California

Stained glass in Neiman Marcus store, San Francisco, California

Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer. This stain glass in Neiman Marcus on Union Square, was once in The City of Paris store. The architectural centerpiece of the building is the original rotu... more

Ruins of City Hall, [1906 earthquake, San Francisco, Calif.]

Carefully trained women inspectors check and inspect cargo transport i...

American mothers and sisters, like these women at the Douglas Aircraft...

Woman working on an airplane motor at North American Aviation, Inc., p...

Detail of a historic car with license plates from the 1940s. San Franc...

Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer. Credit line: The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs... more

The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, San Francisco, California

Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer. Street names commemorate two early San Francisco leaders: Pioneer and exchange banker Henry Haight and Munroe Ashbury. The district is noted for its role ... more

Memorial Church on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, Califo...

Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer. Credit line: The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Pr... more

[Map of California shown as an island].

Relief shown pictorially. Pen-and-ink and watercolor. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Vault

A new & exact map of the coast, countries and islands within ye limit...

La Californie ou Nouvelle Caroline : teatro de los trabajos, Apostolic...

Relief shown pictorially. McLaughlin, G. Mapping of California as an island, 196 Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Vault 2 copies; copy 2 is b&w

La Californie ou Nouvelle Caroline : teatro de los trabajos, Apostolic...

Relief shown pictorially. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Vault

An exact-plan of George-Town so named by Patrick Graham, Esqr., Presid...

Scale ca. 1:4,700. Manuscript, pen-and-ink and watercolor. Imperfect: Margins torn. Oriented with north to the bottom. Cadastral map. Shows town laid out in lots in a bend of "Great Ogeche River" planned to bec... more

Plano del puerto de Acapulco situado en la latitud de 16⁰47ʹ y en la l...

[Map of Pacific Ocean between the coast of California and Mexico and J...

Watermark: PVL [Pieter van Ley] in 1 character. Pen-and-ink. Mounted on cloth backing. LC Luso-Hispanic World, 15 Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Includes text. Printe... more

Carta que contiene parte de la costa de la California.

Pen-and-ink and watercolor. Wagner, H. R. Cartography of the northwest coast, 708 LC Luso-Hispanic World, 81 Available also through the Library of Congress web site as a raster image. Magg's description on verso.

Presidential tally, Presented by the Firemans fund insurance company o...

Campaign. Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML. Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 2, Folder 14.

Map of the western & middle portions of North America : to illustrate ...

Relief shown by hachures. Prime meridians: Greenwich and Washington, DC. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image.

Dance of the Indians of the Mission of St. Joseph in New California / ...

Six Native Americans with elaborate body markings and hairstyles, dancing.

Jeu des habitans de Californie

Native women watching men play game, possibly related to gambling, at a mission near San Francisco, California.

Vista de puebla de Los Angeles C. Nebel del. ; lith. Mialhe Fesr. St. ...

Print shows a distant view, looking east toward the Santa Anna Mountains, of the cityscape of Los Angeles with low stone or adobe buildings in the foreground and two snowcapped mountains in the background Title... more

4 Polkas - San Francisco, The Balloon, The Pleasure Train, The Storm

James K. Polk Papers: Series 6: Notes, circa 1831-1847; Subject file; ...

Carta esférica de la costa de la Alta California : comprendida entre l...

Relief shown by hachures. Depths shown by soundings. Shows drainage, missions, pueblos, presidios, etc. Prime meridian: Cadiz. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image.

Sutter's Fort is a State Historical Park in California's capital city ...

Sutter's Fort was constructed about 1840 at the behest of John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant who had received a land grant in the Sacramento Valley from the Mexican government. Sutter is best known for the discover... more

Sutter's Fort is a State Historical Park in California's capital city ...

Sutter's Fort was constructed about 1840 at the behest of John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant who had received a land grant in the Sacramento Valley from the Mexican government. Sutter is best known for the discover... more

Sutter's Fort is a State Historical Park in California's capital city ...

