The Rare Books Department

Located on Level Three (L3) of the Goodhue Building.

Phone: (213) 228-7350  |  Fax: (213) 228-7239  |  E-mail (form)

Department Staff

• Youngsil Lee, Acting Department Manager (213) 228-7102
• Sheila Nash, Senior Librarian (213) 228-7242

Materials & Collections

Rare books has over 16,000 volumes predominately in English and Spanish, dating from the fifteenth century. The majority of materials were published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Core Collections

• California History
• Mexicana
• Bullfighting
• Pacific voyages
• Food and wine
• Costume
• Travel in North America, Europe and the Near East
• History of the book and printing
• Ornithology
• American Indians

Special Collections

• Casey Fashion Plate Collection
• Tom Owen Collection of Bookplate Art
• Japanese Prints 
• California Prints
• Book Arts
• Menu Collection
• Paul Fritzche Collection of Culinary Literature
• Cookery Ephemera Collection
• Fruit Crate Labels
• Lummis Autograph Collection
• Gladys English Collection of American Children's Book Illustration
• Behymer Opera Collection
• Photographs

Hours of Operation

The Rare Books Department is only open by appointment. Please note that materials are not available for check-out.