Preservation Assessment for the Anthony Quinn Collection, Chicano Resource Center

FAIN: PG-52001-13

Chicano Resource Center, County of LA Public Library (Los Angeles, CA 90022-1601)
Andrew Chlebek (Project Director: May 2012 to September 2014)

A preservation assessment and the purchase of preservation supplies for the Anthony Quinn Collection, housed in the East Los Angeles branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. The grant would also support staff participation in a four-week course, "Fundamentals of Preservation," offered online. Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca, born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and raised in El Paso, Texas, and Los Angeles, became a leading Hollywood actor by the 1940s. His collection of personal papers and memorabilia, which he donated to the library in 1987, totals 2,000 items, including original correspondence, film scripts, photographs, tape-recorded interviews, and commendation plaques. These primary sources provide documentation on numerous other prominent figures in the entertainment industry as well as on the business and inner workings of feature filmmaking during the mid-to-late 20th century.

The Anthony Quinn Collection, administered by the County of Los Angeles Public Library's Chicano Resource Center, is a collection of correspondence, photographs, awards, memorabilia, and audio/visual materials from the late actor Anthony Quinn. The collection is used in library exhibits, museum exhibitions and as a tool to educate Latino youth about their culture. The goal of this project is to attend to the collection's preservation needs by conducting a preservation assessment, training staff on basic archival techniques, and placing the collection in proper archival storage. Professional conservators from Hudson Conservation Studio, LLC will perform the assessment and provide a report with recommendations for proper storage and handling of the materials, as well as preservation supplies. Improving the storage conditions of the collection will help preserve it and enable us to make it more accessible to scholars and the general public.