california, history

Nick of the Woods, near Yank's Station, A Curious Cedar Knot, Valley o...

The Library holds only one photo from a pair published as a stereographic view. Gems of California scenery, no. 643. LOT subdivision subject: Lake Tahoe. This record contains unverified old data from caption card.

The cliff house, near San Francisco, Cal. Taber Photo., San Francisco

Photo shows a bird's-eye view of the Cliff House overlooking Seal Rocks in the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco, California. No. B. 59. Printed on verso: Taber Photographic Parlors, 8 Montgomery Street, San Franci... More

Map of the County of Santa Barbara, California /

Relief shown by hachures. Cadastral map showing drainage, roads, railroads, land ownership, landowners' names, ranchos, township and section lines, school and supervisorial districts, etc. LC Land ownership map... More

East wing, Arlington Hotel, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Public domain photograph of a hotel building, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

[Interior of Chinese lodging house (opium den?), San Francisco, Califo...

Four Chinese men smoking opium(?) pipes in Chinatown. Public domain image of Chinese history, opium war, China government, and politics, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

[History of San Francisco mural "Torchlight Procession" by Anton Refre...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a New Deal program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as a response to the high unemployment during the Great Depression. The program put people t... More

Near Los Banos, California. Migratory agricultural workers, cotton hoe...

Public domain photograph - United States during 1930s Great Depression, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Women at work on bomber, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

Picryl description: Public domain historical photo of Second World War, free to use, no copyright restrictions image.

Cajon, California. Indian section gang working on the Atchison, Topeka...

Picryl description: Public domain image of railroad tracks, railway, train car, free to use, no copyright restrictions.

Girls on a float in the Columbus Day parade, San Francisco, California

In a Columbus Day parade in San Francisco in 1991, Italian American girls dressed as angels ride with an image of the Madonna surrounded by flowers on a festival float created by the Societa de la Madonna del L... More

[Detail of Spanish Colonial History mural by Daniel Sayre Groesbeck at...

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse was designed by William Mooser, III, built in a Spanish Colonial Revival style, and completed in 1929. Title information from Santa Barbara Courthouse website, 2013. Title, d... More

Sculpture located in César Chávez Plaza in downtown Sacramento, Califo...

The Plaza was laid out by settler John Sutter and named in honor of Chávez, the Mexican-American farm worker, labor leader, and civil-rights activist. Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer. Cre... More

Bust of Jackie Robinson, the baseball star and civil-rights pioneer, w...

Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer. Both were Pasadena natives. The two nine-foot-tall statues, across from Pasadena City Hall, were created by sculptor Ralph Helmick in 1997. Credit line: ... More

Civil War veteran with Grand Army of the Republic badge Bradley & Rulo...

Photograph shows portrait of Union veteran possibly identified as W.R. Fruedberg, W.R. Swedberg, or W.R. Juedberg. Notation on recto: "W.R. [...]berg, Dept. [...] G.A.R. Cala." Gift; Tom Liljenquist; 2016; (DL... More

Frederick Law Olmsted Papers: Subject File, 1857-1952; Community desig...

James K. Polk Papers: Series 9: Sarah C. Polk Papers, 1838-1891; 1838,...

California and Idaho troops in churchyard at San Pedro Macati

No. 759. Copyrighted by Perley Fremont Rockett of San Francisco in 1899.

Blue Wing Inn, 133 East Spain Street, Sonoma, Sonoma County, CA

Significance: From California Landmark Plaque: Erected by General M. G. Vallejo about 1840 to accommodate emigrants and other travelers, the Inn was purchased in gold rush days by Cooper and Spriggs, two retire... More

Toyo Miyatake, (Photographer) / photograph by Ansel Adams.

Tōyō Miyatake, bust portrait, facing front. Title transcribed from Ansel Adams' caption on verso of print. Original neg. no.: LC-A35-4-M-77. Library of Congress prints and photographs: an illustrated guide / Li... More

Casa Del Desierto, 685 North First Avenue, Barstow, San Bernardino Cou...

