The museum is housed in a two-story fire station, FS #30, located across the street from the historic Coca-Cola building on South Central Avenue. From 1924 to 1955, the historic FS #30 was one of two segregated hire houses in the city of angels. One of the museum’s most beloved volunteers, Arnett Hartsfield, was a city firefighter in the 1940s and 50s and helped current firefighters and visitors to the museum understand the battle that he, a USC law school graduate, and his colleagues fought as they worked to integrate the Los Angeles Fire Department. Hartsfield volunteered at the museum up until his death in 2014.&nbsp;The first floor of the African-American FIrefighter Museum houses the firefighting gear on display along with photos and stories of some of the city’s first African-American firefighters. The second floor houses a gallery that is loaded with historic photos, memorabilia, and artifacts. The museum is also home to a tribute to the firefighters who were killed during the 9/11 attack by Islamic fundamentalists on New York City’s two World Trade Center buildings. &nbsp; &nbsp;Wholly supported and funded by volunteers, this non-profit organization is not only open to the public, it also supports a Junior Firefighter Youth Foundation that introduces the fire service community to middle and high school students in Los Angeles. Additionally, this program helps students understand local government and community service. Finally, the youth foundation also supports sending students to the Los Angeles Metro High School Academy. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;When the museum opened in 1997, its founders believed that it marked the 100th anniversary of the first African-American firefighter working in the city. However, five years later, the Los Angeles Times discovered a document showing that at least one African-American firefighter, Sam Haskins, was hired by the city in 1892. Haskins was killed three years later while responding to a fire.

Here is a photo of the entrance of the African American Firefighter Museum.

A mural done on the building that represents the Fireman that worked in Los Angeles. 

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Video of the representation of the Museum. 

“Dedicated to,” according to its mission statement, “collecting, conserving, and sharing the heritage of African-American firefighters through collaboration and education,” the African-American Firefighter Museum is the sole free-standing African-American firefighter museum in the U.S. With its collection of historic firefighting equipment, photos, and a large variety of other firefighting memorabilia and artifacts, the museum tells the tale of African-American firefighters who have been serving in Los Angeles for well over 100 years.

The African American Firefighter Museum 

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This tour allows users to visit (or at least digitally browse) two-dozen Los Angeles museums. The tour includes museums dedicated to art, science, history, and culture, and includes specialty museums that focus on everything from fighting fires to filming movies.

The California Science Center is a museum located in Exposition Park which features the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and the California African American Museum. The Science Center opened in 1998 and features numerous exhibits that explore life on earth, aerospace, and technology. The museum has four exhibits main exhibits: World of Life, which shows how all life forms are connected; Creative World, which looks at how humans have used technology for transportation, communication, and buildings; Ecosystems, which features 11 "zones" that show how different ecosystems—such as a desert, ocean, and deep sea—are connected to each other; and Air and Space, which features the space shuttle Endeavor and aerospace artifacts. The museum also offers traveling exhibits and live shows and demonstrations.

California Science Center

The museum is located on what was the county agricultural fairgrounds. By the 1890s it had become a place for gambling, saloons, dog and rabbit racing, and other&nbsp;vices.&nbsp;Sunday school preacher William Bowen, seeing the immoral&nbsp;state of the grounds, spearheaded the effort to establish a cultural institution beginning in the late 1890s. After a decade of effort, the land was finally designated to be the site of a new museum. The building was designed by Frank Hudson and William Munsell and they incorporated Beaux Arts, Romanesque, and Spanish Revival elements. In 1963, the art department moved to another building that would become the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The museum then became simply the&nbsp;Museum of History and Science, but the name was eventually changed to its current one. The last major renovation occurred in 2009.

With a collection of 35 million items consisting of natural history specimens and cultural artifacts, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is one of the largest museums in the western United States. The total amount of It was established in 1913 as the Museum of History, Science, and Art. Among its collections are the famous La Brea Pitt Ice Age fossils, the largest of its kind in the world, gemstones, ancient sea creature fossils, and, interestingly, Charlie Chapman's tramp costume. The building itself is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Elizabeth Holmes Fisher was born in 1867 in Illinois. Her interest in art originated from her love of a Currier and Ives print that belonged to her mother. She attended college in Nebraska and then married Walter Harrison Fisher. They then moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota then eventually made their way to California, where Walter began working as an insurance salesman. He invested in the oil industry which made him very wealthy. Unfortunately, he died in 1926. Elizabeth started to collect art a few years later, focusing on European masters such as Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, and Jean-Francois Millet, and 19th-century artists Winslow Homer and Thomas Cole. She became the first woman elected to the USC's board of trustees and contributed to the founding of the museum by donating 29 paintings of her collection (she eventually donated the rest to&nbsp;the museum). The museum opened in 1939.&nbsp;

