Milo and Florence Harrison photo collection

Florence (nee Michaelis) Harrison began her work in photography in the 1930s.  A long time resident of the South Bay, she helped found the South Bay Camera Club and served as its president for a number of years. She was also a member of Click Chicks Camera Club and Southern California Council of Camera Clubs.  Florence's photographs were featured in magazines and newspapers and she exhibited across the country and abroad.  She earned an Associateship award from the Royal Photographic Society and was a fellow of the Photographic Society of America. She was particularly known for her work with children and cats.

The Dicalite Company Walteria plant, located on the eastern side of the Peninsula in Walteria (now part of Torrance), processed diatomeceous materials quarried from land adjacent to the plant.  Started in 1930, the Walteria plant was designed to process 120 tons of diatomite per day, and was a large employer in the area in the 1940s and 1950s.  In 1944, the Dicalite Company was purchased by Great Lakes Carbon Corporation and subsequently acquired by General Refractories Company (Grefco) in 1966.  The Walteria plant operations ceased in 1958. Florence Harrison's husband, Milo, was a processing engineer for Dicalite.