When Los Angeles was a rustic village by Ernest Marquez

In the mid 1870s, Los Angeles was still an upstart hamlet separated from the rest of the nation. The Southern Pacific Railroad was as yet unfinished, and the tiny township of Santa Monica had only just begun welcoming city dwellers to its beachside tent cities. Photographers flocked to the area, setting up studios catering to the tourist and pioneer trade, eager to record the changing landscape. These photographs are part of a vast collection amassed over 50 years by Ernest Marquez, a descendant of Mexican land grantees who owned what became Santa Monica, as well as parts of Pacific Palisades.

The photographs were recently acquired by the Huntington Library and Art Collection, based in Pasadena. Via telegraph.co.uk