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Thursday, October 13, 2016

Archives Month in Los Angeles: The L.A. Archives Bazaar

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 

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