Los Angeles Public Library, Photograph Collections

The Los Angeles Public Library’s Photograph Collections comprise a number of major collections including: The Security Pacific National Bank Collection, donated to LAPL in 1981, consisting of over 150,000 photographs documenting the growth of Los Angeles and its many neighborhoods. The SPNB Collection also contains images from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce depicting business, industry, sports and agriculture in Los Angeles during its greatest growth spurt, 1920-1939. The Shades of L.A. archive contains images representing the full range of contemporary and historic ethnic and cultural diversity in the greater Los Angeles region. Copied from family albums in a project sponsored by Photo Friends, the photographs show daily life, work, social organizations, personal and holiday celebrations, and migration and immigration activities. Also archived are approximately twelve oral histories that were collected during the project and available through the LAPL website. The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner Photograph Collection consists of the newspaper’s morgue of 2.2 million photographs doumenting Southern California, the nation, and the world in the years from the 1920s to 1989. The Valley Times newspaper morgue spans from 1946-1972 and focuses on the post-war growth of the San Fernando Valley. The LAPL Photo Collection also has smaller collections of specific photographers including Ansel Adams, Herman Schultheis, Howard Kelly, Gary Leonard, Carol Westwood, C.C. Pierce, William Reagh, and Ralph Morris.

The LAPL Photograph Collections are a participant in the LAAS and ONE Archives Hidden Histories project