Name/Title
A press photo of women and children from the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven, Los AngelesEntry/Object ID
2013.173.1.1Description
A press photo of women and children from the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven, Los Angeles, Pacific and Atlantic Photos, 7 October 1929. Posed on the porch of a Hollywood structure delineated as the "Church of the Divine Science of Joshua the Branch, the Headstone of the Corner," are four woman and four girls, all of whom are identified. The group was said to have been involved with missing persons, deathbed rituals and mystical seances. Formed in Los Angeles in 1922 by May Otis Blackburn, the group, also known as the Blackburn Cult and The Great Eleven, moved onto land near Simi Valley from funds provided by oil heir Clifford Dabney (a Dabney family photo is in the museum collection.) In fall 1929, Blackburn and her daughter were convicted of theft in taking money from church members but the verdicts were overturned. Blackburn was said to have gone to Lake Tahoe, but was back at the Simi Valley area in 1935 and the 1940 census, living near the Banks family, some of whom are in this photo. She died in 1951, just shy of her 70th birthday. With small pieces of three corners missing, creases, soiling, stains on the back, and warping, the condition is fair.
