About California Cultures

California Cultures documents California's rich history of diversity and multicultural contributions. This collection — including photographs, documents, newspaper clippings, political cartoons, works of art, oral histories, and other primary sources — draws from Calisphere’s total content, and also features more than 20,000 specially digitized primary sources from charter contributors.

Ethnic Groups

The California Cultures project was specially charged with correcting the historic lack of digitized primary source materials for four major ethnic groups:

• African Americans
• Asian Americans
• Hispanic Americans
• Native Americans

Primary source sets tell their stories, struggles, and contributions in the context of California and national history.

Historical Eras

Comprehensive essays and related images explore California’s evolving ethnic diversity:

• Pre-Columbian California (before 1768)
• Exploration (1768 - 1820)
• Missions (1821 - 1847)
• Gold rush (1848 - 1865)
• Rapid Population Growth (1866 - 1920)
• Modern California (1921 - present)

Related Lesson Plans

These teacher-created lesson plans for grades 4-12 build on selected images in California Cultures. Use them just as they are, or as springboards for your own creative ideas.

• Los Californios: California's Spanish, Native American, and African Heritage. (Grade 4)
• Children in the Fields: The Life of the Hispanic Child Laborer During California's Agriculture Explosion (Grade 4)
• "How Do Men Like You Become Great?" The Early Years of Dr. Ralph J. Bunche (Grades 4-8)
• Stealing Home: How Race Relations, Politics, and Baseball Transformed Chavez Ravine (Grades 8-12)
• The Prints of Self Help Graphics: The Chicano Movement in California — Culture, Causes, and Community (Grades 9-12)

History of California Cultures

California Cultures was created by the scholars and curators of the University of California in response to H.R. 1905, an appropriation from the US Congress through Library of Congress’s American Memory program, which made funds available to digitize archival materials relating to the ethnic groups of California.

Charter Contributors

More than 20,000 primary sources in California Cultures were initially selected from the libraries and special collections at University of California campuses. California Cultures continues to grow. We thank the following charter contributors for sharing their resources for this project:

UC Berkeley:

The Bancroft Library
Regional Oral History Office

UC Davis:

Special Collections

UC Irvine:

Special Collections and Archives

UCLA:

Department of Special Collections
Fowler Museum
Oral History Program
Clark Memorial Library

UC Riverside:

Special Collections Library

UC San Diego:

Mandeville Special Collections Library

UC San Francisco:

Special Collections

UC Santa Barbara:

California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives
Oral History Program

UC Santa Cruz:

Special Collections and Archives, University Library