ARCHIVE FEATURES MULHOLLAND.

Byline: Cecilia Chan Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - Tony Gardner held in his hand a 224-year-old piece of history - a German Bible printed in Pennsylvania in 1776.

Colonists referred to the sacred book as a ``gunpowder Bible'' because they would rip pages out for use as wadding in muskets, explained Gardner, curator of the Special Collections and Archives in the Oviatt Library at California State University, Northridge.

``It's pretty sacrilegious actually,'' Gardner said of the book, one of 16,000 titles in the library's collection of maps, manuscripts and rare books including one written in Latin dating between 1450 to 1500 - the first 50 years of printing.

Starting today, the library will display items from its archive in an exhibit featuring San Fernando Valley settler William Mulholland, who was responsible for the construction of the existing Los Angeles-Owens River Aqueduct, which brought development and growth to Los Angeles.

The library will showcase annual reports on the aqueduct and 1912 geological surveys of ground water in the Owens Valley along with rare family photographs and memorabilia provided by Chatsworth resident Catherine Mulholland, a granddaughter of Mulholland.

The exhibit ends Jan. 31, 2001.

Mulholland, who has used the Oviatt Library to research local history, said she has seen its archives grow into a rich resource during the past two decades.

``As someone doing research and writing on Southern California history for the last 20 years I've seen it develop and evolve,'' Mulholland said. `I think it has a really promising future.''

The library's special collections budget fluctuates annually but contains $7,000 this year, said Gardner, who is always searching for Valley material but would like to beef up its collection on the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans. The collection already has original newspapers printed in Japanese and English from two out-of-state internment camps.

Although the campus' collection pales in comparison with larger, better-funded academic libraries like those at the University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles, it's gaining recognition.

Last month, the library's urban archive - part of the special collections - won a $153,298 state grant to digitally preserve the Valley's history.

``They do a very good focus on areas that sorely need documentation, which is the San Fernando Valley,'' said Gary Kurutz, state special collections librarian. ``As a short-lived collection is concerned (Oviatt) does a very good job and is positively aggressive in acquiring material.''

The collection's materials are stored in a locked room, where the temperature is kept at a cool 60 degrees and humidity is regulated to inhibit mold. < One gem in the collection is material belonging to climatologist Arnold Court, a former CSUN professor who had helped establish a weather station at the South Pole. His daughter recently donated papers and memorabilia including binoculars, glass lantern slides on the Antarctic and wax cans of pemmican, a dried meat, taken on his expeditions.

``He's well-known,'' Gardner said of Court, a 1943 special congressional medal recipient who died last year. ``So people wanting to do research on him will have access to his papers and pictures.''

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2 photos

Photo:

(1) This photo of William Mulholland, left, and others at the Mulholland Highway is among items now on display.

(2) Los Angeles visionary William Mulholland poses with granddaughter Catherine in this 1928 family photo.