Established in 1939 by Elizabeth Holmes Fisher, the USC Fisher Museum of Art was the first museum in Los Angeles dedicated solely to the collection and exhibition of art. The collection is comprised of 1,800 works of art—paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, drawings, and decorative art—from Europe, America, and South America that date from 1500 to today. 
Areas of strength include 19th and early 20th-century American landscapes, 16th through 19th-century Western European paintings, and 20th and 21st-century works. As for particular works, highlights include "Venus Wounded by a Thorn" by Peter Paul Reubens, "Mrs. Burroughs" by Thomas Gainsborough, and "Richard Nixon" by Andy Warhol. The museum is located across the street from Exposition Park, which contains other museums such as the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Science Center.

USC Fisher Museum of Art

The California African American Museum is more than just a museum of history; it’s a museum of family, stories, adventure and tragedy. This Museum holds so many pieces of history and life as an African American from Slavery to the present time. It presents information from historical figures, wars, music, art and many other aspects that hold significance to African American culture.

In September 2001, the Museum had to temporarily close its doors so that they could rebuild and update the security as well as update the main entrance, offices,&nbsp;and galleries so that they could accompany all guests. The museum reopened in March 2003. The creation of the Expansion Study helped create a larger space for future and current art storage so that the public is able to see everything the museum has in store. The rebuilding and renovations cost $4.1 million dollars, which included almost all rooms as well as a well-developed security system.&nbsp;

Founded in 1977, the California African American Museum celebrates and preserves the history and cultural heritage of African Americans through art, research, and public programs. It was the first museum centered on African American history fully supported by the state. Its permanent collection contains over 4,000 items comprised of works of art, historical artifacts, and memorabilia. Many of these items can be seen displayed in the exhibitions the museum puts on throughout the year. While the museum focuses on the history and art of African Americans in California and the Western U.S., African Americans from the rest of the country are represented as well. The museum is located in Exposition Park, which features the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and other major museums. It opened to the public in 1984 after being first located at the California Museum of Science and Industry.

California African American Museum

The Sports Museum of Los Angeles is a prestigious collection of memorabilia that depicts the most important moments in the histories of different sports.&nbsp;The collection valued in the millions include baseball memorabilia such as&nbsp;Babe Ruth’s 1934 uniform and&nbsp;Joe DiMaggio’s record-breaking ball from his legendary 56-game hitting streak. These pieces of baseball history are priceless, yet are available for any sports fan to come see and admire. But, the museum is not only for baseball lovers. The collection also includes&nbsp;jerseys from NBA and NFL greats. On display is the 1941 Heisman Trophy awarded to Minnesota’s Bruce Smith. This trophy has been envied by many and holds great importance in history. Also on display is&nbsp;the original cornerstone from Yankee Stadium in 1923, and&nbsp;the first ball used at Ebbets Field (1913), and Fenway Park (1912). Even a different kind of memorabilia can be found, such as&nbsp;Gary Cooper’s gray New York jersey worn when he portrayed Lou Gehrig in the movie “Pride of the Yankees”. Everything seen in this museum is a dream to all sports fans alike. With everything collected over time, visitors can enjoy the rich history of sports and get a real life look at what their favorite players wore, hit, and won. This museum is private as to preserve this irreplaceable memorabilia as well as possible. If you are a sports fan and you find yourself in Los Angeles, this museum is a must see.&nbsp;

The Sports Museum of Los Angeles is a private museum which can be seen by appointment only. It is the largest and broadest known collection of iconic sports memorabilia and collectibles in the world. It contains 10,000 artifacts collected over 25 years by Los Angeles businessman Gary Cypres.The museum has 30 galleries dedicated to some of the more prominent sports figures and teams. Some of these include Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Los Angeles Dodgers, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Rams.

The Sports Museum of Los Angeles

Opened in 2008, the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live is dedicated to history, significance, and preservation of all forms of music, from classical to hip-hop. A particular emphasis is paid to those artists who have won Grammy Awards. The museum features permanent, traveling and interactive exhibits that explore music's impact on the world as well as the technology that has helped (and continues) to shape music to where it is today. On display include a wide range of memorabilia, photographs, and clothing worn by Grammy winners. The museum also features a 200-seat theater that hosts live performances and lectures. Other programming includes seminars, classes, film screenings, and free public programs with artists.

