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Library News: Special Collections

Small book held with two hands.

Special Collections Staff Favorites: Psalter Marginalia

In 1736, a man named John Gifford began doing something that today might seem too tedious for even the most bored among us. Gifford took his Bible and started counting the letters, syllables, words, verses, chapters, and books within. He then recorded his tallies in a small, 17th-century psalter.

Book cover for Of Mice and Men

Special Collections Staff Favorites: Of Mice and Men 1st Edition

Of Mice and Men was published in 1937 and remains one of Steinbeck’s most celebrated titles. Brendan Morris, special collections assistant, was thrilled to discover a first edition of Of Mice and Men in the Special Collections and Archives during his first week of employment at Payson Library.

Historic aerial photo of Malibu coastline

Malibu History Guide

The Malibu History Guide is now live! This guide contains a number of excellent resources available to research the history of where our university is located.

Image of a donkey with a medallion that reads

Special Collections Staff Favorites: Animals in the Archives

With so many folks working from home, countless images and videos of pets joining humans for their Zoom meetings have made the rounds on social media. Inspired by these unsung heroes keeping their working-from-home humans sane, archivist Kelsey Knox collected her favorite images of pets from our digital collections.

Illustration that read

Special Collections Staff Favorites: The Saint John’s Bible and Holy Week

During Holy Week, Melissa Nykanen, associate university librarian for special collections and university archives, wrote a feature about an Easter story illustration in our Saint John's Bible. The image of the resurrected Christ -- shown above -- is a beacon of light during this challenging time.

Image of soldiers opening letters.

Connecting to Special Collections

When Pepperdine Libraries archivist Kelsey Knox first started her position in 2015, she spent some time browsing the digital collections. She stumbled upon our Korean War Photography by Hanson A. Williams, and when she learned that the photographer had been stationed at Fort Ord at the same time as her grandfather, she began to take a closer look at each picture.

Image of Indiana Jones storyboard

Special Collections Staff Favorites: Indiana Jones Storyboards

Of all the wonderful archival collections housed here at our Special Collections and University Archives, one of the crown jewels is the Michael D. “Micky” Moore Papers. Within the collection is one of special collection assistant Brendan Morris's personal favorite archival resources: the Indiana Jones Storyboards.