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....

The Los Angeles Public Library has thousands of photographs in its archives. Taken as a whole, the archives represent a thoroughly wonderful portrait of the Southland during the past century or so. First-time visitors should click on the Photo Collection Overview area to learn about the holdings here. One particularly noteworthy addition to the collection occurred back in 1981 when Security...

Born in 1920, cellist James Arkatov performed with the San Francisco Symphony and other organizations before helping form the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. As the son of a photographer, he also became quite well known for his shots of various artists, conductors, and soloists in performance. He later donated this amazing trove of images to the UCLA Library allowing for this digitized collection...