Grammy Museum at L.A. Live

Eli Broad is the founder of SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home, both of which grew to become&nbsp;Fortune 500 companies. In 1984, the Broad family created a&nbsp;foundation that has worked to support art museums around the world by coordinating and financing the exchange of works of art. With this support and the efforts of museum professionals, thousands of works have been seen by millions of people who would otherwise have to travel great distances to see these important works. The Broad family has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to support art museums and cultural institutions throughout the United States, and Eli Broad was appointed&nbsp;a Regent of the Smithsonian&nbsp;Institution.&nbsp;

This contemporary art museum is home to one of the most prominent collections of contemporary and postwar art. The museum is named in honor of philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who established the Broad Art Foundation in 1984. The foundation announced plans to build this museum in 2007 and it opened in 2015. The museum's contemporary building was designed by the late Zaha Hadid and features two floors of gallery space. The museum is also home to the Broad Art Foundation and its art library that lends its collection to other libraries across the globe. 

The Broad Museum

Home to an extensive collection of Japanese-American documents, images, and other objects, the JANM was founded by a group of Japanese Americans made up of businessmen from L.A.’s Little Tokyo and veterans from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a fighting unit made up of mostly Japanese Americans that fought in Italy, southern France, and Germany during the Second World War despite the fact that many of them had loved ones in American internment camps. After nearly 10 years of trial and error, the group secured funding from the California state legislature and the City of Los Angeles and was thus able to turn the dream into a reality.&nbsp;JANM is more than just its collection of items and its exhibits, it is also a striking building. The home to JANM was at one time the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, the first building in L.A. that was built to be a Buddhist place of worship. Renovated to become a museum, the building is now an ornate landmark that is a mixture of Japanese and Middle Eastern influences. With one of JANM’s core missions to safeguard the histories of the first generation Japanese immigrants, called Issei, the museum assembled a vast collection of oral histories, photographs, written letters and other records, and various other artifacts and materials that documented the lives of Japanese who arrived in America shortly before, during, and after World War II, and along with those who were interned. Though the museum focuses on the Japanese-American experience, it mirrors the immigration process traveled by many other immigrant communities. &nbsp;The museum contains over 130 years of Japanese American history, dating back to the first Issei generation. The museum houses a moving image archive containing more than 100,000 feet (30,000 m) of 16 mm and 8 mm home movies of Japanese Americans from the 1920s to the 1950s. Two of JANM’s current exhibitions are “Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty” and “Common Ground: The Heart of Community.”&nbsp;

Opened in 1992, the Japanese American National Museum has been promoting the understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese-American experience with its domestic and international visitors for nearly 25 years. It is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to telling the tale of Japanese Americans.

Japanese American National Museum

Phillippe Garnier constructed the building specifically for Chinese merchants and organizations. Interestingly, he only built the exterior walls; he allowed the Chinese occupants to arrange the interior as they pleased. Between 1890-1948, the building housed an importing firm and other businesses, the headquarters of the Chinese Benevolent Society, schools, churches, and temples. These organizations and institutions were very important, not only to maintain cohesion among the community but to also serve as an intermediary between the community and the rest of the city and American society. The city forced the community to move to its current location (New Chinatown) beginning in the 1930s because of the planned construction of Union Station. Fortunately, the Garnier Building survived.

The Chinese American Museum is dedicated to preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of Chinese immigrants in California. To this end, it offers fine art and historical exhibits using items in its collection of 7,500 items, which includes artifacts, documents, and photographs. It opened in 2003 after 20 years of planning, becoming the first museum of its kind in Southern California. It is housed in the historic Garnier Building, which was constructed in 1890 by Philippe Garnier who rented it to Chinese merchants and organizations (many Chinese social functions were held here as well). As such, the building became the center of Chinese cultural life for much of the first half of the 1900s. 

The building is also significant because it is the last remaining Chinese building in Southern California. It is also a contributing property of the El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historical Monument, a historic district in the oldest part of the city that was once the center of the city and eventually home to the city's original Chinatown. The museum's aim is to not only highlight Chinese contributions but to celebrate the multi-cultural heritage of Los Angeles and Southern California as well. 

Chinese American Museum

The buildings were threatened from destruction in the 1960s as a result of the city's rapid growth. To save them, the Cultural Heritage Foundation of Southern California was founded to raise money to move them to the current location. The historic buildings at the museum are:<ul><li><div>Hale House, 1887</div></li><li>Valley Knudsen House,&nbsp;</li><li><div>Ford House, 1887</div></li><li><div>Carriage Barn, 1889</div></li><li><div>Palms Depot, 1875</div></li><li><div>Lincoln Ave Church, 1897</div></li><li><div>Perry Mansion, 1876</div></li><li><div>Octagon House, 1893</div></li><li>Colonial Drug, recreation of the original built after WWI</li></ul>

Located along the edge of the Montecito Heights neighborhood, the Heritage Square Museum is a living history museum that preserves and promotes the history of Southern California during the period between 1850-1950. It was during these 100 years that Los Angeles and the region really took over in terms of economic, cultural and social development, shaping the region to what it is today. The museum features eight well-preserved buildings (and one recreated building), whose architecture reflects this development up to the turn of the century. The museum offers tours of the buildings as well as a variety of events and educational programming. Staff members are often dressed in period clothing to provide a more authentic experience. Events and programming include lectures, living history performances, a vintage fashion show, and holiday celebrations.



