Automobile Club of Southern California
Variant namesBiographical notes:
Founded in Los Angeles in 1900, the Automobile Club of Southern California was one of the nation's first automobile clubs. Its mission included the improvement of roads and driving conditions in the state of California, and the proposing of traffic laws. It was involved in public transportation planning and sponsored cartographic expeditions for the production of its strip maps and road maps. In 1909, the Club began publishing its member magazine, Touring Topics, which became Westways in 1933. Many of the photographs included in this collection may have come from the personal files of Phil Townsend Hanna (1896-1957), editor of Touring Topics from 1926 until his death, an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and a supporter of local photographers.
From the description of Automobile Club of Southern California Collection of Photographs and Negatives, 1898-1982 (bulk 1920s-1930s) (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 84656991
Historical Note
Founded in Los Angeles in 1900, the Automobile Club of Southern California was one of the nation's first automobile clubs. Its mission included the improvement of roads and driving conditions in the state of California, and the proposing of traffic laws. In 1909, the Automobile Club began publishing its member magazine, Touring Topics, which became Westways in 1933. The magazine chronicled landscapes and destinations that included extensive photographic coverage of the deserts and coastal regions of California, the national parks of the American West, and Hawaii. Many of the photographs included in this collection may have come from the personal files of Philip Townsend Hanna (1896-1957), editor of Touring Topics from 1926-1957, an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and a supporter of local photographers.
From the beginning, the Automobile Club of Southern California was an active participant in the creation of statewide transportation policies. It produced its own transportation planning studies as well as commentaries on public policies, programs and proposals. The Club began charting California's roads as early as 1906, at which time it began creating strip maps and road maps. In 1922, the Auto Club produced the first comprehensive traffic survey of Los Angeles, and in 1937 its engineers wrote the first detailed proposal for a regional freeway system.
Throughout the 1920s, the Club sent teams of cartographers across the country to survey roads for the production of maps and to create a uniform system of road signage. In 1920, the Club participated in an expedition with highway commissioners and county supervisors from California, Utah, and Nevada to determine a more direct route for the Arrowhead Trail Highway. In 1921, the Club sent two of its employees on a transcontinental journey to chart 15,831 miles of roads for its strip maps. These, and other, trips were part of the growing interest across the country in the improvement of America's roadways. Members and employees of the Club took trips along some of the country's historic highways and roadways, including the Arrowhead Trail Highway; the King of Trails; the Lincoln Highway; the National Old Trails; and the Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway.
During the 1930s the Club continued its mapping activities. In 1930 and 1931, the Club sponsored the First and Second Pacific International Highway Expedition that sent engineers to map a proposed intercontinental highway, the Pacific International Highway, running from Fairbanks, Alaska to Buenos Aires, Argentina. In addition to these two surveys, the Club posted thousands of porcelain-on-steel traffic signs throughout California and continued to do so until the state took over the task in the early 1950s.
