Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
San Antonio and Aransas Pass railway
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Rare Books
245798
Image not available
Rare Books
This collection consists of railroad photographs, ephemera and publications, 1829-2010, with the bulk of material from the early- to mid-20th century. The focus is chiefly locomotives and trains (steam and diesel) of major railroads and interurban electric railways of the United States and Canada. Also represented in the collection are smaller shortline and narrow-gauge railroads; other foreign railroads; streetcars (or trolleys); and burgeoning light rail and subway systems. Most of the ephemera is printed material produced by railroad companies for promotional and business purposes, such as annual reports, brochures, route maps and guides, timetables, tickets, dining menus, stationery, stock certificates, bond coupons and other items. There are also many city and state tourist guidebooks describing sights along rail routes or promoting land available for farming, mining or home-building across the United States. Also included are items produced for or by railroad employees, such as instruction and safety manuals, train orders, freight bills and in-house newsletters. Railroad industry publications, statistics and reports can be found in the American Association of Railroads files, which are part of Donald Duke's subject files on railroad-related topics. Throughout the ephemera files are newspaper and journal clippings, often from scarce small press and trade publications such as The Railway and Engineering Review, The Railroad Gazette, The Santa Fe Magazine, The Western Railroader, Railway Age and others. In addition to railroad history, other topics of social and cultural historical interest in the ephemera are: Depictions of African Americans and Native Americans in mass-marketed train travel brochures. There are many examples that reflect American cultural and class stereotypes in the early- to mid-20th century. Selected files are noted in the container list. Occupational safety and health: See railroad worker safety manuals and accident prevention literature in ephemera files. History of food and drink: See numerous dining and beverage menus throughout Railroads and Foreign Railroads ephemera files (not always noted in container list). History of graphic design and typography: See examples of early- and mid- 20th century popular styles in printed ephemera throughout collection. Photographs and negatives: The photographs depict locomotives, freight and passenger trains, logging railroads, electric interurbans and streetcars across the United States. This was primarily a publishers file of ready-for-press photographs, which are almost all 8 x 10-inch black-and-white prints, made approximately 1950s-1980s. The photographs were made chiefly by various amateur train photographers, including Donald Duke, but most are uncredited. There are some copy prints (photographs of other photographs), and a few original photographs from the late 19th-early 20th century. Some photographs have locations and dates written on the back, but many are unidentified other than the name of the railroad. There are a few files on Ward Kimball (1914-2002), one of the original animators for Walt Disney Studios and an avid rail enthusiast. There are some photographs, biographical materials, and a file on his personal backyard narrow-gauge steam railroad, Grizzly Flats Railroad, in San Gabriel, California.
645950
Image not available
Manuscripts
Subjects: business between Sierra Blanca and El Paso.
mssHEH
Image not available
Visual Materials
Maynard L. Parker negatives, photographs, and other material consists of 57,893 black-and-white negatives, color transparencies, black-and-white prints, and color prints; 39 presentation albums; and 17 boxes of office records, 1930-1974. Created primarily by Maynard Parker, the archive documents the residential and non-residential work of architects, interior designers, landscape architects, artists, builders, real estate developers, and clients associated with these fields, foremost among them the magazine House Beautiful. Also included in the collection are photographs taken by other individuals, such as architect Cliff May and Parker's assistant, Charles Yerkes.
photCL MLP
Image not available
Manuscripts
The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Henry E. Huntington. There is material related to the Huntington, Holladay (Henry E. Huntington's sister Caroline married Edmund Burke Holladay), and Metcalf families, but most of the collection deals with Huntington's business interests in Southern California, railways, real estate, and industry. There is a series about Henry E. Huntington and his family that includes biographical information, newspaper clippings, photographs, scrapbooks, ephemera, and physical objects. There is material related to the Huntington Land and Improvement Company, Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, and the Pacific Electric Railway Company as well as other businesses in Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Gabriel Valley, California. This material includes business records, account books, annual reports, correspondence, maps, tracts, balance sheets, and others. There is also material related to the founding of the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens including auction catalogs, invoices, receipts, and bills for art and rare books, and information regarding a lawsuit about Huntington's estate tax after his death, and the passing of Proposition 15, in 1930, which exempted The Huntington from paying California property tax. There is also material related to Collis P. Huntington and his business interests and Arabella Huntington. The largest series contains over 22,000 pieces of personal and business correspondence spanning approximately 1790 to 1950. The physical objects include Henry E. Huntington's lunch box, razors, traveling trunk, and other items.
mssHEH