The J. D. Black Papers (CSLA-15) contain photographs, publications, correspondence, and organizational records related to J. D. Black's career and business in Big Pine, California. Of particular value are the records of the reparations organizations of Big Pine active during the Owens Valley Water Wars of the 1920s and the photographs documenting life in the mining towns of California's eastern Sierras and western Nevada.

John David Black was born in 1893 to a pioneer family of California's Owens Valley of the eastern Sierra Nevadas. J. D.'s father, John, established a store in Bishop in 1888 that J. D. continued to run at least until the 1950s. In 1902, still retaining the family home and store in Bishop, the Blacks moved to nearby Big Pine, where John opened another store, which eventually came under J. D. Black's management and remained in business until 1948. John participated in other business enterprises, such as a saloon, and father and son also held mining property jointly, as well as individual mines.

22 archival document boxes, 14 oversize boxes

Materials in the Department of Archives and Special Collections may be subject to copyright. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, Loyola Marymount University does not claim ownership of the copyright of any materials in its collections. The user or publisher must secure permission to publish from the copyright owner. Loyola Marymount University does not assume any responsibility for infringement of copyright or of publication rights held by the original author or artists or his/her heirs, assigns, or executors.

The J. D. Black Papers are part of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles Research Collection, a program of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University. The Research Collection is administered by the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University. The J. D. Black Papers are open to research under the terms of use of the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University.