The World from Here

Treasures of the Great Libraries of Los Angeles

October 17, 2001 - January 13, 2002

: Utagawa Kunitoshi Shinhatsumei nimpu rokutō jūnitai 1880 A Japanese woodblock print depicting the monthly stages of pregnancy.; The World From Here 2001 View of Installation.; The World From Here 2001 View of Installation.; The World From Here 2001 View of Installation.; The World From Here The Royal Game of the Dolphin: An Elegant, Instructive, and Amusing Pastime 1821 An imaginatively designed early children's board game.; The World From Here Myōhō renge kyō, Kenpōtō bon daijūchi 1667 An illustrated manuscript sūtra scroll.; Marcus Elieser Bloch Ichthyologie; ou, Histoire naturelle générale et particulière des poissons 1785-97 The French edition of Bloch's important work on fish.; The World From Here Box of glass eyes c. 1860s A box filled with eyes made of glass.; Robert Hooke Micrographia; or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses 1665 One of the earliest books with engravings based on microscopic observations.; The World from Here Muku jōkō kyō jishin’in darani 764-70 This charm is considered to be the earliest known printed text.; Schempart Buech Illustration c. 1600 A manuscript illustrating the Nuremberg carnival.

About the Exhibition

Amidst Los Angeles's abundance of cultural offerings, the extraordinary holdings of area libraries are commonly overlooked. The World from Here celebrates the remarkable depth and diversity of special collections libraries in Los Angeles county by presenting a wide variety of objects drawn from thirty-two local institutions. These libraries span a great distance: from Santa Monica on the county's west side, to Pomona on the east; from the northern reaches of Northridge, to Long Beach in the South Bay. They also represent various types of institutions, from larger, well-known collections, to more than a dozen university libraries, to a number of libraries devoted to specialized fields, such as film and television, botanical books, and books for the blind. Not surprisingly, these various institutions house a great diversity of rare books, manuscripts, letters, photographs, posters, and works of art ranging from objects as sacred as an eighth-century Buddist scroll to something as quotidian as a nineteenth-century children's board game.

In promoting an awareness of what LA's libraries have to offer, this exhibition increases its audiences' appreciation of the collections and encourages their public use.