Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Benjamin Pierce ... : a memorial collection
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
Number of pieces: 21
mssLake papers
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Manuscripts
Number of pieces: 6
mssLake papers
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Visual Materials
This collection consists of 39 glass negatives, 21 film negatives, and 34 copy prints and original prints related to the Charles C. Pierce family and photography business. This is a miscellaneous group of images depicting various family members and scenes (many unidentified) as well as two views of the interior and exterior of the Pierce business (PI-CO) at 1572 W. Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, and Pierce's home in Springfield, Massachusetts. Also included are two images of C.C. Pierce posing with the Ybarra family, as well as several images of Hattie Gower Pierce, C.C. Pierce's wife and business partner. Several photographs dating from approximately 1890s-1910s include: people posed outside the "Glenwood Hotel, East Los Angeles, 119 Dailey [or Daly] St., W. of N. Broadway / Mrs. Dan Jones, Prop., Dr. Harry Fasic, Dr. D.K. Carson, Mr. Stiff." Also "Gower residence, 349 E. Edgeware Rd., Los Angeles"; group portrait in front of "Watts Presbyterian Church, Shorb Avenue" [Los Angeles or Alhambra?]; East Los Angeles Congregational Church interior; people in a camp wagon having a picnic; and a bird's-eye-view of a tourist tent village on Catalina Island. Besides Pierce relatives, other names identified are Spangler and Gower family members; Marie Lucile Spangler marrying Gerard Nicholson; Miss Susan Croswell at her 100th birthday party with members of the Wilton, Bryan and Croswell families.
photCL 464
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Visual Materials
The C.C. Pierce collection contains 10,100 historical photographs of early California and Los Angeles that were assembled by Charles C. Pierce, a photographer and long-time operator of a thriving Los Angeles photographic business. The collection is divided into nine topical headings assigned by Pierce: Los Angeles Historical; Indians; Missions; California cities, counties, etc.; Industries and Agriculture, Transportation; Natural History; Art and Architecture; Miscellaneous Scenery. Within these large sections are smaller categories that focus on the history, landscape, people, civic and cultural events, built environment, and development of Southern California and the Southwest from approximately 1845-1930. Of particular interest are the various Indian tribes depicted as well as all twenty-one of the California Missions. Pierce described the latter as "a very extensive and superior collection of this subject, covering a period of over sixty years" that includes copies of paintings and etchings made by Edward Vischer from 1842-1876 and Henry Chapman Ford (1883). Pierce's practice of copying other photographer's images and supplying his own identification should alert the researcher to treat the descriptive and date information on the photographs with some skepticism. There are two numbers on the back of each photograph: the regular penciled number is the negative number assigned by Pierce; the red penciled number is that assigned by the Huntington. Researchers should refer to the red number at all times when ordering reproductions.
photCL Pierce