Historic Photographs

Dayton Street Firehouse, 1890s (Main Photo Collection, D5-F1-12)

Pasadena’s First “First Responders”

By Michelle Turner | April 7, 2020

In Pasadena’s First “First Responders,” Susan Beeler Anderson takes a look at the origins of Pasadena’s Fire Department

funeral of Owen Brown

Owen Brown in Pasadena

By Michelle Turner | January 10, 2018

January 10, 1889 was a significant date in early Pasadena history – the funeral of Owen Brown, son of abolitionist John Brown.  Owen was the last survivor of the historic…

Photograph of Kenneth Bell

Rescued From a Rental Car: Memories from the Bell Family

By Michelle Turner | November 29, 2017

In 2009, PMH received a small package of materials the sender had found in a rental car and enclosed a note saying, “You might like to have these.” After a…

cycleway curve

The Pasadena Cycleway

By Michelle Turner | May 31, 2017

Pasadena historian Henry Markham Page wrote that “ … there was nothing like it in the United States – or probably anywhere else for that matter.” It was a bold…

Historic Negatives Collections

By Jeanette Bovard | December 10, 2015

PMH maintains the area’s largest and most complete photographic archives of Pasadena and its environs, numbering an estimated one million photographic images. Staff, interns, and volunteers work tirelessly to catalog,…

Cruising Colorado Boulevard: A Memoir

By Jeanette Bovard | November 4, 2014

My chariot to freedom arrived in the form of a jalopy. I had turned 16 in July and my driver’s license was aching to go for a ride. I signed…

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