Special Collections
Located on Level Three (L3) of the Central Library Goodhue Building
Contact
Phone: 213-228-7350 | E-mail: specialcollections@lapl.org
Make an Appointment
A staff member will contact you within 24 hours, Monday through Friday. We do not accommodate same-day appointments. Virtual appointments (1 hour max.) and weekend appointments are available for patrons unable to visit the library during regular hours.
Hours of Operation
The Special Collections Reading Room is available by appointment between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m, Monday-Friday.
Please note that materials are not available for check-out.
Department Staff
- Ani Boyadjian, Department Manager, Research & Special Collections | 213-228-7223
- Angi Brzycki, Senior Librarian, Special Collections | 213-228-7357
Materials & Collections
Photo Collection
The Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection contains images from the 1850s to the present, documenting all aspects of life in Southern California, with an emphasis on Los Angeles.
Map Collection
The map collection is located in the History Department and contains more than 225,000 physical items, including local, national and international cartography.
TESSA
The Special Collections Department manages Los Angeles Public Library’s rare books, archives, and many of the library’s digital collections viewed on LAPL's digital collections, TESSA. Reproductions and reuse requests can be made by visiting TESSA.
Online Archive of California
Finding aids for our vast collection of archival collections, photographs, maps, rare books, prints, artists' books, travel posters, restaurant menus, fashion plates, book plates, fruit crate labels, manuscripts, and much more.
More About Special Collections
The Special Collections Reading Room holds rare and archival materials on a wide variety of subjects, with a focus on Los Angeles communities.
Collections include:
- African American history
- Autograph Collection
- Book Arts Collection
- Bookplate Collection
- Brockman Gallery Archive
- California Prints Collection
- Culinary history
- Fruit Crate Labels
- George B. Smith Biblioteca Taurina (Bullfighting Collection)
- Gladys English Collection of American Children’s Book Illustration
- Japanese Prints Collection
- Leo Politi Collection
- Los Angeles history
- Los Angeles Public Library Institutional Archive
- Los Angeles Resistance Collection
- Lydia R. Otero Archive
- Lummis’s Californiana and Mexicana Collections
- Menu Collection
- M.F.K. Fisher Correspondence Collection
- Photographs
- Rare Books
- Rare Maps