Search All Items

Caption: "Lower Market St. San Francisco, Calif., May 14, 1934." Bird's eye view of a street scene along San Francisco's Market Street. The Ferry Building is visible in the upper right-hand corner of the photograph, while the Flatiron Building appears in the photograph's center.

Date: 5/14/1934

Caption: "Touring De Luxe -- All Set for a Comfortable Rest. Oct. 10, 1934." William and Grace McCarthy posing with posing with the automobile they traveled across the U.S. with, showing it set up for sleeping with a canvas pulled across the top and windows for privacy. The vehicle appears to be a Studebaker sedan, possibly dating from the mid-1920s.

Date: 10/10/1934

Caption: "Mobile Bay, Mobile, Alabama, June 21, 34." The photograph provides a view of Mobile Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama. The City of Mobile sits at its northwestern shore. Harbor facilities are evident in the photograph, and several small boats are docked at a wharf, including the tugboat Harry G. Lytle.

Date: 6/19/1934

Caption: "Venice," c. 1911. View of canal and bridge in Venice, California, with amusement "zone" in the distance. 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, in 1911, the name officially changed to Venice. By 1929, however, many of the canals had been filled in to create roadways, and those 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

Caption: "Jones's [sic] Beach. Where Thousands of Automobiles are Parked. Long Island, N.Y. Aug. 17, 1934." Photograph of a large parking area full of automobiles on Jones Beach Island. The Long Island State Park Commission began to develop the area for a park in the 1920s, dredging enough sand to connect several of the barrier islands south of Long Island and raising the elevation of the islands by fourteen feet to create one large park. It opened to the public in 1929. It is now a state park, with an estimated six million visitors each year.

Date: 8/17/1934

Caption: "Decorated Locomotive. Fifth Liberty Bond Drive -- Benicia, Calif." During World War I, the U.S. government raised funds for the war by issuing "liberty bonds." Citizens who purchased the bonds could later redeem them for the purchase price plus interest. Liberty Bond Drives were held to encourage people to purchase the bonds. This photograph shows a locomotive employed in the fifth Liberty Bond Drive, held in 1919. Decorated with bunting and flags to inspire patriotic feeling, Liberty Bond Trains crisscrossed the U.S. to round up funding.

Date: 1919

Caption: "Fourth and Market, One Year Later," 1907, shows much construction in progress, and completed, to the street and buildings one year after the 1906 earthquake and fires.

Date: 1907

Caption: "Granite Formation," c. 1917. A granite wall towers above the Merced River in this photograph of a portion of the Yosemite Valley.

Date: 1917

No caption, c. 1935. Ice skating rink at Curry Village in Yosemite National Park, built in 1929 at the location now occupied by the Curry Village parking lot.

Date: 1935

Caption: "A Block in Refugee Town," 1906. A row of structures built for the refugees of San Francisco who lost their homes after the earthquake and fires.

Date: 1906