Mary Frampton Collection

This collection contains materials from the life and career of Mary Frampton, a photojournalist and environmental activist who worked in Los Angeles and Malibu.

Personal Files include photographs, correspondence, and documents from Mary’s early life and family. Some materials, including a large collection of correspondence, relate to her father, Eugenio Nogueras. Eugenio was a journalist and editor of El Sol de San Bernadino, a Spanish-language newspaper based in San Bernadino, California. His connection to his Puerto Rican heritage and activism in support of racial equality were important influences on Mary.  Materials also relate to Mary’s mother, Edith Hethcock Nogueras, an award-winning sculptor who designed baby dolls for Horsman Doll Company.

Professional Files document Mary’s work as a photojournalist. They include materials from her early career, when her photographs and interviews with celebrities like Jerry Lewis, Mitzi Gaynor, and Bob Hope were featured in national magazines including LIFE and Photoplay. The bulk of materials are from her position as one of the first female staff photographers at the Los Angeles Times. She worked at the Times from 1956 until the mid-1980’s and met her husband, editor Robert Frampton, there. In 1966, Mary won the Penney-Missouri Journalism Award for Women's Page Photographer of the Year, the first ever given in that category.

Save Our Coast was an organization that Mary co-founded in 1987 with activist and Malibu Township Council member Jo Ruggles. Mary had moved to Malibu in 1970. They founded Save Our Coast in response to growing pollution on the Malibu Coast and a Los Angeles proposal to build a sewer in Malibu. Materials in the digital collection include posters, resolutions, photographs, and correspondence created by Save Our Coast as it led protests, funded scientific research, lobbied for Malibu politicians to take action, and raised awareness of environmental issues in local communities. Mary was active in local politics, including Malibu’s campaign for cityhood, throughout the rest of her life.