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Image / Convento and church, Mission San Luis Rey, Oceanside

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Title
Convento and church, Mission San Luis Rey, Oceanside
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 1938
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.
Founded June 12, 1798 by Father Lasuen, then president of the California missions, and administered by Father Peyri, Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is notable for its impressive architecture, a composite of Spanish, Moorish, and Mexican. Between 1798-1832 the mission became home to three thousand Luiseno Indians, who were native to the area. Secularized after Mexican independence in 1821, the land was to be returned to the Indians, however administrators gained title leaving nothing to the Luisenos. From 1847-1857 U.S. soldiers used the mission as a base. In 1850 California became part of the United States, and in 1865 Abraham Lincoln returned the mission to the Catholic Church. It was abandoned until 1892 when a group of Mexican Franciscans came. From 1892-1912, the Franciscans repaired the church and built living quarters on the foundations of the old mission (where the museum is today). Ongoing restoration includes: partial rebuilding of the quadrangle in 1949 for a college that is now a Retreat Center, excavating the soldier's barracks and Indian laundry, and preserving the exterior of the church building in 1984. Art conservation and archaeological research are ongoing. Mission San Luis Rey is located at 4050 Mission Avenue in Oceanside, and was designated California State Historical Landmark #239 in 1936. The 1815 Mission Church was designated National Historic Landmark #70000142 in 1970.
This view taken from a field captures the 1892 convento (friars lodging, now a museum) and the original mission church and campanile.
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00100130
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-009-328 8x10
CARL0005110203
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/39507
Subject
San Luis Rey Mission (Calif.)
Missions, Spanish--California--Oceanside
Catholic churches--California--Oceanside
Architecture--California--Oceanside--Spanish influences
Adobe churches--California--Oceanside
Bell towers--California--Oceanside
Arcades (Architecture)--California--Oceanside
Meadows--California--Oceanside
California Historical Landmarks
Oceanside (Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs

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