Significance: The Case del Desierto and Barstow Depot, designed by Francis W. Wilson and completed in 1911, is significant for its association with broad national and regional themes in the history of railroad ... More

Baseball game, Manzanar Relocation Center, Calif. / photograph by Anse...

Japanese Americans observe an amateur baseball game in progress; one-story buildings and mountains in the background. Title transcribed from Ansel Adams' caption on verso of print. Original neg. no.: LC-A351-3-... More

[African American woman holding a white child]

Rinhart, no. 119. Modern handwritten note in case: Slave nanny/white child image came from an estate sale somewhere in the flat lands delta area of Arkansas. Likely from one of the following Arkansas towns: Hel... More

Cave Rock, Lake Tahoe, Nevada (view from the road)

The Library holds only one photo from a pair published as a stereographic view. Gems of California scenery, no. 676. LOT subdivision subject: Wagon Trains and Stage Coaches. This record contains unverified old ... More

Calle de San Jose, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Street scene. Public domain photograph - historical image of California, United States, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Blacksmith Shop, Weaverville, Trinity County, CA

Survey number: HABS CA-1185 Public domain photograph - 1930s California, United States, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Early stage in the history of the farm experiment on the old Mineral K...

Public domain photograph - 1930s California, United States, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Kern County, California. Mountains

Public domain photograph of rural landscape, California, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

California shipyard workers. These shipbuilders enjoy a scenic ride to...

Public domain photograph of military personnel, army, militia, infantry, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Exploded gas tanks, U.S. Mint, Emporium and Spreckels Bld'g /

This film is a spectacular pan of the downtown area of San Francisco as seen from south of Market Street. The location among low ruins was ideal to view the tall ruined buildings along and north of Market Stree... More

Tom's Cafe, 2181 Manchester, Los Angeles, California

Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer. Margolies categories: Bars, lounges, ballrooms; Eating & drinking establishments. Purchase; John Margolies 2008 (DLC/PP-2008:109-2). C... More

Migrant agricultural worker's family. Seven hungry children. Mother ag...

Photo shows Florence Thompson with several of her children in a tent shelter as part of the "Migrant Mother" series. For background information, see "Dorothea Lange's M̀igrant Mother' photographs ..." http://ww... More

[Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, C...

H82467 U.S. Copyright Office. Published in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga and curators of the Library of Congress ; historical commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York ... More

Academy Theater, 3141 West Manchester Boulevard, Inglewood, Los Angele...

Significance: This is the most advanced Streamline Moderne theater in the Los Angeles area. The Academy was designed by one of California's best known theater architects. The interesting cylindrical forms cre... More

[Cathedral Rocks, with lake and trees in foreground, Yosemite Valley, ...

Published in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga and curators of the Library of Congress ; historical commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York : Knopf, 1997.

[ Lecture notes for "The History and Analysis of Musical Comedy," taug...

Typed notes, hand written notes, and note cards. (General)

[Frances Benjamin Johnston, with Maddie (her mother), 1903, with a pai...

Title and other information transcribed from unverified, old caption card data and item. Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection. Caption card tracings: Shelf.

Scenes in San Francisco, [no. 2] /

Panoramas filmed in the ruins of downtown San Francisco and outlying refugee camps following the 1906 earthquake and fire. A scene-by-scene description of the film: [Frame: 0102] Begins with a long, pan of down... More

Preschool children in nursery school under supervision of trained teac...

Title and other information from caption card. Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944. More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is availabl... More

Part of the cowling for one of the motors for a B-25 bomber is assembl...

Picryl description: Public domain historical photo of Second World War, free to use, no copyright restrictions image.

Sumiko Shigematsu, foreman of power sewing machine girls, Manzanar Rel...

Sumiko Shigematsu, standing at left, looking at row of women seated at sewing machines. Title transcribed from Ansel Adams' caption on negative sleeve. No original photographic print. Library made print in LOT... More

Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico. Winter feeding on George Mut...

