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. Central Library, located at 630 W. 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles, was designed by architects Bertram G. Goodhue and Carlton M. Winslow. Constructed between 1922-1926, it was designed to mimic the architecture of ancient Egypt, complete with a tiled mosaic pyramid tower and many beautiful murals throughout. Tragic fires in 1986 destroyed part of the building along with 20 percent of the library's collection, prompting a closure for 6 years while restoration took place. The renovation was completed in 1993, and the library reopened on October 3, 1993. The Los Angeles Public Library is the third largest public library in the United States in terms of books and periodical holdings, boasting over 6 million volumes. It was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1970 - Building #70000136. Men and women sit reading on a couple of benches in the Garden Reading Room on the south side of Central Library facing what was then the east lawn. Books fill a portable shelving unit and magazines are laid out on a table. The "room," run by WPA workers, required no library card at a time when getting a library card required a sponsor. A second installation was available in Pershing Square. The building in the background is what is now the Hilton Checkers (535 South Grand Avenue).
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm. Photographic prints
Los Angeles Public Library.--Garden Reading Room Central Library (Los Angeles, Calif.) Libraries--California--Los Angeles Library materials--California--Los Angeles Reading--California--Los Angeles Hotels--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.) Schultheis Collection photographs Goodhue, Bertram Grosvenor,1869-1924 Winslow, Carleton M.,1919-1983
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