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Caption: "California Here We Come. Donner Monument. In Our Home State Again After Five Months Tour. October 7, 1934." William and Grace McCarthy took this photograph of the Pioneer Monument when they arrived back in California after a five month road trip to the East Coast. The Pioneer Monument, featuring a pair of pioneers with their two children looking west, was first dedicated on June 6, 1918 to commemorate those who emigrated to California in the mid 1800s. Today, the monument and surrounding area is known as Donner Memorial State Park. The park was established in memory of the ill-fated Donner Party, a group of emigrants whose wagon train was caught in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the winter of 1846-47. The Pioneer Monument's stone pedestal stands twenty-two feet high, the height of the snow that the party had to contend with. Of the eighty-seven people in the wagon train, only forty-eight survived to be rescued the following spring. Some of the survivors are said to have resorted to cannibalism in order to survive.

Date: 10/7/1934

No Caption: William and Grace McCarthy (standing and looking at the camera) at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915. The Panama Pacific International Exposition was held to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, as well as inventive technologies and new industries from around the world. It was also a chance for San Francisco to show the world how the great city had rebuilt and thrived after the devastation of the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Date: 1915

No Caption: Educational Building on the left, with Tower of Jewels in the background, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915. The Panama Pacific International Exposition was held to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, as well as inventive technologies and new industries from around the world. It was also a chance for San Francisco to show the world how the great city had rebuilt and thrived after the devastation of the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Date: 1915

Caption: "Lincoln Memorial," c. 1925. Grace McCarthy (far left) poses with two unidentified women in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial's outer structure, styled after a Greek Doric temple, was designed by architect Henry Bacon, while the statue of Abraham Lincoln (only the knee of which is visible in this photograph) within was designed by Daniel Chester French. The memorial was dedicated in 1922.

Date: 1925

Caption: "Leevining [sic] Grade -- Tioga Road." The Lee Vining Grade is on the eastern side of Tioga Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Mono County, California, northeast of Yosemite Valley. It constitutes part of the Tioga Road, or Tioga Pass Road, now part of California State Route 120. The Grade is visible in the photograph as a thin line running along the mountain sides in the lower third of the image.

Date: 1927

Caption: "Palace of Fine Arts or National Theater [sic] - built of white marble. Work started in 1900, complete in 1935, cost 35,000,000 pesos." The Palacio de Bellas Artes, is considered the cultural center of Mexico City. It houses the Museum of Architecture, and the National Theater, a performance space for music, dance, and theatre. Murals by renown Mexican artists such as Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Jose Clemente Orozco, and others are exhibited on the top floor and other galleries throughout the building.

Date: 1938

Caption: "Music Stand Golden Gate Park," c. 1912-1915. View of the Spreckels Temple of Music, commonly known as the Music Stand or the Bandshell. The Temple was built in 1899-1900 at the west end of the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park. A gift to the City of San Francisco from sugar magnate Claus Spreckels, the Temple has been extensively renovated over the years to repair earthquake damage.

Date: 1915

Caption: "State Capitol Tallahassee, Florida, June 23, 1934." View of the Florida State Capitol building, constructed in 1845. The dome, visible in the center of the photograph, was added in 1902. The building was altered and expanded several more times over the years, until a new State Capitol was built in the late 1970s. The old Capitol building was subsequently restored to its 1902 appearance and reopened to the public in 1982.

Date: 6/23/1934

Caption: "Notre Dame College. South Bend, Indiana. Sept. 14, 1734 [sic], Sept. 14, 1934." Founded in 1842 and officially chartered in 1844, the University of Notre Dame is a Catholic research university famous world-wide for the quality of the education it provides. This photograph shows the Main Building's domed tower, (just to the right of center), and the steeple of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (center), the university's on-site Catholic Church.

Date: 9/14/1934

Caption: "Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition," "Agricultural Building" and "A.Y.P.E. Seattle Wash." View of the Agricultural Building of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, often referred to as the "A-Y-P." Held in Seattle to celebrate the development of the Pacific Northwest, the fair attracted 3.7 million visitors over the course of its run from June to October 1909. Although most of the fair's buildings have since been destroyed, several of them now serve as part of the University of Washington campus.

Date: 1909