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Photo, Print, Drawing Friday Morning Club, 938-940 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA

[ Photos from Survey HABS CA-2157  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS CA-2157  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS CA-2157  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Friday Morning Club, 938-940 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Allison & Allison
  • Severance, Caroline Seymour
  • Anthony, Susan B
  • Los Angeles Downtown People Mover Authority, sponsor
  • Frank, Myra L, historian
  • Hatheway, Roger G, historian
  • Shulman, Julius, photographer

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  clubs (associations)
  • -  women
  • -  California--Los Angeles County--Los Angeles

Notes

  • -  Significance: The Friday Morning Club was one of the more prominent women's organizations in the Los Angeles area. The building was constructed to accommodate the growing membership and increased needs of the organization. It was founded in Los Angeles in April, 1891, by Caroline Seymour Severance. She had been the founder and first president of the New England Women's Club in Boston in 1868. Much of the civic and philanthropic work in the developing life of Los Angeles was done by women who were members of the Friday Morning Club. Activities of the Club and its members in its early yeas included: The establishment of kindergartens in the city under the leadership of Mrs. Severance; Founding of the first organized charities in Los Angeles under Mrs. D.G. Stevens, a member of the FMC from 1893 until here death at the age of 93; Development of a Juvenile Court in Los Angeles, led by Mrs. Joseph Sartori, to whom the Club library is dedicated. From the beginning, the Friday Morning Club, under the leadership of Mrs. Severance, was in the forefront of the battle for women's suffrage. The Club library contains correspondence between Mrs. Severance and Susan B. Anthony, dated 1900 and 1901. When suffrage was achieved in California in 1911, Mrs. Severance, at the age of 91, was honored by being the first woman to register in Los Angeles. The Friday Morning Club still occupies the fifth floor of the building, having leased it back from the Society for the Preservation of Variety Arts. The Club still uses the large theater, the main dining room, and other meeting rooms for meetings, lectures, film showings and special occasions. In 1977, the Club sold title to the building to the Society for the Preservation of the Variety Arts. The Society has installed in the building many unique and extensive collections in the field of theater arts. They include the Tracy Keenan Wynn lithograph collection, and rare mint condition strobridge theatrical "three sheet" lithographs dating from 1910-1912, on permanent loan from the University of Southern California Library. These lithographs are displayed in the Theater Roof Garden. The Ed Wynn collection of photographs covers his entire career, and his posters are displayed in various rooms. His awards, correspondence, transcription of radio shows, 1949-1950 television programs, and unreleased film footage are also on file. The Norman Carroll Circus Collection, on permanent loan from the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry, is on permanent display in the fourth floor lobby and lounge. ... The SPVA Library is open as a research facility to any serious student of the theater, whether or not he is a member of the club, and is in daily use for that purpose. The building is in active use by the Society for live plays, cabarets, meals, and revivals of early stage and radio dramas. The original significance of the building lies in the development of women's activities in Los Angeles, charitable, cultural and political. With the transfer of ownership to the Society for the Preservation of the Variety Arts, the building continues to play an important role in the preservation of the entertainment arts, both in Los Angeles and as part of our national heritage.
  • -  Survey number: HABS CA-2157
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1923 Initial Construction

Medium

  • Photo(s): 2
  • Data Page(s): 10
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 1

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS CAL,19-LOSAN,63-

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • ca1259

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS CAL,19-LOSAN,63-
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

If Digital Images Are Displaying

You can download online images yourself. Alternatively, you can purchase copies of various types through Library of Congress Duplication Services.

HABS/HAER/HALS materials have generally been scanned at high resolution that is suitable for most publication purposes (see Digitizing the Collection for further details about the digital images).

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    • Make note of the Call Number and Item Number that appear under the photograph in the multiple-image display (e.g., HAER, NY,52-BRIG,4-2).
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    • Make note of the Survey Number (e.g., HAER NY - 143) and Sheet Number (e.g., "Sheet 1 of 4"), which appear on the edge of the drawing. (NOTE: These numbers are visible in the Tiff "Reference Image" display.)
    • If possible, include a printout of the drawing.
  • Data Pages
    • Make note of the Call Number in the catalog record.

If Digital Images Are Not Displaying

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  • Visit the Prints & Photographs Reading Room and request to view the group (general information about service in the reading room is available at: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/info/001_ref.html). It is best to contact reference staff in advance (see: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/address.html) to make sure the material is on site. OR
  • P&P reading room staff can provide up to 15 quick copies of items per calendar year (many original items in the holdings are too old or fragile to make such copies, but generally HABS/HAER/HALS materials are in good enough condition to be placed on photocopy machines). For assistance, see our Ask a Librarian page OR
  • Hire a freelance researcher to do further selection for you (a list of researchers in available at: https://aj.sunback.homes/rr/print/resource/013_pic.html).
  • You can purchase copies of various types, including quick copies, through Library of Congress Duplication Services (price lists, contact information, and order forms for Library of Congress Duplication Services are available on the Duplication Services Web site):
    • Make note of the Call Number listed above.
    • Look at the Medium field above. If it lists more than one item:
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  1. Is the item digitized? (A thumbnail (small) image will be visible on the left.)

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      As a preservation measure, we generally do not serve an original item when a digital image is available. If you have a compelling reason to see the original, consult with a reference librarian. (Sometimes, the original is simply too fragile to serve. For example, glass and film photographic negatives are particularly subject to damage. They are also easier to see online where they are presented as positive images.)
    • No, the item is not digitized. Please go to #2.
  2. Do the Access Advisory or Call Number fields above indicate that a non-digital surrogate exists, such as microfilm or copy prints?

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Allison & Allison, Caroline Seymour Severance, Susan B Anthony, Sponsor Los Angeles Downtown People Mover Authority, Myra L Frank, and Roger G Hatheway, Shulman, Julius, photographer. Friday Morning Club, 938-940 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. Los Angeles County California Los Angeles, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/ca1259/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Allison & Allison, Severance, C. S., Anthony, S. B., Los Angeles Downtown People Mover Authority, S., Frank, M. L. & Hatheway, R. G., Shulman, J., photographer. (1933) Friday Morning Club, 938-940 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. Los Angeles County California Los Angeles, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/ca1259/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Shulman, Julius. Friday Morning Club, 938-940 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <aj.sunback.homes/item/ca1259/>.