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Planetarium, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California

 
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Title
Planetarium, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California
Creator
Spence Air Photos
Date
1938
Description
Aerial view of the Planetarium at Griffith Park in Los Angeles from the southwest, including a monument in front of the building, landscaped grounds and surrounding Santa Monica Mountains.
Format Extent
1 postcard : Color ; 9 x 14 cm.
Subject
Planetariums--California--Los Angeles; Observatories--California--Los Angeles; Parks--California--Los Angeles;
Note
In 1896 Colonel Griffith Jenkins Griffith (1850-1919) donated 3,015 acres of his land (formerly Rancho Los Felis) to the City of Los Angeles to be known as Griffith Park and used for public recreation for the "plain people." In 1912 Griffith gave $100,000 to the City of Los Angeles to build a planetarium on a parcel of his land 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 on a south-facing slope of Mt. Hollywood in May, 1935, downhill from the originally proposed site. 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.
Collection
Werner von Boltenstern Postcard Collection
Type
Geographic Location
Griffith Park (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Language
eng
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