Description
The La Jolla Historical Society's Leopold Hugo Postcard Collection VM012 consists of 78 real photo postcards. All are printed
on Cyko stock. Images include scenes from La Jolla’s coastline and street scenes. It is believed that the images were taken
between 1907 and 1917, when Hugo was a resident in La Jolla. Leopold Hugo was born on December 24, 1866 in Breslau, Germany
(now Wroclaw, Poland). He immigrated to the United States in 1889, settling first in Texas before arriving in La Jolla in
1907, when he opened a dry goods store. By 1911, he was listed in the La Jolla telephone directory as a photographer. Hugo
remained in La Jolla until 1917, when he moved to Pasadena, California and later to Pacific Grove, California and then Santa
Cruz, California. Hugo and his wife then returned to La Jolla in 1929 and opened a photography studio. While his early works
were straight photographs of his subjects, his later work reflected the influence of the Pictorialists. Leopold Hugo died
September 7, 1933 in Belton Texas, while on a trip to visit his wife’s family. He is interred in the North Belton Cemetery.
See list of topics under "additional collection guides."
Background
The La Jolla Historical Society inspires and empowers the community to make La Jolla’s diverse past a relevant part of contemporary
life.
The La Jolla Historical Society’s Collections encompass over 80 years of actively collecting archival material, books, maps,
scrapbooks, ephemera, fine art, newspapers, street and land use files, business and personal documents and historic and prehistoric
artifacts. The Society boasts over 20,000 photographs, over 1000 postcards, 600-plus architectural drawings and approximately
200 oral history recordings.
Collecting was initiated by Howard Randolph and volunteers on the historical committee of the Library Association of La Jolla.
The Collection began by gathering photographs and documentation in the late 1930s, which later became the nucleus of the La
Jolla Historical Society’s Collections. The Society was created in 1964.
Through many moves in location the Society continued collecting and expanding. Accumulated Collections took on its current
construct in 2010 after the renovation of the La Jolla Historical Society’s campus of structures in central La Jolla, which
consists of the 1904 Wisteria Cottage and 1940s Balmer Annex used for exhibits and programming, and a 1909 cottage used for
business and research offices. The late Ellen Browning Scripps’ 1916 automobile garage was also renovated and now houses
the Collection in a state-of-the-art collections storage facility. Materials are housed in archival boxes, sleeves, envelopes,
and other archival-safe materials and are cared for according to standards and best practices. In 2016, the Society initiated
new PastPerfect Museum Software to manage and catalog its Collections and in 2018 started using the Online Archive of California
to upload searchable information from its Collections to enable improved public access. The Society will continue these processes
and look forward to utilizing new opportunities to collect, preserve and share the history of La Jolla.
Scope and Content of Collection: The La Jolla Historical Society's Leopold Hugo Postcard Collection VM012 consists of 78 real
photo postcards. All are printed on Cyko stock. Images include scenes from La Jolla’s coastline and street scenes. It is believed
that the images were taken between 1907 and 1917, when Hugo was a resident in La Jolla. See list of topics under "additional
collection guides."