Sutter's Fort was constructed about 1840 at the behest of John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant who had received a land grant in the Sacramento Valley from the Mexican government. Sutter is best known for the discover... more

Sutter's Fort is a State Historical Park in California's capital city ...

Sutter's Fort was constructed about 1840 at the behest of John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant who had received a land grant in the Sacramento Valley from the Mexican government. Sutter is best known for the discover... more

Veduta di Ross stabilimento Russo vicino alla Bodega

Fort Ross, Calif., a Russian fur-trading post est. 1812.

Gold mines of California!! W. R. Andrews, having just returned from Ca...

2366 E 1 Jy 46.; Rec. 7-11-46.; $40.00; On verso: 2366 E 1 Jy 46. Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML. Printed Ephemera Colle... more

California guard / Kellogs & Thayer ; E.B. & E.C. Kellog ; D. Needham.

Print showing men in dress uniform. Identified as associated with the Mexican War, 1846-48, in Picturing Victorian America: Prints by the Kellogg Brothers of Hartford, by Nancy Finlay (2010), p. 83. No. 270.

A new map of Texas, Oregon and California.

Ultimatum on the Oregon question

In his typically jingoist view of Polk's handling of the Oregon question, the artist Edward Williams Clay belittles the self-interested attitudes of Europe toward the dispute. The issue of whether to settle the... more

Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Méjico, California &c. : segun lo organi...

Shows Mexico and the southern United States. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Prime meridian: Washington. Gift; Thomas W. Streeler; Dec. 28, 1937. Includes distance chart, distance list, and 2 profile... more

California quick step

From: Music Copyright Deposits, 1820-1860 (Microfilm M 3106) Also available through the Library of Congress Web Site as facsimile page images. (additional physical form) In bound volumes: Copyright Deposits 1820-1860

Map of Upper & Lower California showing the military stations and dist...

Available also through the Library of Congress web site as a raster image.

James K. Polk Papers: Series 8: Miscellaneous, 1827-1884; Chronologica...

Charge of Captain Reid, at Sacramento

Capt. John Wm. Reid. Battle of Sacramento, 28 Feb. 1847, Illus. in: John Taylor Hughes, Doniphan's Expedition. Cincinnati : U.P. James, 1847. Reference copy may bein LOT 4414N and/or 4414P. This record contains... more

Map of Oregon and upper California from the surveys of John Charles Fr...

Hand colored. LC copy sectioned and mounted on cloth backing. Annotated on verso in black ink: California & Oregon 1848. Millard Fillmore. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Shows area of U.S. west of t... more

Topographical sketch of the gold & quicksilver district of California.

Available also through the Library of Congress web site as a raster image. 4 copies, vary slightly.

Map of Oregon and upper California from the surveys of John Charles Fr...

Scale 1:3,000,000. Hand colored. Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Shows area of U.S. west of the Continental Divide. Includes notes and "Profile of the travelling route from the South Pass of the Rock... more

James K. Polk Papers: Series 2, General Correspondence and Related Ite...

[El Dorado, California. View of scattered log cabins]

Photograph shows four log cabins scattered along the hillside; prospectors stand near or atop piles of large rocks; a flume can be seen on the far left. Title devised by Library staff.

Plan of Sacramento City, State of California

Facsimile. Cadastral base map showing streets, lots, and some block numbers. LC copy: Signed on cover: No. 138. Sacramento City. 1849. Millard Fillmore. LC copy: Mounted on cloth backing, sheet sectioned into 1... more

The place we hear about

Another grim portrayal of violent goldfield life in California, similar to "Things as They Are" (no. 1849-3) and equally critical of the outgoing Polk administration. Here again mayhem erupts, as prospectors an... more

Sunday morning ; Log cabin / / Lith. & published by Britton & Rey, San...

