The Puck Collection consists of photographs both taken and collected by Charles C. Puck. They depict buildings, monuments, civic happenings, modes of transportation, flora and fauna, and anything else that captured his particular interests. Puck compiled several scrapbooks on topics such as adobes and buildings of Los Angeles, illustrating them with his photographs and annotating them with historical anecdotes and personal recollections. Puck also collected the work of noted Los Angeles photographers like Charles C. Pierce and James B. Blanchard to supplement his own archive. At the time of his gift to the Historical Society of Southern California, Puck had amassed a large array of images documenting the changing face of Los Angeles and its environs.

There is little information on Charles Puck beyond the basic facts that he resided in Los Angeles for many years and worked in the city as a postal employee. Puck used his leisure hours to indulge his twin passions for regional history and photography. From 1914 until 1958, Puck set out with his camera to record many facets of life in Southern California. Puck occasionally supplied photographs to commercial photographer Charles C. Pierce, who ran a business providing stock pictures of Southern California to a variety of organizations and publishers. Consequently, Puck’s photographs have often been incorrectly attributed to Pierce in various publications and periodicals of the era.

11,400 photographs in 42 boxes (30.29 linear feet)

All requests for permission to publish photographs must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Photographs. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Huntington as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.