Historic Photos Go Online

A virtual stroll through the's new online photo database turns up a black and white image of a smiling Amelia Earhart, leaning causally against her Lockheed Electra.

There's Senator Ted Kennedy, also in black and white, waving from a convertible as he cruises Pacific Coast Highway in 1980 with the iconic bluffs behind him. There are Sepia photos of the former Third Street Walk and a vibrant image of a little girl in pink sleeping on grey and yellow blankets in the Red Cross Shelter at Santa Monica College after her family was displaced by the Northridge Earthquake.

The museum has cataloged 1,800 of its 6,000 digitized historic photos in a new searchable catalog that went live to web surfers March 31.

"I’m over the moon about it," said Andrea Engstrom, the museum's Development Director and Image Archives Manager.

There's more than just images of Santa Monica, too. The collection spans the Santa Monica Bay area, including Venice, Pacific Palisades, West Los Angeles and Malibu.

Even Engstrom is tinged with a sense of nostalgia as she clicks through the site. Including a couple of photos of the former Sweet 16 Restaurant was a personal choice, she said.

"The cook who, who could not speak English, always had a lolipop for my son," she said.

Many of the pictures are from the Outlook and from the former newspaper's photographers who worked for a syndicate, Pacific Press.  Others are old enough to depict Santa Monica's early pioneering families.

The Outlook newspaper's gives quite a diversity of images, events, noted people, celebrities and athletes. There are photographs of every president from Nixon forward, said Engstrom.

Photos are watermarked, but can be ordered for a price. Hundreds of thousands of more prints, negatives and slides aren't online, but can still be sought out in-person.

To access the photos, visit santamonicahistory.org, click on "photograph archives" about half-way down the homepage, then on "click here to view digital images archive."

Stay up to date on Santa Monica news and events by following @StaMonicaPatch and “liking” us on Facebook.