Pictorial lettersheet with two images on one page shows (top) miners in camp eating and reading; and (bottom) miners standing in front of log cabin; with attached blank leaf. Title from item. Baird, California ... more

Mr. Golightly, bound to California

Caricature of man riding on rocket with items to sell to gold miners. Copyright by A. Donnely. Landauer Collection of Aeronautical Prints and Drawings.

Iron Store-House for California - sent to San Francisco

Built by John Walker, son of Richard Walker, orig. mfr. and patentee; of corrugated iron. Illus. in: The Illustrated London News, 1849, July 14, p. 20. This record contains unverified, old data from caption car... more

California. Four months among the gold-finders, being the diary of an ...

Henry Vizetelly (1820-1894), a London engraver and author, was a pioneer in the publication of inexpensive illustrated books and magazines. Edwin Bryant (1805-1869) was a Kentucky journalist before coming to Ca... more

Official map of San Francisco.

Scale 1:6,600; 550 English ft. to the in. Hand colored. Relief shown by hachures. Cadastral map. "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1849 by Henry Reed." Available also through the Library of Cong... more

Things as they are

Perkins's grim picture of conditions in the goldfields of California during the 1849 Gold Rush contains a backhanded swipe at the outgoing Polk administration. In the foreground, violence breaks out against a ... more

Sights in the gold region, and scenes by the way

Theodore Taylor Johnson of New Jersey sailed to California in February 1849 and had returned home by the end of June. Sights in the gold region (1849) is the first published book to relate authentic personal ex... more

[View near San Francisco, Upper California]

Two Spanish cowboys roping a bull. Wood engraving in Illustrated London News, 1949 January 13. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card.

Grand patent India-rubber air line railway to California: competition ...

Currier & Ives : a catalogue raisonné / compiled by Gale Research. Detroit, MI : Gale Research, c1983, no. 2748

Flume ; Elevating water wheel / / Lith. & published by Britton & Rey, ...

Pictorial lettersheet with two images on one page shows (top) miners working next to flume; and (bottom) miners working next to river with water wheel leading to sluice; with attached blank leaf. Title from ite... more

A prospecting party / Lith. & Pubd. by Britton & Rey, San Francisco.

Pictorial lettersheet shows progression of optimistic to disappointed prospectors. Title from item. Baird, California pictorial letter sheets, no. 209 (variation) Accession box no. DLC/PP-2011:179.03

Monterey - Capitol of California

Bird's-eye view, with ships in harbor. Lithograph by Wm. Endicott & Co. after sketch by J.W. Revere. Illus. in: Joseph Warren Revere. A tour of duty in California. New York : C.S. Francis, 1849, frontispiece. R... more

Gold und Quecksilber-District von California, 1849

Relief shown by hachures. Shows Sierra Nevada region. Includes distance chart from Monterey. Manuscript notation in ink on verso. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Acqui... more

Official map of San Francisco, compiled from the field notes of the of...

Scale 1:6,600. Cadastral map. LC copy designed to show by color land grant and claims. LC copy not colored. Vault AACR2

We, the undersigned, citizens of the United States, being about to lea...

Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML. Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 155, Folder 20.

Map of the gold regions of California.

Map without title showing the railroad route to Santa Fe and San Diego...

Outline map of North America showing proposed railroad routes within the present limits of the United States. This is one of the earliest promotional maps for a transcontinental railroad to come before the Uni... more

Map of the emigrant road from Independence Mo. to St. Francisco, Calif...

Defense of the California Bank

A mildly jingoistic satire voicing American suspicions of foreign designs on California after the discovery of gold there in 1848. The bay and coastline of San Francisco are shown, menaced by foreign invaders ... more

Official map of San Francisco compiled from the field notes of the off...

Manuscript; pen-and-ink, watercolor, and pencil corrections. Sectioned and mounted on cloth backing. Cadastral map. "Presented to the Senators and Representatives from California by Wm. M. Eddy, city surveyor, ... more

Map of the mining district of California.

