Gifts & Donors

Alicia Escalante was an unlikely hero. A poor single mother of five, she became a leading activist of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. She founded the East Los Angeles Welfare Rights Organization (ELAWRO) in 1967 and participated in some of the most important Civil Rights struggles of that decade.

Escalante, who recently donated her papers to the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) in UCSB Library’s Special Research Collections, was feted at an event in April, “Honoring a Chicana Activist Dignity Warrior: The Life and Work of Alicia Escalante.”

Allen Cohen, a retired UCSB librarian, is an active member of the Santa Barbara literary and arts scene. He avidly reads, borrows, and collects books; attends concerts and plays; takes classes on chess, Shakespeare, and short stories; participates in book clubs at the public library; admires and collects art (with a focus on student work); and donates generously to the activities he cherishes. The arts and culture, Allen said, “are a significant reason for us to go on living.”

Virginia L.T. Gardner is a pansy person, even though her initial encounter with the flower wasn’t successful.

The Santa Barbara resident, who grew up in Pennsylvania, came to love gardening and all things botanical as a small child because her grandmother had an enchanting 18-acre home that included a hillside rock garden, a woodland, apple orchards, a vegetable garden and more.

“My grandmother once let me plant a totally improper plant at the base of a tree: a pansy, because I loved pansies so much and wanted to, even though it wouldn’t grow there,” Gardner said.

To find Michael and Nan Miller’s home in the Los Angeles area, just look in the driveway for a car with the license plate “OPERETT.”

To say that the Millers are operetta aficionados doesn’t do them justice. The couple’s home was custom-built to hold their massive collection of 60,000 recordings, 10,000 pieces of sheet music, 9,000 books, 5,000 vocal scores, and numerous posters, programs, postcards, radio broadcasts, and more devoted to operetta and early musical theater.

Special Research Collections has acquired a collection of letters from famed author James Baldwin, as well as ephemera related to the Civil Rights Movement. Both collections—which are now open for research—highlight social justice organizing activities during the height of civil unrest in America.

Allen Cohen is one for the books … and the paintings; and the poems; and the films; and the plays; and the opera, jazz and classical songs. And the steps.