Collection of California and Southern California Panoramic Negatives, 1889-1958, bulk 1920s-1930s

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Summary

Abstract:
This finding aid brings together information about the Huntington's collections of panoramic negatives. These 436 negatives are located in three separate collections: the Verner Collection of Panoramic Negatives, the Harold A. Parker Collection of Photographs and Negatives, and the "'Dick"' Whittington Studio Collection of Photographs and Negatives. They depict Los Angeles and surrounding areas, and group portraits, 1889-1958. The collection is an important resource for the visual history of Los Angeles, and contains photographs by some of the better-known photographers and photographic firms of the first part of the twentieth century.
Extent:
436 negatives in 13 boxes (67.83 linear feet)
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

This finding aid brings together information about the Huntington's collections of panoramic negatives. These 436 negatives are located in three separate collections: the Verner Collection of Panoramic Negatives, the Harold A. Parker Collection of Photographs and Negatives, and the "'Dick"' Whittington Studio Collection of Photographs and Negatives. They depict Los Angeles and surrounding areas, and group portraits, 1889-1958. The collection is an important resource for the visual history of Los Angeles, and contains photographs by some of the better known photographers and photographic firms of the first part of the twentieth century: the Aerograph Company, Bayley Studio, F.M. Huddleston, Harold A. Parker, Pettit's Studio, C.C. Pierce, Pioneer Photo, K.P. Ramsey, and "'Dick"' Whittington Studio.

The Verner Collection contains 239 panoramic negatives depicting Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Big Bear, Palm Springs, Huntington Beach, Culver City, Pasadena, and other southern California communities, taken by some of the leading photographic studios of the era. The collection depicts a significant era in regional growth, capturing the public spaces, real estate and commercial development, civic and group gatherings, industrial and manufacturing interests, and the recreational sites and activities of the period. Of particular note are C.C. Pierce's views of downtown Los Angeles, taken in 1902; Pierce's views of Hollywood and Santa Monica; K.P. Ramsey's photographs of military personnel, dating from 1910; Pierce's and Pettit's Studio's views of the development of Westwood Village and the University of California, Los Angeles, dating from the 1930s; Pierce's views of Beverly Hills and Catalina; Pierce's, Pettit's Studio's and Aerograph's 1920s photographs of Long Beach and oil fields and derricks in Signal Hill and Culver City; F.M. Huddleston's images of airports in Alhambra, Burbank, Culver City, and Los Angeles from 1930; and Aerograph's views of the Rose Bowl football games from the mid-1920s. This collection of negatives was purchased from Los Angeles resident Jack Verner. The negatives had originally been received by Verner’s mother from an unknown source.

Of special interest in the 127 negatives in the Parker Collection are the many images of the Huntington Hotel (numbers 40001-40003), Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Tavern (numbers 40010, 40029, 40030, 40031, 40036, 40037, 40038, 40041, 40060, 40061, 40075, 40109, and 40121), the Colorado Street bridge in Pasadena (numbers 40004, 40015, 40033, 40045, 40089, and 40116), Pasadena residences (including the St. Francis bungalow court) (numbers 40016, 40051, 40052, 40054, 40057, 40058, 40064, 40090, 40114, 40120, 40120a, and 40122), Lake Elsinore in Riverside County (numbers 40080a-f), and the Rose Bowl (40071, 40074, 40079, 40098a-c, and 40105).

The Whittington Collection's 70 negatives contains a number of images of undeveloped and newly developed areas of Los Angeles, including Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, and Alhambra, views of Lido Isle in Newport, and Republic Studios in Studio City.

Acquisition information:
The panoramic negatives that form this grouping come from three distinct collections: the Verner Collection of Panoramic Negatives (photCL 470), the Harold A. Parker Collection of Photographs and Negatives (photCL 402), and the "'Dick"' Whittington Studio Collection of Photographs and Negatives (photCL Whitt). The Verner Collection, made up entirely of panoramic negatives, was purchased from Jack Verner by the Collector's Council, 2004; the Parker Collection, which also includes smaller format film and glass plate negatives, was donated to the Huntington Library in 1996 and 1999 by Donald Parker, Harold Parker's son; and the Whittington Collection, which also includes smaller format negatives and photographs, was partly purchased by, and partly donated to, the Huntington Library by Whittington's son Edward in 1976.
Arrangement:

The negatives are arranged chronologically by collection. The Verner Collection contains the oldest negatives and is thus listed first, followed by the Parker Collection and the Whittington Collection. Within each collection, the negatives are arranged generally by subject, although this arrangement is not perfectly consistent.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Advance arrangements for viewing the negatives must be made with the Curator of Photographs. The collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, please visit the Huntington's website: www.huntington.org.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
Website