Rare Books
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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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Visual Materials
This is a collection primarily of negatives and photographic prints depicting the growth of Santa Monica and Los Angeles, California, from 1860s to 1980s. Many views are cityscapes or street views, showing buildings, storefronts, homes and roads, and documenting the use of railroads, trolleys, streetcars, and automobiles. There are many card photographs by early professional photographers, and also a number of snapshots made by amateurs, some in personal photo albums. The collection's scope also includes early views of many other communities in Southern California (and a few in other states); the beginnings of aviation in Santa Monica, including the first Douglas Aircraft Company buildings; a photo album of residents in Topanga Canyon, ca. 1913; automobile racing in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, 1920s; maritime views; a photo album of U.S. troops in France during World War I; a 1949 real estate development in Apple Valley, California, and others. Besides photographs, a portion of the collection consists of scarce publications and historical ephemera, primarily related to Santa Monica and Los Angeles, including brochures, advertising cards, menus, event programs and other materials. Highlights of the Santa Monica images are aerial views of the buildings along the coast and pier (1920s); several views of the Arcadia Hotel (1880s); the Long Wharf and adjoining railroad and train depot; the first bath houses on the beach; the beach club culture of the 1920s and 1930s; the amusement piers of Santa Monica, Ocean Park and Venice; and the beginnings of the Douglas Aircraft Company. There is a large set of promotional photographs made late 1920s-1930s by Powell Press Service depicting people enjoying Santa Monica's beaches, clubs and outdoor recreation. An important subset within the collection is 407 negatives made ca. 1890 - 1908 by Los Angeles historian and amateur photographer George W. Hazard (1842-1914). Hazard travelled around Los Angeles and vicinity photographing the adobes, houses, streets and storefronts that told the early history of the city. Many of Hazard's negatives have handwritten identifications, naming streets, former homeowners, ranchos, and other historical details. There are a large number of cabinet cards and other card-mounted prints and stereographs. There are 1,264 stereograph prints, highlighted by the works of photographic pioneers William M. Godfrey, Francis Parker, Hayward & Muzzall, and Carleton Watkins. Other formats represented are: glass and film negatives; panoramic prints; 7 photograph albums, photographic postcards, 20th-century color prints and transparencies; and a small number of tintypes, cyanotypes and a set of chromolithographs.
photCL 555
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Rare Books
372391
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Visual Materials
127 black-and-white photographs mounted on album boards documenting the ruins and damage following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire and primarily showing the damaged exteriors of buildings in San Francisco and at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. The photographs were commissioned and originally owned by Robert C. Jordan who helped rebuild the city. The photographer is unknown.
photCL 398
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Visual Materials
Photographs of buildings in ruins, survivor's tents, streets, and other details of the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Some small panoramas by Charles Z. Bailey. Also a few photographs of drawings of the city in the 19th century, and images of ships and shipwrecks in the bay.
photPF 2710-2749
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Visual Materials
Contents: Palace Hotel, Market Street (interior court before 1906); Northwest view from Telegraph Hill (approximately 1870) annotation " From Jesse B. Hook, Hardy 1945"; (3) unidentified building structures; City Hall central tower structure; Saint Catherine's Cathedral (Eleventh & Market Street); St. Ignatius Church (Market Street); St. John's Episcopal church; City Hall ruins (corinthian columns archway)
photPF 3870-3879