Heritage Square Museum

The Southwest&nbsp;Museum was established during the&nbsp;period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when museums and educational institutions were founded to begin the study of natural and cultural history. Charles Lummis recognized that Southwestern artifacts and historical material were being excavated by these institutions, which were mostly located on the East Coast, and wanted to establish a museum to help keep these items in their region of origin. The building itself was&nbsp;constructed in 1914 and was designed to&nbsp;reflect&nbsp;Spanish culture and the architecture of the Alhambra, which is a historic palace and fortress located in Granda in Spain.<div> </div>

The Southwest Museum was founded in 1907 as the Southwest Museum of the American Indian by Charles Lummis. In 2003, it merged with the Autry Museum of the American West so that its collections could be better preserved and shared with the public. As such, the museum's collection is now housed at the Resources Center of the Autry in Burbank, which is undergoing construction and will be completed in 2019 (phase one of the construction was to build the storage areas in the facility). The Center will serve as a preservation and educational facility where the collections of the Autry Museum and Southwest Museum will be available to the public through research and exhibitions. 

The Southwest Museum's Native American collection is considered one of the best in the world. Artifacts in the collection date from prehistoric times to today. The collection is particularly strong in archaeological artifacts and ceramics. There are a few exhibits at the museum that can be seen when the museum is open on Saturdays.  

Southwest Museum 

MONA was founded as a 501(c)(3) non-profit art museum in
1981, by artists Lili Lakich and Richard Jenkins in downtown Los Angeles. Their
intent was to create an awareness for historic neon sign preservation and to
showcase this electrifying contemporary art form. After several relocations,
(Universal City Walk, Grand Hope Park and the Historic Core), the museum
successfully negotiated a permanent home in the city of Glendale where it serves as an anchor to the southern end of the Arts and Entertainment Corridor. 

Throughout its 30+ year history, MONA has fostered an
awareness of historic neon signage through its LUMENS project with the City of
L.A. and its popular bus tour, the Neon Cruise. MONA has witnessed the rise
and fall of neon used by the sign industry and the current resurgence of neon
used by creative artists and commercial designers today. The new MONA facility
in Glendale has a classroom on the premises where visitors can watch
skilled neon craftspeople fabricating and processing the neon tube and take
hands-on classes to learn this fascinating art form. 

The exhibitions are electric and light-based arts illuminating
the past, present, and future through permanent and rotating exhibitions. The
museum educates with new fully immersive, standards-aligned learning programs
teaching science through art. With the act of preservation, over thirty years
of successful outreach programs raising awareness of the cultural and economic
value of historic signage. The MONA serves Glendale and Southern California
communities through inclusive on- and off-site programming.The Neon Cruise was developed by MONA beginning in 1985. The narrated tour points out neon’s aesthetic dimensions,&nbsp;placing them firmly within the context of 20th&nbsp;century Los Angeles cultural history. From the classic movie marquees of downtown Los Angeles’ theater district to the glittering lights of Hollywood and the glowing pagodas of Chinatown, you will see outstanding examples of contemporary neon art as well as innovative electrical advertising.

Founded in 1931, the Museum of Neon Art encourages learning, curiosity and expression through the preservation, collection and interpretation of neon, electric and kinetic art. Neon is a gateway between scientific principles and artistic expression. Neon illumination integrates electrical technology, creative design, and fundamental concepts of physics and chemistry. The Museum of Neon Art is the only museum in the world devoted exclusively to art in electric media, exhibiting electric and kinetic fine art, and outstanding examples of historic neon signs, for over three decades. The collection includes neon signs from the Brown Derby and Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Museum of Neon Art

The idea for the museum originated in the late 1940s, when railroad enthusiasts, including city superintendent of recreation William Frederickson Jr., started to develop a plan for the museum. They invited railroad companies to donate soon-to-be obsolete steam locomotives and other rolling stock. Over time, the museum's collection grew to the size it is today.

Located in Griffith Park, Travel Town Museum preserves and promotes the legacy of how railroading shaped the history of Southern California and the Western United States. Opened in 1952, the museum features many rolling stock on display including locomotives, passenger cars, freight cars and cabooses, interurbans and motorcars. The museum also has a miniature train which can be ridden and goes around the perimeter of the museum. Visitors are also allowed to tour passenger cars and invited to volunteer.  

