Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
McClain (Hubert A.) Collection
SPC.2011.004  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Processing Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content
  • Arrangement

  • Contributing Institution: California State University Dominguez Hills, Gerth Archives and Special Collections
    Title: Hubert A. McClain Photograph Collection
    Creator: McClain, Hubert A.
    Identifier/Call Number: SPC.2011.004
    Physical Description: 12 boxes (eight photograph boxes, two negative storage boxes, two oversized boxes)
    Physical Description: 28 Linear Feet
    Date (inclusive): 1935-1973; undated
    Abstract: This collection contains photographs, slides, and negatives taken and collected by Hubert A. McClain. The content of the photos are of California missions, Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose, and from his work as a staff photographer for the Long Beach Press Telegram, Los Angeles Mirror, Los Angeles Times, and the Long Beach naval shipyard. Also included are images of western state national parks such as Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Glacier National Park. Other photos include Antarctica, Germany, and Switzerland.
    Language of Material: English .

    Access

    There are no access restrictions on this collection.

    Publication Rights

    All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

    Preferred Citation

    For information about citing archival material, see the Citations for Archival Material  guide, or consult the appropriate style manual.

    Acquisition Information

    This collection was donated by Lyndra Seeley, Hubert McClain's daughter, and Oliver Seeley to the Archives and Special Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

    Processing Information

    Materials were processed and arranged by Erica Watson in 2011; and Karen Clemons 2022

    Biography

    Hubert A. McClain was born on March 6, 1909 in Protection, Kansas. His father, a wheat farmer, moved the family to Kansas City in the 1920s. Hubert married Murriel Hawkins in 1929 and worked as a photographer for the Kansas City Star until 1937 when he drove with his wife and two young sons in their new Desoto to Long Beach, California. After his arrival he became the manager for the Winstead Brothers Camera Store on Pine Street in downtown Long Beach. The McClain's daughter was born in 1940 and at the outbreak of World War II, Hurbert went to work at the Long Beach Naval Shipyards as a photographer. Following t he war he worked as a photographer for the Long Beach Press Telegram until 1948 when he started taking photos for the Los Angles Mirror, a subsidiary of the Los Angeles Times. Prior to the demise of the Mirror in the 1950s, Hubert transferred to the Los Angeles Times where he worked for the rest of his career. In addition to his work as a photojournalist, Hubert developed a keen interest in nature photography, which he pursued for over twenty years. His nature photos are from all over the United States and Europe, including but not unlimited to Yosemite, Antarctica, and Switzerland. Hubert McClain passed away in February, 1994; just two weeks shy of his 85th birthday.

    Scope and Content

    The Hubert A. McClain Photo Collection (1935-1973; undated) contains 12 boxes and 28 linear feet of photographic prints, slides, and negatives that span from the 1930s to the 1970s resulting from McClain's work as a photojournalist for the Los Angeles Times and as a nature photographer. There are images from California missions taken in the 1940s and 1950s, and include various stills of people, places, and events. The prints range in size from 8x10 through 22x28. Mission images include exterior photographs, slides and negatives of the missions of San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, Soledad, San Fernando, Solano, Sonoma, San Jose, San Rafael, Santa Clara, Carmel, San Jose, Santa Cruz, San Luis Rey, Santa Barbara, San Buenaventura, San Juan Capistrano, San Ynes, La Purisima, San Miguel, San Antonio de Padua, San Miguel and San Gabriel. Photojournalism topics include a building collapse from 1952, where five people were killed, the city of Rolling Hills incorporation in 1957 with horses and homes, date farming in the Coachella Valley, and an aerial shot of Long Beach (Rainbow Lagoon), California from 1957. The collection also has photographs of a Japanese farm in Rancho Palos Verdes (1938), San Pedro Lighthouse, the Cascades water in Owen's Valley, Orange County Highway 18, Sonja Heine publicity tour, Upton Sinclair, Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose (during construction), Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock house, an Imperial Valley farm, and the camera used to film, Birth of a Nation. Also, Franklin Delano Roosevelt giving a speech in Kansas City, Missouri in 1935, the USS Iowa and Mothball Fleet docked at Long Beach Harbor in 1947 and mastodon tusks from Alaska. There are photos of Los Angeles Times staffers from the 1950s and a photo of Agnes Moorhead. Also in the collection there are numerous photographs, slides and negatives of nature in western National parks. Included are different sites of Yosemite, Bryce Canyon, The Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Glacier, Muir Woods, Six Rivers, Sequoia, and Yellowstone. There are also images of Jasper, Banff, Victoria, and Vancouver, in Canada; Wetzlar, Kelsterbach, Schwartzwald, and Heidelberg Castle in Germany; and Lucern, Zermatt, and Schweiz, Switzerland. The photographs and slides are in black-and-white and color.

    Arrangement

    Arranged in 19 series:
    1. Series I. California Missions
    2. Series II. Southern California
    3. Series III. Kansas
    4. Series IV. Frank Lloyd Wright
    5. Series V. Long Beach
    6. Series VI. Antartica
    7. Series VII. Fabian Peterson
    8. Series VIII. San Fernando Dig
    9. Series IX. Eric Berndt
    10. Series X. Jet Propulson Lab, Pasadena
    11. Series XI. Newspaper
    12. Series XII. California State Parks
    13. Series XIII. California Nature
    14. Series XIV. National Parks
    15. Series XV. Europe
    16. Series XVI. Canada
    17. Series XVII. Portraits and Objects
    18. Series XVIII. Nature
    19. Series XIX. Coachella Valley

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Missions -- California
    Half Dome (Calif.)
    Hughes flying-boat (Seaplane)
    Banff National Park (Alta.)
    Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)
    Germany
    Grand Canyon (Ariz.)
    Grand Teton (Ariz.)
    Imperial Valley (Calif.)
    Joshua Tree National Park (Calif.)
    Kelsterbach (Germany)
    Long Beach Harbor (Calif.)
    Rolling Hills (Calif.)
    San Pedro Bay (Calif.)
    Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness (Calif.)
    Schwartzwald (Germany)
    Switzerland
    Vancouver (B.C.)
    Victoria (B.C.)
    Wetzlar (Germany)
    Yellowstone National Park
    Yosemite National Park (Calif.)
    Zermatt (Switzerland)
    Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968
    Los Angeles Times (Firm)