Home

Changing Face of Southern California

Planetarium, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California

Reference URL

To link to this object, paste this link in email, IM or document
To embed this object, paste this HTML in website

Planetarium, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California

View Description

Loading content ...

you wish to report:

Your comment:

Your Name:

...

Identifier	clloy_107
Title	Planetarium, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California
Creator	Unknown
Date Published	1939
Subject (Topic)	Planetariums--California--Los Angeles; Observatories--California--Los Angeles; Parks--California--Los Angeles;
Subject (Name)	Griffith Observatory;
Subject (Place)	Griffith Park (Los Angeles, Calif.);
Type	image
Form/Genre	Postcards
Physical Description	1 postcard : Color ; 9 x 14 cm.
Institution	Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University
Country of Creation	US
Copyright Status	public domain
Copyright Statement	http://library.lmu.edu/generalinformation/departments/digitallibraryprogram/copyrightandreproductionpolicy/#d.en.3004
Publisher	Western Publishing & Novelty Co.
Place of Publication	Los Angeles, Calif.
Language	eng
Description	A view of the north-facing front entrance of the three-domed Griffith Observatory with the Astronomer's Monument in foreground right.
Historical Background	In 1912 Col. Griffith J. Griffith (1850-1919) donated $100,000 to the City of Los Angeles to build a planetarium on a parcel of his land (formerly Rancho Los Felis) atop Mt. Hollywood. Due to location difficulties and legal issues, it was twenty-one years before construction began on the Planetarium, known as Griffith Observatory. It opened in May, 1935, downhill from the originally proposed site on a south-facing slope of Mt. Hollywood. The federally-funded Astronomer's Monument was dedicated six months prior to the opening of the Observatory on November 25, 1934. At 40-feet tall, it was a "star-shaped poured concrete obelisk, capped by a brass-skinned armillary sphere (an ancient astronomical instrument)"(Ebert, M. Griffith Park: A Centennial History." Six astronomers were represented: Hipparchus, Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, John Kepler, Isaac Newton, and William Herschel.
Additional Printed Matter	On back: "Griffith Park Planetarium and Observatory is one of the newest and finest Planetariums in the United States. It is situated on a high peak in a setting of natural beauty with a commanding view of Los Angeles, Hollywood and the blue Pacific."
Publisher's Identifier	Publisher's serial number: 9A-H2253; Series number: LA-154;
Additional Notes	Date from publisher's serial number; Printed using the C.T. Art-Colortone process; Printed on linen textured paper.
Source	Werner von Boltenstern Postcard Collection