Travel Town Museum

The Hollywood Heritage Museum is located inside of the Lasky-DeMille Barn and celebrates the history of film in Hollywood, particularly the era of silent films. The barn was built on the corner of Selma Avenue and Vine Street around the turn of the 20th century by Colonel Robert Northam. In 1903, the property was purchased by a real estate developer named Jacob Stern, and originally, the barn held horses, buggies, and automobiles. Stern rented the barn to Harry Reviver and Louis Burns, who then turned it into a laboratory for developing film and added an outdoor stage. Around that time, Cecil B. DeMille had just arrived in Hollywood to direct a movie called The Squaw Man with his partners Jesse Lasky and Samuel Goldwyn of the Feature Play Company.When DeMille first came to Hollywood, it was mainly farmland, but he found the climate to be perfect for year-round filmmaking. In addition, relocating to Southern California from the East Coast helped him escape the patents that Thomas Edison had on film equipment at that time. Because of the outdoor stage already built with the barn, DeMille thought this was the perfect setting for his feature film and the owners also agreed to build another stage. The Feature Play Company rented the barn for $250 a month for The Squaw Man, but they did not sign any long-term contract.In 1916, the Feature Play Company merged with the Famous Players Film Company, becoming Famous Players-Lasky. Two years later, the group absorbed the film distribution company, Paramount. The barn was then taken from its initial location to the Paramount lot on Melrose Avenue in 1926. Because DeMille felt sentimental about the old barn, they continued to use it on film sets, but it was also repurposed as a gym and research library. In 1956, with DeMille and Lasky in attendance, the Lasky-DeMille Barn was dedicated as a California Historic Landmark with the plaque reading “Hollywood’s First Major Motion Picture Studio.”The barn moved again in the 1970s when it was taken off the studio lot and placed in the parking lot of the Hollywood Palace Theatre near Capitol Records. After sitting dormant for three years, it was taken to its current location on Highland Avenue, directly across from the Hollywood Bowl. Paramount and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce donated the barn to the nonprofit organization, Hollywood Heritage, which aims to preserve historic structures in Hollywood, in the early 1980s. In 1985, the nonprofit opened the Hollywood Heritage Museum.Despite a fire in 1996 that resulted in its closing for three years, the Hollywood Heritage Museum is still open for guests from all over the world to visit. In the museum, visitors may see items from Hollywood’s rich history, including home movie projectors that belonged to Buster Keaton, a recreated version of DeMille’s office, Charlie Chaplin’s costume, derby hat, and cane, and many historic photos. More than a century after it was built, the Lasky-DeMille barn stands as a reminder of the pioneering spirit of early filmmakers who came to California and built Hollywood.

The Hollywood Heritage Museum, also the Lasky-DeMille Barn, is dedicated to the preservation of Hollywood’s film history, especially during the silent film era. The museum is housed in the Lasky-DeMille Barn, named after two of the founders of Paramount Pictures, Jesse Lasky and Cecil B. DeMille, and it is Hollywood’s oldest surviving film production building. The barn, built around the turn of the 20th century, was adapted in 1914 for the production of The Squaw Man, directed by DeMille and the first feature film to be shot in Hollywood. For more than 50 years, the barn was situated on the Paramount lot and served as a backdrop for many western television shows and films. Hollywood Heritage, formed in 1980, acquired the Lasky-DeMille Barn in the early 1980s and opened it as a museum in 1985.

Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn)

The Hollywood Museum building was originally owned by make-up artist Max Factor. Factor was born in Poland and worked as a beautician for the family of Czar Nicholas II in Russia. Factor and his family immigrated to the United States in 1908, and through hard work and clever marketing, he would become a titan in the makeup industry. He worked as a makeup artist for movie stars and created solutions to some of the problems he came across. He came up with a longer-lasting foundation that could stand up to studio lighting, and he invented lip gloss to make actresses’ lips pop more onscreen. He bought the building, designed by S. Charles Lee, in 1928. There, Marilyn Monroe would become a blonde and Lucille Ball a redhead. After his death, the Max Factor Cosmetics Company passed through the hands of Revlon, Playtex, and Proctor &amp; Gamble, among others.

In 1994, Proctor &amp; Gamble sold the Max Factor building to the Hollywood Museum. The museum would not finish with renovations and open until 2003. The first floor of the building offers a glimpse into its past with carefully recreated “makeup rooms.” Each room includes photos of actresses Factor worked with as well as some vintage beauty tools. The upper levels of the museum contain props, costumes, posters, antique film equipment, and other pieces of Hollywood history. The basement, which temporarily had been home to a bowling alley and then a speakeasy, is now the “Dungeon of Doom.” Visitors can see the jail cell from Silence of the Lambs and nods to Vampira, Frankenstein, and others.

