Southwest Museum

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Southwest Museum from Sycamore-Grove Park

The Southwest Museum is a museum, library, and archive located in the Mt. Washington area of Los Angeles, California. Its collections deal mainly with the American Indian. However, it also has an extensive collection of pre-Hispanic, Spanish colonial, Latino, and Western American art and artifacts.

Major collections include rooms devoted to 1) American Indians of the Great Plains, 2) American Indians of California, and 3) American Indians of the Northwest Coast.

The museum is located at:

234 Museum Drive

Los Angeles, CA 90065

(323) 221-2164

Since parking can be difficult to find, public transportation is also available, such as the Metro Gold Line, which stops across the street from the museum at the Southwest Museum station.

1 History
2 Current Status
3 Entrance cost
4 External links

[edit] History

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 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.

Frederick Russell Burnham, the highly decorated military scout and father of the international scouting movement, was an early president.

[edit] Current Status

Because the 93-year-old building does not meet current seismic standards, the galleries at the museum are closed to the public at this time, although the museum's store still open on weekends. Extensive rehabilitation of the building and conservation of its rare collection of Native American artifacts is currently underway, with the goal of moving most of the collection to a new state-of-the-art home by 2009. Plans call for the infrastructure improvements to the Southwest Museum to be completed by 2010, when the building will be open for a new cultural use, fulfilling founder Charles Lummis' vision and belief that all indigenous peoples be understood.

[edit] Entrance cost

The fees for entering the Southwest Museum are as follows:

Open to the public on Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 5pm.
Admission is Free.

The Southwest Museum has a deal with the Museum of the American West (formerly known as the Gene Autry Museum) in Griffith Park. One ticket can be used for the two museums, costing as follows: