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. Pershing Square, then the center of Los Angeles bounding 5th, 6th, Hill, and Olive streets, was called La Plaza Abaja ("The Lower Plaza") when former Mayor Cristobal Aguilar signed it into being in 1866. It was renamed in 1918 in honor of General John J. Pershing. The Los Angeles Public Library, originally constructed in 1926, is a downtown Los Angeles landmark. It is the third largest public library in the U.S. in terms of book and periodical holdings and currently (as of 2007) has a collection size of 6,393,429. Los Angeles Public Library brings its services to Pershing Square, offering books and periodicals to park visitors. A sign posted next to a cart full of books reads, "Los Angeles Public Library. Borrow a book to read in the park". A large umbrella and several banana trees shade a table, as well as a row of men sitting along a cement bench perusing their borrowed items of choice.
Los Angeles Public Library Books and reading--California--Los Angeles Libraries--California--Los Angeles Parks--California--Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.) Pershing Square (Los Angeles, Calif.) Schultheis Collection photographs
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