UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library

UCLA Professor of Law Emeritus Benjamin Aaron's principal field of study was labor law and industrial relations with a special emphasis on comparative labor law. Materials include arbitration case files, conference files, documents pertaining to Aaron's involvement in the National Academy of Arbitrators, the Industrial Relations Research Association, and the International Society of Labor Law and Social Security, correspondence, UAW Public Review Board documents, publications authored by and collected by Aaron, drafts of Aaron's memoirs, and files concerning the UCLA Ad Hoc Committee chaired by Aaron to examine three allegations against Acting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Angela Y. Davis.

Fremont Ackerman worked as an engineer for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in Montana. He later established his own business as a civil engineer and surveyor in the Southern California area. The collection consists of field books, maps, drawings, correspondence, and business papers related to Fremont Ackerman's work with the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad in Montana and his activities as a civil engineer and surveyor in the Los Angeles region.

Masaru Akahori was a writer, businessman, and an active member of the Japanese American community. He worked for several different Japanese language newspapers both in Japan and in the United States. He was also involved in numerous business ventures, many of which ended in failure. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was arrested on suspicion of being an enemy alien and incarcerated in various internment camps until March 1946. In the postwar years, he resettled his family in Los Angeles, and founded the "Town Crier," a Japanese language daily, in Little Tokyo. The collection consists of his diaries, memoirs, correspondence, business and financial records, and clippings from the many publications to which he contributed. It also includes diaries and letters written by his second wife Kiku, and various personal records relating to the Akahori family. Materials are in both English and Japanese.

Henry Wilson Allen was born September 29, 1912 in Kansas City, Missouri; wrote more than fifty western novels for adults and children; during 1930s worked as a stablehand, shop clerk, and gold miner; became screenwriter for MGM in 1937; published western novels under the pseudonyms Clay Fisher and Will Henry; works include: No Survivors, From Where the Sun Now Stands, Seven Legends West, and The Ballad of Billy Bonney; eight of his books were adapted as motion pictures; died October 26, 1991 in Van Nuys, California. The collection consists of writings by Henry Allen, including manuscripts, galleys, cover art, published books and reviews, as well as business and personal correspondence.

Ryichir Arai was born in 1855 and came to New York in 1876 to start the direct export of silk. Ryichir Arai, Toyo Morimura, and Morimoto Sato were founders of Japanese American Trade, and they promoted closer relations between Japan and the United States. Yoneo Arai, son of Ryichir Arai, has served as Resident Representative of The Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Company, Ltd. United States Fire Branch, a director of Japan Society, Vice president of the Japan Society, and Chairman of the Board, Yamaichi Securities Company of New York., Inc. The collection consists of personal and business papers of Ryichir Arai and his son, Yoneo Arai. They also include Arai family photographs. Portions of this collection are in Japanese.

Austin was born in 1894. He was Commander of the 752nd Military Police Battalion of Tule Lake, California from 1943-45. He retired from the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant Colonel. Collection contains records of events and exhibits related to the internment of Japanese Americans at Camp Tule Lake, California between October 1943 and October 1945. Includes copies of official files, biographical materials related to Col. Verne Austin and personal correspondence. Also contains scattered issues of the following newspapers published in the Tule Lake relocation Center: The Tulean Dispatch, Newell Star, and Tsurureiki Shimp. Materials in this collection are primarily in English, with some in Japanese.

Collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera by and about H.H. Bancroft and Co. and A.L. Bancroft and Co. Ruth Frey Axe compiled the collection to complete the Bancroft publications checklist started by Henry Wagner and Eleanor Bancroft.

Ayres & Fiege was a prolific Los Angeles architectural firm founded in 1946 by Donald Ayres and Herbert F. Fiege. The collection consists of the firm's architectural drawings, plans, and specifications from school, church, commercial and residential projects.

Mae Babitz (1911-2003) illustrated architectural landmarks of Los Angeles from 1940 to 1970 and was instrumental in saving Simon Rodia's Watts Towers from destruction. The collection includes artwork as well as personal correspondence and correspondence with the City of Los Angeles with respect to exhibitions, acquisitions and saving the Towers. Babitz is most known for mid-century illustrations of Los Angeles architecture, some of the only surviving records of buildings that no longer exist. Examples include buildings at Bunker Hill, the Bradbury Building, Hollywood Hotel, Watts Towers, and various Victorian homes. A self-trained artist, Babitz used pencil, quill and ink on watercolor paper; she painted at site, primarily of Victorian buildings. After many years of working to get the City of Los Angeles to acquire Babitz's artwork for posterity, her daughter, Mirandi Babitz donated the materials to UCLA in 2006. Collection consists of extensive personal and professional correspondence, personal photographs, loose papers, exhibition fliers and booklets, newspaper and magazine clippings and ephemera of Mae Babitz's life as an artist. In addition to personal and work related papers, the collection includes over 70 illustrations that were shown in galleries and public buildings, and many other earlier sketches and drawings. Also included are correspondence and internal documentation related to and generated by the Committee for Simon Rodia's Towers in Watts.