Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Visual Materials
Image of a man riding a motorcycle on a dirt trail.
ephJLC_CIT_000168
Visual Materials
Image of the American Civil War Battle of Olustee in Florida under Union Brigadier General Truman Seymour and Confederate Brigadier General Joseph Finnegan; Union soldiers in formation attack Confederate troops in the distance; men also visible manning artillery or riding on horseback; wounded and dead soldiers litter the ground.
priJLC_MIL_002375
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Visual Materials
The Jay T. Last collection of agriculture prints and ephemera contains roughly 2,115 items from approximately 1818 to 1924, with the majority of material dating from 1850 to 1900. The collection consists mainly of advertising prints and ephemera related to crop, hay, livestock, and dairy farming, including the tools, equipment, supplies, and structures used for cultivating soil; raising, harvesting, and storing crops; irrigating land; growing grasses for animal fodder; marking territory lines or separating fields and pastures; and boarding, breeding, feeding, rearing, tending, and selling farm animals. Agricultural machinery and implement companies dominate. Manufacturers and dealers of fertilizer, windmills, and fencing supplies are also represented, as are veterinary medicine, items used to collect or make dairy products, and items used on horses such as blankets, halters, harnesses, horseshoes, nails, saddles, and riding whips. Certificates issued by or pertaining to agricultural societies and organizations are also found here. The collection's prints and ephemera are primarily promotional in nature and provide information about American farming and agriculture-related industries, as well as the evolution of advertising strategies employed by these businesses in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Materials in this collection also provide a perspective on American membership and participation in various agricultural societies and organizations. As graphic materials, the items offer evidence of printmaking techniques and trends, as well as information about the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.
priJLC_AGR_003450
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Visual Materials
The Jay T. Last collection of beverage prints and ephemera contains approximately 2,650 printed items advertising beverage products and related businesses in the United States from the 1840s to the 1940s, with the bulk of the items spanning from 1850 to 1915. The collection consists largely of lithographed ephemeral items produced for American businesses affiliated with the manufacture, distribution, and sale of beverages such as coffee, tea, juice, milk, carbonated beverages, and alcoholic drinks including beer, wine, whiskey, and other liquors. The collection includes approximately 40 large-size items comprised mainly of lithographed advertising prints and product labels for tea, coffee, and spirits. Small-size items number approximately 2,600 and contain a variety of promotional materials including trade cards, calendars, die-cut scraps, booklets, and printed billheads and letterheads with manuscript text. The collection deals with beverage production, merchandising, advertising, and consumption -- including depictions of families and other groups drinking together -- and the images provide a resource for studying the history of American beer, liquor, coffee, tea, and carbonated beverage industries along with the evolution of their advertising in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Materials in the collection produced for manufacturers and distributors of alcoholic beverages also provide a perspective on their advertising strategies in the face of a growing temperance movement in the United States leading up to Prohibition. As graphic materials, the prints offer evidence of developing techniques and trends in printmaking, and of the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.
priJLC_BEV_004571
Visual Materials
Image of a fruit label for Jersey brand apples and peaches sold by the Jersey Fruit Growers Cooperative Association; a young boy in a brimmed hat taking a bite of a piece of fruit at top center.
priJLC_FOOD_FtVeg_001987
Visual Materials
Image of an eye-level side view of a steam locomotive train, tender, and cars, with a passenger car filled with travelers on tracks moving through the countryside.
priJLC_TRAN_001166
