Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
View looking north at the city of Los Angeles, California, identified as being at Main Street and Ninth Street, with a house, dirt road, and picket fence in the foreground. St. Vincent's College can be seen at left and the tower of the old Los Angeles County Courthouse is visible in the background at center.
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Visual Materials
View of the Plaza Church, also known as Our Lady Queen of the Angels or La Iglesia Nuestra Señora de los Angeles, on North Main Street, in Los Angeles, California, as seen from across the street behind a picket fence in the Los Angeles Plaza.
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Visual Materials
View of the Spring Street elementary school in the 500 block of South Spring Street between Fifth Street and Sixth Street in downtown Los Angeles, California, with a picket fence and sign on the building reading "Public School 1884."
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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.
Visual Materials
Street view looking north on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, California, as seen presumably from about the intersection with Requena Street (later Market Street) with the three-story Italianate Temple Block building visible in the background at center left next to two buildings of decreasing height that were also part of the Temple Block, with the two-story building at closest left housing the Wells Fargo & Co. Express office. At right, storefront signs can be seen including a sculpture of a boot with the sign "Boots & Shoes" and an obscured sign including the letters "ne Haba." With a horse-drawn wagon, wooden sidewalk, and dirt road visible.
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Visual Materials
Elevated view of the dirt road, horse-drawn wagons, and storefronts along the Calle de los Negros (also known as "Nigger Alley") in Old Chinatown in Los Angeles, California, with a sign for "J. Kennedy" in the shape of a horseshoe at right.
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