Title supplied by cataloger.; Original photo is washed out.; 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. Exposition Park, originally named Agricultural Park, was developed in 1876 as a showground for agricultural and horticultural fairs. In the 1890s USC law professor William M. Bowen and USC President George Finley Bovard garnered the commitments of city, state, and county to develop the land as a public educational, cultural and recreational center to be designed by architects Hudson and Munsell. On November 6, 1913 the Museum of History, Science, and Art opened in Exposition Park. In 1961, it was "divided" into the Los Angeles County Museum of History and Science, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (known as LACMA, and since moved to new quarters on Wilshire Blvd). Years later, the museum was again renamed, becoming the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The Beaux Arts/Romanesque style building, located at 900 Exposition Boulevard between Vermont and Figueroa, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 - Building #75000434. Above the stone arches the words "Los Angeles County Historical and Art Museum" are etched into the facade. A railing separates the viewer from a diorama of bison foraging for food in a natural desert environment, complete with a bleached steer skull. The herd consists of adult and juvenile animals, some who have turned to look out of the brightly lit exhibit in this interesting example of 1930s exhibit design at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art in Exposition Park.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm. Photographic prints
Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art Natural history museums--California--Los Angeles Museums--California--Los Angeles Museum exhibits--California--Los Angeles Dioramas--California--Los Angeles Bison--Collection and preservation--California--Los Angeles Hand railings--California--Los Angeles Exposition Park (Los Angeles, Calif.) Schultheis Collection photographs
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