Support for LAist comes from
Become a sponsor
Local and national news, NPR, things to do, food recommendations and guides to Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire
Donate
Stay Connected

LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network.

Listen
Donate
Podcasts Off-Ramp
What the Natural History Museum's Becoming LA exhibit can teach us about drought
Off-Ramp with John Rabe Hero Image
(
Dan Carino
)
Jul 26, 2014
Listen • 5:18
What the Natural History Museum's Becoming LA exhibit can teach us about drought
Now that drought and water is the minds of nearly every Angeleno, what can LA's history with water teach us today?
The Los Angeles Aqueduct runs parallel to the Eastern Sierra mountains near Bishop, Calif. The 223 mile aqueduct goes through a series of concrete conduits, unlined channels, pipelines and tunnels to get to Los Angeles, Calif.
The Los Angeles Aqueduct runs parallel to the Eastern Sierra mountains near Bishop, Calif. The 223 mile aqueduct goes through a series of concrete conduits, unlined channels, pipelines and tunnels to get to Los Angeles, Calif.
(
Mae Ryan/KPCC
)

Now that drought and water is the minds of nearly every Angeleno, what can LA's history with water teach us today?

A year ago last month, Los Angeles's Natural History Museum opened its Becoming LA exhibit -- an illustrated, interactive story of how Los Angeles became the world class city it is today. None of which could have happened without some of the most impressive water engineering projects in American history. 

And now that drought and water is the minds of nearly every Angeleno, Off-Ramp producer Kevin Ferguson asked  Karen Wise, Vice President of Exhibits of Education at the museum: what can LA's history with water teach us today?

If you want to watch first hand evidence of how the transformation of Los Angeles from desert to oasis was sold to the public,watch Los Angeles City of Destiny, a short film produced by Rodney Gilliam in 1949 for the Standard Oil company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwzKW_6r_ng

The conversation at NHM continues: there's an art exhibit with work by painter Rob Reynolds called Just Add Water, and a series of great discussions under the same name.