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Workman Family Albums
100
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Title: Workman Family Albums
Dates: 1887-1989
Collection number: 100
Creator:
Workman family members
Collection Size:
1 archival document box, 3 oversize boxes
Repository:
Loyola Marymount University. Library. Department of Archives and Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90045-2659
Abstract: This collection consists of family albums, newspaper clippings, photographs, and ephemera related to the Workman family of
Los Angeles, important players in the politics and development of Los Angeles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Workman family members in this collection include William H. Workman, mayor of Los Angeles; and Boyle Workman, Los Angeles
city councilman and city historian; and Mary Julia Workman, Roman Catholic social activist.
Physical location: Collection is stored on-site. Advance notice required for research use.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection is open to research under the terms of use of the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount
University.
Materials in the Department of Archives and Special Collections may be subject to copyright. Unless explicitly stated otherwise,
Loyola Marymount University does not claim ownership of the copyright of any materials in its collections. The user or publisher
must secure permission to publish from the copyright owner. Loyola Marymount University does not assume any responsibility
for infringement of copyright or of publication rights held by the original author or artists or his/her heirs, assigns, or
executors.
[Identification of item], Series number, Box and Folder number, Workman Family Albums, Collection 100, Department of Archives
and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University.
Gift of the Loyola Marymount University Jesuit Community. Accession number: 2011.5.
Previously in possession of the Loyola Marymount University Jesuit Community.
The albums partially document the lives of these important members of the Workman family:
- William H. Workman (1839-1918), developer of Boyle Heights, mayor of Los Angeles(1887-1888), city councilmember, and city treasuer
- Maria Elizabeth Workman (1847-1933), wife of William H. Workman; daughter of Andrew Boyle, founder of Boyle Heights
- Boyle Workman (1868‐1942), son of William and Maria, and a Los Angeles City councilmember in the 1920s and Public Service Commissioner, and historian of Los Angeles
- Mary Julia Workman (1871-1964), daughter of William and Maria, and social and political activist in Los Angeles
| 1868 | William H. Workman marries Elizabeth Maria Elizabeth Boyle, daughter of Andrew Boyle, original developer of Boyle Heights. |
| 1868 | Andrew Boyle Workman born. |
| 1871 | Death of Andrew Boyle. William H. and Maria Elizabeth Workman assume ownership and management of Boyle Heights. |
| 1872‐1874, 1885-1880 | William H. Workman serves on the Los Angeles Common (City) Council. |
| 1886 | William H. Workman elected mayor of Los Angeles. |
| 1901 | Mary Julia Workman helps found the Brownson House, a major Roman Catholic settlement house in Los Angeles. |
| 1902-1907 | William H. Workman serves as treasurer of the City of Los Angeles. |
| 1913-1917 | Boyle Workman serves on the Los Angeles Public Service Commission. |
| 1918 | William H. Workman dies. |
| 1919-1927 | Boyle Workman serves on the Los Angeles City Council. |
| 1926 | Mary Julia Workman awarded papal medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice for service to Roman Catholic Church. |
| 1927-1928 | Mary Julia Workman serves on the Los Angeles City Civil Service Commission. |
| 1933 | Maria Elizabeth Workman dies. |
| 1935 | Boyle Workman publishes The City that Grew, his history of the city of Los Angeles. |
| 1938 | Mary Julia Workman participates in the successful recall campaign of corrupt Los Angeles mayor Frank Shaw. |
| 1942 | Boyle Workman dies. |
| 1964 | Mary Julia Workman dies. |
This collection consists of family albums, family ephemera, photographs, and newspaper clippings. The bulk of the collection
is the family albums, which are scrapbooks with materials on Workman family history. Loose materials sometimes accompany the
albums. Of particular interest are newspapers from Boyle Heights with much information on businesses, persons, and churches
there. The newspaper clippings that the Workmans collected emphasize early Los Angeles history and the family’s contribution
to this history.
The collection also contains ephemera, some of which documents Los Angeles history. See for example, the program for the groundbreaking
ceremony for the city hall in 1926 (Box 1, Folder 8).
There is some material not related to the Workmans. This includes, for example, a photograph and bibliography of the works
of Charles Lummis. One album concerns Frederick J. Seidenberg, S. J., of Detroit, a sociologist and Jesuit active in labor
affairs and acquaintance of Mary Julia Workman and Charlotte Masson (neé Workman).
The Workman Family Albums is arranged by individual album; loose materials that came with the album have been placed in individual
folders. There were also loose materials not found with the albums that have been arranged in folders as well.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Workman family
Workman, Andrew Boyle, 1968-1942
Workman, Mary Julia, 1871-1964
Workman, William H., 1839-1918
Workman, Maria Elizabeth, 1847-1933
Workman family--Political activity--History--19th century--Sources
Workman family--Political activity--History--20th century--Sources
Women civic leaders--California--Los Angeles--History--20th century--Sources
Civic leaders--California--History--20th century--Sources
California--Politics and government--1850-1950--Sources
California--Los Angeles--Boyle Heights
For background information on the Workman family, consult the following works:
Engh, Michael.
Mary Julia Workman, the Catholic Conscience of Los Angeles.
California History (1993): 2-19.
Engh, Michael.
Workman, Mary Julia (1871-1964).
Encyclopedia of American Catholic History. Collegeville, Minnesota, 1997. Pp. 1517-1518.
Newmark, Marco.
The Workman Family in Los Angeles.
Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly 32 (1950): 316-325.
Rowland, Donald E.
John Rowland and William Workman: Southern California Pioneers of 1841. Spokane: Arthur H. Clark Co.; Los Angeles: Historical Society of Southern California, 1999.
Workman, Boyle.
The City That Grew. Los Angeles: The Southland Publishing Co., 1935