Cycles of Drought and Flood

“And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and when the wet years returned, they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”

—John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Alongside its promise of idyllic weather, California delivers cycles of floods and droughts. Our climate history demonstrates stretches of drought interspersed with heavy—and sometimes catastrophic—rains.

As our state struggles through a five-year drought and an El Nino winter, we find ourselves in the seemingly paradoxical period of simultaneous flooding and drought. And, as B. Lynn Ingram and Frances Malamud-Roam write in The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow, “Climatologists now speak in terms of even deeper droughts, and larger and more frequent floods, for the future.”

Two images in the California Historical Society’s collection exemplify these two climatic events.

The 7th-Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar

Saturday, October 27, 2012, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The 7th-Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar

Free Event at Doheny Memorial Library, University of Southern California

3550 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089

Visit the California Historical Society at the LA History Bazaar at USC. Learn about our Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Collection and the Title Insurance and Trust Company (TICOR) Collection as well as ongoing California Historical Society projects and our archives.

Los Angeles history comes alive at the 7th-annual Los Angeles ArchivesBazaar. Organized by L.A. as Subject and presented by the USC Libraries, the annual event celebrates the diversity of Southern California’s history. For scholarly researchers, journalists, history buffs, and those simply interested in exploring the stories of Los Angeles, discovery awaits everyone at the Archives Bazaar. This event is free and open to the public.

The Archives Bazaar draws its strength from the breadth and variety of its participants’ collections. Large institutions such as the Autry National Center of the American West and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will be represented at the bazaar along with smaller organizations and private collections whose materials fill the gaps left in the city’s official history. Other participating organizations include the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, the California African American Museum, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, and the Japanese American National Museum. In all, more than 70 archives are expected to be represented.

White Wash

Sunday, September 16, 2012, 2:00 PM.

White Wash 

Film Screening and Discussion

Free Event at the Santa Monica Public Library Main Branch’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Auditorium, 601 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica, CA

Seating is limited for this special screening. Guests should arrive in a timely manner, as seating will be offered on first come, first serve basis.

White Wash explores the history of African Americans and water culture, from slavery and civil rights wade-ins to surfing in contemporary times. This 2011 documentary includes archival footage and interviews with professional surfers, and features the historic beach site known as the “Ink Well.” A discussion with director Ted Woods, historian Alison Rose Jefferson and blacksurfing.com founder, Rick Blocker follows the screening. The California Historical Society is proud to join Heal the Bay, The Santa Monica Conservancy and the NAACP to sponsor the White Wash documentary screening event.