Skip to main content

Image / Griffith Observatory and Los Angeles from Mount Hollywood

Have a question about this item?

Item information. View source record on contributor's website.

Title
Griffith Observatory and Los Angeles from Mount Hollywood
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Schultheis, Herman
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 1937
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
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.
In 1896 Griffith J. Griffith donated over 3000 acres of Rancho Los Felis to the City of Los Angeles to create a public park in his name. In 1912 he offered the city $100,000 for an observatory to be built on the top of Mount Hollywood. Designed by architects John C. Austin and Frederick M. Ashley, Griffith Observatory (2800 East Observatory Road) was completed in 1935. In 1976 the observatory was declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #168. In 1997 the Department of Recreation and Parks hired project architect Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates (now Pfeiffer Partners, Inc.) and associate architect Levin & Associates Architects to design a major renovation and expansion project for the observatory, which was completed in 2006. Griffith Park was declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #942 in 2009.
Griffith Observatory and the metropolis of Los Angeles below is visible from the peak of Mount Hollywood.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00098474
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-007-914 8x10
CARL0005083982
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/38111
Subject
Griffith Observatory
Observatories--California--Los Angeles
Parks--California--Los Angeles
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments
Mountains--California, Southern
Santa Monica Mountains (Calif.)
Hollywood Hills (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Mount Hollywood (Calif.)
Griffith Park (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Panoramic views
Landscape photographs
Schultheis Collection photographs
Austin, John C. W.(John Corneby Wilson),1870-1963
Ashley, Frederick M
Time Period
1931-1940

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.

Explore related content on Calisphere: