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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography/Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms
  • Additional collection guides

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Behrendt Manuscript Collection
    Dates: 1538-1939
    Collection Number: GC 1325
    Creator/Collector: Behrendt, Samuel
    Extent: (Boxes: 7 legal; 1 flatbox; 2 ov and 1 ov folder; L.C.)
    Repository: Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
    Los Angeles, California 90007-4057
    Abstract: A collection of historical papers, primarily of legal documents, forms, pamphlets, booklets and serial publications relating to Southern California and the United States. The dates range from ca. 1538-1939, with its bulk dates between 1850-1920.
    Language of Material: English

    Access

    Research is by appointment only

    Publication Rights

    Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item]. Behrendt Manuscript Collection. Collection Number: GC 1325. Seaver Center for Western History Research, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

    Biography/Administrative History

    Sam Behrendt was a successful insurance salesman in Los Angeles in the teens and twenties. As early as 1924 he operated the Behrendt-Levy Company, which underwrote about 75% of the movie industry's insurance. He was a second-generation Angeleno, as his father was German-born Los Angeles pioneer of 1852, Caspare Behrendt.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    A collection of historical papers, primarily of legal documents, forms, pamphlets, booklets and serial publications relating to Southern California and the United States. The dates range from ca. 1538-1939, with its bulk dates between 1850-1920. There are two original letters by Spanish Franciscan missionaries: one by Junipero Serra (1713-1784) and the other by Fermin Francisco De Lasuen (1736-1803); documents from the Californio ranching era including those by Pio Pico and Bernardo Yorba. There are publications pertaining to places and events in Los Angeles and San Francisco, such as commemorative souvenirs and telephone directories. There are ephemeral items relating to the Civil War Confederacy and the Ku Klux Klan. There is a small number of autographs for prominent people, and one faded bill of sale for six slaves from New Orleans. Also are legal documents, both blank forms and ones filled in, such as real estate deeds, a bankruptcy proceeding, liquor licenses, and shipping bills of lading originating from United States and foreign locales. There are items on the early motion picture industry including ephemera for the opening of Universal Studios and publications by the film company, Selig Polyscope. Most of the map items have been integrated into the General Map Collection (GC 1310). Photographic items have been separated into Sam Behrendt Collection, ca.1870-1920 (P-10) and the Portrait Collection (P-78).

    Additional collection guides