Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Pasadena beautiful : crown of the San Gabriel valley, the ideal city of homes
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Rare Books
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Visual Materials
The collection consists of approximately 6,700 photographs, which includes photographic prints and 4 x 5 inch and smaller glass negatives, glass positives, film negatives and lantern slides depicting Southern California (mainly Los Angeles and nearby communities). The collection provides quite a comprehensive picture of the growth and development of Los Angeles at the turn of the twentieth century. The smaller format items are mostly copy negatives (not originals) taken by Ellis of images in other collections. Ellis copied the photographic holdings of, among others, Bancroft, Behrendt, Tyler, Hill, Ingersoll, Forman, Rowan, Foxley, Guinn, Fryer, A.W. Francisco, McPherson, Charles Prudhomme and William Burton. The collection is particularly strong in images of Central Los Angeles from the 1880s to the 1910s and Los Angeles County beach communities in the 1900s and 1910s. Also of note are images of sites and themes of historic or cultural significance, and portraits. In addition to images of central Los Angeles, the collection includes images of Los Angeles County beach communities, Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, and Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties. The historic and cultural sites include photographs of missions and churches; commercial, municipal and residential buildings, including historic adobes; schools and parks; railroads, emigration, and stagecoach routes; Campo de Cahuenga; Busch Gardens in Pasadena; the Modjeska home in Santa Ana; the Lake Vineyard, Sunnyslope, and the Rowland properties in the San Gabriel Valley; and images of Native Americans and Native American culture. Portraits include those of California pioneers, prominent Angelinos and San Diegans, including J. Lancaster Brent, George Horatio Derby, Hillard Dorsey, the Ellis Family, Judge A.J. King and family, Vicente Lugo, Charles Prudhomme, Truman H. Rose, William Rubottom, Abel Stearns, 1st Worshipful Master of the California Masonic Lodge Levi Stowall, and the Workman family. Some of the 4 x 5 inch and smaller glass negatives and lantern slides depict historic sites of Northern California, including mining camps of the California Gold Rush. There are also miscellaneous images pertaining to themes with no direct relationship to California or the American West, such as Freemasonry and general United States history. The United States history images include copies of Abraham Lincoln portraits and the Lincoln home in Kentucky as well as early American figures including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
photCL 188
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Visual Materials
The Peabody Collection consists of 672 glass plate negatives in various sizes, 1054 film negatives in various sizes, 24 photograph albums, 887 loose photographs in a variety of formats, published works, and manuscript material, created and collected by Henry G. Peabody, 1859-1993 (bulk 1890s-1900s). The materials collectively describe Peabody's long career as a commercial landscape photographer working on both the east and west coasts of the United States. The photographs and negatives depict Peabody and his family; landscape views in New England, Canada, the western United States, California, and Mexico; Native Americans; city and landscape views in Great Britain, France, and Switzerland; portraits; architectural renderings; plants and animals; unidentified landscapes; and miscellaneous images. Additional photographers and photographic firms represented in the collection include Alexander Hesler, Charles F. Lummis, and Spence Air Photos. The published works contain photographs by Peabody. The manuscript material provides information about Peabody's negatives; contains catalogs of Peabody's works for sale; describes Peabody's commercial dealings as both a photographer and seller of photographic equipment; and contains ephemeral material collected by Peabody throughout his life.
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Visual Materials
Front view of the two-story house of Nathaniel C. Carter on the Willow Dale estate in San Gabriel (now San Marino, California), the bottom half hidden behind trees and landscaping. A man stands to the right of the house.
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Visual Materials
A set of 70 albumen prints on cabinet cards depicting early views of Pasadena, the San Gabriel Valley, Sierra Madre, and environs by E. A. Bonine (1843-1916), an early Pasadena commercial photographer. Images chiefly depict landscapes, gardens and yards, agriculture, and streets and residences in the Pasadena, California, area, including the homes of Orville H. Conger (Item 30), Moritz Rosenbaum (Items 14 and 43), Abbot Kinney (Item 36), E. F. Hurlbut (Item 45), the Richardson Villa (Items 47 and 48), and Colonel [H. H.] Markham's Ranch (Item 59). Streets depicted include Marengo Avenue, El Molino Avenue, and Orange Grove Avenue, and a few images are of the San Gabriel Mountains as seen from Colorado Avenue and from residences. Along with views of olive and orange groves, many of the images document early Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley viticulture and horticulture, with scenes of vineyards and grapes, including one with an image of a Chinese worker plowing a vineyard; ornamental hedges and cypress trees; yards cultivated with date palms, pine and banana trees, agaves, yucca trees, and pampas grass; homes covered by rose bushes; and streets bordered by pepper trees. A photograph of a date palm includes a caption stating that it was planted during the Mission era (Item 17). Images also show the San Gabriel Mountains, then known as the Sierra Madre Mountains; a man in a horse-drawn buggy en route to Sierra Madre; and people on burros, including a party of approximately 20 identified as visitors from the Raymond Hotel. A few of the photographs show commercial buildings, including the B. D. Wilson School, the First National Bank, and a boarding house. Notably, there is an image of a house with a sign in the foreground for Pasadena architect Charles Ehrenfeld (Item 16). The set also contains two images of Laguna Beach, California (Items 26 and 27); one image of Green Canyon, Arizona, that includes a man sitting on rocks (Item 70); a photograph of a mining site and stamp mill that may be in Arizona or California (Item 38); and two images of redwood trees in Sonoma County, California (Items 32 and 69). There is also one image by C. J. Crandall (1855-1935) of swans on the Campbell-Johnson Ranch (Item 18) with handwritten text on card verso: "Campbell-Johnston Ranche [that is, Ranch]. Taken in 1/250 of a second."
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