Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Image of a cactus garden in the plaza of Old Town in San Diego, California, with a sign for "Young's Auto Court" and drugstore in the background at left, next to a Spanish-tile building.
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Visual Materials
View of small brick building with faded sign for a harness shop. Billboards are posted on the outside wall for "Cremo 5 cent cigar" and "New York Woolen Company Merchant Tailors, 146 S. Main St." The building at left has a faded sign that says "restaurant."
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Manuscripts
A collection of drawings, etchings, prints, and watercolors originally part of a bound volume; the material is related to Charles Dickens, his life, and some of the characters from his books, including "Nicholas Nickleby," "The Old Curiosity Shop," "Oliver Twist," and "The Pickwick Papers." Also included are drawings of Dickens and his wife, Catherine Dickens, and their visit to America in 1842. The material was created by various artists including Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"), George Cattermole, George Cruikshank, Daniel Maclise, Joseph Kenny Meadows, Pierre Morand, Frederick Sem, and Sir Leslie Ward ("Spy"). Also included is the original binding.
HM 39987 (6)
Visual Materials
Image of the Plaza at Old Town in San Diego, California, with a Pan-Gas station in the distance.
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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.
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Visual Materials
Two albums containing ninety-seven photographs, chiefly by amateur photographer S. L. Walkley, of buildings and landscapes in Los Angeles County and San Diego County, California, in 1888. These professional-quality views by Walkley depict newly constructed buildings, street scenes, and the natural landscape, including the flora. These volumes may have been Walkley's own albums as they contain photographs of the construction and finished exterior of his residence on St. John Street in Pasadena, California. The albums include photographs of houses, hotels, streets, and buildings in Pasadena, California and the surrounding towns of Alhambra, San Gabriel, Whittier, and others as well as views of the Arroyo Seco, Little Santa Anita Canyon, Eaton Canyon, and the path to Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountain area. There are photographs of downtown Los Angeles; Hotel del Coronado and Old Town San Diego in San Diego County; and Avalon and Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island. Several photographs show African American trainers with camels and elephants as well as an open circus wagon containing lions (volume 1, items 37-40) These scenes may be associated with the Sells Brothers Circus, which visited Los Angeles in October 1888 (See also volume 2, item 31). There is one photograph of a train labeled "Tia Juana & N.C. & O. Rwy. Train" (volume 1, item 30), presumably referring to the National City & Otay Railroad, a subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railroad, formed in 1886, which connected downtown San Diego with the Sweetwater Dam (San Diego County), La Presa (San Diego County), and Tijuana (Mexico). Two photographs bear the imprint of C.W. Herr and depict street scenes in Provo, Utah and Ogden, Utah (volume 1, items 35 and 36).
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