Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
A one page letter to Groucho Marx from James Bellows. Also, response from Marx. Groucho Marx letter removed from Autograph File and returned to Bellows file.
mssLAT
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Rare Books
388945
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Rare Books
422844
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Visual Materials
This collection contains the papers and architectural drawings of Los Angeles architect Wallace Neff, whose career spanned 56 years, from 1919 to 1975. The collection is divided into five series: Personal papers, Professional papers, Project records, Wallace Neff Jr. papers, and Additional donations. The materials include over 100 sets of drawings and plans, Neff's project files, writings and correspondence, job lists, daily journals, sketches and renderings, and photographs. The majority of Neff's work was residential architecture in Southern California, but the collection also contains materials on many types of institutional buildings and other structures Neff designed. Most projects are in California, with some material on projects in Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. The Airform project files discuss building in Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, and other countries. Residences represented include those for Edward L. and Estelle Carrie Doheny, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Amelita Galli-Curci, Fredric March, Frances Marion and Fred Thomson, Groucho Marx, and King Vidor. Other projects include the Edward L. Doheny Memorial Library; Manresa Jesuit Retreat House; Ojai Valley Country Club; Saint Elizabeth Church; and buildings for Loyola Marymount University and Pomona College. There are many records on Neff's Airform buildings: contracts, drawings, patents, licenses, correspondence, and photographs. The collection also includes the research files of Neff's son, Wallace Neff Jr. (1930-2013), related to his father's career and works. Neff Jr. compiled this material while working on his 1986 book "Wallace Neff, Architect of California's Golden Age" (text by Alson Clark). Neff Jr.'s files contain many photographs, notes and articles on Neff buildings, as well as Neff family history, and transcripts of talks he gave on his father. In addition, Neff Jr. commissioned contemporary renderings of his father's buildings, which were painted approximately 1991 to 2007 and are part of this collection. The Additional Donations series contains drawings received from other sources after the primary donation in 2006.
archNeff
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Visual Materials
The collection consists of 6202 black-and-white and color photographs, pen and ink drawings, and postcards, 1412 black-and-white and color negatives, 2606 black-and-white and color slides, and ephemeral materials, 1898-1982 (bulk 1920s-1930s) collected by the Automobile Club of Southern California. They form a general photographic reference collection as well as a broad visual survey of topics of interest to California motorists. Included are images of sites in North and Central America (with an emphasis on California), Europe, the Pacific Islands, and portraits, as well as images related to other subjects of interest to the Club's membership. Many of the images were published as illustrations for articles in the Club's first member magazine, Touring Topics. A large portion of the photographs were taken by authors of articles that appeared in Touring Topics; others were commissioned by the Club; and others appear to have been sent to the Club. Photographers (and authors) include, but are not limited to, Ansel Adams, Fred Archer, Viroque Baker, George Hugh Banning, Adelbert Bartlett, Virginia S. Bartlett, Andrew R. Boone, Julius Cindrich, Norman Clyde, Will Connell, Loyd Cooper, Imogen Cunningham, Asahel Curtis, Edward Sheriff Curtis, Fred Dapprich, E.H. Davis, E.E. East, John Anson Ford, Frasher, Ewing Galloway, Forman G. Hanna, Phil Townsend Hanna, Hoag and Ford, John Edwin Hoag, Bert W. Huntoon, Philip Johnston, Dr. Frederick Monsen, Dave Packwood, C.C. Pierce, Ernest M. Pratt, Putnam Studios, E. Willard Spurr, and John L. Von Blon.
photCL 375