Public domain image of a rural landscape, agriculture, farm animals, livestock, pasture, free to use, no copyright restrictions - Picryl description

Close up of sculpture located in César Chávez Plaza is a park in downt...

The Plaza was laid out by settler John Sutter and named in honor of Chávez, the Mexican-American farm worker, labor leader, and civil-rights activist. Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer. Cre... More

"Mission Building," one of four "great eras of California history" mur...

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

James K. Polk Papers: Series 5: Messages and Speeches, 1833-1849; 1848...

Frederick Law Olmsted Papers: Subject File, 1857-1952; Parks; Hartford...

Frederick Law Olmsted Papers: 1975 Addition, 1821-1924; Subject file; ...

Public domain scan of a architecture diagram, settlement map, plan, or drawing, free to use, no copyright restrictions - Picryl description.

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

Mission San Antonio de Padua, Hunter Liggett Military Reservation, Jol...

Picryl description: Public domain image of historical building ruins, free to use, no copyright restrictions.

Gloria Claudette Grinnell oral history interview conducted by David P....

Gloria Claudette Grinnell recounts her participation in the sit-in movement in Richmond, Virginia, when she was a student at Virginia Union University. She describes her family's history on the East Coast and e... More

Lincoln obsequies, San Francisco, [no.] 721

Photograph shows a view from a hill of a crowd observing a tribute to Abraham Lincoln on the street below. Purchase; Robin Stanford; 2015; (DLC/PP-2015:022). "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1... More

Unidentified sailor in Union lieutenant's uniform William Shew, 423 Mo...

Unknown seller suggests the sailor may possibly be Lieutenant Arthur R. Yates. Gift; Tom Liljenquist; 2016; (DLC/PP-2016:144) Forms part of: Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of C... More

The banner in the grand procession

Illus. in: Souvenir, presented by Department of New York, to Department of California, Grand Army of the Republic, at National Encampment, San Francisco, Cal., August 1886, p. 47. Copyright by Grand Army Publishing Co.

Boulevard toward Los Banos Del Mar, Santa Barbara, Cal.

Photograph by the Detroit Publishing Co. No. 071705. No original negative. Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection (Library of Congress). This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Ca... More

[Bath house, Los Banos, Calif.]

Picryl description: Public domain image of a park, park architecture, outdoors, romantic atmospheric landscape, cemetery, free to use, no copyright restrictions.

Rural rehabilitation client. San Fernando Valley, California. Chicken ...

Public domain photograph - Portrait, United States, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

San Pedro Drive-In Theater, angle from right, gray sky, Gaffey Street,...

Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer. Margolies categories: Mural and decorated screens; Drive-in movie theaters & signs. Purchase; John Margolies 2007 (DLC/PP-2007:125). C... More

Loyola Theater, defaced, Manchester & Sepulveda Boulevard, Westchester...

Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer. Margolies categories: Movie theaters; Main Street. Purchase; John Margolies 2007 (DLC/PP-2007:125). Credit line: John Margolies Roadsi... More

Civil War veteran with Grand Army of the Republic badge Bradley & Rulo...

Photograph shows portrait of Union veteran possibly identified as W.R. Fruedberg, W.R. Swedberg, or W.R. Juedberg. Notation on recto: "W.R. [...]berg, Dept. [...] G.A.R. Cala." Gift; Tom Liljenquist; 2016; (DL... More

Emigrant train, Strawberry Valley, going east

The Library holds only one photo from a pair published as a stereographic view. Gems of California scenery, no. 625. Published in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga and ... More

Academy Theater, 3141 West Manchester Boulevard, Inglewood, Los Angele...

Significance: This is the most advanced Streamline Moderne theater in the Los Angeles area. The Academy was designed by one of California's best known theater architects. The interesting cylindrical forms cre... More

Baker-Megrew Rowhouse, 6122 Paseo Delicias, Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego...

