Research Guides: Los Angeles History and Culture in Library Special Collections: Photography

Resources and Search Strategies

These collections include photographs by art and commercial photographers, the photograph files of major newspapers, postcards, and real estate photos. The individual photos document an extensive range of topics, including Southern California places, communities, the built environment, and major historical events.

Unless otherwise indicated, finding aids for the photographic collections can be found in the Online Archive of California.

Also, see UCLA Library Special Collections’ Subject Guide for Photography.

Photography

California Postcards Collection (Collection 1351)
Los Angeles Daily News Photographs, 1923-1954 (Collection 1386)
This collection is searchable through paper indexes housed at the reference desk on the A level of the Charles E. Young Research Library. A large selection of images from the collection is available online.
Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives, ca. 1918-1990
This collection is searchable through paper indexes housed at the reference desk on the A level of the Charles E. Young Research Library.
Picture Collection, 1899-present (Collection 99)
Contains many early views of Southern California, including greater Los Angeles, Hollywood, Pasadena, California missions, adobes, and ranchos. Minimal description of this collection is available online and patrons are advised to use the card catalog index that is available at the reference desk on the B level of the Charles E. Young Research Library.
Photograph Album Collection (Collection 94)
Includes a number of albums with photographs of Southern California scenes and prominent individuals.

Los Angeles Photography

Adelbert Bartlett Papers (Collection 1300)
Bartlett was a commercial photographer based in Santa Monica in the early to mid-20th century. A selection of images is available online.
Herbert M. Baruch Corporation Records (Collection 1512)
Photographs relating to buildings and properties constructed by Herbert M. Baruch Corporation of Los Angeles during the 1920s and 1940s.
Will Connell Papers (Collection 893)
Connell was a mid-twentieth-century, Los Angeles-based photojournalist and commercial photographer.
Walter L. Gordon, Jr./William C. Beverly, Jr. Collection
The photographs in this collection represent the lifelong interest of Los Angeles African American attorney Walter L. Gordon in documenting little known aspects of African American history and culture through the first half the twentieth century.
Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection (Collection 1889)
As a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library, Matthews collected photos that document the history of African Americans in Los Angeles.
C.C. Pierce Photographs (Collection 1756)
Pierce was a photographer who was active in Los Angeles between1898 and 1934. A selection of images is available online.
Ernest Mitchell Pratt Collection of Photographs (Collection 1217)
Pratt was a commercial photographer who took pictures of California and Mexico between 1920 and 1940.
Harriet Rochlin Collection of Photographs of Western Jewish Life (Collection 441)
These photographs, some of which date back to the mid-nineteenth century were collected by writer Harriet Rochlin to illustrate articles she wrote on Jews in the western United States.
Otto Rothschild Photographic Archive (Collection 1381)
Rothschild was a commercial photographer who was active from 1930 to 1981.
Marilyn Sanders (Collection 1884)
Sanders is a Los Angeles-based art photographer.