Visual Materials

Collection of photographs and postcards of the Long Beach, California, earthquake

Description: A group of 36 snapshot photographs and photographic postcards, and two printed souvenir photo booklets documenting the range of destruction after the major Long Beach earthquake on March 10, 1933. Images chiefly show damaged buildings including churches, post offices, schools, houses, apartment buildings, and stores. Some images feature large cracks in streets and highways. Three photographs depict damage in Compton, and one was taken in nearby Lynwood. Identified photographers are Austin Studio, Long Beach; C.D. Douglass Studios, Montebello; Larry Lynde; and Pacific Studios, L.A.
Type: Visual Materials(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1933
Call number: photCL 715
Provenance: Purchased from Vigilante Rare Documents, November 2023.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Photographs and postcards of the Long Beach, California, earthquake

Visual Materials

A group of 36 snapshot photographs and photographic postcards, and two printed souvenir photo booklets documenting the range of destruction after the major Long Beach earthquake on March 10, 1933. Images chiefly show damaged buildings including churches, post offices, schools, houses, apartment buildings, and stores. Some images feature large cracks in streets and highways. Three photographs depict damage in Compton, and one was taken in nearby Lynwood. Identified photographers are Austin Studio, Long Beach; C.D. Douglass Studios, Montebello; Larry Lynde; and Pacific Studios, L.A.

photCL 715

Image not available

[Aftermath of the Long Beach earthquake in Long Beach and Compton, California]

Visual Materials

5 black-and-white snapshots documenting the wreckage and destruction to various buildings caused by the Long Beach earthquake of 1933. Scenes include debris in the streets of Long Beach; a view of U.S. Marines walking through a Long Beach street; a destroyed Long Beach church; a view from the street of a building in Compton with the exterior wall destroyed and interior rooms visible; and the rubble before the Haigh Drug Co. store in Compton.

photPF 20228-20232

Long Beach Steam Station - Discharge Conduit

Visual Materials

Long Beach Steam Station - Discharge Conduit - looking north on dike near transformer house showing cracks caused by settlement of inland slope.

photCL SCE 02 - 30242

Long Beach Steam Station - Discharge Conduit

Visual Materials

Long Beach Steam Station - Discharge Conduit - Looking south (tilt) on dike near transformer house showing cracks caused by settlement of inland slope.

photCL SCE 02 - 30243

Image not available

Photograph album of aviation in Long Beach, California

Visual Materials

Photograph album containing snapshots and commercial photographs documenting early aviation activities around Long Beach, California, chiefly in the late 1920s. Included are views of pilots, aircraft, and many images of crashes of commercial and private planes. Many of the photographs accompanied by descriptive handwritten captions. This scrapbook was compiled by Jack Niblack, Signal Hill Chief of Police and an early licensed pilot. Also accompanied by framed image of Signal Hill oil fields.

photCL 482

Image not available

Long Beach. Long Beach Earthquake

Visual Materials

The Eugene Swarzwald Pictorial California and the Pacific Collection consists of 9,674 black and white photographs, negatives, a photograph album, magazine mock-ups, letters, and ephemera, dated 1909-ca. 1968. Eugene Swarzwald and the Swarzwald family collected the material for use in the magazine "Pictorial California and the Pacific." Images depict California and the West with some coverage of the rest of the United States and international destinations. The collection contains photographs depicting general city views of communities in California, scenic views of wilderness areas, images of parks, schools and universities, museums, and points of historic interest (including California mining towns and missions). The collection is strong in subjects related to leisure and social and recreational activities. Many of the photographs are by the Keystone Photo Service. Other photographers include Chuck Abbott, Adelbert Bartlett, Lionel T. Berryhill, Lil and Al Bloom, Hal Boucher, Campbell-Ricco-Mazzuchi Photography, Caroll Photo Service, Garth Chandler, Walter J. Collinge, Fairchild Aerial Surveys, George O. Fales, Frasher's, J. P. Graham, Dean Hesketh Company, Charles M. Hiller, Pat and G. E. Kirkpatrick, Don Knight, Albert J. Kopec, Ward Linton, Lothers and Young, Hubert A. Lowman, David M. Mills, Don Milton, Gabriel Moulin Studios, Karl Obert, Earle O'Day, Pacific Air Industries Aerial Photography, Dave Packwood, Padilla Studios, Maynard L. Parker, Jack W. Patterson, Julius Shulman, Spence Air Photos, H. W. Steward, Thiem, Harry Vroman, Whithurse Aerial Photos, and Steven H. Willard.

photCL 310

Collection of photographs and postcards of the Long Beach, California, earthquake

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Photographs and postcards of the Long Beach, California, earthquake

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