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Planetarium, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California

 
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Title
Planetarium, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California
Date
1939
Description
A view of the north-facing front entrance of the three-domed Griffith Observatory with the Astronomer's Monument in foreground right.
Format Extent
1 postcard : Color ; 9 x 14 cm.
Subject
Planetariums--California--Los Angeles; Observatories--California--Los Angeles; Parks--California--Los Angeles;
Note
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.
Collection
Werner von Boltenstern Postcard Collection
Type
Geographic Location
Griffith Park (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Language
eng
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