Bullock's Department Store Collection of Photographs

The Bullock's Department Store Collection consists of 680 photographs and 29 glass plate negatives related to the Los Angeles, California-based department store between 1905 and 1971 (bulk 1912-1945), as well as 2 boxes of ephemera related to Bullock's publicity and events between 1915 and 1952. The materials focus primarily on the retail spaces, displays, departments, and employees at the downtown Los Angeles store once located at Broadway, 7th, and Hill Streets. The collection is the remnant of (what seems to have been) a larger archive of albums assembled and annotated in-house to document the various functions associated with the store. As such, the photographs depict every aspect of the store's workings including: the full range of departments, many shown with thematic decorations for holidays and special events; window displays; store merchandising; employee activities and gatherings such as dances, holiday parties, Easter worship services and group portraits; children's parties and parades; advertising billboards; the August sales event and crowds; and construction scenes from 1912 and 1928.

The collection is particularly strong in its documentation of the store's window displays and merchandising efforts. There are also many pictures of mannequins dressed in the latest fashions for men, women, and children. The World War II home front effort is a theme that occurs throughout the collection in various display motifs and in employee events. Many photographs depict the store's workforce including female sales clerks, male cooks and security guards, and African American employees in various capacities. Eight pictures at the end of Volume 9 depict Bullock's branch locations including the famed Bullock's Wilshire store. Volume 11 contains promotional and ephemeral materials from 1948 through 1952 associated with the Bullock's Wilshire store.

Photographers represented in the collection include Warren Bowen Studios; Brown and Warrington; duBois Photo Co.; Frank C. Elliott; Jim England; Graham Photo; Keystone Photo; J.C. Milligan; Ernest Pratt; Otto Rothschild; Stagg Photography; Art Streib; "Dick" Whittington Studio; Whitland Locke Commercial Photography; and Witzel Photo.