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Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library is dedicated to the publication of high-quality nonfiction books about SoCal and LA!

07/21/2025

The Los Angeles auto market is competitive nowadays, but back at the beginning of the 1900s there was fierce competition as well!

In “Driving Force: Automobiles and the New American City” by authors Darryl Holter and Stephen Gee, you can see first hand how founding dealers of the auto market in Southern California tried their best to outdo and show up the competition. This photo depicts the Tourist automobile produced by the LA based Auto Vehicle Company, and shows off their advertising campaign involving elephants!

(Image credit: Seaver Center)

07/19/2025

The idea of oranges as a superfood is not new! The orange industry in California has long been promoting oranges as both a delicious fruit and a part of a healthy diet. The campaign to entrench the orange in people’s lives and to associate it with the active lifestyle of California was a big part of Sunkist’s marketing strategy!

If you’d like to see more amazing art about oranges and read about the impact of oranges on California, check out “The Orange and the Dream of California” by David Boulé!

07/18/2025

“Cruising J-Town: Japanese American Car Culture in Los Angeles” by Oliver Wang explores how generations of Japanese Americans in Southern California shaped, and were shaped by, local automobile cultures and industries. From desert lake beds to concrete speedways, gas stations to design centers, souped-up import tuners to humble gardening trucks, automobiles impacted the Japanese American in profound ways.

Along the way, cars and trucks became literal and figurative vehicles for Japanese American self-expression, social mobility, community identity, and much more. “Cruising J-Town” is driven to explore how these diverse relationships between people and the world of cars have steered the Nikkei community’s American stories across the generations.

“Cruising J-Town” is a companion publication to a new exhibition from the Japanese American National Museum, Cruising J-Town: Behind the Wheel of the Nikkei Community, which also chronicles how Japanese Americans have played vital roles in countless car scenes across Los Angeles.

The book is available for pre-order now through our website, and the exhibit is on view from July 31-November 12 at:

Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery
ArtCenter College of Design
1111 South Arroyo Parkway
Pasadena, CA 91105

07/17/2025

What makes a neighborhood special? Its character, history, and architectural style!

"Preserving Los Angeles: How Historic Places Can Transform America's Cities" by Ken Bernstein with photography by Stephen Schafer, highlights how a neighborhood's cohesive architectural narrative and shared history can illuminate areas in need of preservation.

For example, these homes in the Vermont Knolls neighborhood of South Los Angeles were identified as a potential historic district through SurveyLA thanks to their strong visual and architectural character.

Discover more about LA preservation by picking up "Preserving Los Angeles" through our website!

📸: Stephen Schafer ()

07/15/2025

Dive into the visionary world of Googie architecture!
Armet & Davis designed the inaugural coffee shop for a beloved restaurant chain that perfectly illustrates how architecture adapted to car culture in America. Bold scale and modern geometry weren't just stylistic choices; they were essential for communicating a building's purpose on the open road.

With its sleek lines and prominent street presence, this design truly captivated the eye. Sadly, this architectural gem was demolished.

Want to see more of these incredible designs?

Grab your copy of "Googie Modern: Architectural Drawings of Armet Davis Newlove" by Michael Murphy and Alan Hess!

07/14/2025

Don't miss out! Chris Nichols is presenting Bowlarama to the San Fernando Valley Historical Society!

Come out to the SFV and the Andrés Pico Adobe in Mission Hills to attend this presentation about mid-century bowling alleys and their wonderful architecture!

Thursday, July 24 at 7 p.m.
Andrés Pico Adobe
10940 Sepulveda Blvd. Mission Hills, CA 91345

07/12/2025

In “California Eden: Heritage Landscapes of the Golden State”, editors Christine Edstrom O’Hara and Susan Chamberlin take readers on an immersive journey through the storied landscapes that have shaped the identity of the Golden State.

The beautiful landscapes and how they blend into the majesty around them also shaped the history of the state. Pictured here is the old barn on the Eugene O’Neill property in Danville was originally built when the property was used as a cattle ranch outpost. After winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in November, 1936, Eugene and Carlotta O’Neill moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, and purchased 158 acres of the former Bryant Ranch in Danville.

You can learn all about the land and its history in the essay “A Playwright’s Garden: Eugene O’Neill’s Tao House” by Keith Park and Paul Scolari in “California Eden: Heritage Landscapes of the Golden State”.

Photo credit: Saxon Holt/PhotoBotanic

07/11/2025

The Coca Cola Bottling Company Building is a beautiful example of Streamline Moderne architecture, resembling the large cruising ships popular during the time of construction, that emphasizes the sweeping curved lines to enhance the feel of movement in buildings.

This gorgeous photo of it comes from “Art Deco Los Angeles” by Robert Landau, where you can check out even more amazing Art Deco architecture across the city!

Coca Cola Bottling Company (Robert V. Derrah, 1937). 1334 S. Central Ave., photographed 1978. Photography by Robert Landau.

07/10/2025

Los Angeles Before the Freeways by Arnold Hylen and Nathan Marsak chronicles some of the most striking architecture that existed around downtown Los Angeles before the construction of the freeway system in the city.

The Bur-Mar Hotel (William H. Enders, 1903) with the tall Corinthian columns, stood at 514 South Figueroa Street. Its darker neighbor at 516, a twenty-one-room apartment house called the Saint Dunstan, was built in 1904. They were both lost to a surface parking lot in 1957. Looming behind is the Richfield Tower (Morgan, Walls & Clements, 1929). The Richfield was demolished in 1968 for the ARCO towers project, along with the rest of its block.

Want to learn more? Head to our website and find out where to grab a copy for yourself!

07/08/2025

In “From Cows to Concrete: The Rise and Fall of Farming in Los Angeles” by Judith Ge**er and Rachel Surls, the authors focus on all aspects of urban farming including its early history in the area (before the area was urban!)

A diseño, or land case map, was an official record of land ownership in the nineteenth century. Historians use the maps as important research tools, especially for boundaries and landscape descriptions of early California-Mexican ranchos. Rancho Cienega o Paso de la Tijera includes the modern-day communities of Baldwin Hills, Windsor Hills, and much of Kenneth Hahn State Park. This diseño is circa 1840.

07/07/2025

Those old school days of going out for dancing at a dedicated dance hall may be a time gone by, but luckily we have reminders of those experiences through the ephemera left behind from those places.

This napkin from The Palms Dancing Center from “Bar Keeps: A Collection of California's Best Cocktail Napkins” by Patrick Quinn shows off the combo of drinks, dinner, and dancing!

07/05/2025

Orson Welles is looking stylish in a robe in this behind the scenes still during the production of “Citizen Kane”! As you can learn in “Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker's Journey” by Harlan Lebo, Welles faced enormous difficulty and controversy producing what is now viewed as one of the greatest films of all time.

The book is itself a sinister tale of real-life conspiracy, blackmail, and Communist witch hunts, that details the extraordinary rise to Hollywood stardom of the film and its director. Now a cinema world’s icon, a 25-year-old Orson Welles defied the studio system and became a legend!

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