Hollywood Museum artist's rendering

The photograph series of the Hollywood Museum collection spans the years 1899–1970 and encompasses approximately 76 linear feet. The series consists of over 60,000 photographs, including portraits, oversized prints, candids, fashion shots, publicity shots, scenes from stage productions, production stills, black-and-white and color negatives, and color transparencies. The photographs are grouped into motion picture production photographs, biography photographs, and subject photographs.

The motion picture production photographs span the years 1899–1970 and consist of scene photographs, largely from the silent era of filmmaking. The material is arranged alphabetically by film title. Titles include The Affairs of Anatol (1921), Alice Adams (1923), The Big Parade (1925), Blood and Sand (1922), The Blue Angel (1931), Cleopatra (1917), Cripple Creek Bar Room Scene (1899), Dancing Lady (1933), The Great Train Robbery (1903), The Jazz Singer (1927), The Mark of Zorro (1920), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Of Human Bondage (1934), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), The Sign of the Cross (1915), and The Wizard of Oz (1939).

The biography photographs consist of publicity portraits, unidentified scene stills, publicity stills, candids and group stills. The material is arranged alphabetically by name. Among those depicted are Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, James Cagney, Charles Chaplin, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks, Thomas H. Ince, Buster Keaton, Gene Kelly, Carole Lombard, Marilyn Monroe, Tyrone Power, Luise Rainer, Barbara Stanwyck, James Stewart, Gloria Swanson, King Vidor, Erich Von Stroheim, and Adolph Zukor.

The subject photographs span the years 1899–1962 and consist largely of unidentified scene stills; interiors and exteriors of production companies; group portraits; and set reference, theater, location filming, film crew and personnel photographs. The subjects are arranged alphabetically. Subjects include actors and actresses, George Eastman House of Photography, guilds and union associations, Hollywood Center for the Audio-Visual Arts, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Theaters Association, Photo Players Club, production, radio broadcasting, sets, Sherman House, studios and production companies, theaters, and wardrobe and makeup tests.

On loan from the City of Los Angeles, 1981.