This authoritative catalogue of the Corcoran Gallery of Art's renowned collection of pre-1945 American paintings will greatly enhance scholarly and public understanding of one of the finest and most important collections of historic American art in the world. Composed of more than 600 objects dating from 1740 to 1945.

A rich, fresh, anecdotal, and thoughtful account. Beautifully written, the book tells the story of modern families in technological Los Angeles who live compatibly amid chaparral with the scores of wild species on the hillsides and in the canyon. For students of ecology, conservation, and the environment.