With the exception of the Central Library, more images of L.A. history may be contained within the walls of Delmar Watson’s photo studio than anywhere else in town.

The modest two-story converted house in Hollywood is home to the Delmar Watson Photography-Archives Inc. a collection of between 1.5 million and 2 million photographs shot by members of the Watson family, starting with James Watson, Delmar Watson’s grandfather, in 1885.

Pick your favorite episode in Los Angeles history, and a photograph of it is likely here. Gruesome crime-scene photos of the Black Dahlia murder. A triumphant Howard Hughes standing atop the Spruce Goose. And a photo of Sophia Loren stealing a glance at Jayne Mansfield’s cleavage.

The photos were taken by a variety of photographers, including Watson and his five brothers. The oldest photos were taken by their grandfather, but Watson said some of the most valuable ones were taken by his uncle, George Watson, the Los Angeles Times’ first full-time photographer.

“If we’re dealing with an old Hollywood story, we always call him,” said Katherine Bang, a photo researcher at Vanity Fair magazine. “His name is definitely out there as being one of the most famous Hollywood photographers.”

Although Watson supports himself primarily by selling use of the photos to Vanity Fair, E! Entertainment Television and others as well as by still taking a limited number of commercial photos he is ready to sell the collection.

“What can I do? I’m 71 years old,” Watson said. “I want the public to see this.”

Over the years, Watson has considered numerous ideas for doing just that, including a museum. But these days he is looking for someone to purchase the photos and other Hollywood memorabilia, which he values at about $1.9 million.

So far, he has had little luck.

“I’ve had several people who are interested in it, but you don’t know if they’re really serious,” he said.

One possible buyer is Bellevue, Wash.-based Corbis Corp., the company owned by Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates that in 1995 purchased the Bettmann Archives, a collection of historical photographs.

Buyers at Corbis have looked at copies of Watson’s five self-published books of photos including “Quick, Watson, the Camera” and “Goin’ Hollywood 1887-1987” and have spoken with him about either buying or licensing his photos.

“We’ve had a few conversations with him,” said Corbis spokesman Jim DeNike. “That’s the level that it’s at at this point.”

DeNike added that Corbis is more focused these days on marketing its current collection than acquiring new archives.

Watson considers his photos particularly those from World War II, and those of aviator Amelia Earhart and billionaire Hughes to have the same level of historical value as photos in the Bettmann Archives.

“If I were Gates, I would go around to every guy in the country like me and buy the whole thing,” he said.

While Watson is looking for a buyer, he is selling off groups of photos those not likely to interest an archivist to businesses and other organizations.

Watson sold several hundred to the California Museum of Science and Industry, for example, that covered new exhibit openings and political leaders visiting the museum.

“We felt this was a great opportunity for us to get negatives from events and activities that happened well before most of the staff was here, and, for some of us, before we were born,” said Lori Chong, communications manager for the museum.

Chong said that as the museum’s new California Science Center opens next February, she expects the photos to be used to illustrate a history of the museum in the form of a book or display.

“These are the kind of pictures that we would never be able to find,” she said.

As for rest of Watson’s collection which includes early freeway construction, movie stars and Walt Disney riding in a parade at Disneyland Watson hopes to be involved in its use even after the archive is sold.

That might be necessary, he said, because the significance of many of the photos could be lost without Watson’s own knowledge.

One photo, for example, simply looks like a 1920s-era woman casting a ballot while another woman waits for her outside the voting booth. But, in fact, the photo of the Hilton sisters from 1928 marks the first time Siamese twins voted in a presidential election.

“What I would really like to do is have someone come in and buy half of me out or all of me out then stay on,” Watson said. “I know where all the bodies are buried here.”