Description The Automobile Club of Southern California Collection provides documentation on the region's transportation history, especially Los Angeles from 1892 to 1963, from the Auto Club's Corporate Archives. The Collection includes: a selection of 98 historic strip maps, illustrating the development of major Southern California routes; 498 photographs from the general photograph collection, depicting buildings, businesses, streets, and points of interest; and 650 photographs from engineering notebooks along with searchable transcriptions of the engineers' notes documenting the conditions of streets, highways, bridges, railroads, etc.

The Automobile Club of Southern California was founded in 1900 and its archive provides a distinctive picture of life in the region during the 20th century. The documents and pictorial materials relate not only to the Club's history but also to local and regional architecture, infrastructure, public policy, and cultural and recreational history.

Since 1909 the Auto Club has produced a monthly magazine focused on automotive tourism. The archived issues of Touring Topics and its successor, Westways, provide a chronicle of landscapes and destinations including extensive coverage of the deserts and coastal regions of California, the national parks of the American West, and Hawaii.

The club began to participate in deliberations about transportation policy in 1909. Its activities have included independent provision of planning studies as well as commentary on public policies, programs and proposals. In 1922 the Auto Club produced the first comprehensive traffic survey of Los Angeles, and in 1937 its engineers wrote the first detailed proposal for a region-wide freeway system. The working files for these projects provide a rich source of materials on the region.

A substantial portion of the holdings document the workings of the organization itself, from the executive staff to the daily operations in dozens of district offices.

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Automobile Club of Southern California negatives, 1892-1963

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Grade crossing separation on Pico Street at end of car line, Los Angeles, 1927

Grade crossing separation-Union Pacific Railroad over Telegraph Road, 1925

Grade crossing separation-Santa Fe Railroad over Telegraph Road, 1925

Downey road grade separation, Los Angeles, 1928

Grade crossing separation-Union Pacific Railroad over Telegraph Road, 1925

Grade separation on the Arroyo Seco parkway, Pasadena, 1939

Near Myra St. and Sunset Blvd. where a grade crossing will be built, Hollywood, 1928

Harbor Fwy to end of construction (aerials), 1958

Proposed grade crossing of Pico Street over Santa Fe Main Line, Pasadena, from east side of Marengo Avenue (east end of Pico St.) looking west along Pico Street to Fair Oaks Avenue (west end of P...

Wharf at Water Street, Los Angeles, 1925

Pomona Blvd, overhead crossing, Pomona, 1927

Club mission bell at Fremont-Pico memorial on Lankershim Blvd. with movie actress, North Hollywood, 1932

Harbor Fwy to end of construction (aerials), 1958

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