio cavelry regment was to be kept at hard labor during his tirm of sirvis and forfit half of his pay and the other half was to be payed to his wife for dissirting...." The manuscript notes on the diary covers list several camps in western Virginia, including Camp Piatt and Meadow Bluffs.

Welcome Back!

Special Collections and University Archives would like to welcome students, faculty, and staff back to SDSU for Fall Semester 2008!

Special Collections is, quite simply, the coolest place on campus! We are home to over 60,000 rare books, over 500 manuscript and archival collections, and half a million other items like photographs, postcards, prints, and ephemera. We are also the home of the San Diego State University Archives. Special Collections is your first stop to discover awesome primary sources on the history of San Diego and dozens of other subjects. Stop by our website to explore our holdings using the Finding Aid Database and the Library's Catalog, then stop in our Reading Room to experience the materials hands-on and up-close. Don't know what you need to see? Stop in to consult with one of our librarians, and we'll match you with the collections best for your research.

We're looking forward to an exciting and busy year in Special Collections. We have several fascinating exhibits coming up to watch out for. "Nate Harrison, The Life, Legend, and Legacy," produced in collaboration with Dr. Seth Mallios and his SDSU Historical Archaeology Field School, this fascinating exhibit will be on display beginning September 15th. Using artifacts from Dr. Mallios' excavation of Harrison's cabin site, the exhibit explores the legends surrounding an African-American pioneer who lived on Palomar Mountain in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

In October, we'll be hosting a reprise of the popular summer exhibit, "Lost and Found" as part of the San Diego Festival of the Book (co-sponsored by UCSD Mandeville Special Collections Library and San Diego Book Arts). On display will be the work of Michele Burgess' Art of the Book I and II students, who created amazing book arts objects using materials from the Library's compact shelving area. Join us on October 17th from 3-5pm, when these books with their new dustjackets and inserts will be placed back on the shelves for a unique interactive exhibit opening! And if you can't make it to the opening, look for these creations on display outside Compact Shelving from October 21-December 31, along with other ingenious student work from Art of the Book classes.

To celebrate Black History Month in February 2009, we'll be featuring an exhibit on the history of African Americans in San Diego. Produced through Presidential Leadership Fund grant, this exhibit will use captivating selections from several newly processed collections (Reverend George Walker Smith Papers, Alpha Pi Boule Records, Carlin Integration Case Records, Leon Williams Papers, and Records of the School Integration Task Force). Stay tuned for news about upcoming lectures, tours, and other events associated with this exhibit.

We'll also be hosting over ten classes in September, from the Departments of Art, History, Rhetoric and Writing Studies, English, and Theatre. We're really looking forward to meeting new students in these classes, showing all the amazing materials we hold here, and teaching strategies for how to find and use them effectively! If you're a faculty member interested in bringing your class to Special Collections, please contact us--we'd love to have you!

Images are from the University Archives Photograph Collections, and show Registration Day in the mid-1950s, the new SDSC site in 1929, and the University Training School in 1905.

Papers of Prominent San Diego Councilman, Leon Williams

Special Collections is pleased to announce access to the Leon William Papers. Leon Williams worked tirelessly for three decades to improve and transform San Diego county. Early in his career, Williams worked for the Urban League, a movement dedicated to "empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream," and became the director for the Neighborhood Youth Corps Program, which helped underprivileged youth in San Diego by offering job placement services and educational opportunities. Williams was also active on the Citizens Interracial Committee (CIC), which worked to combat racism and alleviate racial tension specific to San Diego neighborhoods.

In 1969, Williams became the first African-American elected to the San Diego City Council as a representative for District IV. He later became county supervisor in 1982. As County Supervisor, Williams was president of the California State Association of Counties in 1993, and he was on the board of directors for the National Association of Counties. Both these associations serve to represent county governments before the state and federal legislatures.

During Williams' years in the City Council, he helped initiate the Southeast Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) and the Regional Growth and Planning Review Task Force to promote land use programs in order to revitalize and sustain low to moderate income communities. He similarly co-chaired the City-County Reinvestment Task Force to encourage financial institutions to reinvest in these dilapidated neighborhoods. Williams also established the Martin Luther King Park, and endorsed the downtown redevelopment project.

In addition to (re)development projects, Williams created the Human Relations Commission and the Hate Crimes Registry to tackle racial and religious tensions. He fought for state constitutional reform as a member of the California Constitutional Revision Committee, and helped change the county charter to increase government accountability. Williams' Prevention Policy sought to create long-term solutions for issues such as crime, drugs, welfare, and health concerns. During this time, Williams also taught public policy classes part-time at San Diego State University.

Although Williams worked as a councilman, he was also active with the Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB). In 1976, he began his long tenure with the MTDB, and in 1994 was appointed chairman of the Transit System's board of directors. Williams had always supported the use of public transportation as a means to connect and revitalize San Diego's older neighborhoods, rather than expand into undeveloped areas. He believed the creation of the San Diego Trolley was the best way to achieve this goal. He was also the chairman of the Services Authority for Freeway Emergencies (SAFE), and was responsible for freeway call boxes. He retired from City Council in 1995, and the MTDB in 2005.

The Leon Williams Papers document three decades of William's public service career, and includes news clippings, photos, correspondence, invitations, public appearance forms, public opinions, campaign information, reports, ordinances, plaques, certificates of achievement, various committee files, and conference minutes. During his time on city council, Williams advocated land use programs, revitalization of older neighborhoods, and the use of public transportation. The majority of the material dates from about 1970 to the late 1990's, and highlights these aspects of Williams' career.. The Collection is divided into five series: Campaign Files, Conference Files, Professional Files, Personal Files, and News Clippings. (Excerpt from Finding Aid by Amanda Lanthorne.)