Subject: African American businesspeople / Resource Type: still image / Collection: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection - UCLA Library Digital Collections Search Results

Description:: Lorenzo Bowdoin was a Los Angeles businessman, civic leader, philanthropist and NAACP leader. One of the first three black clerks hired by the Los Angeles Post Office in 1906, he worked there for 38 years and improved hiring and promotion policies for blacks. He was one of the organizers of Angelus Mortuary (1925) and was the treasurer for many years. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Haitian Coffee Co. He was active in many civic organizations including the Metropolitan YMCA.
Date:: [circa 1940]
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Cloud's Studio, L. A.
Collection:: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description:: Studio portrait of the Boyd family with the parents Robert James Boyd and Emma P. Barrett Boyd, and their children, left to right: Barrett, Helen and Willis. Robert and the children are seated on a wooden garden bench placed in front of a painted landscape backdrop.
Date:: [circa 1910]
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description:: Dr. Vada Somerville (born Vada Jetmore Watson) of Pomona graduated from USC, married dentist John Alexander Somerville (1912), was the first African American woman and the second African American person to graduate from USC School of Dentistry (1918), and was the first African American woman certified to practice dentistry in the state of California. She was a civil rights activist, highly involved in several civic and community organizations.
Date:: June 4, 1955
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description:: Certificate of honor for Drs. John and Vada Somerville on their 50th anniversary, from the Board of Supervisors of the County of Los Angeles, signed by County Supervisors Frank G. Bonelli, Kenneth Hahn, Burton W. Chace and Warren M. Dorn.
Date:: October 16, 1962
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description:: From left: Unidentified woman holds a piece of paper in front of Peter W. Dauterive, as Dr. H. Claude Hudson, president of Broadway Federal Savings and Loan, gestures toward him.
Date:: [1960s]
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description:: Dr. John Somerville, born in Jamaica was the first black graduate of USC School of Dentistry (1907). He married Vada Jetmore Watson (1912), who also became a dentist. He built the Somerville Hotel (1928), was instrumental in the founding of the Los Angeles chapter of NAACP (1914), and served on the Police Commission 1949-1953.
Date:: [1940-1960]
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Description:: Dr. John Somerville, born in Jamaica, was the first black graduate of USC School of Dentistry (1907). He married Vada Jetmore Watson (1912), who also became a dentist. He built the Somerville Hotel (1928), was instrumental in the founding of the Los Angeles chapter of NAACP (1914), and served on the Police Commission 1949-1953.
Date:: [1950s]
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Smith, Irving C.
Collection:: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

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