Historical Photographs
Consisting today of over 600,000 prints, negatives, glass-plate negatives and slides, the photo collection is one of the stellar components of the museum’s archival holdings.
In addition to being the most comprehensive collection documenting Santa Monica’s history, most of the images in the collection are unique, rare, and not available anywhere else.
Our Photo Collections In our collections are photos that are unique, rare, and not available anywhere else.
Our historical photo collections include the Outlook newspaper photographers Bill Beebe and Bob Smith’s archives, photos from numerous families such as the Reyes, the Parrott, the Mortensen and the Wedertz amongst other families and photographers.
ARCHIVE QUICK LINKS
Pleasure Pier
Miramar
California Incline
Muscle Beach
Postcards
Find out more about the photographs, objects and other materials in our holdings.
PHOTO REPRINTS AVAILABLE
Many of the images from our archive are available for reprint or digital download.
RESEARCH REQUEST
Looking for an image or information about Santa Monica?
Our reach team welcomes your inquiries. Send us a request and we’ll help you.
Photo Collections
Pointers navigate to the photo’s Archive Detail page. Pointers show information about the photo.
John P. Jones
A major photographic archive of the co-founder of Santa Monica, the John P. Jones Collection includes many rare landscapes of early Santa Monica. The collection also richly details the extended family life and lively social activities at the Miramar, the mansion built by Mr. Jones overlooking Palisades Park and the Pacific Ocean.
Medium: Photographs and negatives
Outlook
In addition to a selection of early Santa Monica photographs, the Outlook Collection consists of the complete archive of images for Santa Monica’s daily newspaper from 1965 to 1998. Noted for its award-winning photography, the Outlook Newspaper covered all the news in Santa Monica and the Westside, from major issues and events to feature stories, notable people and community social life.
Medium: Photographs and negatives
Bill Beebe
Also providing a daily record of the area from the 1930s to the 1960s, the Bill Beebe Collection is composed of negatives by professional photographers for the Pacific Press, a photo service that provided images to the Santa Monica Outlook, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Herald and Los Angeles Examiner. The photographers included Bill Beebe, Emerson Gaze and Bill Anderson.
Medium: Negatives
Fred Basten
The author of over thirty books, and a specialist on early Santa Monica, Fred Basten donated historical photographs that appear in his book, Santa Monica Bay: Paradise by the Sea and many other images pertaining to Santa Monica.
Medium: Photographs and negatives
Santa Monica History Museum
The Museum Collection includes unique and significant photographs and negatives donated by pioneer Santa Monica families during the city’s Centennial in 1975. Continuously augmented by donations, the Museum’s foundational photographic archive also includes the collections of Paula Boelsems/Glenn Sundby and George Tate (Muscle Beach), Bob Smith and Bryan McLellan (Outlook Newspaper), Santa Monica Fire Department, Phila Caldwell (Milbank House) and Virginia Tegner Spurgin (early Santa Monica).
Medium: Photographs, negatives, glass plates, lantern slides, stereoscopes, postcards
A Tip from our Archivist
The Five W’s
Presumably, when you choose to preserve material, you are doing so for future generations. Will they know the significance of the items? Imagine someone who does not know you, or your experience, coming upon an item or image. What would you want them to know?
Use the Five W’s — who, what, when, where, and why.
If an item or object is significant, add a note with a date or approximate date, identifying details about any related people, description of why this item is important, and any additional details such as location. This applies to photographs, objects, textiles, documents, and recordings!
A Tip from our Archivist
Magnetic Albums
If you’ve sorted through family photos, you’ve seen them. You may have even used them, not knowing the damage they can cause. The adhesive in these albums degrades photographs and makes damage-free removal difficult.
Occasionally, the stickum dries out, making it relatively easy to remove the photos. If not, a handy trick is to use dental floss or fishing line to remove the photographs. Wear gloves to protect images from the oils on your hands.
Wonderful alternatives to magnetic albums are photo pages with plastic sleeves or traditional photo corners, both of which secure your treasured images safely.
Find our photos around town! Click the icon below for more info
- Casa Del Mar Gift Shop
- Chamber of Commerce Offices
- Georgian Hotel
- Jonathan Club
- Lexus Santa Monica dealership
- William Burke Spa in Malibu
