The USC Digital Archive helps to fulfill the mission of the USC Libraries to select, collect, preserve and make accessible high quality digital images of unique materials with metadata to support research, and provides a “gateway” to resources on Los Angeles and Southern California. A portion of the images contained in the Digital Archive come from the collections of collaborating institutions which, like USC, have valuable archival collections related to the history and culture of the region; the university's powerful infrastructure provides a host environment for our partners.

Spanning a wide range of visual media, the USC Digital Archive offers digital images of drawings, illuminated manuscripts, maps, photographs, posters, prints, rare illustrated books, as well as audio and video recordings. Encompassing the subject strengths of the vast collections of the libraries at the University of Southern California, these materials represent the applied sciences, fine and decorative arts, history, performing arts, and social sciences.

The USC Digital Archive now offers broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents that provides maximum access to relevant, authoritative, and scholarly resources. It also allows individuals to pursue learning at their own personal levels of interest, ability and desire.

Collections

The list of digitized collections includes material from historical societies, other libraries, newspapers, as well as a host of material from the USC Libraries.

Particular emphasis has been placed on materials related to Los Angeles and the Southern California Region, the Western United States and the Pacific Rim.

The USC Digital Archive continues to evolve as more visual collections are added, and navigation is enhanced. The collections in the USC Digital Archive represent a small fraction of the USC Libraries’ overall visual holdings.