Search All Items

Caption: "Steamer Damara. On Rocks at Fort Point." On October 8, 1910, the British steam ship Damara, loaded with a cargo of barley bound for England, ran onto the rocks below Fort Point at the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. It took eleven days to refloat the ship.

Date: 1910

No caption, c. 1935. William McCarthy on the steep trail to the summit of the iconic Half Dome, in the Yosemite Valley. The cables used to assist hikers follow a route laid down by George Anderson, who reached the summit in 1875.

Date: 1935

Caption: "Bullion Bend Monument," c. 1920. William and Grace McCarthy standing in front of an automobile, near a stone monument. Bullion Bend, located between Pollock Pines and Whitehall in the historic Highway 50 corridor, was the scene of a stagecoach robbery in 1864 in which silver bullion was stolen by robbers claiming to need the money in order to support the Confederate Army.

Date: 1920

Caption: "U.S. 12" Barbett [sic]." A view of a barbette (gun emplacement) with a 12" gun, at what appears to be a coastal defense battery.

Date: Undated

Caption: "State Capitol -- Sacramento," c. 1906. Grace McCarthy (farthest to the right) and three unidentified people in an automobile in front of the California State Capitol in Sacramento.

Date: 1906

Caption: "Armstrong Grove - Guerneville," c. 1915, shows William (seated on right) and Grace McCarthy (standing beside him), posing next to a giant fallen tree with three unidentified people.

Date: 1915

Caption: "Feeding the Wood Chucks [sic]- Yellowstone," c. 1923. William McCarthy crouches down to feed an eager groundhog balancing on his hind legs in this photograph.

Date: 1923

This item has no description.

Date: 1965

No caption. Reverse of a souvenir ticket for the "Official Pedestrian Day" on May 27, 1937, held as part of the Golden Gate Bridge Fiesta celebrating the opening of the now-iconic bridge. The celebrations occupied an entire week, kicked off by Pedestrian Day, when more 200,000 people were allowed to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge on foot or on roller skates, the day before the bridge opened for vehicular traffic.

Date: 5/27/1937

Caption: "Port Townsend Bicycle Club.," c. 1910. Seven unidentified men and women posing with bicycles. The bicycle made its first appearance in the Puget Sound area in the late 1870s. Within twenty years, thousands of enthusiasts had adapted the new mode of transportation. Such enthusiasts often formed clubs, such as the Queen City Good Roads Club, based in Seattle (south of Port Townsend). These clubs advocated, constructed, and helped to maintain pathways dedicated specifically to bicycle traffic. Ironically, the efforts made by the bicyclists to generally improve roadways contributed to the rise of another new mode of transportation -- the automobile.

Date: 1910