S. Charles Lee was born in Chicago on September 5, 1899; graduated, Technical College, Chicago, 1918; senior architect, South Park Board, City of Chicago, 1918; U.S. Navy, 1918-20; graduated, Armour Institute of Technology, Art Institute of Chicago, 1921; moved to Los Angeles, 1921; opened architectural office, Los Angeles, 1922; designed and built Tower Theatre (1927), Fox Wilshire Theatre and Los Angeles Theatre (1929), Max Factor buildings, Hollywood (1931-35), Fox Florence Theatre (1931), Municipal Light, Water and Power Buildings, Los Angeles (1934-35), Bruin Theatre (1937), Tower Bowl, San Diego (1940), and built several theaters in Mexico City (1942); honored by Royal Institute of British Architects at International Exhibit of Contemporary Architects, London, 1934; began partnership with Sam Hayden, 1948; began development of Los Angeles International Airport Industrial District, 1948; established S. Charles Lee Foundation, 1962; named Vice Consul to Beverly Hills! by President of Panama, 1963; established S. Charles Lee Chair, UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, 1986; died in 1990.
The vagaries of eighteenth-century publishing have left some lingering confusions about the numbering of the volumes. Although Bernard published nine volumes under the same title, he added the last two (here listed as volumes 8 and 9 of the French edition) as a kind of afterword and numbered them “7, second half” and “8.” None of the translations included these final two volumes, and they have no illustrations by Picart, who died in 1733. We have used the numbering of the volumes in the Getty collection which follows their date of publication. Bernard had his own numbering system, in which the monotheistic religions were numbered 1-5 (here 1 [Jews and Catholics], 2 [Catholics], 5 [Greek Orthodox, Protestants], 6 [Other Protstants, Deists, etc.] and 7 [Islam]) and the religious ceremonies and customs of the “idolatrous peoples” were numbered 1 and 2 (here 3 and 4).