One of the Hollywood Museum’s claims to fame is its exhibit on Marilyn Monroe. Memorabilia includes items from her wardrobe, pieces of her jewelry, and her 1961 Fleetwood Cadillac. The museum works with historians and other experts to investigate the validity of each of its artifacts. Currently, the museum has exhibits on the Batman television series and on the screen’s first blonde bombshell Jean Harlow. The Hollywood Museum does what so few others attempt: it displays the history of Hollywood from its early days to today, from movies to television, and from the well-known to the obscure. The Hollywood Museum works to collect items that tell the complete story of Hollywood.

The Hollywood Museum has the largest collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world. Its four floors showcase thousands of pieces of Hollywood history. Visitors can step into the building’s past life as the workplace of Max Factor, walk through the “Dungeon of Doom,” or learn about the past and present of movies. Some of the museum’s items include Elvis Presley’s bathrobe, costumes from I Love Lucy, and Cary Grant’s car.

The Hollywood Museum

The fire station replaced an earlier, smaller one that was no longer sufficient: the town of Hollywood (which was annexed by Los Angeles in 1910)&nbsp;was growing and a bigger station was needed. The city's chief engineer recommended the construction of the new one&nbsp;in 1927. The building served as a fire station for many decades until the 1970s. The museum's origins go back to 1960 when fire fighter Bob Foster was appointed department historian, a position in which he served well. In 1981, a committee was established to support the history of the department. This group eventually evolved into a non-profit organization in 1998. In 2001, that organization—now called the Los Angeles Fire Fighting Historical Society—moved into Fire Station 27.

The Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial is housed in the former Fire Station 27 in Hollywood, California. Built in 1930 and designed by architect Peter L. Schabarum in the Italian Renaissance Revival style, it was called the largest fire station west of the Mississippi River at the time of its completion. It is operated by the Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Society and contains thousand of artifacts, hundreds of hours of film and video, and houses thirty pieces of firefighting equipment. The museum aims to educate the public about fire fighting, to preserve the physical history of the department, and to honor those fire fighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1962.

Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial

The land on which the museum stands was once part of a large 4,400-acre property called Rancho La Brea owned by Antonio Jose Rocha. Local residents were allowed to have access to the pits for personal use. Over time, the ranch was subdivided. The last owner of the tar pits was George Allan Hancock (for whom the park is named). He donated land for the park on the condition that the pits be preserved and studied. Interestingly, it took quite some time for people to realize the significance of the pits. The earliest written record of the pits came in 1769 when a Franciscan friar wrote about them. The first published mention of ancient animals found at the pits came in 1875. Finally, the significance of the pits was fully recognized in 1905. Amateur and professional excavations took place in the coming years, the most of important of which occurred in 1913-1915 when the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (under its previous name) conducted thorough excavations that revealed 750,000 specimens. The most recent excavations came in 2006, which were collectively called Project 23. The nearly complete Columbian mammoth and numerous other specimens were discovered and are still being studied and processed.&nbsp;

Located in Hancock Park, the La Brea Tar Pits Museum is one of the city's more unique attractions. It is named for a group of natural asphalt tar pits ("brea" is the Spanish word for tar) that have been seeping tar, and trapping animals and plants, for tens of thousands of years. As such, the pits have been a treasure trove paleontologists who have recovered an estimated one million (and counting) well-preserved specimens—231 species of invertebrates, 234 species of vertebrates, and 159 species of plants—since 1906. These include large animals such as saber-toothed tigers, mammoths, dire wolves, and smaller creatures such as rodents, insects, and mollusks. The museum features many of these on display, including a nearly complete Columbian mammoth skeleton. The museum also offers tours and features a lab where visitors can see paleontologists process fossils. The tar pits site is National Natural Landmark and a California Historical Landmark. 

