California and American West History, Politics, and Cultures is a collecting area consisting predominantly of the William Wyles Collection. William Wyles was a businessman and avid collector of books about Abraham Lincoln and other related memorabilia. In 1928, he arranged for the transfer of the growing collection to Santa Barbara College. When the college transitioned to UCSB in 1944, the Wyles collection became a founding collection for the Library’s Special Collections.
The collection contains a wide range of material dealing with the history of the West, mainly in the nineteenth century. Included in the collection are books, newspapers and magazines, maps, photographs, documents, correspondence, diaries, and artifacts. The collection has more than 40,000 volumes and several hundred manuscript collections on a variety of subjects, including: Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, slavery, abolition, Western and Pacific expansion, travel in America, and the American West. There are also several hundred separate manuscript collections and over 1000 Small Collections, containing correspondence, diaries, and photos of individuals and families, many with Civil War connections. It is the largest collection on the West Coast devoted exclusively to Lincoln, the American Civil War and its origins, and American westward expansion.
Collecting Priorities
The collection continues to reflect its donor’s original interests, but it also seeks to keep abreast of current research interests, including the history of women, Indigenous populations, minoritized communities, and LGBTQ+ in the West throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.
We are currently actively seeking materials relating to:
- Asian communities and impact on the development of the West
- Native American/Indigenous perspectives and experiences in the West
- Mexican government in Alta California
- Women on the Frontier
- Slavery, and abolition movements in the West
- Impacts of the Civil War on the West
Selective Collecting Areas
- People and communities throughout the US during the Civil War
- Westward migration and Manifest Destiny
- Railroad development and expansion
- California Gold Rush
- Papers and collected materials from local authors on related subjects
Selectively Collected Materials
- Books, newspapers, newsletters, magazines, pamphlets, etc. published and distributed for audiences in the West (in any language), or that pertain to the above collecting priorities based on the rarity of their content (not form) as well as their research or instruction value.
- Collections of photographs or photo albums with clear provenance (eg. creators, subjects, locations provided)
Exclusions
- Exploration of the Pacific and West
- Spanish exploration and colonization
- Single items, such as photographs or maps
- Personal libraries of published materials
- Artifacts, objects, or other realia
- Government documents
Curator
Angel Diaz
