This masterpiece of pictorial mapping is an original from the earliest printings of the famed Fischgrind Publishing house and one of the mysterious Miguel Gomez Medina’s greatest works. The map is…
Our free art and architecture tours of L.A.'s Central Library begin by taking a look at the exterior of the historic 1926 Goodhue Building. Architect Bertram Goodhue and his colleague, Carlton Winslow…
What’s in a name? The stories behind the names of the streets, avenues, roads, and boulevards of Los Angeles reveal much about the history of our city, from its beginning as a tiny pueblo to today's…
Our free art and architecture tour of L.A.'s Central Library begins in the 1926 Goodhue Building, famous for its sculpture, murals, painted ceilings, and wonderful architecture. The building has…
Recently, we found a folder tucked away at the back of a file cabinet in the Social Science, Philosophy & Religion Department. The folder was full of suggested reading lists and flyers from the…
The elegant Literate Fence, on the Fifth Street side of the library, was designed by Washington state industrial metal artist Ries Niemi (b.1955). The Deco design, completed in 1993, echoes the design…
As a mainstream news outlet in the 20th Century, it's probably not surprising that the Los Angeles Herald Express (later Herald Examiner) newspaper gave little coverage to the LGBTQIA community. The…
To honor LGBT Heritage Month at the library we present this pictorial map of West Hollywood, one of America’s most enlightened cities. Street maps from as recently as the 1970’s ignored the growing…
On April 20, 2006, President George W. Bush declared that May would be Jewish American Heritage Month after resolutions passed unanimously in both the House and Senate. President Barack Obama further…
Our free docent-led art and architecture tour of the Los Angeles Central Library always includes a stop in the International Languages Department, through which visitors can find the library's…
One hundred years ago, on April 24th, 1915, the Ottoman Turkish government enacted a systematic policy to annihilate its Armenian population. From 1915-1930, over a million and a half souls perished…
As you learn on our daily docent-led tours, The Richard J Riordan Central Library has almost 90 years of fascinating history. But some of most intriguing chapters in the building’s story occurred…
As African American Heritage Month draws to a close, I would like to bring your attention to a largely unknown chapter of American history. The segregation laws and practices collectively known as…
A funicular railway or incline railway is a short railway located over a steep incline and operates by a cable wire and pulley system in which two tram-like cars on parallel rail tracks almost counter…
If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times—the book was better. There's nothing like debating the differences between a favorite book and its translation to the screen. But if you don't…
Our free, docent-led Art and Architecture tours of the downtown Central Library begin and end in the Main Lobby. But we are often asked: where exactly is the library’s front door? It’s a strange…
When I received the call last September from Mayor Eric Garcetti that I’d been chosen as the new Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, I had to keep this quiet until the official announcement in October…
To commemorate African American Heritage Month, Central Library offers two maps that exemplify the struggles and triumphs of African-Americans in this country. The first is “Americans of Negro Lineage…
Activist Malcolm X appears at a meeting at 2nd Baptist Church, [1962]. Herald Examiner CollectionWith over 100,000 images and counting, the Los Angeles Public Library's online photo collection…
One of the many special and unique items at Central Library is a collection of ASE books. Armed Services Editions, popularly known as ASEs, are pocket-sized books made for and distributed to American…
Anyone who's taken our free daily docent tour of the L.A. Central Library has seen the many contributions that architectural sculptor Lee Lawrie made to the library's 1926 Goodhue Building. Lawrie…
To the bane of many genealogists, the eleventh census of the United States was heavily damaged by a fire at the Commerce Department in 1921. Less than one percent of it survived, which means we have…
If you’ve ever taken a tour of the Central Library, you’ve probably heard mention of Hartley Burr Alexander, the man who worked with architect Bertram Goodhue on the theme and symbolism of the…
Driving, biking or even walking! around LA we see many place names that we have come to take for granted. Many of these place names were inspired by Angelenos who helped create them. These are just a…
