Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Historical Society of Southern California Collection - Schneider Collection of Negatives
Image not available
Visual Materials
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Visual Materials
The Rolfe collection consists of 325 photographs (the majority of which are housed in two photograph albums), 574 negatives, one book, and ephemera, created and collected by Los Angeles civil engineer and local history enthusiast Frank Rolfe between 1899 and 1959 that depict locations throughout California and the Western United States. Many of these were locations where Rolfe worked on various surveys, including the Los Angeles aqueduct survey. The majority of the photographs appear to have been taken by Rolfe, but there are a few, in the photograph album in Box 2, credited to Charles J. Prudhomme. The collection begins with Rolfe's photographs of the initial Los Angeles aqueduct survey, the majority of which are housed in an album. These photographs depict Owens Valley and Black Rock Springs. The collection also contains a published work on the aqueduct. A second album contains photographs taken primarily by Rolfe; these are photographs of Los Angeles (central Los Angeles and neighborhoods where Rolfe and his wife lived); the San Gabriel Valley and other locations in Los Angeles County (Devil's Gate Dam, the San Gabriel Mountains, the St. Francis Dam and San Francisquito Canyon); San Bernardino County (the San Bernardino Mountains, Big Bear Lake); Riverside County (the Coachella Valley, Tahquitz Canyon, the Temescal Valley, Riverside, the San Jacinto Mountains); Kern County; and commercially produced images of Yosemite. Boxes 3 and 4 contain negatives depicting street scenes in central Los Angeles, including the wrecking of the Temple Block, the Amestoy Block, the Hall of Records, and Bunker Hill. Also included are views of the West Adams neighborhood; houses where Rolfe and his wife lived in the 1920s and 30s; the snowstorm of 1932; and the 1920 Inglewood earthquake. The collection also includes images of Hollywood and vicinity (including a number of photographs of the Mulholland Dam and images of Brentwood and Bel Air); Santa Monica (including the Santa Monica Mountains and Decker Canyon); Santa Catalina Island; north Los Angeles County (including the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, the ruins of the Saint Francis Dam and San Francisquito Canyon, and the "golden spike" celebration at Lang); the San Gabriel Valley (including many views of the San Gabriel Mountains); Orange County (including Modjeska's home, Santiago Canyon, San Juan Capistrano, the Puente hills, and Santa Ana Canyon); San Diego County; San Bernardino County (including a number of photographs of mining camps, including Ivanpah and Camp Roach; construction of the Ludlow and Southern Railway; and mining operations, such as the Bagdad Chase Mine and the Bagdad Mining and Milling Company); Riverside County (including the Temescal Tin Mine, Temescal and the Temescal Valley, Hog Lake, the San Jacinto River, Mount San Jacinto, and Idyllwild); Ventura County; Kern County (images of the Kern River); Inyo County; Yosemite; northern California (including Stanford University and Susie Lake); Nevada (Truckee River dam projects); Oregon; Washington; Utah; Glacier Park, Montana; people (Rolfe, his family and friends); and miscellaneous photographs (a number of desert views, mostly Southern California). The collection also contains commercial photographs of the Rolfe family, many in carte-de-visite format. These were produced by California photographers Bradley and Rulofson, Ellis and Son, Frank G. Schumacher, George Steckel, Carleton Watkins, Michael A. Wesner, and James D. Westervelt, as well as A.J. Beals and Sutterly and Company (Nevada), A.F. Burnham (Faribault, Minnesota), E. Balch (New York City), Charles C. Hartwell (Maine), and Hart's Arcade Photographic Gallery (Watertown, NY). The ephemerial materials consist of a letter written in 1862 from Sutter Creek by Rolfe's father Ovid to his brother Alfred in Dorchester, Massachusetts; biographical sketches of members of the Rolfe family; clippings compiled by Rolfe; Rolfe's high school and college diplomas; card files on Rolfe family history, covered wagons in Los Angeles, and Temescal history; and negative books. Some photographs exist in duplicate. The majority of the negatives are unprinted. Some negatives have deteriorated or are damaged. Original negatives exist for 15 of the photographs in the second album; 2 copy negatives exist of photographs in the first album.
