Laura Verlaque

E.A. Batchelder, sketch of a thatched cottages in Campden, August 16, 1905. Image courtesy of Archives, Pasadena Museum of History (BFP.1.16)

Ernest Batchelder’s European Sketches

By Michelle Turner | January 23, 2020

Ernest Batchelder is renowned for the distinctive softly-hued tiles his firm produced during the early twentieth century.  These tiles, which adorn public, commercial, and private buildings all throughout North America,…

batchelder tile factory sketch

Ernest Batchelder: Educator, Designer and Tilemaker: Part II

By Michelle Turner | October 25, 2017

This essay is adapted from the text in the exhibit Batchelder: Tilemaker, which was on view at Pasadena Museum of History from September 2016 through March 2017. Ernest Batchelder: Educator,…

Eva Fenyes on a burro

Fall 2017 Edition of the Collections Quarterly

By Michelle Turner | October 18, 2017

  Archives Feature – The Benshoff Collection Our Archives houses the marvelous Benshoff Family Collection, which contains architectural drawings, personal papers, and photographs. William Alton Benshoff (1869-1959) was an architect…

Sketch by tilemaker Ernest Batchelder

Ernest Batchelder: Educator, Designer and Tilemaker: Part I

By Michelle Turner | September 27, 2017

  This essay is adapted from the text in the exhibit Batchelder: Tilemaker, which was on view at Pasadena Museum of History from September 2016 through March 2017. Ernest A.…

McLellan and microscope with micromotor

World’s Smallest Motor: The McLellan Micromotor

By Michelle Turner | August 15, 2017

In 1959, Dr. Richard Feynman, the famous Caltech physicist, issued a challenge that effectively ushered in the field of nanotechnology. He offered a $1,000 prize to anyone who could make…

first Pasadena school

The Founding of Pasadena’s Schools

By Michelle Turner | August 9, 2017

  Pasadena Unified School District Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) had its humble beginnings in September 1874 in the parlor of William Clapp’s small house on South Orange Grove Avenue.…

Scrapbook from the collections

Summer 2017 Edition of the Collections Quarterly

By Michelle Turner | July 19, 2017

Archives Feature – Going Places with Frank Purcell In 1949, as California was celebrating its centennial, Pasadena’s Indiana Colony was turning 75. That year, The Independent featured a series, “The…

Local cars on Raymond Avenue, 1939

Railroad Edition of the Collections Quarterly

By Michelle Turner | May 3, 2017

Archives Feature – Trolleys in Pasadena Since a horse drawn wagon carried the first electric interurban trolley car up Fair Oaks Avenue into Pasadena in 1895, and well after the…

Portrait of Ernest Batchelder

Ernest A. Batchelder (1875-1957)

By Michelle Turner | October 6, 2016

In comments about the tilemaker, Robert Winter, PhD has noted that Batchelder wrote two books on design and illustrated them with his own drawings. He was an expert in design…

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,…

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