the Studio for Southern California History

02/11/2024

Happy Lunar New Year!

11/05/2023

Please help! https://www.facebook.com/100064583894347/posts/721084746720982/?mibextid=cr9u03

10/25/2023

Riverside Peeps - this looks so good

October 14 – November 5, 2023 A two-week, pop-up exhibition, Climates of Inequality invites audiences to follow the stories of people from 22 frontline communities around the U.S., Mexico, and Colombia, including Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, as they explore the roots of climate and environme...

09/06/2023

From the archive: As part of early 20th century booster campaigns to increase tourism and encourage people to move to the state, California’s ability to grow large plants was often greatly exaggerated. While typically, postcards depicted overly large watermelons or other crops, even cacti were shown as larger than life.

08/30/2023

From the archive: While it might be hard to believe right now, it isn’t always hot in Southern California! The Los Angeles Coastal Plain used to have measurable snow about once every decade. However, since 1962 the area has largely been in a “snow drought,” at most receiving trace amounts. This postcard shows a view of South Broadway in February 1944, one of the last measurable snowfalls in the area.

08/23/2023

From the archive: The Indian Crafts exhibit at the Indian Village was a popular attraction that ran for several years right around the turn of the century. Housed on 15 acres near Eastlake Park (now Lincoln Park), visitors were encouraged to come "see the Indians living in their primitive habitations and engaged in their native handicraft." Notably, while advertised as an opportunity to see the "real Ramona," the Native Americans featured as part of this attraction were largely not indigenous to the region and were instead drawn from the Plains and Pacific Northwest. This lack of local tribal representation can be seen in this postcard of a totem pole and house mailed in 1908. These items belonged to Chief Son-i-hat of the Haida tribe (located in parts of areas now known as British Columbia, Canada, and Alaska) and are believed to have been the only ones to have been sold and removed from Alaska at the time.

08/23/2023

After wearing our 100th Anniversary shirt during Nisei Week we’ve decided to put these shirts up for sale. Help us celebrate our 100th Anniversary with one of these shirts. We have a special connect with Maui so we want to donate all proceeds to help Maui. Limited time, orders will be closed on September 30, 2023. Shirts are $35 each

Shirts are 100% polyester, moisture wicking, UV protection.

08/16/2023

From the archive: Fisher’s for Finer Foods was a restaurant that opened in 1947 at 3589 East Colorado Boulevard. Named for owner Clarence Fischer, a Milwaukee native and WWI veteran who came to Pasadena in the 1930s. Fischer gained experience in hospitality working for the Van de Kamp Holland Dutch Bakeries, and co-owned a small chain of restaurants called The Headliner before opening Fisher’s, where patrons could “dine in an atmosphere of refinement.” Gin Sushi now stands in the former location of Fisher’s.

08/09/2023

From the archive: Victorian fashion for women was dictated by notions of propriety and showed very little skin—hence the scandal of some titillating ankle. Continued snarky photo commentary from the early 1900s in this photograph from the Alice Heck Scrapbook (1902-1911).