The Library will be closed on Sunday, March 31, 2024, in observance of Easter

photo collection

Pages

Brenda Allen waits for policewoman Audre Davis to appear at hearing arranged by Judge William McKay. Davis never showed up in court. Herald Examiner Collection, photo dated July 9, 1949
Photo Friends, June 14, 2018

After Ann Forst, the Black Widow, was sentenced to serve time for pandering, one of her protégés, Brenda Allen (born Marie Mitchell and going under a number of aliases including Brenda Allen Burns, Marie Brooks, Marie Cash, Brenda Burris, and Marie Balanque) wasted no time in setting up her own prostitutio


Photograph caption dated May 27, 1983 reads, "Some of the 5,000 people who rallied at Westwood Federal Building in support of more AIDS research funds."
Photo Friends, June 01, 2018

June is LGBTQIA Pride Month, a time to remember the challenges that the LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual) community has faced and to commemorate the contributions they have made.


Ann Forst testifies in court regarding collaboration with LAPD Vice Squad in photo dated August 5, 1940.
Photo Friends, May 31, 2018

And now, a bit of real life noir compliments of the photo collection of the Los Angeles Public Library and the real lives of two L.A. femme fatales – the Black Widow and the Vice Queen.


Decoration Day parade in Pasadena, 1891
Tina Lernø, May 26, 2018

Memorial Day is officially observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who lost their lives while serving in the U.S. military. It was originally known as Decoration Day because families would decorate the graves of those who had fallen in the Civil War.


Photographer Rolland J. Curtis and his mother, Mathilda Curtis. They are standing near a Delta Airlines plane, and she is wearing a corsage.
Photo Friends, May 24, 2018

Born in Louisiana in 1922, Rolland J. Curtis came to Los Angeles with his wife in 1946 after serving in the Marines during WWII.


Amelia Earhart and technical expert Paul Mantz study the route Earhart undertook in a flight from the Hawaiian Islands to California, the longest over-water flight ever undertaken at that time.
Photo Friends, July 19, 2018

While attending the 1907 Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, ten-year-old Amelia Mary Earhart saw her first airplane. She was not impressed. She described it as “a thing of rusty wire and wood and not at all interesting” and asked her father, Edwin Earhart, to take her back to the merry-go-round.


Cinco de Mayo plus colorful banners
Tina Lernø, May 04, 2018

Cinco de Mayo is a holiday commemorating just one event: The Battle of Puebla, which was a day of victory for the Mexican army against the French in 1862. Over 150 years later, people still mistake the holiday for Mexican Independence Day which is September 16.


Sandy Koufax at the pitch
Mary McCoy, May 01, 2018

If you're an Angeleno with even a casual interest in the Dodgers, you've probably heard of veteran baseball writer Jon Weisman.


Young Japanese girls brave the early morning rain to bid farewell to friends leaving for Manzanar relocation camp
Photo Friends, May 01, 2018

In the spring of 1942, the City of Los Angeles experienced a population exodus triggered by a presidential executive order. Images in the Los Angeles Public Library's Herald Examiner Collection and Shades of L.A.


Los Angeles Public Library Traveling Branch in 1949
Tiffney Sanford, April 11, 2018

Today is National Bookmobile Day, a day to celebrate the contributions bookmobiles make to their communities. From 1949 to 2004, Los Angeles Public Library’s bookmobiles made a significant impact in the community by visiting lots of neighborhood schools, parks, and housing developments around the city.


Pages

Top