History 506 students will develop interpretive plans for the Pio Pico State Historic Park, located in Whittier, California. The resources included on this page have been selected by the Digital Literacy Librarian for their particular relevance to the course assignment.
Following are some general search strategies – applicable to any archive or repository – to locate digital content for use in your interpretive plans for the Pio Pico State Park project. The tabs to the right focus on suggested repositories, and include any strategies that are more specific to each of those websites and collections.
Search for digital media that pertains to specific present-day and historical place names associated with Pio Pico State Park:
Search for digital media that pertains to specific groupings of people who lived in/hear or interacted with the are over time:
The California focus of Calisphere makes it particularly suited to the course assignment. Calisphere allows you to filer your search results on different facets such as media type (image, text, sound, etc.), and by decade,
After entering your search term(s) on Calisphere, it can be helpful to filter your query by one or any of the following criteria. Each criteria point listed here corresponds to the same number on the screenshot below:
Search Tip: There is no ability to filter on public domain items. A suggested workaround is to use the search term "public domain" in the main search box, or in the option to search within your results. While that will also retrieve items that use the term "public domain" in general item record metadata fields (like a description field that describes public domain land grants), it will also bring up any items that have the term public domain in the rights information metadata field.
The Exhibitions feature on Calisphere can be a useful discovery tool. Each exhibition focuses on a particular theme and curates select digital media that tell story around that theme. You can access the Exhibitions by clicking on that tab in the site-wide navigation menu (shown below with a red arrow). This brings up a random collection of exhibitions. Use the Browse All button (outlined below in the red box) to access all exhibitions.
Pay attention to these particular sections of each Calisphere item record that you review from your search results. The numbers in this list correspond to the numbers displayed on the graphic below.
The Rights Information field on the item record for a circa 1910 photo of a winter orange grove, resides in the public domain. That field is emphasized in the image below with a purple box.
The Rights Information field on the item record for a historic photo of the Pio Pico Branch Library building indicates that the lending institution – in this case, the Los Angeles Public Library – must be contacted to inquire into using this image. That field is emphasized in the image below with a purple box.
The Rights Information field on the item record for a photo of an early 20th century farming scene in Whittier has an unknown copyright status. That field is emphasized in the image below with a purple box.
The California-focus of the California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC) makes it particularly suited to the course assignment. Aside from providing valuable primary source research material, historical newspapers can be used as visual imagery in an interpretive plan and public history programming material, such as: a screenshot of a page or headline, photos and illustrations from the articles, and copies of advertisements.
To identify historical newspapers in the CDNC for a particular location, you can generate a list of publications by California county.
TIP: Although Pio Pico Sate Park is located in Los Angeles County, you may want to look at newspapers from neighboring counties as well.
After entering your search term(s) on CDNC, it can be helpful to filter your query by one or any of the following criteria. Each criteria point listed here corresponds to the same letter on the screenshot below:
A) by newspaper publication title,
B) by news item category (article, illustration, advertisement, etc.), or
C) by publication decade and/or year.
Wikimedia Commons is a digital media repository run by the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia. Many government institutes and cultural heritage organizations, along with individuals, contribute their collections to Wikimedia Commons to make them freely available and more discoverable.
Pay attention to these particular sections of each Wikimedia Commons item record that you review from your search results. The numbers in this list correspond to the numbers displayed on the graphics below.
For the numbered section of this item record, please refer to the explanation above.
For the numbered section of this item record, please refer to the explanation above.
Sanborn Maps were produced by the Sanborn Map Company during the 19th and 20th centuries for use by fire insurance companies in urban areas of the United States and some other countries. These details maps plotted out each structure on each street, waterways, railroads, parks, etc. These provide an excellent look back in time at a city or other urban area, and can be overlaid on top of present day maps using tools like Google Earth.
The Library of Congress provides free access to Sanborn Maps that <strong>reside in the public domain</strong>. Many of these have been digitized and are available online.