BY MICHAEL STETZ

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2011 AT 9:41 A.M.

The San Diego History Center has been awarded a grant of $162,024 from the Council on Library & Information Resources, which will ultimately help scholars and the general public gain better access to much of the center’s wide-ranging collection.

“We possess a vast array of materials that tell the story of San Diego and we are making extraordinary efforts to properly catelog this material and provide access to everyone with interest in San Diego’s past,” said David Kahn, executive director of the History Center.

The center’s research holdings include millions of documents, over 2.5 million photographs and major collections of maps, ephemera, oral histories and other materials related to the evolution of San Diego from the 18th century to the present, according to a center news release.

Much of this is currently unknown to researchers, it added.The grant will help improve access to 133 of the center’s 284 collections. According to the center, collections that will undergo improvement include: 

 

  • 1915 Panama-California Exhibition
  • Women’s temperance movements
  • Spanish and Mexican-era land grants, local election results and voter lists
  • Railroad, aqueduct and Eward Fletcher’s water supply projects 

 

The Council on Library and Information Resources, based in Washington, D.C., is an independent, nonprofit organization that helps improve the management of information for research, teacher and learning, according to the San Diego History Center. The San Diego History Center is based in Balboa Park. Founded in 1928, it’s one of the oldest such institutions in California.