Rare Books
Pacific Coast homeseeker
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Manuscripts
Bound in black textured material. The title, "The Pacific Coast," is embossed on the center of the cover in gold lettering. The number "43" is affixed to the top of spine with glue. Mostly photo postcards and clippings of various sites on the California coast. A few images of Jack London with friends.
JLP 481
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Visual Materials
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of architect Martin Eli Weil (1940-2009), relating to Weil's work as a restoration architect and consultant in Los Angeles and Southern California. The collection contains correspondence; project and business records; reports; contracts; notes and research files; appointment books; drawings, including approximately 2920 rolled drawings; approximately 5000 photographs, chiefly snapshots depicting work in progress; material samples, including approximately 2000 fragments of wood or other surfaces containing paint samples; and 46 media files documenting the career of Martin Eli Weil; the materials date from 1964 until 2009. Files document 428 individual projects, including Frank Lloyd Wright structures such as Barnsdall Park and Hollyhock House; the restoration of the El Capitan Theater; and jobs undertaken as a consultant for the cities of San Gabriel, La Verne, Porterville, and Monrovia, California. The collection also includes papers reflecting Weil's service as Restoration Services Director for the Restoration Services Division of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in Canada from 1971-1978; his work as an instructor in historic preservation at the University of Southern California from 1981-2009; his writing, chiefly as an architecture columnist for the Larchmont Chronicle; his involvement with the Harvard Heights community in Los Angeles, where he lived; and his Master's thesis project.
archWeil
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Manuscripts
This collection contains personal papers, business records, correspondence, photographs, prints, and ephemera that relate to Los Angeles theatre impresario, Lynden E. Behymer. The materials date from approximately 1850 to 1998, with the bulk of the collection ranging from the 1910s to 1940s. A small portion of the collection consists of biographical information about Behymer and his family. The Personal and biographical materials series contains albums, scrapbooks, clippings, and correspondence relating to Behymer's birthdays, tributes, and other celebratory events. Of note in the collection are the Business records and Correspondence series. The materials primarily relate to Behymer's involvement in managing musicians, actors, actresses, dancers, singers, theatres, and organizations in the music and entertainment industry in California and abroad. Included are approximately 2,400 pieces of correspondence with organizations such as the California Grand Opera Company, the Chicago Grand Opera Company, the Los Angeles Repertory Theatre, the Merola Opera Company, and the San Francisco Opera Association. Formats consist of account books, ledgers, receipt books, agreements, contracts, correspondence, and notes by Behymer. A significant portion of the collection consists of programs, which are organized by theatre programs, movie theatre programs, and souvenir programs. Theatre programs are one of the largest series in the collection, and consist of theatres based in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, as well as other states and international countries. Many of these theatres (Grand Opera House, Los Angeles Theatre, Burbank Theatre, Philharmonic Auditorium, Chicago Opera House, etc.) are also represented in the Press clippings and Theatre scrapbooks series. Souvenir programs are incorporated into the Music, dance, and drama series as they primarily pertain to performers and musicians such as: Anna Pavlova, Ballets Russes, Ruth St. Denis, La Argentina (Antonia Mercé y Luque), Trudi Schoop, Sarah Bernhardt, Helena Modjeska, Mei Lan-Fang, Ignace Jan Paderewski, and many others. Additional materials in the Music, dance, and drama series include librettos, prompt books, plays, poetry, sheet music, and correspondence with various music organizations and clubs. The collection also contains approximately 3,000 photographs of performers and performances. The photographs range from signed portrait photographs, to play and set designs, musicians on stage, and some press photographs of the Behymer family at events and premieres. A small number of prints, drawings, and ephemera are also found in the collection. They include Behymer's personalized book plates and stationery, travel tickets, memorabilia, invitations, celebrity signatures, business cards, travel guides, postcard albums, greeting cards, drawings, prints by Alfred Frueh and Max Reinhardt, and costume designs.
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Manuscripts
A collection of the personal and professional papers of Edward Davis Townsend. Included in the collection are official and private correspondence, chiefly letters addressed to him, military records, journals, memoirs, and a few photographs. Two journals cover the 2nd Seminole War from 1837 to 1838, and his service in California from 1851 to 1856. The latter was incorporated into a memoir entitled "A Trip to California;" both accounts are accompanied by pencil sketches. An unfinished memoir covers Townsend's life and career until the beginning of the Mexican War. The collection also contains a group of personal and political correspondence of Elbridge Gerry, including pieces related to his diplomatic and political career from 1772 to 1814, and the correspondence of Ann Thompson Gerry and Eliza Gerry Townsend. Also included are a copy of Samuel Auchmuty's 1761 sermon on 1 John 5:7, and contemporary copies of Jefferson Davis's letters to his wife Varina Howell Davis from 1861 to 1865. The collection also includes a spool of thread with a hidden note in it, 1861 February 10, and a cotton ball from the steamer Emma, which was loaded with cotton when its crew burned it at Fort Pulaski on August 31, 1862, to prevent its capture by the Union forces under the command of William B. Barton.
mssHM 41696
mssBehymer