photCL 400 volume 12
Image not available
Visual Materials
The album is a published collection of souvenir views of Los Angeles, California, and vicinity. Included are views of Figueroa Street; Hollenbeck Home; Adams Street; West Lake Park; Palm Drive; Plaza Church; Broadway and the "old" City Hall; the "old" Court house; Chester Place; a panorama of central Los Angeles; San Gabriel Mission; Marengo Avenue in Pasadena; the Raymond Hotel; the Mount Lowe cable incline railway; the home of Ramona (Rancho Camulos in Ventura County); Avalon harbor and Santa Catalina Island; the Potter Hotel in Santa Barbara; the Santa Barbara Mission; Redlands; the Hotel Coronado in San Diego; and Magnolia Avenue in Riverside.
photCL 400 volume 26
Image not available
Visual Materials
The Krueger Collection consists of 103 black-and-white photographs and 103 negatives depicting sites and locations within the greater Los Angeles, California, area. Images of Los Angeles include the Lugo Adobe; Olvera Street; Ord Street in Chinatown; Union Station; the United States Post Office Terminal Annex; City Hall; the Hall of Justice; the Old Hall of Records; the Post Office and Federal Building; the California State Building; the Los Angeles Times Building; Pershing Square; streets in downtown Los Angeles decorated with Christmas decorations; and the Ambassador Hotel. Images of Hollywood include views of Hollywood Boulevard (some showing Christmas decorations); Grauman's Chinese and Egyptian Theaters; the Florentine Gardens nightclub; CBS facilities, including KNX/CBS Radio Playhouse with the Lux Radio Theater; NBC facilities; the Earl Carroll Theatre; the Hollywood Scenic Gardens (Bernheimer Gardens); the Brown Derby Restaurant (the Hollywood and Wilshire Boulevard locations); and Griffith Observatory. Other sites in greater Los Angeles include Exposition Park; Westlake (MacArthur) Park; and the Bernheimer Gardens in Pacific Palisades. Also included are views of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California; views of Long Beach, including the Pike, City Hall, the Public Library, and the Municipal Auditorium; and views in and around Lake Arrowhead.
photCL 400 volume 32
Image not available
Visual Materials
The album is a published collection of souvenir views of Los Angeles and vicinity. Included are views of Figueroa Street; Hollenbeck Home; Adams Street; West Lake Park; Palm Drive; Plaza Church; Broadway and the "old" City Hall; the "old" Court house; Chester Place; a panorama of central Los Angeles; San Gabriel Mission; Marengo Avenue in Pasadena; the Raymond Hotel; the Mount Lowe cable incline railway; the home of Ramona (Rancho Camulos in Ventura County); Avalon harbor and Santa Catalina Island; the Potter Hotel in Santa Barbara; the Santa Barbara Mission; Redlands; the Hotel Coronado in San Diego; and Magnolia Avenue in Riverside.
photCL 400 volume 25
Image not available
Visual Materials
The album is a published collection of souvenir views of Los Angeles, California, and vicinity. Included are views of the Plaza Church; central Los Angeles; Los Angeles area parks (East Lake Park, West Lake Park, Hollenbeck Park, Elysian Park); the "new" Los Angeles County courthouse; the San Gabriel and San Fernando Missions; Baldwin's Ranch; Riverside; the Sawtelle Soldier's Home; scenes of recreational activities in Santa Monica; Redlands; Redondo Beach; the Mount Lowe cable incline railway; and Pasadena.
photCL 400 volume 24
Image not available
Visual Materials
This collection consists of 809 photographs of individual and group portraits, dating from circa 1850s-1997 (bulk 1860s-1930s), that formed part of the Historical Society of Southern California Photo Archives. It is a reference collection and includes images of both prominent and lesser-known Los Angeles and Southern California figures from both the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection contains images in a variety of formats that were created by a number of well-known California photographers. These include James B. Blanchard, Boyé, Curtis Studios, George N. Dewey, Edouart and Son, Garden City Foto Co., William M. Godfrey, A.C. Golsh, Hayward and Muzzall, Fred Hartsook, Hiller and Mott, Theodore C. Marceau, Francis Parker (as Parker and Co., Parker and Hasselman, and Parker's Photographic Parlors), Payne Stanton and Co., Henri Penelon, Steve A. Rendall, Frank G. Schumacher, William Shew, John Pitcher Spooner, George Steckel, Isaiah West Taber, William Nutting Tuttle (as Tuttle and Lee, and Tuttle and Co.), O.E. Tyler, Davidson Roby Weaver, Michael A. Wesner, James D. Westervelt (also in partnership with Charles J. Coules), and Valentin Wolfenstein. The Griggs portraits depict young women in various settings; the Kathryn Murdoch gift is primarily of album pages with snapshots of local sites in Los Angeles.
photCL 400 volume 31