Significance: This building, commissioned by the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company as small-scale pre-sold speculative housing in the midst of the commercial center of the town, is one of a group of four rowhou... More

Mining on the Comstock / drawn by T.L. Dawes ; engraved and printed by...

Cutaway of hillside showing tunnels and supports, shaft, and miners engaged in various activities. Also shows tools used in the mines, as well as exterior views of several mining companies working the Comstock ... More

Nevada City, Nevada County, from the West

The Library holds only one photo from a pair published as a stereographic view. Gems of California scenery, no. 1082. LOT subdivision subject: Nevada City . This record contains unverified old data from caption card.

Lake Tahoe. "Nick of the woods," a human face in a cedar, Valley of La...

Photograph shows a close-up of either an unusual natural tree formation or a face hand-carved into a tree trunk. No. 645.

A Sunday concert in the plaza, Santa Barbara, Cal.

Shows audience. Photograph by the Detroit Publishing Co. Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection (Library of Congress). This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Caption card tracing... More

Theodore Roosevelt and party at the Old Mission of the Franciscan Fat...

Public domain photograph related to Theodore Roosevelt, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Los Angeles, California. The evacuation of Japanese-Americans from Wes...

Picryl description: Public domain historical photo of Second World War, free to use, no copyright restrictions image.

Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico. Feeding stock on the Mutz ra...

Picryl description: Public domain photograph of farming, farmer, agriculture, 20th-century, free to use, no copyright restrictions.

Loyola Theater, Manchester & Sepulveda Boulevard, Westchester, Califor...

Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer. Margolies category: Theaters. Purchase; John Margolies 2015 (DLC/PP-2015:142). Credit line: John Margolies Roadside America photograph... More

Monument to Francis Scott Key in San Francisco, California

Digital image produced by Carol M. Highsmith to represent her original film transparency; some details may differ between the film and the digital images. Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer.... More

[Detail of Spanish Colonial History mural by Daniel Sayre Groesbeck at...

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse was designed by William Mooser, III, built in a Spanish Colonial Revival style, and completed in 1929. Title information from Santa Barbara Courthouse website, 2013. Title, d... More

[Spanish Colonial History mural by Daniel Sayre Groesbeck at the Santa...

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse was designed by William Mooser, III, built in a Spanish Colonial Revival style, and completed in 1929. Title information from Santa Barbara Courthouse website, 2013. Title, d... More

The Kern County Museum, a history museum located in Bakersfield, Calif...

The main focus of the museum is the history of Kern County, including Bakersfield. One prominent features is its Pioneer Village with over 50 original buildings from around the county. Title, date, and keywords... More

[History of San Francisco mural "The Waterfront" by Anton Refregier at...

Title devised by Library staff based on information provided by the photographer. Mural title and artist name from San Francisco Mural Arts website, 2013. Date and keywords provided by the photographer. The Rin... More

Migrant agricultural worker's family. Seven hungry children. Mother ag...

Photograph shows Florence Thompson with two of her children as part of the "Migrant Mother" series. For background information, see "Dorothea Lange's M̀igrant Mother' photographs ..." http://www.loc.gov/rr/pri... More

[Cathedral Rocks, with lake and trees in foreground, Yosemite Valley, ...

Published in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga and curators of the Library of Congress ; historical commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York : Knopf, 1997.

Foster House, Shasta, Shasta County, CA

Survey number: HABS CA-1443 Public domain photograph - 1930s California, United States, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Aaron Dixon oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Seat...

Aaron Dixon describes his childhood in the Midwest and in Seattle and how he became a leader in the Black Panther Party, helping to found the Seattle chapter of the Party. Dixon describes in detail his family h... More

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.

Scene on the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Three men on horseback The Library holds only one photo from a pair published as a stereographic view. Gems of California scenery, no. 640. LOT subdivision subject: Donner Pass Route. This record contains unver... More

[Unidentified Staples & Charles. San Francisco after the earthquake an...

