This oral history project traces the changes of San Francisco’s live-work lofts from their beginnings in the 1970s, through the passage of the 1980s ordinance that legalized them, and finally through the 2001 provision that halted further development of these spaces. It seeks to add to our understanding of the city’s counterculture and its history of intentional communities, as well as of the forces that drive property development and gentrification in the city. In a broad sense, the project seeks to understand how neighborhoods and cities have been shaped by artists, and how artists’ roles in their communities have changed over time. Michael Kahan, Co-Director of the Program on Urban Studies, served as the project coordinator. The project’s steering committee includes: Robin Balliger, Chris Carlsson, Abby Chen, Janet Delaney, LisaRuth Elliott, Jackie Francis, David Prowler, Meg Shiffler, Aaron Shkuda, Debra Walker. Michael Kahan and Nova Meurice (’22) conducted interviews for the project. Interviews were conducted virtually over Zoom. Interview subjecs include Debra Walker, Margie O'Driscoll, Jill Scott, Susana Montana, Gwen Roginsky, Peter Wiehl, Irene Zhou, Geoff Schmidtt, Lynn Adler, Laurence Kornfield, and Ralph Scott.

Photographic negatives and digital scans of photographs taken by Franklin Chiang. Negatives consist of images taken of Stanford University. Digital scans also include images of Palo Alto and San Francisco. Original negatives of San Francisco images are at the San Francisco Public Library.

Collection includes photographs, 1936-1945, and one scrapbook, 1924-1976. Subjects of the photographs are the Stanford University Press and staff; Stanford University buildings, students, and faculty/staff; and San Francisco's skyline and bay bridge. Of note among the Stanford photographs are scenes of army training during World War II, the 1942 commencement, the Flying Indians (student flying club), class and laboratory scenes, and a radio workshop ca. 1940. Individuals include John Borsdamm, Will Friend, Herbert Hoover, Marchmont Schwartz, Clark Shaughnessy, Graham Stuart, and Ray Lyman Wilbur. The album pertains largely to staff in the press bindery and includes photographs, clippings, letters, notes, humorous pencil sketches, and poems, mostly by Carlton L. Whitten.

35mm slides of architectural models of the Medical Center and the construction of the Center in 1956-1959, along with copies of black and white photographs of the Stanford Medical School at its previous location in San Francisco, ca. 1920-1957, and of a Bakewell and Brown drawing for expansion of the San Francisco site, ca. 1920.

Photographs, prints, scrapbooks, negatives, posters, printed material, artwork and ephemera relating to May's Photography Studio and Chinese and Asian-American art, culture, and theater in San Francisco's Chinatown, circa early-mid 20th century.

This collection of prints, mostly lithographs (including chromolithographs and colored lithographs), as well as one engraving, primarily portray San Francisco city views, public buildings, and landscapes. Subjects also include San Jose, Stanford University, the U.S. Navy Yard at Mare Island, San Diego, and San Luis Rey. Included is a lithograph stone with an image of San Francisco, 1 volume of the 1854 "Daily California Chronicle" plus one loose issue of the "San Francisco Chronicle" from April 30, 1906.