Report of the debates in the Convention of California, on the formatio...

John Ross Browne (1817-1875) of Kentucky, the official reporter for the California State Constitutional Convention of September-October 1849, came to California in 1849 as an employee of the government revenue ... more

Firehouse in Nevada City, the county seat of Nevada County, California...

First settled in 1849, during the California Gold Rush, in 1850-51, it was the most important mining town in the state. In 1864, the word ôCityö was added to the name to relieve confusion with the bordering sta... more

Sketch of General Riley's route through the mining districts [of Calif...

Relief shown by hachures. LC Trails, 106 Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image.

[P. J. Espenscheid store, Nevada City, California]

Daguerreotype shows: P. J. Espenscheid's shoe store with an array of men in jackets with white shirts and ties, probably local merchants, standing in front of the store, a pile of litter beside the store, legib... more

For San Francisco with certain dispatch. the splendid, first class cli...

Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML. Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 122, Folder 44a.

General chart embracing surveys of the Farallones entrance to the Bay ...

Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Depths shown by soundings. Shows drainage, distancees, etc. "Constructed, projected and drawn by Fred D. Stuart, hydrographer, late of the U.S. Ex. Ex. ; assisted by ... more

James Marshall, discoverer of gold, at Sutter's Mill

Photomechanical reproduction of the 1850(?) daguerreotype by R. H. Vance shows James Marshall standing in front of Sutter's sawmill, Coloma, California, where he discovered gold. Title from item.

A map illustrative of the route of the proposed railroad : from St. Lo...

"The red line indicates the route of the Railroad. The green line is the route followed by Col. Fremont from the South Pass to Humboldt River."

Diary of a physician in California; being the results of actual experi...

Dr. James L. Tyson sailed from Baltimore for California in January 1849, crossing the Isthmus and sailing on to San Francisco. Diary of a physician in California (1850) recounts his 1849 tour of the Northern Mi... more

View of the burnt district San Francisco Snyder & Black Lith 87 Fulton...

Print shows small groups of people in the foreground and others scattered among the ruins of burned buildings around the "Portsmouth Square" section of San Francisco, California. On the left is one building ide... more

Mariposa City / Lith. & published by Britton & Rey, corner of Californ...

Pictorial lettersheet shows view of gold mining town; with attached blank leaf. Title from item. Baird, California pictorial letter sheets, no. 151. Accession box no. DLC/PP-2011:179.21

The mining business in four pictures : Going in to it, making somethin...

Pictorial lettersheet with four images on one page and attached blank leaf. Title from item. Baird, California pictorial letter sheets, no. 171. Accession box no. DLC/PP-2011:179.07

Emigrant party on the road to California

Wagon train of women, men, and children, moving through the mountains. Illus. in: California: its past history; its present position; its future prospects. London : The proprietors, 1850, frontispiece. Publishe... more

[Miners panning for gold ; entering a mine shaft ; miners with equipme...

Pictorial lettersheet shows four images of mining life; attached blank leaf.

Mission Dolores / Lith. & publ. by Quirot & Co., corner California and...

Pictorial lettersheet shows view of mission; with attached blank leaf. Title from item. Baird, California pictorial letter sheets, no. 173. Accession box no. DLC/PP-2011:179.14

Col. Fremont's nondescript from California. This animal captured by Co...

Fremont, Col. Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML. Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 122, Folder 38.

Life in the gold mines, California ; / Lithographed from a photograph ...

Pictorial lettersheet shows operations at a mining camp. Title from item. Baird, California pictorial letter sheets, no. 132. Accession box no. DLC/PP-2011:179.19

A bill to admit California into the Union of the United States of Nort...

Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML. Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 233, Folder 3.

Sundry amusements in the mines ; A Sundays amusements ; A daily pleasu...

