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Mulholland Highway, City of Los Angeles photographs
LSC.0094.0002  
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Collection Details
 
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  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Conditions Governing Use
  • Preferred Citation
  • UCLA Catalog Record ID
  • Processing Information
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Scope and Content
  • Related Materials
  • Online Items Available

  • Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections
    Title: Photographs of Mulholland Highway, City of Los Angeles
    Creator: Reaburn, D.L.
    Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0094.0002
    Physical Description: 2 albums (215 photographic prints) : b&w, 25 x 35 cm (albums)
    Date: 1924
    Abstract: Two albums of photographs documenting the construction of Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Highway in May 1924.
    Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.
    Physical Description: Photographs, numbered in negative on photo, are mounted on rectos and versos of 55 leaves of black board (box 1), and 53 leaves of heavy black paper (box 2); most of the photos bear captions neatly printed in white ink below. Formerly bound in black morocco grain cloth covers, with typed paper labels affixed to upper covers. Both albums now disbound, with upper covers and leaves stacked in beige cloth clamshell boxes; spine title "Mulholland Highway" stamped in black.
    Language of Material: English .

    Conditions Governing Access

    Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

    Conditions Governing Use

    Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Photographs of Mulholland Highway, City of Los Angeles (Collection 94/2). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 9964791353606533 

    Processing Information

    Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
    We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.  

    Biographical / Historical

    Mulholland Drive follows the ridgeline of the Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains, running east from Woodrow Wilson Drive and Cahuenga Boulevard at the Cahuenga Pass, and extending west past the 405 Freeway to Encino, crossing (from east to west) Laurel Canyon, Coldwater Canyon, Franklin Canyon, Benedict Canyon, Beverly Glen Boulevard, Stone Canyon, and Sepulveda Boulevard along the way. The road offers views of Hollywood Park, San Fernando Valley, and Universal City. Just past Topanga Canyon Boulevard (California State Route 27), Mulholland Highway splits off from Mulholland Drive, and continues on southwest to end at Leo Carillo State Park on Pacific Coast Highway, near the Los Angeles and Ventura County border.

    Scope and Content

    These photographs document highway construction of Mulholland Drive, with views from all of the aforementioned points. In addition to construction scenes of workers blasting, drilling, and digging, and using steam shovels and mule teams, there are shots of construction camps of tents set up to house workers, and mountain-top fire lookout stations manned by fire lookouts. Other photographs show trees and plants in the area, such as eucalyptus trees and poinsettia gardens, and homes in various canyons, including the residences of "Mrs. Curlew," and film director Clarence Badger. There are also several views of the Encino Country Club. The group portrait, dated May 15, 1924, includes construction engineers, D.L. Reaburn among them, members of Los Angeles Water and Public Works Departments, including William Mulholland, the chief engineer for Water Department, for whom the road was named, Harvey A. Van Norman, Mulholland's chief deputy, and Arthur Eldridge, commissioner of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. Also pictured are Gen. M.H. Sherman, local capitalist and president of the Consolidated Electric Railroad Company of Los Angeles, Harry Chandler, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and Carman Runyon, coal magnate from the East, and Los Angeles capitalist, for whom Runyon Canyon is named. In other photos, Los Angeles mayor George Cryer views the construction.

    Related Materials

    Part of the Photograph Album Collection (Collection 94)   in UCLA Library Special Collections.

    Online Items Available

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Roads -- California -- Los Angeles County -- Photographs.
    Canyons -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Mulholland Highway (Los Angeles County, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Laurel Canyon (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Coldwater Canyon (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Benedict Canyon (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Topanga Canyon Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Ventura Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Cahuenga Pass (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Hacienda Park (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Lankershim Park (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Universal City (Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Encino (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Photograph albums
    Photographic prints
    Woodland Hills (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Mulholland Drive (Los Angeles County, Calif.) -- Photographs.
    San Fernando Valley (Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Santa Monica Mountains (Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Poinsettias -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Eucalyptus -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Steam shovels -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Labor camps -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Fire lookouts -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Reservoirs -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Roads -- Design and construction -- Photographs.
    Badger, Clarence G., 1880-1964 --Homes and haunts.
    Chandler, Harry, 1864-1944 --Photographs.
    Cryer, George E., 1875-1961 --Photographs.
    Eldridge, Arthur, fl. 1919-1953 --Photographs.
    Encino Country Club (Los Angeles, Calif.) --Photographs.
    Mulholland Highway
    Mulholland, William, 1855-1935 --Photographs.
    Runyon, Carman -- Photographs
    Sherman, M.H. (Moses H.), 1853-1932 --Photographs.
    Van Norman, Harvey A., 1878-1954 --Photographs.
    Woodin Hunt and Bridle Club (Los Angeles, Calif.) --Photographs.
    Reaburn, D.L. -- Photographs