Photo: USC Libraries
LA as Subject
Hosted by the USC Libraries, L.A. as Subject is an association of more than 230 libraries, cultural institutions, official archives, and private collectors dedicated to preserving and telling the sometimes-hidden histories of the Los Angeles region. Our posts here provide a view into the archives of individuals and institutions whose collections inform the great narrative -- in all its complex facets -- of Southern California.
LA as Subject:
When Los Angeles created Westlake Park in 1886, the site's use as a neighborhood dump had marred the beauty of its naturally occurring lake.
LA as Subject:
Many of the city's earliest parks were created out of marshes, hills, and other lands then considered worthless.
LA as Subject:
For as long as Southern Californians could remember, Castle Rock and Arch Rock stood sentinel along the shore between Topanga Canyon and Santa Monica.
LA as Subject:
Winged rats? Until destroyed by a flood in 1914, a Los Angeles pigeon farm home to 100,000 of the birds was a big tourist draw.
LA as Subject:
Wildflowers once blanketed hillsides and plains throughout the Los Angeles area where strip malls, suburban homes, and industrial warehouses prevail today.
LA as Subject:
Spreading giants imported from Australia, Moreton Bay fig trees have become a cherished part of Southern California's arboreal heritage.
LA as Subject:
The original canals of Abbot Kinney's Venice of America are lost to history, long ago filled in, paved over, and converted into residential streets.
LA as Subject:
When Spanish explorers first visited the Los Angeles shore in 1542, they named the area the "Bay of the Smoke."
LA as Subject:
In 1786, a sergeant in the Spanish army sketched what was likely the first map of Los Angeles.
LA as Subject:
The Los Angeles sketched by William Rich Hutton in July 1847 is virtually unrecognizable today.
LA as Subject:
Its origin story is something of a mystery. Who took the photo, and when?
LA as Subject:
Once the site of a two-story Victorian house and the original Vons grocery store, the intersection of Figueroa and 7th will soon host the tallest building on the West Coast.
LA as Subject:
From Anaheim to Catalina Island, Southern California once hosted major-league baseball teams' preseason training camps.
LA as Subject:
Early photographs of Los Angeles surprise for many reasons, but often what's most striking is how empty the city looks.
LA as Subject:
Native to Southern California, the oak tree has been a powerful force in shaping the region's human history.
LA as Subject:
"Never Built: Los Angeles" presents an alternate history -- and an alternate present -- for a place where inspirational solutions to the city's problems have often been downscaled, defeated, or altogether forgotten.
LA as Subject:
During World War II, Catalina Island reinvented itself as a training camp for the U.S. armed forces, including the forerunners to today's CIA and Navy SEALs.
LA as Subject:
These train depots, long since vanished, provided tourists' and emigrants' first introduction to Los Angeles, helping shape their ideas about the city.
LA as Subject:
With "Gangster Squad," the world's attention turns to the criminal underworld of postwar L.A. and its pugilistic boss, Mickey Cohen.
LA as Subject:
Mission bells along Highway 101 imply that motorists' tires trace the same path as missionaries' sandals. But much of El Camino Real's story was imagined by regional boosters.
SoCal Focus is a daily blog about the people, places and issues in and around Southern California.
I Am Los Angeles: Strings of Success
Sasha is content just to be living his life on his own terms, doing something he thoroughly enjoys: building and playing guitars.
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