From the guide to the Automobile Club of Southern California Collection of Photographs and Negatives, 1898-1982, bulk 1920s-1930s, (The Huntington Library)
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Subjects:
- Amusement parks
- Amusement parks
- Animals
- Animals
- Astronomy
- Automobile driving
- Automobiles
- Automobiles
- Automobile travel
- Automobile travel
- Automobile travel
- Automobile travel
- Automobile travel
- Automobile travel
- Automobile travel
- Bridges
- Bridges
- Business, Industry, Labor, and Commerce
- Coasts
- Coasts
- Deserts
- Deserts
- Ghost towns
- Ghost towns
- Gifts
- Guidebooks
- Indians of Central America
- Indians of North America
- Indians of North America
- Indians of North America
- Indians of South America
- Landscape
- Landscape
- Mining camps
- Mining camps
- Missions
- Missions
- Missions
- Missions
- Missions
- Museums
- Museums
- National monuments
- National monuments
- National parks and reserves
- National parks and reserves
- Navajo architecture
- Navajo art
- Navajo Indians
- Navajo Indians
- Navajo Indians
- Paintings
- Plants
- Plants
- Prints
- Roads
- Roads
- Rotogravures
- Rotogravures
- Route surveying
- Route surveying
- Route surveying
- Stagecoaches
- Stagecoaches
- Tourism
- Tourism
- Traffic signs and signals
- Traffic signs and signals
- Transportation
- Transportation
- Transportation
- Transportation
Occupations:
Places:
- Oregon (as recorded)
- Colorado (as recorded)
- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) (as recorded)
- Canada (as recorded)
- Saint Francis Dam (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Fiji (as recorded)
- Zion National Park (Utah) (as recorded)
- Nevada (as recorded)
- Guatemala (as recorded)
- Islands of the Pacific (as recorded)
- Mojave Desert (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) (as recorded)
- Los Angeles (Calif.) (as recorded)
- San Diego County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- California (as recorded)
- Washington (State) (as recorded)
- Riverside County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- West (U.S.) (as recorded)
- Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) (as recorded)
- Riverside County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Olympic Mountains (Wash.) (as recorded)
- Lassen Volcanic National Park (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Guatemala (as recorded)
- Imperial County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Saint Francis Dam (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Colorado (as recorded)
- San Bernardino County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Santa Barbara County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- San Jacinto Mountains (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Tahiti (as recorded)
- Lincoln Highway (as recorded)
- Big Sur (Calif.) (as recorded)
- San Francisco (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Arrowhead Trail Highway (as recorded)
- Santa Catalina Island (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Sequoia National Park (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Washington (State) (as recorded)
- Grand Teton National Park (Wyo.) (as recorded)
- Yosemite National Park (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Oregon (as recorded)
- Sonora (Mexico : State) (as recorded)
- United States Highway 75 (as recorded)
- Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah) (as recorded)
- Canada, Western (as recorded)
- Grand Canyon (Ariz.) (as recorded)
- Monterey Peninsula (Calif.) (as recorded)
- New Mexico (as recorded)
- Olympic Mountains (Wash.) (as recorded)
- New Mexico (as recorded)
- Islands of the Pacific (as recorded)
- United States (as recorded)
- Sacramento River (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Santa Catalina Island (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Tahiti (as recorded)
- Arizona (as recorded)
- Canada, Western (as recorded)
- British Columbia (as recorded)
- Imperial County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Sinaloa (Mexico : State) (as recorded)
- Mojave Desert (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Utah (as recorded)
- San Bernardino Mountains (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Fiji (as recorded)
- New Zealand (as recorded)
- Arrowhead Trail Highway (as recorded)
- Grand Canyon (Ariz.) (as recorded)
- Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah) (as recorded)
- Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) (as recorded)
- Zion National Park (Utah) (as recorded)
- Arizona (as recorded)
- Big Sur (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Europe (as recorded)
- New Zealand (as recorded)
- East (U.S.) (as recorded)
- Sacramento River (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Nevada (as recorded)
- California--Los Angeles (as recorded)
- Glacier National Park (Mont.) (as recorded)
- Lava Beds National Monument (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Yellowstone National Park (as recorded)
- National Old Trails Road (as recorded)
- Colorado Desert (Calif. and Mexico) (as recorded)
- Sinaloa (Mexico : State) (as recorded)
- Los Angeles (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Colorado Desert (Calif. and Mexico) (as recorded)
- Utah (as recorded)
- United States (as recorded)
- Santa Barbara County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Mexico (as recorded)
- Europe (as recorded)
- San Bernardino County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Orange County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Monterey Peninsula (Calif.) (as recorded)
- British Columbia (as recorded)
- San Jacinto Mountains (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Orange County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Yosemite National Park (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Lincoln Highway (as recorded)
- United States Highway 75 (as recorded)
- San Diego County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- San Gabriel Mountains (Calif.) (as recorded)
- National Old Trails Road (as recorded)
- San Gabriel Mountains (Calif.) (as recorded)
- San Bernardino Mountains (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Lava Beds National Monument (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Mexico (as recorded)
- Sonora (Mexico : State) (as recorded)
- San Francisco (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Kern County (Calif.) (as recorded)
- Kern County (Calif.) (as recorded)
