The Library will be closed on Thursday, November 28 & Friday, November 29, 2024, in observance of Thanksgiving.

LAPL Blog

Christina Rice, Senior Librarian, Photo Collection

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Portrait of Commissioner Leontyne B. King

Leontyne Butler King - A Commissioner for the Community

March 20, 2024

At the Vernon - Leon H. Washington Jr. Memorial Branch Library, there is a wall in the meeting room adorned with four framed portraits. Two are paintings: one depicts writer Langston Hughes and is a gift from Miriam Matthews, the Los Angeles Public Library’s first Black librarian. The other is Leon H.

Women's History Month, Library History
Christina Rice looking at our photo archives

Video: The Carol Westwood Photo Collection

August 19, 2023

For a look at Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s, the Carol Westwood collection is an indispensable resource.

TESSA, Video, Photo Collection
King speaks to a crowd of 4,500 on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles on April 27, 1965

A King in the City of Angels

January 15, 2021

Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but as in so many cities and towns throughout the country, his impact on Los Angeles was strong and far-reaching. King visited L.A.

Photo Collection, Los Angeles History, Martin Luther King
Gina Hemphill

Going for the Gold: African Americans and the Games of the XXIII Olympiad

February 03, 2020

We have to wait until the summer of 2028 for Los Angeles to host the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, but when we do, we will join Paris and London as only the third city to host the Summer Games three times, having previously done so in 1932 and famously, in 1984.

African American History Month, TESSA, Photo Collection, 1984 Olympics, Los Angeles History
Portrait of Agness "Aggie" May Underwood.

The First with the Latest! Aggie Underwood, the Los Angeles Herald, and the Sordid Crimes of a City

March 04, 2019

A picture may say 1,000 words, though there is possibly another story lurking just outside the frame.

Women's History Month
Bette Davis signs books for fans at a Hollywood book store,1988.

Bette Davis, a Life in One Archival Folder

December 05, 2018

The library’s Los Angeles Herald Examiner photo collection spans seven decades, from the mid-1920s to 1989 and is a treasure trove of all things Los Angeles.

Photo Collection
image

A City Engaged: Los Angeles in the Civil Rights Era

February 18, 2018

Los Angeles has always been a city of rich cultural diversity, often serving as a beacon of prosperity for migrants and immigrants around the globe.

African American History Month, Photo Collection, Heritage Months, Exhibits
The Sherman Institute class of 1919. Shades of L.A. Collection.

The Sherman Institute of Riverside, California: A History in Photos

November 01, 2017

When the Perris Indian School was established in 1892 by the United States government, it became the first non-reservation boarding school for Native American children in California.

Photo Collection, Native American Heritage Month, Heritage Months
The marquee of the Globe Theater advertises Spanish-language entertainment in the early 1970s.

How Spanish-Language Entertainment Revived the Broadway Theaters

September 18, 2017

Once upon a time, Broadway was the Great White Way of the West. A high concentration of theaters populating the stretch of Downtown between 3rd and Olympic rendered it an epicenter for film and live entertainment.

Latinx Heritage Month, Photo Collection, Central Library, Heritage Months
James Barlow, left, also known as Jeri Ryan, and August Coy, also known as Irene Paston, at the city hall police station. Photograph dated November 27, 1944.

LGBTQIA History From the Back of the Photo

June 12, 2017

Prior to the late 1970s, LGBTQIA coverage in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner (previously the Herald Express) was extremely limited. Any photos in our image archive from the newspaper focus exclusively on men being arrested for "masquerading" as women.

LGBTQIA, Photo Collection, Los Angeles History

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