The content of this note was taken from "Appraisal of A Collection of Photographs, Promotional Booklets and Postcards of Southern California circa 1875-1950" by Michael Dawson.

Collection includes approximately 5,250 Los Angeles/Southern California postcards published between 1880 and 1940. The postcards are an important research collection of breadth and depth revealing the ways in which Los Angeles photographers made visual the city and the broader Southern California region via the simple, inexpensive, and widely distributed little image: the picture postcard.

Primary subject matter includes Los Angeles public buildings, commercial buildings, hotels, parks, domestic residences, street scenes, churches and clubs. The collection also features images of the Southern California health scene including hospitals, sanitaria, spas, and cemeteries. Cards depicting the Southern California citrus industry are included as well as images of flowers, particularly the California Poppy. Southern California as a place of healthy outdoor adventures are depicted by scenes of mountain hiking and living in the Sierra Madre/San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and San Jacinto mountains and their resorts; many images of the Sierra Nevada especially after completion of the L.A. aqueduct are part of the collection. Beach scenes, especially Catalina Island are also included. In addition, there are more than 125 images of California missions. While fewer in number, the collection features an important group of minorities in Southern California, including depictions of African American, Latino, Japanese, and Chinese communities. Postcards published by Michael Rieder, German by birth, are an important subgenre in the collection.

The collection was developed between 1993 and 2010. I tried contacting the four dealers from whom most of the cards were purchased. These include Ralph Bowman (Valley Center, CA), Ken Prag (San Francisco), Sherry Sonnette (Los Angeles) and Lee Brown (Sunland, CA). There was not internet listing for several of the dealers and two others did not respond to email or phone calls. Most of the cards were purchased at regional collectible shows featuring postcards, brochures, books and related ephemera.