Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
A Peep at Buffalo Bill's wild west
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Image of William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody riding a white horse.
priJLC_ENT_000082
Visual Materials
Standing in back row, from left, Crow Eagle, William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and Adirondack (a naturalist). Seated in front, from left, is William Halsey (Sitting Bull's interpreter), Hunkpapa Sioux Chief Sitting Bull, and young Johnny Baker (later known as the "Cowboy Kid" in the Wild West Show and foster son to Cody). Both Sitting Bull and Crow Eagle wear feather headdresses.
photPF 10401
Image not available
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.
Visual Materials
Image of a central image of a portrait of William F. Cody as Buffalo Bill sitting at a campfire in a frontiersman costume with a rifle and saddle, surrounded by eight vignettes of different dramatic scenes including a street parade with a horse-drawn cart labeled "Buffalo Bill To Night"; Cody digging at a hill with a knife in the wilderness with the caption "Buried Alive"; Cody holding up the head of a young injured man with the caption "He Still Lives"; a farmer sleeping on a plow pulled by two oxen while holding a book of the "Life of Buffalo Bill" while images of caricatured Native American Indians and a man hanging by a noose while another is burned at the stake appear in his dreams, captioned "The Farmer's Dream"; Cody on horseback cutting the rope of a hangman's noose from a young man’s neck who hangs from a tree, captioned "Whose Picnic Is this?"; a parlor scene where a man is shot while others look on, captioned "The 20 days are up, and my pledge fulfilled"; a man in a fistfight with Cody in the parlor and wielding a knife, captioned "Keep Cool Pard."; and Cody riding on horseback through the plains while a fire burns in the distance and a battle with Native American Indians on horseback goes on; with images of a bison with the caption "Diamond Pin with Diamond Eyes," at bottom of central image, and an eagle that holds a medal that reads "Congress to W. F. Cody Buffalo Bill Scout & Guide" at top; the poster advertises the melodrama "20 Days or Buffalo Bill's Pledge" (also known as "Twenty Days or Buffalo Bill's Pledge") and includes printed date information for performances beginning on December 11, [1882], at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
priJLC_ENT_001344
photCL 555