In 1984 the XXIII Olympiad took place in Los Angeles, and to celebrate the History of the Olympics and to provide comparison, the Department of Archives and Special Collections put together an exhibit of the X Olympiad in 1932 that also took place in Los Angeles.
The components of this exhibit were as follows:
Folder 1 – Labels and 1932 program copies 1984
Folder 2 – Photographs of cyclists and bicycle advertisement 1932
Folder 3 – Photographs of rowing, lacrosse, swimming, relay; also an aerial of the Los Angeles Colesium during a major event and publicity photos 1932
Encapsulated map showing event locations, with schedules and entrance fees (in map case 2, drawer 9) 1932
The narrative one could construct from these materials would be of the progression of the games, the cost of attending different venues, a story of travel from one venue to the next, a brief accounting of what an Olympic spectator would be exposed to in terms of preparation materials. Building a narrative from these materials beyond simply showing that the Olympics occurred in Los Angeles, and that US athletes participated would be difficult to do without extra materials.
It would be impossible to know that no other bids were made for the olympics by any other country, as the world was in the middle of the Great Depression. You might be able to show that there were incredibly few countries present from the schedules, 37 nations compared to the 140 Nations in 1984, but you would not be able to know that both Colombia and China made their first Olympic appearance in 1932, China with only a single contestant. The archive is lacking in true nuance, but I was intrigued by this archive due to the approaching Olympic Games in 2028, to be held in Los Angeles. The narrative that could be depicted through analysis of three different program copies from the 1932, 1984 and 2028 programs would be fascinating.
The sparse collection of programs, maps and athletic photographs contained in this collection, could be used in a new collection along with official reports of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics results to show an interesting outlook of the rise of America as a world power, and the development of Los Angeles.
With a nod towards the different perspectives provided by a positivistic approach to history versus an outlook of constructivism, with an archive as devoid of statistics and quantitative reality, built more on visualization and advertisement, depending on what supportive documents you used, this archive could be used to establish any number of narratives, depending upon the discretion of the archivist.
Of personal note, an aerial view of Los Angeles from 1932, alongside an aerial view of LA in 1984, coupled with a view of Los Angeles in 2028, you would see a fascinating depiction of UCLA’s growth over the past century. This would be something I hope to see in the future.
I found it really useful in your comparison between more recent olympics compared to this collection to show its limitations but also as an example in which the records would be useful to tract historical changes.