Photographs. Sam Behrendt was a Los Angeles collector of historical materials including photographs. Many of these photos were made by Charles C. Pierce. Subjects include Los Angeles and Southern California communities, San Francisco and Northern California, and some subject files. ca. 1870-1920, undated; bulk 1870s-1890s.

Sam Behrendt (1879 or 1880 -1940) was born in San Francisco or Los Angeles, California. His father was a German-born Los Angeles pioneer of 1852, Caspare Behrendt. He lived in Los Angeles, was married to Sadie Mosbacher Behrendt, and had a son, George. After several years working as a collector for the Pacific Light and Power Corporation, he embarked on a career in the insurance industry. He made a name for himself as a successful insurance salesman in Los Angeles in the teens and twenties. As early as 1909, he operated the Behrendt-Levy Company, which underwrote about 75% of the movie industry’s insurance. Behrendt was interested in collecting images that represented a wide range of subjects that depicted life and activities of the late 19th and early 20th century.

7 linear feet (Boxes: letter, 1 ov; ov folders in mc-14)

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