Research Guides: Architecture & Urban Design: Los Angeles and Southern California: Images and Cartographic Resources

Quick Start

Selected image search engines and databases.

Please note that Artstor provides access to high resolution images acquired from Archivision that feature many Los Angeles and Southern California landmark buildings.

Archivision (via JSTOR, formerly ARTstor)
UCLA provides access to a several Archivision modules that feature high quality images covering architecture, urban design, archaeological sites, landscapes, gardens, and works of art.
Google Image Search
Creative Commons Search
Wikimedia Commons
Public domain and freely-licensed images, sound, and video. Note the ability to browse by classification (topics, locations, media type, and more!) in addition to keyword searching.

Related Image Research Guides

(See below for guides to maps and cartographic resources)

Guides to Maps and Cartographic Resources at UCLA

Los Angeles and Southern California Digital Image Sources

Below is a list of digital collections that contain images related to Los Angeles and Southern California culture, history, and geography.

Also consult the "Archives and Special Collections" tab and the "UCLA Campus and Buildings" tab for additional sources.

Calisphere This link opens in a new window
Over one million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more from the collections digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.

Castillo (Oscar R.) Photograph Collection
Getty Research Institute Digital Collections
Images of Southern California (California Historical Society)
Includes Los Angeles photographs by Anton Wagner (1932-1933)
Imagine Santa Monica
S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962 - Digital Collections
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (UCLA Library Digital Collections)
Maps of Los Angeles, other parts of the United States, and various places in the world.
Includes digitized maps of California and more.
Maynard L. Parker Negatives, Photographs, and Other Material (Huntington Digital Library)
Sanborn Maps: California (Library of Congress Digital Collections)
Tract Maps and Cadastral Maps of Southern California, 1868-1937

UCLA Library Digital Collections This link opens in a new window
Rare and unique digital materials developed by the UCLA Library to support education, research, service, and creative expression, including the AIDS Poster Collection, the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive and more.

UCLA Historic Photographs - Hoover (Thelner B.) and Hoover (Louise E. B.) photographic collection
UCLA Photography
UCLA Photography specializes in Event, Sports, Product, Architectural and Portrait photography. They also house an archive of UCLA photographs dating back to the 1940's.
UCLA Public Art Collection
Images of artwork located in public spaces across the UCLA campus (via JSTOR Images). Does not include work under the curatorial purview of the Fowler Museum, the Hammer Museum, or the Medical Center Art Collection.
USC Digital Library
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You can browse USC's Digital Library by looking through theirlist of collections that are organized by collection name, time period, and place.

Recommended Books

Los Angeles in maps / Glen Creason ; foreword by D.J. Waldie ; with contributions by Dydia DeLyser ... [et al.].
GA460.L6 C74 2010 Arts Library Reference, YRL