Consisting primarily of photographic materials created by Leonard Nadel from 1947 to 1957, the archive records early efforts by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to create public housing for the city's growing 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 Nadel's black-and-white negatives, contact prints, and two unpublished photographic books form the bulk of the material, supplemented by handwritten notes and related documents.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. His parents worked in the garment district. After graduating from City College of New York, Nadel trained at the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center (SPCP) in Astoria, New York, and then served as a lab technician and combat photographer during World War II in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippine Islands. After leaving the army, he returned to New York and earned 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 this time he began photographing public housing sites.

8.75 Linear Feet (14 boxes)

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions.

Open for use by qualified researchers.