The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is a museum, library, and archive located in the Mt. Washington area of Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Autry National Center. Its collections deal mainly with Native Americans. However, it also has an extensive collection of pre-Hispanic, Spanish colonial, Latino, and Western American art and artifacts.
Major collections include 1) American Indians of the Great Plains, 2) American Indians of California, and 3) American Indians of the Northwest Coast.
Public transportation is available, such as the Metro Gold Line, which stops down the hill from the museum at the Southwest Museum station. About a block from the Gold Line stop, there is an entrance on Museum Drive that opens to a long tunnel formerly filled with dioramas, since removed by the Autry Museum and placed in storage. At the end of the tunnel, there is an elevator that ascends to the lower lobby of the Museum. Parking is available up the driveway in a large lot level with the upper section of the Museum with a spectacular view of the area.
History
Southwest Museum of the American Indian - Perched on the hills of the Arroyo Seco, the Southwest Museum opened its doors to the public in 1914. It's no exaggeration to say that it was the Getty of its era, and the city celebrated the...
Charles Fletcher Lummis was an anthropologist, historian, journalist, and photographer who created the Southwest Society, which was the western branch of the Archaeological Institute of America. He gained the support of city leaders, and with the financial backing of attorney Joseph Scott and opened the Southwest Museum in 1907. The museum moved from Downtown Los Angeles to its current location in Mt. Washington in 1914, and has been there ever since.
The 1914 building was designed by architects Sumner P. Hunt and Silas Reese Burns. Later additions to the museum include the Caroline Boeing Poole Wing of Basketry (completed 1941), by architect Gordon B. Kaufmann, and the Braun Research Library (1971), by architect Glen E. Cook.
Frederick Russell Burnham, the highly decorated military scout and father of the international scouting movement, was an early president.
Current Status
One gallery is open to the public on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with events and exhibitions also taking place on other parts of the campus. Autry has been conserving and moving most of the collection to a new state-of-the-art home in Burbank. Following years of controversy with the Friends of the Southwest Museum and other local community organizations, the Autry began a partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the City of Los Angeles to develop a long-term plan for the site. On January 22nd, 2015 the Southwest Museum was designated a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
See also
- List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
References
External links
- Autry National Center - official website
- Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition - supporters' website
- Treasureswm.org: Treasure It Together: Southwest Museum Site âˆ' website homepage â€" project of the National Register of Historic Places.