La Brea Tar Pits Museum

Although the museum was established in 1965, its origins date&nbsp;back to the&nbsp;Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, which was&nbsp;founded in 1910. The museum&nbsp;originally began with only&nbsp;three buildings designed by William L. Pereira Associates. The Ahmanson building, the largest of the three buildings that were also built in 1965,&nbsp;holds the original collections the museum started with. The Hammer Building which was built to expand and&nbsp;displays the&nbsp;special exhibitions. The Bing&nbsp;Center holds the&nbsp;library, a children’s gallery, a 600 seat auditorium, and the cafeteria for tourist hunger. The Art of the Americas Building (formerly known as&nbsp;the Robert O. Anderson Building, 1986) that&nbsp;contains the&nbsp;museum’s modern art collection. The museum holds art from around the world including&nbsp;Africa, Korea, China, and the&nbsp;Islamic world.&nbsp;The art dates from&nbsp;10,000-500 BC&nbsp;to the 21st century and the museum presents the&nbsp;art in categories. For example,&nbsp;the Japanese exhibit features&nbsp;the Edo Society and Textile formed art. Each exhibit organizes each piece by classifications such as&nbsp;furnishings, sculpture, prints, and ceramics.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Los Angeles County Museum of Art was established in 1965 and has grown to include a collection of over 120,000 works of art, becoming the largest art museum in the western United States. The museum's art collection includes works from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas-including works that predate the arrival of Columbus. The museum boasts one of the largest and most important collections of modern and contemporary art, and also holds an award-winning collection of art from the Middle East. 

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The museum has housed a wide variety of exhibitions over the years such as the Round Trip: Bicycling Asia Minor, 1891, that shared the tale of two young Americans, William Sachtleben and Thomas Allen, Jr., who rode bicycles around the world from 1890 to 1893; Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates; Textiles of Timor: Island in the Woven Sea. As of the time of this writing, its current exhibitions include Reflecting Culture: The Francis E. Fowler, Jr. Collection of Silver, which contains 251 pieces from the 16th to 19th centuries, and Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives, about which The New York Times has written, “Spanning centuries of multicultural creativity, this exhibition is the kind of art experience that might restore your faith in the sad old human comedy." As part of UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture, the Fowler Museum was founded by then UCLA Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy as the Museum and Laboratories of Ethnic Arts and Technology in 1963. Eight years later, it was renamed the Museum of Cultural History, and just a four short years after which it was recognized as having one the top four such collections found in any university in the United States. It has maintained this recognition to this day. The museum moved to its current, cutting-edge facility in 1992. This same year, it took on the surname of Francis E. Fowler Jr., whose foundation was a lead supporter in its move. The facility frequently has volunteer opportunities for people from 18 years and up to help with research and conservation efforts and to help the museum keep performing at its high-level of excellence. Additionally, the Fowler Museum offers internship and scholarship opportunities and gives out a number of awards.

Sitting on the University of California Los Angeles campus near Royce Hall, the Fowler Museum at UCLA has earned the reputation of being one of the United States’ respected authorities on the cultures, art, objects and artifacts from Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. This admission-free museum explores the non-western global cultures and arts and how they are woven into the fabrics of politics and social action around the world. The museum houses displays from the ancient, historical, and current worlds.

Fowler Museum at UCLA

Set in Culver
City, home to a significant share of the film production businesses that gives
Hollywood its fame, the Museum sits where the illusion of reality is a
common practice of business. David Wilson, who founded the MJT in 1988, and
his wife (Diana) who now helps run it, began their careers not as historians or
curators, but as artists. Born in 1956, and educated as a filmmaker, David cites
his love of museums everywhere as the rationale behind the project. He says
that the distinction between art and science is a difficult one to describe,
and that the goal of his museum, like many others is simply to inspire a search
for meaning amid the chaos of life. 

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When the museum
first opened in 1988 it contained only a few exhibits in a rented
storefront space. Since then, and with the help of several grants and private donors,
it has expanded to include an additional storefront and, in 2005, a second
floor. The first floor contains diverse exhibits including the artwork of Hagop
Sandaldjian (who carves “microminiature” sculptures out of a strand of hair),
sets of decomposing antique dice once owned by magician Ricky Jay, and a
collection demonstrating pre-scientific cures and health advice. The 2005
expansion added a Russian tea-room (supposedly a reconstruction of the study
from a Tsar’s palace), garden, and theater. 

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David and his
wife are often purposely aloof about the museum, and many publications about
the MJT online, such as the museum’s website and Wikipedia article, do not fully describe the true purpose of the museum.&nbsp; That is&nbsp;part of the experience as well. Not
all visitors appreciate the museum’s mystery. Yelp and other web 2.0 tourist
guides are full of entries complaining that no one even seems to know what
“Jurassic Technology” means. For David the sense of mystery is important because it
makes the museum more effective.&nbsp; Visitors not only have to question the
knowledge presented in the museum itself, but also the museum’s own webpage, as well as&nbsp;other publications. 

