Visual Materials
The collection consists of approximately 6,700 photographs, which includes photographic prints and 4 x 5 inch and smaller glass negatives, glass positives, film negatives and lantern slides depicting Southern California (mainly Los Angeles and nearby communities). The collection provides quite a comprehensive picture of the growth and development of Los Angeles at the turn of the twentieth century. The smaller format items are mostly copy negatives (not originals) taken by Ellis of images in other collections. Ellis copied the photographic holdings of, among others, Bancroft, Behrendt, Tyler, Hill, Ingersoll, Forman, Rowan, Foxley, Guinn, Fryer, A.W. Francisco, McPherson, Charles Prudhomme and William Burton. The collection is particularly strong in images of Central Los Angeles from the 1880s to the 1910s and Los Angeles County beach communities in the 1900s and 1910s. Also of note are images of sites and themes of historic or cultural significance, and portraits. In addition to images of central Los Angeles, the collection includes images of Los Angeles County beach communities, Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, and Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties. The historic and cultural sites include photographs of missions and churches; commercial, municipal and residential buildings, including historic adobes; schools and parks; railroads, emigration, and stagecoach routes; Campo de Cahuenga; Busch Gardens in Pasadena; the Modjeska home in Santa Ana; the Lake Vineyard, Sunnyslope, and the Rowland properties in the San Gabriel Valley; and images of Native Americans and Native American culture. Portraits include those of California pioneers, prominent Angelinos and San Diegans, including J. Lancaster Brent, George Horatio Derby, Hillard Dorsey, the Ellis Family, Judge A.J. King and family, Vicente Lugo, Charles Prudhomme, Truman H. Rose, William Rubottom, Abel Stearns, 1st Worshipful Master of the California Masonic Lodge Levi Stowall, and the Workman family. Some of the 4 x 5 inch and smaller glass negatives and lantern slides depict historic sites of Northern California, including mining camps of the California Gold Rush. There are also miscellaneous images pertaining to themes with no direct relationship to California or the American West, such as Freemasonry and general United States history. The United States history images include copies of Abraham Lincoln portraits and the Lincoln home in Kentucky as well as early American figures including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.
