Search All Items

No Caption: A scene from the 1909 Portola Festival, a grand celebration devised to commemorate the discovery of San Francisco Bay by Gaspar De Portola, and for the public to celebrate the future of the rebuilt city after the 1906 earthquake and fires.

Date: 1909

Caption: "P. and O. R.R. -- Key West to Miami -- Florida. July 2, 1934." View of railroad tracks carried on a berm in the foreground and on a trestle over water in the distance. This is likely part of the Overseas Railroad, an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway, built to connect Key West with the Florida mainland.

Date: 7/2/1934

Caption: "Coronado Hotel," c. 1915, shows the luxury seaside resort in San Diego County, founded by Elisha Babcock and H.L. Story, and built in 1888. The hotel was designated a California Historical Landmark in 1970, and a National Historic Landmark in 1977. See also 96-07-08-alb01-150.

Date: 1915

Caption: "Negro Woman and Son -- Morgan City -- Louisiana, June 13, 1934." Unidentified African-American woman and young man along a road in Morgan City. The woman is carrying a pail on her head, while the young man is carrying two wood planks.

Date: 6/13/1934

Caption: "Venice, Calif," c. 1911. Grace McCarthy and an unidentified woman standing on a bridge over Lion Canal in Venice, California. In 1905, Abbot Kinney built a series of canals as part of a development project along Santa Monica Beach, hoping to recreate the look and feel of Italy's iconic "Floating City" in southern California. Called Ocean Park at first, gondoliers sailed boats under elegant bridges such as the one shown in this photograph, in an effort to attract businesses, residents, and investors. In 1911, the name officially changed to Venice. By 1929, however, many of the canals had been filled in to create roadways, and those canals that remained fell into disrepair. A revitalization movement in the early 1990s has restored some of the canals, and made the area a desirable residential neighborhood.

Date: 1911

No Caption: See also 97-07-08-alb08-143 with caption: "Columbia River Jetty, Or.," c. 1910. View of a jetty built at the mouth of the Columbia River, carrying a railroad trestle. A train hauling cars loaded with large rocks is visible at the left side of the photograph. This is likely the so-called South Jetty, extending more than six miles into the ocean from Point Adams on the Oregon side of the river mouth. The jetty system at the mouth of the Columbia River was constructed between 1885 and 1917. Designed to funnel water from the Columbia River in a more concentrated fashion into the Pacific Ocean, the jetty system helped create a deeper, more stable shipping channel.

Date: 1910

Caption: "Training Ship Philadelphia, Bremerton," c. 1908-1912. View of the USS Philadelphia (C-4). The fourth ship to bear the name, the Philadelphia first launched in September 1889. She sailed as part of the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Squadron until 1893. She then sailed into the Pacific Ocean, where she served until being decommissioned and docked in Puget Sound in 1902. In 1904, the Navy "housed over" the ship (adding the roofed quarters visible on the upper deck in the photograph) and designated her a receiving ship for new sailors not yet assigned to a crew. The Philadelphia served in this capacity until 1912. After a brief stint as a prison ship, the Philadelphia again became a receiving ship in 1916. The Navy sold her in 1927.

Date: 1908

Caption: "Alcatraz," c. 1906. View of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The building on the highest part of the island, just to the left of center in the photograph, is the Alcatraz Citadel (also known as Fort Alcatraz). Built in 1859 by the U.S. Army for coastal defense purposes, the Citadel began serving as a prison in 1861. It ceased function as a defense fortification and became the Pacific Branch of the U.S. Military Prison in 1907. The Citadel was demolished in 1909. Over the next two decades the facilities on the island were modified and modernized, becoming a federal penitentiary in 1934.

Date: 1906

Caption: "Golden Gate Park -- Portals of the Past," c. 1910. A monument in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, on the shores of Lloyd Lake, consisting of a white marble archway and columns. The archway was originally part of the Nob Hill mansion belonging to railroad tycoon Alban Towne. The mansion was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, but the entryway still stood. It was moved to the shore of Lloyd Lake in 1909, as a memorial to the pre-1906 city.

Date: 1910

Caption: "Bennington's Honored Dead." 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 U.S. 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. See also 96-07-08-alb05-142 and 96-07-08-alb08-217.

Date: 1905-07-23