The archive I decided to write about is the “Finding Aid of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics ephemera”. It has been funded by the ‘National Historical Publications and Record Commission.’ I chose this collection in particular because with Los Angeles bidding again for the 2024 olympic games and UCLA predicted to host quite a few athletes and events, I thought it was interesting to see previous involvements from universities holding olympic events and how it benefited them. The archive was about Pepperdine University’s involvement in the 1984 olympics and that due to budget cuts, the water polo events were held on their campus. It noted that President Howard A. was a key person involved in bringing the games to Malibu. The archives containers included photographs of the lighting the torch ceremony as it travelled through Malibu, water polo games, invitations etc. The archive also had copies of a video from the opening ceremony proceedings, event maps, personal ticketing information and guidelines. Along with this, numerous newspaper articles, newsletters, special letterheads, bumper stickers, and ribbons have also been accounted for within this document.
The historical narrative that could be told throughout this collection is regarding the Los Angeles Olympics but mainly keying in on the water polo events in particular. The details would include the games, participants, event procedures, officials, score lines and maybe any disqualifications. Along with this, it also tells us a time in history that helped Malibu flourish. In particular, it looks like by bringing the Olympic games to Pepperdine University, it bought in a lot of attraction and tourist money to the area.
What I felt was missing from this archive was background information on whether or not the university had held any olympic events there before. I also noticed that they didn’t specify why there were budget cuts surrounding the water polo venue and if any other universities were used during the 1984 Olympic games. I would of found it interesting to know the benefits or even disadvantages in regards to the athletes and towns people involved, by having the event on a university campus. This information would be important to know so people can use it in order to improve on any disadvantages or reinforce advantages of having Olympic games around university campuses. In particular, the Los Angeles olympic committees could then try and implement different strategies to our campus at UCLA in order to make it the best Olympics yet.
Other sources I could use to address these missings gaps would include Pepperdine University’s library, any newspaper articles from the time, autobiographies from the athletes or even documentaries surrounding the 2024 Los Angeles olympics.
-Teagan Micah
Hi Teagan,
You did a nice job summarizing “Finding Aid of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics ephemera.” I also think you did a nice job listing possible historical narratives. However, I would have liked you to be more specific here. For example, what narrative could the archive tell about the games, the participants, event procedures, ect. specifically? I like how you list both textual (newspaper articles) and digital sources (documentaries) that could be used outside the archive.
Hello Teagan,
I understand where you are coming from with the lack of surrounding information on the Olympic games from just this collection. While I think the collection does well in highlighting the water polo games and the resulting increase of traffic to Malibu, it is important to know why there were financial cuts in the first place. Your suggestions for other outside sources of information seemed like a good starting place, and could potentially be of great use in filling in those gaps you mentioned. Your formatting also helped me understand the article and then relate to how you believe the overall narrative of the 1984 Olympic Games can be improved. Great job.
Hello Teagan,
I really enjoyed reading your blog about the Olympics. I think you did a great job of finding out what information was there versus the information that was not there. I think you were able to depict what you wanted from out of this assignment and again, I loved reading this blog.