The Rise of Los Angeles

The San Bernardino County Museum’s guest lecture series starts a new season on Wednesday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m. when Dr. William Deverell speaks on “Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles.” The lecture is open to the public at no charge.

William Deverell is professor of history at the University of Southern California and director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West. He is the author of several books on California history, including “Whitewashed Adobe: The Rise of Los Angeles and the Remaking of Its Mexican Past,” published this year by the University of California Press.

Deverell will discuss the rise of Los Angeles through shifting ideas of race and ethnicity. He will address this topic by using specific milestones in Los Angeles history: the cementing of the Los Angeles River, the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1924, and the evolution of America’s largest brickyard.

The museum’s guest lecture series has been organized to bring visiting historians and scientists to the museum to discuss research of particular interest to inland Southern California. All lectures are free.

Upcoming lecturers include Elizabeth Rega on the paleopathology of Tyrannosaurus rex (October 27); Sally McGill on the paleoseismology of the San Andreas Fault (January 26); Don Lofgren on fossils from the Goler Formation (February 23); Jonathon Corbridge on GIS for museums (March 23); John Rotenberry on ornithology (April 27), Richard Minnich on fire ecology (May 25), and Michael Lerch on archaeology (June 22).

The San Bernardino County Museum is at the California Street exit from Interstate 10 in Redlands. Parking is free, and the facility is handicapped-accessible. For more information, visit www.sbcountymuseum.org or call (909) 307-2669 / TDD/TTY: (909) 792-1462.