Visitors to the Los
Angeles Archives Bazaar
Courtesy of LA as Subject
October is California Archives Month, and what better way to
link arms with the professionals and institutions that collect, safeguard, and
provide access to our state’s history than to attend the 11th Annual Los
Angeles Archives Bazaar on October 15?
Since 2004, archives and collectors that tell the story of the
Los Angeles region have gathered to promote and exhibit their archives at the
Los Angeles Archives Bazaar. A boon for researchers, lay historians, and lovers
of Los Angeles, this all-day event is sponsored by the University of California
and the archival collective LA as Subject. The event is held at the University
of Southern California, LA as Subject’s host organization.
CHS, a member of LA as Subject, enjoys an additional
association with USC. At the university’s Department of Special Collections are
housed some of CHS’s significant photography collections. This blog tells the
story of one of them, the Title Insurance and Trust and C.C. Pierce Photography
Collection, 1860-1960 (TICOR/Pierce),
available digitally through the USC Digital Library.
Charles Chester Pierce (c. 1853–1946)
Courtesy of Huntington
Library, San Marino
Nearly 15,000 historic
photographs by the pioneer Los Angeles photographer C. C. Pierce comprise
the Title Insurance and Trust Company (TICOR)/Pierce
collection documenting the development of the Los Angeles region. Pierce, who arrived in Los Angeles in 1886, recorded
the city’s history with his camera until his death in 1946. One of the era’s
leading photographers, he sold his collection in 1941 to TICOR. TICOR subsequently donated its “C. C. Pierce
Collection of Rare, Historical and Curious Photographs, Illustrating
California, the Pacific Coast and the Southwest” in 1977 to the California
Historical Society, which housed the collection at CHS’s Los Angeles History
Center on Wilshire Boulevard until 1989. CHS then moved the collection to the University
of Southern California.
For
your archival pleasure, we offer this small but hopefully enticing sample of
our TICOR/Pierce collection.
View of Spring Street Looking on to Third Street, c. 1900–1905
Portrait of the Los Angeles Bicycle Champions, c. 1888
Pigeon Ranch Near the Los Angeles River, c. 1900
Movie Production Still of Indians in the Film The Big Trail, c. 1920
The Hollywood Hills, 1926
Fawkes’ Folly, Aerial Trolley Designed by J.W. Fawkes in
Burbank, c. 1907–1910
View of the Shore at Santa Monica Taken from the Old
Santa Monica Hotel, c. 1885
