Autry National Center

Braun Research Library

The Braun Research Library was established over 100 years ago as part of the Southwest Museum, Inc. The library collections provide the research materials necessary to place the museum collections in their cultural and historical contexts. Today, the library continues to supports the activities of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian and the broader mission of the Autry National Center.

The strength of the library’s holdings including its special collections and research material also provide a context for the study of native peoples of the Americas including their art, literature, history, culture and archaeology. This renowned collection includes approximately 50,000 books and serials, 2,000 sound recordings, 3,000 maps, more than 147,000 historic photographs, 3,000 works of art on paper, and 700 manuscript collections.

Books and Serials:

• Strong in the fields of ethnology, archaeology, linguistics, folklore, and the history of Arizona, California, and the Southwest
• Works on tribal histories, government, and social life and customs of the native peoples of the Americas
• Publications in English, Spanish, German, and French, as well as Native American languages
• see Library Catalog

Photo Archives:

• Important resource for the study of Native American tribes of the Great Plains, California, and the Southwest, as well as the history of the Southwest and Southern California
• Photographs relating to the history, culture, and archaeology of Eskimos and Native Americans from other regions of the United States and Mexico
• See Collections Online
• Page for rights and reproductions  - with a hyperlink

Sound Recording Archives:

• Includes a unique collection of 990 wax cylinder recordings. Of those more than 700 recordings are of Mexican American and Native American songs recorded by Charles F. Lummis between 1895 and 1912 in the Southern California area. Believed to be the first recordings of Mexican American folk songs in California.  Audio sample: La Zorita, wax cylinder recording.
• See Collections Online

Manuscript Collections:

• Strong in local history and the early history of American anthropology and archaeology
• Major collections include the papers of Charles F. Lummis, George Wharton James, and the anthropological papers of Frank Hamilton Cushing, Frederick Webb Hodge, George Bird Grinnell, Alanson Skinner, and Walter McClintock
• The James, Lummis and McClintock collections provide documentation for their ethnographic collections
• The Mark R. Harrington, Campbell Collection and Edwin Walker collections also provide documentation for the Southwest Museum archaeological expeditions dating between 1929 and the early 1950s

Works of Art on Paper

• The library house more than 3,000 works of art on paper including drawing of Southwest Museum objects done during a WPA project in the late 1930’s works by Native American Artists and western artist
• The Eva Scott Fenyes watercolors of California adobes and Missions date between 1898 and 1930. There are more than 300 paintings, some of the images are the only known representation of the historic adobes.
• Also included in this collections are ledgerbook drawings and include work by Howling Wolf, Zo Tom and Tom Bird
• See Collections Online

The Braun Research Library Reading Room at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian.

Access to the Braun Research Library is by appointment only. Appointments for research are available Mondays - Fridays, 9 am - 5 pm (holidays excluded). Please see the research rules and application for more details.

 The library is located at the Arroyo Campus, Southwest Museum of the American Indian, Los Angeles, California.

Contact Us
You may contact a librarian to ask a question or get more information about the collections:

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone: 323.221.2164 ext. 255
Mail: Braun Research Library
234 Museum Drive
Los Angeles, Ca. 90065

Charles Fletcher Lummis Manuscript Collection
The Charles Fletcher Lummis Manuscript Collection is composed of his personal correspondence with over 5,000 individuals, diaries and journals. Scrapbooks of newspaper and magazine articles either by or about him. The Land of Sunshine and Out West Series contain copies of articles and artwork which appeared in the magazines. The Los Angeles Public Library Series relates to when Lummis was City Librarian and includes reports to the Board of Commissioners and memos to the Library Staff. The Spanish Songs series includes the musical transcriptions by Arthur Farwell of many of the wax cylinder recordings, and documentation about Lummis “Old Spanish Songs of California” musical edition. The Sequoya League Series includes documentation for the Cupeno removal from Warner’s Ranch in 1903 to their current home on the Pala Reservation. (can we put a hyperlink to collections online since this series has been digitized?) There are also series which relate to Lummis' publications, and include some original manuscripts.

Frank Hamilton Cushing Collection

Illustration of Frank Hamilton Cushing in full dress as a Zuni War Chief, from Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine 24, 1882. Braun Research Library, Autry National Center.

Frank Hamilton Cushing was an ethnographer and early participant observer to the Pueblo of Zuni, where he lived from 1879-1884. He was adopted into the Zuni tribe and was a member of the Bow Priest Society. During the late 1880's he interested wealthy socialite Mary Hemenway into funding an archaeological expedition to find the origins of the Zuni people. The project began in 1887 with the excavation at Los Muertos, AZ and then moved to the Zuni Reservation. Cushing became ill and was removed from the Project in 1889. He continued to work for the Bureau of American Ethnology during this time and until his death in 1900. He also worked on the Pepper-Hearst Archaeological Expedition to Florida (1891-1896) where they excavated the Key Marcos site.

The Cushing Collection is composed of his personal correspondence, diaries, notes, Zuni language cards, maps, business documents, drafts of manuscripts and lectures, page proofs, reprints of articles by Cushing, and published works such as newspaper articles, ephemera, photographs and other works written about Cushing.