Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
B Street, four months old. Opposite Courthouse
1 of 2
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Street view of new western town, showing storefronts, people, telephone poles.
photPF 7741
Visual Materials
Street view of new western town, showing storefronts, people, telephone poles, horse and buggy.
photPF 7742
Image not available
Visual Materials
Three cabinet photographs of early Los Angeles, California, most likely taken in the1880s. The first is an elevated view of Calle de Los Negros in Old Chinatown by photographer F. G. Schumacher, showing a dirt road, adobe buildings, horse-drawn wagons, and a few people. The second photograph is marked in ink "First St. Bridge," and shows a partially washed-out wooden bridge over the flooded Los Angeles River. A man on horseback and a photographer with a large box camera are on the shore. The third cabinet photograph is of an unidentified railroad trestle bridge spanning a canyon or river.
photPF 26024
Image not available
Visual Materials
A two-color lithograph depicting a view of Columbia in Tuolumne County, California set during the Gold Rush. The foreground of the central image includes factories, a horse-drawn wagon driving across town, and miners working in flumes, depicted against a view of town buildings with hilly landscape in the background. Twelve vignettes of building facades surround the central image; includes views of storefronts, churches, government buildings, hotels, and banks. Townsfolk and individuals on horses and horse-drawn wagons are illustrated in front of the building facades. The title is printed in the lower center of the image. The text below the title reads, "Published by Towle & Leavitt. Columbia, Tuolumne County, Cal." Printed signatures on the lower half of print from left to right read, "From nature on stone by Kuchel & Dresel, 146 Clay St. S.F."; "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1855 by Kuchel & Dresel in the Clerk's Office of District Court of the Northern District of Cal."; and "Printed by Britton & Rey."
priPEF 37
Image not available
Visual Materials
This collection contains photographs of Los Angeles' Old Chinatown and portraits of its Chinese residents, most dating from the 1890s to the 1900s. Together there are 299 glass plate negatives ranging in size from 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches to 8 x 5 inches; an ornate photograph album containing 12 studio portraits of Chinese men and women; and six additional card photograph portraits. Some printed photographs have the imprints of professional photographers and a few of the glass plate negatives are credited to "Yee Photo, L.A. Cal." They may be connected to a photographer "Yee" who at one time had a studio at 510 North Los Angeles Street in Old Chinatown (see photograph Box 8 (1)). This could possibly be Wy Yee, a photographer working during the same time period. It is unclear if he took all the photographs or there was more than one photographer. There are two glass plate images of a photographer's storefront with a sign in Chinese that translates to Jinghua Photo Studio. Scenes in Old Chinatown include: street views of buildings and storefronts; Chinese and a few white people walking in the streets; the interior of a restaurant and three Chinese workers posing for the camera; two men on bicycles; the Chinese community participating in La Fiesta de las Flores parade; and other candid photographs of people in daily activities. Some buildings have store signs in English and Chinese. The majority of photographs are portraits of primarily Chinese sitters. Several are posed studio portraits of men, women, or children, wearing traditional Chinese or western clothing, with elaborate props and backdrops. Other portraits are simple head shots of Chinese men, one of which has the handwritten date "1902," the year that the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was made permanent and required Chinese residents to register and obtain immigration documents. Other photographs include: three studio images of women showing bare shoulders, a Chinese woman posing in a sailor's uniform, and white tourists posing in traditional Chinese clothing. Photographer imprints on card photographs are: Bijou Studio, James Blanchard, George Dewey, J. H. Lamson Company, Michael A. Wesner, and "Yee," who may be photographer Wy Yee, all of Los Angeles. There is one portrait of a Chinese woman by William Shew, San Francisco. The China subseries consists of copies of photographs taken in China, including landmarks and scenes of punishment. Please note that this subseries contains historical images that library users may find harmful, offensive, or inappropriate. Miscellaneous photographs include images of Native Americans and a town in the Southwest.
photCL 624