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Lummis Meets the Movie People (cropped)
After the film industry came to Los Angeles, Lummis advised several producers and directors. He called them “the most conscienceless pirates” he'd ever met.
Westward Migration
In 1884, Lummis walked 3,507 miles to Los Angeles. His suffering, even as part of a publicity stunt, seemed to prove that he had earned his golden California destiny.
Cover of Upton Sinclair's "I, Governor" pamphlet (cropped)
MGM and other Hollywood studios helped defeat Upton Sinclair's 1934 "End Poverty in California" campaign for governor.
Harriman and Socialist Party buttons, 1911
Socialists seemed poised to gain control of L.A.'s city government – until explosive developments disrupted the 1911 citywide election.
Red Flags
In Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century, the war of Capital and Labor seemed to be turning in favor of Labor, with socialists in the vanguard.
Rare borax crystal at the Twenty Mule Team Museum
Gold and silver lured many a prospector out to the Mojave Desert, but the mineral compound that surprisingly proved most financially lucrative for a handful of them is common borax.
Santa Ana Freeway in Tustin, circa 1960
Built from 1950-60, Interstate 5 lured aerospace firms, millions of residents, and a Magic Kingdom to once-rural Orange County.
Map of Newport Harbor (cropped for header)
The Corona del Mar institution, named after Los Angeles land developer and railway baron Moses Sherman, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
cit-sci-butterfly-4-17-16.jpg
Citizen science is a means by which we continue to cast off the shackles of the Middle Ages.
200 key city executives take the first loyalty oath in the City Council Chamber at City Hall, Los Angeles, 1948
In 1948, as Cold War paranoia gripped the nation, 17 Los Angeles County social workers lost their jobs for refusing to take loyalty oaths.
Fernando Valenzuela jacket
The exhibition is on display at the Skirball Cultural Center through Oct. 30, 2016.
1835 Barragan decree
Los Angeles officially became the territorial capital of Alta California in 1835.
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