Search All Items

Caption: "Ostrich Farm, Los Angeles," c. 1935. View of several ostriches in a corral at the Cawston Ostrich Farm in Pasadena. Opened by Edward Cawston in 1886, this was the first ostrich farm in the U.S. It became a popular tourist stop along the Pasadena and Los Angeles Electric Railway in the early twentieth century, where visitors could ride an ostrich, or be pulled by one in a light card. They could also buy merchandise made out of ostrich feathers, such as hats and boas. The farm closed in the mid-1930s.

Date: 1935

Pride of Columbia

Date: 1892

Queen's Taste

Date: 1896

Caption: "Fort Columbia, Wash.," c. 1910. Fort Columbia, built between 1896 and 1904, sits on Chinook Point overlooking the Columbia River. It is part of the Three Fort Harbor Defense System protecting the mouth of the river from enemy incursion or attack (the other forts being Oregon's Fort Stevens and Washington's Fort Canby). Fort Columbia was decommissioned after World War II, and is now the site of a Washington State Park.

Date: 1910

Caption: "Vanderbilt Hotel N.Y," c. 1925. Wealthy businessman Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Sr. had the Vanderbilt Hotel constructed on the site of a former Vanderbilt residence in New York City, just six blocks from the new Grand Central Terminal. Designed by architects Warren & Wetmore, the hotel opened in 1912. The top two stories were constructed as a private residence for Vanderbilt's family. The hotel still stands today, although it has undergone some renovations.

Date: 1925

No Caption: See also 96-07-08-alb08-217 with caption: "Last Rites," shows a grave site with dozens of caskets ready for burial. A priest and two altar boys stand at one side of the caskets, while a large group of US Navy sailors looks on from the other side. While sailing from port in San Diego on the morning of July 21, 1905, the boiler of the USS Bennington exploded, killing sixty-six of her crew. The victims were laid to rest in the cemetery at Fort Rosecrans.

Date: 1905

Caption: "President Roosevelt in Vallejo," c. 1903. President Theodore Roosevelt came to California in 1903, visiting several cities and towns, including Vallejo, where he laid the cornerstone of the Navy YMCA. Thousands traveled to Vallejo to greet the president, most by steam railroad.

Date: 1903

Caption: "Fallen Giant - Mariposa Grove," c. 1917. Grace McCarthy poses with two unidentified people next to the Fallen Monarch, the enormous trunk of a fallen Giant Sequoia in Maripose Grove. It is estimated that the tree fell more than 300 years ago, but the natural resistance of Giant Sequoias to rot has preserved the trunk to the present time.

Date: 1917

No caption, c. 1915-1920. Unidentified women standing at a summit point in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, at elevation 7,630 feet. She is standing next to a road sign with directions and distances to Placerville and Lake Tahoe listed.

Date: 1920

Caption: "Presidio Nursery," c. 1906, shows the gardens at the Presidio, with blooming flowers planted to spell "PRESIDIO."

Date: 1906