Consisting primarily of photographic material by Leonard Nadel from 1947 to 1957, the collection records early efforts by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to promote integrated public housing for the city's growing multi-ethnic population, and also documents several areas of the city that the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) had targeted for commercial revitalization. Nadel's black-and-white negatives, contact prints and two unpublished photographic books form the bulk of the collection, supplemented by handwritten notes and related documents.

The American photojournalist Leonard Nadel was born in Harlem, New York in 1916 to Austrian-Hungarian parents and grew up in the Bronx tenements. After graduating from City College of New York, Nadel trained at the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center and served as a lab technician and combat photographer during World War II in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippine Islands. Upon leaving the army, he returned to New York and received a master's degree in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. He taught briefly before moving to Los Angeles to study photography at the Art Center College of Design, during which time he began photographing public housing sites.

8.75 linear feet (14 boxes)

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Open for use by qualified researchers, except the videocassette tape which is unavailable until reformatted.