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
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:
- Series I. California Missions
- Series II. Southern California
- Series III. Kansas
- Series IV. Frank Lloyd Wright
- Series V. Long Beach
- Series VI. Antartica
- Series VII. Fabian Peterson
- Series VIII. San Fernando Dig
- Series IX. Eric Berndt
- Series X. Jet Propulson Lab, Pasadena
- Series XI. Newspaper
- Series XII. California State Parks
- Series XIII. California Nature
- Series XIV. National Parks
- Series XV. Europe
- Series XVI. Canada
- Series XVII. Portraits and Objects
- Series XVIII. Nature
- 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)