Archaeological digs can tell us much about ancient civilizations, but what about more recent periods of human habitation? This fine collection from the USC Digital Library presents over 1,100 images of artifacts excavated from two sites in Southern California. The Chinatown section features 1,040 color images of artifacts from the original Los Angeles Chinatown. These items were recovered during...

The incredibly comprehensive Los Angeles Almanac claims to be the only online almanac devoted exclusively to one city. The History page linked above includes a chronological timeline of the county's history (the History Timeline of Los Angeles County section) and a collection of entries organized by time period, from Early Los Angeles History and Mexican Los Angeles, to 20th Century Los Angeles...

Long before the brights lights of Hollywood or the sparking majesty of the Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles was a much smaller place. This engaging collection of documents from the Los Angeles City Archives offers some insights into the city from 1836 to 1872. The collection was digitized as part of the USC Digital Library,and it contains original land grants, maps, and early city ordinances....

Sometimes maligned, often misunderstood, the City of Angels occupies a healthy chunk of Southern California real estate which has been the subject of thousands of thematic maps, dating back to the time of the first European explorers who began to wander around the area some five centuries ago. Recently, the Library of Congress and the Ira Gershwin Gallery collaborated to present a collection of...

From deserts to beaches to subterranean tunnels, the Lost LA video series explores Southern California's past with the help of primary source material from the archives of the University of Southern California Libraries. Episodes explore beloved landmarks like Dodger Stadium and Yosemite ("Before the Dodgers" and "Yosemite"), subcultures from surfers to radio evangelists ("Beach Culture" and...

Using a wide variety of materials culled from archival collections, primarily the Getty Research Institute, the J. Paul Getty Museum presents Overdrive, an exhibition of Los Angeles's urban landscape, presented in a way that would be almost impossible to recreate from ground level in L.A. Drawings, photographs, models, films, animations, oral histories, and ephemera provide a view of L.A.'s...

If you mention "historic preservation" and "Los Angeles" in the same sentence, some people might raise their eyebrows. The City of Angeles has constantly reinvented itself during its relatively brief existence, and much of the city's urban fabric has been chewed up by bulldozers and ambitious developers over the past several decades. However, the J. Paul Getty Trust is providing financial backing...

Why is the Los Angeles River so ugly? Have any military battles occurred in LA? What's the story behind the downtown skyline? And what is the right way to pronounce "Los Angeles," anyway? The Hidden History of Los Angeles attempts to answer these questions and more in each 20-60 minutes episode that covers "the lesser known aspects of Los Angeles history." The host is Robert Petersen, a SoCal...

In the 1970s, the Woman's Building in Los Angeles was a pivotal locus of activity for the feminist art movement. This website brings that history to life, providing information about its history, programs, projects, and the women behind the vision. A great place to start is with the History section which details the history of this important structure from its opening in 1973. Visitors will also...