COLORADO RIVER AQUEDUCT 1932

Water For 13 Cities booklet - 1935 - gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by Gary Fredburg 2008 (click on image to enlarge)
The Eastern entrance of the Coxcomb Tunnels - one of 29 tunnels in the Colorado Aqueduct.

Water For 13 Cities booklet - 1935 - gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by Gary Fredburg 2008 (click on image to enlarge) Surveyors working the desert at the base of Mount San Jacino.

The eastern cities of the San Fernando Valley receive water from the great Colorado River Aqueduct begun in 1932. Water from the Metropolitan Water District, whose founding President was the San Fernando Valley's W.P. Whitsett, supplies Glendale, Burbank and Eagle Rock.
These images are from a splendid little booklet produced by the Metropolitan Water District for the California Pacific International Exposition in San Diego in 1935. At the time it was published the Colorado River Project was not yet complete. Entitled "Water for Thirteen Cities in the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California." In 1935 the Colorado River Aqueduct was the largest construction project in the United States.

Water For 13 Cities booklet - 1935 - gift to The Museum of the San Fernando Valley by Gary Fredburg 2008 (click on image to enlarge)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY'S PROPHECY FROM MAY 1961 COMES THROUGH WITH OBAMA'S ELECTION

There are many downright mysterious aspects to this story - a prediction by Robert F. Kennedy about the election of a Negro President of the United States, the foresight of an Iowa farm woman to send the information to her Grandson in California, and wisdom of a Grandson to keep his Grandmother's legacy alive.
1961 Newspaper Prediction by RFK on an African-American President - Collection of Burnet Brown 2008 - Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley (click on image to enlarge)
Article likely to have appeared in the Des Moines Register.

Comments by San Fernando Valley sustainability policy analyst Burnet Brown of Woodland Hills 2008 (click on image to enlarge)

Myrtle Bennett Coates - Grandmother of Burnet Brown - Collection of Burnet Brown 2009 (click on image to enlarge)


The San Fernando Valley, in the heart of the Creative Capital of the World, deserves a great Museum of history and culture.

THE GREAT ANDY DIVINE

Home of actor Andy Divine in Van Nuys,- historic postcard gift from Gary Fredburg 1008 - Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley (click on image to enlarge)

To the hundreds of kids who found relief from the summer heat of the San Fernando Valley in an era with few swimming pools, the Crystal Plunge in Van Nuys was a favorite hangout. It was build by the film and television actor Andy Divine who lived across the street on Kester Avenue.
Andy, who starred in the hit television production of the Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok as Guy Madison's sidekick "Jingles', built the Crystal Plunge so that classmates of his sons on the Van Nuys High School Swim Team would have a place to practice. For elementary school students, Halloween meant the chance to take as many pennies as they could pick up in one hand. If the child was very little, Andy would take one of his enormous hands and help the little one out.
Once a professional football player, Andy Divine got his first big career boost in the 1931 football film The Spirit of Notre Dame. In the next four decades, his raspy voice was one of the most recognizable in America. Andy was a strong supporter of the San Fernando Valley, and was made the honorary mayor of Van Nuys in the early 1970s. He died in 1977.


Andy Divine world famous film and television actor

The San Fernando Valley, in the heart of the Creative Capitol of the world, deserves a great Museum of history and culture.

EXPLORING OUR CITY ON DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

Native American religious customs and rituals often survived the arrival of Europeans by disguising ancient beliefs with those of theie conquerors. The Mexican peasant celebration of Dia de los Muertos is an important example of this

Day of the Dead 2008 - Photo by Gerald Fecht for the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley (click on image to enlarge)

Day of the Dead 2008 - Photo by Gerald Fecht for the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley (click on image to enlarge)

Day of the Dead 2008 - Photo by Gerald Fecht for the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley (click on image to enlarge)

Our Lady Queen of Angeles - Day of the Dead 2008 - Photo by Gerald Fecht for the Archives of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley (click on image to enlarge)

CELEBRATING ITALIAN-AMERICANS IN LOS ANGELES

Little Joe's - Photo by Gerald Fecht 2008 - Sunshine and Struggle Exhibit (click on image to enlarge.)

Celebration outside of Italian Hall - Photo by Gerald Fecht 2008 - Sunshine and Struggle Exhibit (click on image to enlarge.)

San Rocco - Patron Saint of Italian-Americans in Los Angeles - Photo by Gerald Fecht 2008 - Sunshine and Struggle Exhibit (click on image to enlarge.)
A tribute to Rowland Francis LoBianco II on his 70th Birthday - November 4, 2008

From now until November 15th, 2008 there is an excellent, albeit modest exhibit of the "Italian Experience in Los Angeles from 1827 to 1927. It is being held in the historic Pico House at the Olvera Street Plaza. The exhibit is being held as a preliminary to the opening of the long awaited Italian Hall Museum that will be housed in the Old Plaza's Italian Hall building.
Learn more about this free show by calling
1 (213) 485-8432 or visiting:
www.italianhall.org
Most of the first Italians who came to Los Angeles followed the example of Gioanni Leandri, settling in what was long called "Little Italy." That area ran along Broadway (starting where Little Joes Restaurant once served some of the best food in the city) and traveled to the brick buildings around the Old Plaza and Olvera Street. Saint Peter's Catholic Church on Broadway still functions as the "mother church" for Italian-Americans in Los Angeles.
At the conclusion of the Second World War, Italian-Americans joined the massive migration into the San Fernando Valley. Many, who were soldiers returning from war and families from New York and other eastern cities, established lives and businesses in the Valley. "Old timers" who ran manufacturing shops in the central city, made new homes in the Valley.

The Museum of the San Fernando Valley collects artifacts and information about Italian-Americans in Southern California. As our electronic and physical collections grow, we will share them for research and support of other cultural institutions such as The Italian Hall Museum.

The San Fernando Valley, in the heart of the Creative Capital of the World, deserves a great Museum of history and culture.