As we gear up for a summer of reading, the Los Angeles Public Library has many books that dive into the great stories of Los Angeles–and some will even put you right on the beach. In Naomi Hirahara and Geraldine Knatz’s Terminal Island: Lost Communities of Los Angeles Harbor, you can learn about the history of our local waterfront, including L.A.’s best beach in 1900 and how the battle between competing harbors changed our beaches today. This book is part of a collection from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, a partner of the Library Foundation. Learn more about Dr. Haynes in Tom Sitton’s book John Randolph Haynes, California Progressive, and check out other books from this special collection below to learn more about some of the people that made L.A. and made history along the way.
—California Initiatives and Referendums, 1912-1990: A Survey and Guide to Research by John M. Allswang
—Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America by Douglas Flamming
—John Randolph Haynes, California Progressive by Tom Sitton
—The Courthouse Crowd: Los Angeles County and Its Government, 1850-1950 by Tom Sitton
—Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles by Raphael Sonenshein
If you want to learn more about local history, check out the LAPL’s photo collection, which includes the archival photo above, part of the Kelly-Holiday Collection of Negatives and Photographs made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. Browse this special collection here.
