Visual Materials

Photographs of California Botanic Garden, Santa Monica Mountains

Description: This collection consists of 63 photographic prints and 87 black-and-white transparencies documenting the California Botanic Garden in approximately 1928, the year it opened to the public in Los Angeles County. The prints are 8 x 10 inches and are stamped with the credit of the "Dick" Whittington Studio, and depict overviews of the garden, walking paths, a waterfall, and a variety of plantings throughout the canyon, along with administrative offices, visitors, and a portrait of president Elmer D. Merrill. The film transparencies appear to show opening day festivities, 1928, with tree plantings, speakers and guests, and students with posters promoting the garden. The actress Mary Pickford, a supporter, poses in a few images. Contact prints of the transparencies were made by the Library and are available to view in Box 1.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: approximately 1928
Call number: photCL 208
Creator: Dick Whittington Studio(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from Dawson's Book Shop, 1979.
Restrictions: RESTRICTED: Box 2 (film transparencies): Housed in cold storage; extended retrieval and delivery time required.
Rights: The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining permission rests with the researcher.
Find out more: View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab); View in the Online Archive of California(Opens in new tab)

Photographs; contact prints of film transparencies

Visual Materials

This collection consists of 63 photographic prints and 87 black-and-white transparencies documenting the California Botanic Garden in approximately 1928, the year it opened to the public in Los Angeles County. The prints are 8 x 10 inches and are stamped with the credit of the "Dick" Whittington Studio, and depict overviews of the garden, walking paths, a waterfall, and a variety of plantings throughout the canyon, along with administrative offices, visitors, and a portrait of president Elmer D. Merrill. The film transparencies appear to show opening day festivities, 1928, with tree plantings, speakers and guests, and students with posters promoting the garden. The actress Mary Pickford, a supporter, poses in a few images. Contact prints of the transparencies were made by the Library and are available to view in Box 1.

photCL 208

Image not available

Film transparencies

Visual Materials

photCL 208

Image not available

Photograph album of unidentified family, house and garden, possibly in Southern California

Visual Materials

A family photograph album of 23 mounted albumen prints of a house and large garden with statuary, potted palms, and planting beds decorated with conch shells. The house sits on a tree-lined road, and there are three interior photographs of rooms with Victorian furnishings and decor. There is a portrait of a well-dressed man, and another with four young men and women, presumably his family. The women are posed with a little girl in another photograph, and there is a group portrait of 10 people on a lawn tennis court, holding rackets. Some photographs in the garden focus on specific plants, particularly palms, and there are some scenic views of a canyon and stream. There are no identifications in the album, and the album's compiler and photographer are unknown.

photCL 367

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Photographs of the Huntington Desert Garden

Visual Materials

A group of 8 x 10-inch, black-and-white photographs of desert plant specimens in the Huntington Desert Garden, taken approximately 1928-1940 by an unknown photographer. The photographs show agave, aloe, cacti, euphorbia and others, and most have typed labels with species names, country of origin, and descriptive information. Several plants were cultivated from Mexico. This collection also contains two photographs of trees in open fields in Pasadena, a Valley Oak and a Monterey Cypress.

photCL 473

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Santa Monica apartment, Santa Monica, CA

Visual Materials

Maynard L. Parker negatives, photographs, and other material consists of 57,893 black-and-white negatives, color transparencies, black-and-white prints, and color prints; 39 presentation albums; and 17 boxes of office records, 1930-1974. Created primarily by Maynard Parker, the archive documents the residential and non-residential work of architects, interior designers, landscape architects, artists, builders, real estate developers, and clients associated with these fields, foremost among them the magazine House Beautiful. Also included in the collection are photographs taken by other individuals, such as architect Cliff May and Parker's assistant, Charles Yerkes.

photCL MLP

Image not available

In mountain lilac, east side of Santa Monica Mountains

Visual Materials

This collection contains photographs, negatives, and some ephemera chiefly collected by California conservationist and editor William H. Thrall (1873-1963) for use in Trails magazine. Thrall served as managing editor of the publication from 1934 to 1939, which was produced to encourage the use of mountain trails and outdoor recreation in Los Angeles County. The collection includes approximately 1200 prints (Boxes 1-4); 68 glass negatives (Boxes 7-8); approximately 2300 film negatives; 150 slides; and miscellaneous documents and ephemera, and a folding pocket camera. The photographs primarily date from the 1930s, but also include copy prints (and some originals) of late 19th and early 20th photographs. The images depict mountain and forested landscapes and outdoor recreational activities including hiking, skiing, and camping, chiefly in the San Gabriel Mountains and surrounding mountains of Southern California. Many of the photographs include individuals involved in recreational activities as well images of historical mountain pioneers. The photographs chiefly consist of 4.5 x 2.75 inch snapshots and 8 x 10 and 6 x 10 inch prints, by photographers including Dan P. Alexander, Carl H. Bauer, Harlow Dormer, C. C. Vernon, and Thrall. There is also a group of glass plate negatives and film negatives, including a group of unprinted film negatives that appear to be personal photographs with views of nature, groups of people, family scenes, buildings, boating, and trips, in the 1930s-1950s (Box 15). The film negatives have handwritten numbers presumably assigned by Thrall. Many of the prints appear in Trails magazine, which was published quarterly by the Mountain League of Southern California from Winter 1934 to Spring 1939 (Volume 6, No. 1). In Autumn 1941, the Southern California Outdoor Federation began publishing a new edition of Trails Magazine (without Thrall as editor), but only two issues were published (Volume 2, Nos. 1-2).

photCL 481

Photographs of California Botanic Garden, Santa Monica Mountains

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