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The MJT uses such traditional
tools of the museum industry as&nbsp;neat labels, low lighting, cases and glass, and
the arrangement of artifacts and art in specific ways in order to tell a story.
The MJT also borrows from the museum industry’s past.&nbsp; Its eclectic collection hints back to the days of curiosity cabinets and the works of P. T. Barnum, with a
wide range of artifacts&nbsp;spanning decades, continents, and cultures. Wilson’s
goal is both to tell an engaging story through those artifacts, and to then
have visitors question what they have just learned. The process is effective
because of Wilson’s choice of fascinating stories to tell.&nbsp; Visitors
want them to be true, and happily enough some of them are factual. But the exhibits include both real and imagined events and people, and
so this museum may offend those who hold sacred the role of historians. For
those with a willingness to explore, the MJT is a fun exercise in questioning
meaning, authority, and the ways in which we learn.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology seems like any typical museum, and that’s just what it wants you to think. Founded in 1988 by David Wilson, the museum contains various exhibits of art and historical artifacts, including portraits of soviet space dogs, intricate dioramas of trailer park homes, and the personal history of the man who discovered that bats can fly through solid objects (which of course, they can’t). The Museum exhibits blend history and fiction with displays containing elements of verifiable events and individuals, alongside fabricated and fantastical stories. The way that the museum presents embellished history as truth leads visitors to question the ways that we learn in museums, and maybe even the ways we learn about history in general. Going to the MJT is a fun way to explore your own critical thinking skills, and the ways you use them when you approach historic places. 

The Museum of Jurassic Technology 

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Mayme A. Clayton was born August 4, 1923 in Van Buren, Arkansas. Raised by a genral store owner and a stay at home mom, Mayme A. Clayton was raise on listening to many lectures and important people such as the great Mary Bethune. Mayme A. Clayton and her two siblings would drive with their parents hours on in to listen to important African American leaders so that their children could see the many struggles as well as accomplishments that the African American race faced. Mayme A. Clayton attended Lincoln University of Missouri before transferring to The University of California Berkeley and received her Bachelors Degree. &nbsp;By this time Mayme A. Clayton wanted to explore the states and was interested in teaching others what she developed through her time in college.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Mayme A. Clayton moved to New York after she graduated High School and that is where she developed a relationship with Andrew Clayton. They decided to get married in 1946 and headed to California and raised three children. Mayme A. Clayton discovered her love for the library and books in college and after graduating she became a librarian at various locations. She first became a librarian at the Doheny Library at the University of Southern California for five years and than moved to become a librarian at the University of California Los Angeles for another fifteen years. In her years she founded&nbsp;he Western States Black Research and Education Center which held the most&nbsp;privately&nbsp;owned african american historical&nbsp;materials&nbsp;in the&nbsp;world. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum was opened in 2010 and was&nbsp;finalized&nbsp;to begin in&nbsp;2006.&nbsp;&nbsp;Mayme A. Clayton collected many aspects of this library with her own money and historical research. In her lifetime she collected 20,000 rare books, 9,500 sounded recordings dating all the way back to the 1900s as well as 1700 films and posters and 75,000 different types of photographs. Before the development of her own Library and&nbsp;business&nbsp;Mayme A. Clayton kept&nbsp;all her findings her in garage and allowed researched to use them. She was a kind hearts woman who wanted to share the many findings of African American Culture which than developed into her own personal library.&nbsp;Unfortunately&nbsp;in 2006 Mayme A. Clayton passed away before&nbsp;she could see her&nbsp;accomplishment&nbsp;develop.&nbsp;

 Located in Culver City, California there is a Library that carries such history, stories and memorabilia that bring people all around the world to understand the African American Culture. Established and created by Mayme A. Clayton herself, being able to create a sanctuary where people can learn about African American History was her goal. Mayme A. Clayton was all about bringing communities together and work hard for a cause. This library does exactly that by letting not just neighboring communities of Culver City but states all over the world know the stories that many African Americans experienced. Mayme A. Clayton helped create a establishment that not only taught African Americans about themselves and their ancestors but other cultures too. 

Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum 

Los Angeles Native and scholar of modern European history Justinian Jampol founded&nbsp;The Wende Museum in the mid-1990s. He&nbsp;was dismayed the by the destruction of buildings, artifacts and other materials that was taking place after 1989 in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. As a result, in the mid-1990s&nbsp;he began collecting items from the period.&nbsp; The museum received another collection&nbsp;in 2000 from activist Alwin Nachtweh and his partner Ulrike Wolf. The museum expanded in 2006 and continues to acquire artifacts, many of which come&nbsp;from European museums which are in the process of de-accessioning Cold War materials. It is the only museum, according to the website, that collects these kinds of items. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

The Wende Museum and Archive of the Cold War is a museum and educational organization in Culver City, California that preserves and collects important cultural artifacts of the Cold War with the aim of educating and galvanizing a broad understanding of this important time in history. The museum's name, Wende, is the German word for "turning point" and as such the museum focuses, broadly speaking, on the period before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. The museum, which houses over 100,000 items, explores this period and its ramifications today. 

Museums of Los Angeles Tour

The African American Firefighter Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information