This film is made up of five panoramas, four wide and one close-up, of the ruins of downtown San Francisco shortly after the 1906 disaster, plus a panorama and scene in a nearby refugee camp. Original intertitl... More

Four families, three of them related with fifteen children, from the D...

Title and other information from caption card. Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944. More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is availabl... More

Unemployment benefits aid begins. Line of men inside a division office...

Public domain photograph of a crowd, event, meeting, demonstration, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Manzanar, Calif., April 1942. Mealtime at the Japanese war relocation ...

Photograph showing several generations of Japanese Americans at meal time. Caption continues: In housing, as well as at mealtime, family life is preserved. LC-USE618-D-5074. Forms part of: Farm Security Adminis... More

The old rules - A group of men playing a game of football

Photograph shows Paul Berry (#9), HB of L.A. Rams, scoring touchdown even though he's pinned to the goal post by San Francisco 49ers Sam Cathcart (#83) and Frank Albert (#63, on right).

Sign for Del Oro Theatre in Nevada City, California

Built in 1940 by United Artists, the theater is famous for its Art Deco architecture and illuminated, 70-foot tower. Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer. Credit line: The Jon B. Lovelace Coll... More

[History of San Francisco mural "Monks Building the Mission" by Anton ...

Title devised by Library staff based on information provided by the photographer. Mural title and artist name from San Francisco Mural Arts website, 2013. Date and keywords provided by the photographer. The Rin... More

[History of San Francisco mural "Conquistadors Discover the Pacific" b...

Title devised by Library staff based on information provided by the photographer. Mural title and artist name from San Francisco Mural Arts website, 2013. Date and keywords provided by the photographer. The Rin... More

Casa Del Desierto, 685 North First Avenue, Barstow, San Bernardino Cou...

Significance: The Case del Desierto and Barstow Depot, designed by Francis W. Wilson and completed in 1911, is significant for its association with broad national and regional themes in the history of railroad ... More

San Francisco / S.F. Marryat, delt.

Print showing view from hilltop of San Francisco, California, looking toward the bay.

Butte City - Public domain scan / drawing

Drawing shows Butte City, California as it looked around 1854, an established mining community, when George Henry Burgess camped near there while seeking gold with his brother Charles. There are forty buildings... More

Luis Zapata oral history interview conducted by Emilye Crosby in Silve...

Summary: Luis Zapata describes his childhood in Orange County, California, and how he came to join the labor movement as a college student at San Jose State University. He discusses the organizing work he did w... More

Aaron Dixon oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Seat...

Aaron Dixon describes his childhood in the Midwest and in Seattle and how he became a leader in the Black Panther Party, helping to found the Seattle chapter of the Party. Dixon describes in detail his family h... More

Chinese immigrants at the San Francisco custom-house / P. Frenzeny.

Customs officers inspecting belongings of Chinese immigrants as others enter the room from ship; with insert of Chinese on wagon. Illus. in: Harper's weekly, 1877 Feb. 3, p. 81.

His grace Joseph Sadoc Alemany, CSD - Arch Bishop of San Francisco / H...

Print showing Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany, half-length portrait, facing slightly left, holding book and glasses in hands. K11000 U.S. Copyright Office. Signed on stone in lower right: H. Steinegger. Copyri... More

[History of San Francisco mural "Raising the Bear Flag" by Anton Refre...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a New Deal program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as a response to the high unemployment during the Great Depression. The program put people t... More

A guide to the golden state from the past to the present California hi...

Poster for Federal Writers' Project of California advertising "American Guide Series" volume on California, showing hourglass. Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress). Posters of th... More

A guide to the golden state from the past to the present California hi...

Poster for Federal Writers' Project of California advertising "American Guide Series" volume on California, showing hourglass. Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress). Posters of th... More

North American Aviation, Incorporated, Inglewood, California. Thousand...

Public domain photograph of a history of California, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Stanford University, Palo Alto, California

Title, date, and keywords provided by the photographer. On October 1, 1891, Stanford University opened its doors after six years of planning and building. The first student body consisted of 555 men and women, ... More