It's been more than  175 years since photography arrived, first as a scientific experiment but almost immediately as a new 'art form'.   Clearly photography rapidly changed the way the world viewed its changing historical scenery, and as the speed with which photographs (and the written word) increased, our expectations of clarity in observations changed as well.  

 

Photography  allowed La Senora's Historian, Ernest Marquez, to capture the story in images of Early Los Angeles.  Experts have said that his Collections are unequaled on this topic.  During the past 30 years, many of our local community have been enjoying samples of his photo collection in the images hung on the walls of the "old" Gladstones and still hung at Paradise Cove.

 

But this was too 'important' a Collection to be accessed only by visiting the Collector -- it needed to be shared with major institutions who could bring it to the Internet and the eyes of scholars and researchers the world over. Sharing such a Collection is a necessity.

 

Port of Los Angeles:   

As part of the planned process of having the Ernest Marquez Images Collections catalogued and digitized, an initial start was made  when the Port of Los Angeles acquired from the Marquez Collection a small trove of images missing from its own historic archives. 

 

The Huntington Library:

Continuing with the important task of presenting the history of Los Angeles in the early photograph images of the Marquez Collection,  The Huntington Library acquired  the portion of the images relating to the City of Los Angeles 

 

The Curator noted that this was , "the largest single acquisition of photograph images it had procured since 1927 when Collis Huntington acquired the last major images for its collection." 

 

The Huntington's plans to digitize and share the largest portion of the Ernest Marquez Images Collection made reverberations of interest all over the world as each week sees yet another country writing an article about the 'importance' of this Collection. 

 

The Huntington is planning many small group talks about the works, at least two Exhibitions and most probably an accompany book.  Jennifer Watt, the Huntington's Images Curator cited the very high quality of the images and the surprise that there was so little overlap with the photos already in The Huntington's Collection. 

 

This portion of the Marquez Collection is supporting the Rancho book which will tell the story of the role played by the first ancestor of the Rancho, Francisco Reyes who came to Alta California in 1769 as a Spanish soldier accompanying Padre Junipero Serra and the Portola Party to Monterrey.  Reyes, retiring from his years stationed at the Santa Barbara Presidio, became the 3rd and then the 5th Alcade (Mayor) of Pueblo de Los Angeles.  His grandson, Vintner Ysidro Reyes joined with Blacksmith, Francisco Marquez to become the joint Grantees of the Mexican Land Grant Rancho Boca de Santa Monica......and many a tale lies therein. 

 

Film and Print Archives 

 

La Senora Research Institute began its existence in 2006 with the legacy gift of books, films, memorabilia and oral histories of the remarkable community of creative writers, artists, actors, directors, photographers, composers, & scientists who found respite and friendship within the Salons of the Mojica Hacienda. 

 

The La Senora Collections grow through continuing gifts and sponsored acquisitions of materials on the former owners of the Hacienda.  Materials are available to accredited scholars and via exhibits during La Senora's educational programming.