MUSEUM ARTIFACTS PIECE TOGETHER HISTORY

THE MISSION SAN GABRIEL ARCHANGEL - IN OPERATION SINCE 1771 - Color image 1945 - Collection of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley

The work of a great Museum of history and culture is never ending. Bit by bit, like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, pieces of our human experience comes together through documents, stories and artifacts. The portfolio of Los Angeles and Hollywood pictures done for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1945 is an example of how images can support the relating of a "bigger picture."

This photograph of the Mission San Gabriel illustrates many important things; architecture, religious experiences, the social impact of the Order of Catholic Franciscans, romantic imagery, and the many achievements of Mrs. Armitage Forbes (founder of the Campo de Cahuenga Historical Memorial Society) and others in the creation of El Camino Real bells that are so important to California's historical preservation.

Special thanks to Judge Dallas Holmes of Riverside for sending his Museum this and 15 additional images in the portfolio, and to Phyllis Hansen for her continuing work on the histories of Mrs. Armitage Forbes and the great California artist, Orpha Klinker, who used images like this to paint our missions and abodes.