Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features Fantasia and Pinocchio. His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for Fantasia, is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937. The 247-acre abandoned railroad yard, formerly known as Taylor Yard, named after business owner and grain merchant J. Hartley Taylor, was a Southern Pacific freight-switching facility which included maintenance and repair facilities for railroad cars and locomotive engines. Onsite utilities, such as electricity, plumbing and mechanical support services, were present for the convenience of workers. By the 1960s operations had waned and in 1985 the yard was completely shut down, left only to be used for maintenance and storage. This site later became Rio de Los Angeles State Park. This view from Elysian Park includes Herman Schultheis in profile above Taylor Yard. The river bends around the train yard.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm. Photographic prints
Schultheis, Herman Parks--California--Los Angeles Mountains--California, Southern Rivers--California, Southern Railroad yards--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles River (Calif.) Taylor Yard San Gabriel Mountains (Calif.) Verdugo Mountains (Calif.) Santa Monica Mountains (Calif.) Elysian Park (Los Angeles, Calif.) Panoramic views Portrait photographs Schultheis Collection photographs
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