New CHS audio and film recordings digitized by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP)

Thanks to the California Audiovisual Preservation Project and the tireless efforts of Pamela Jean Vadakan, ten additional oral histories and two films have been digitized and are available freely on the Internet Archive:

http://archive.org/details/californiahistoricalsociety

These recordings include oral history interviews with California labor activists and printers, including Louise Lambert, Elaine Black Yoneda, and Amadeo R. Tommassini. The jewel in the crown, however, may be the beautifully digitized Tanker (pictured above), a 47-minute color film made for Marinship corporation in 1944 and 1945 documenting (and promoting) the Sausalito shipyard’s wartime operations. Tanker includes historic footage of shipyard workers, their newly built community in Marin City, spectacular launchings, shipbuilding processes and technologies, and a visit from Prince Faisal and other Saudi dignitaries.

Marie Silva

Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian