Photograph of Madam Ernestine Schumann-Heink celebrating the groundbreaking ceremony for the Los Angeles Soap Company building, 1904. Madam Schumann-Heink, then known as "the world's greatest contralto", can be seen standing with a group of men, waving a champagne bottle in the air, next to the construction site where the new Los Angeles Soap Company building was to be built. According to a note attached to the photograph, the groundbreaking was for a new building meant to replace the old Los Angeles Soap Company building (seen behind Madam Schumann-Heink and others), which was damaged by a fire.
California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960