Pictorial lettersheet shows four images of camp activities while not mining: washing clothes, cooking, mending clothes and boots, and discovering a bear warming its paws by the fire inside a tent; attached blan... more

Six months in the gold mines : from a journal of three years' residenc...

Edward Gould Buffum (1820-1867), a New York journalist, came to California as an officer in the 7th Regiment of N.Y. Volunteers during the Mexican War. He stayed on to seek gold and edit a California newspaper ... more

Map of the gold region of California, taken from a recent survey

Relief shown by hachures. Gift; Philip Lee Phillips Society; November, 2007. LC copy imperfect: Fold-lined. Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image. Vendor: Michael D. Heaston ... more

Regular line of clipper ships for San Francisco. Elegant California Cl...

Available also through the Library of Congress web site in two forms: as facsimile page images and as full text in SGML. Printed Ephemera Collection; Portfolio 122, Folder 44.

City hall, San-Francisco, Cal. / Lith. & publ. by Quirot & Co., corner...

Pictorial lettersheet shows early San Francisco city hall, formerly Jenny Lind Theatre, between El Dorado Hotel and The Union; with attached blank leaf. Title from item. Baird, California pictorial letter sheet... more

Three years in California 1846-1849

Walter Colton (1797-1851) of Vermont had a career as clergyman and journalist before sailing to California as naval chaplain of the Congress. In July 1846, Commodore Stockton named him alcalde of Monterey, a po... more

The sad parting between two old friends

Senators Thomas Hart Benton and Henry S. Foote are paired here in a facetious farewell scene, as Benton departs the "Shop of the Senate." In reality Benton lost his Senate seat in a January 1851 election, large... more

San Francisco, upper California / Lith., Britton & Rey.

Pictorial lettersheet shows view of city and harbor. Title from item. Annotation on recto: Where my office was in S. Francisco in 1851. I have seen 2 or 3 times as many ships in harbor as here shown. Baird, Cal... more

A newly constructed and improved map of the State of California : shew...

Relief shown by hachures and spot heights. Shows drainage, counties, roads, etc. of California and map of western Nevada. LC copy: Signed in ink script on verso: Millard Fillmore. California 1852. No. 133. LC c... more

[San Francisco, 1851, from Rincon Hill]

J141156 U.S. Copyright Office Reproduction of daguerreotypes likely taken prior to April 22, 1851. Date based on the presence of the steamer "C.M. Weber," which was in San Francisco for repairs. Sections missin... more

James Stuart hung by the vigilance committee on Market St. wharf on th...

Pictorial lettersheet shows man hanging from scaffolding surrounded by spectators; with attached blank leaf. Title from item. Baird, California pictorial letter sheets, no. 121. Accession box no. DLC/PP-2011:179.13

A new map of the gold region in California

With text: accompaniment to Gibbes' new map of the gold region, California. Region of California. Stockton, Calif., J.D. Gibbes; New York, Sherman & Smith, 1851 (16 p.) Available also through the Library of Co... more

Route of the Pacific and Atlantic Rail Road between San Francisco, & S...

Map of the coast between San Francisco and San Jose showing roads, property owners, streams, and relief by hachures.

Golden dreams and waking realities; being the adventures of a gold-see...

An Englishman, William Shaw was in South Australia when he heard of the California gold rush, and he sailed across the Pacific from Adelaide in 1849. Golden dreams and waking realities (1851) describes that voy... more

Sixteen months at the gold diggings

Daniel B. Woods of Philadelphia sailed to California in February 1849, crossing Mexico to San Blas, and arriving in San Francisco in June. Sixteen months at the gold diggings (1851) recounts those travels as we... more

Sacramento ; First frame house erected Jany. 1st, 1849, by S. Brannan ...

Pictorial lettersheet shows view of city with people and animals in the streets. Title from item. Annotation on recto: April 1854. Altogether more extensive than here represented. Baird, California pictorial le... more