Pictorials category: 9720 books

In an area that was little more than a thick forest lining Buffalo Bayou, Houston was founded in 1836 by the Allen brothers and named after the Republic of Texas�s beloved general Sam Houston. By 1860, there were 5,000 residents in Houston, wooden sidewalks, a few shell-paved roads, and five railroads....

Ames has been referred to as a railroad town; more correctly the railroad established itself at the same moment that Iowa Agricultural College, now Iowa State University, was taking form. While the railroad helped to develop Ames, it was the college that drew people with names like Welch, Beardshear,...

Brookville photographer Frederick E. Knapp documented the events, people, and places of Brookville, the seat of Jefferson County, between 1898 and 1945. Teacher and amateur photographer Wrayanne L. Clapie revisited those sites in 2008. Now a federally registered historic district, Brookville�s Main...

Located in the geographical center of the state, Berlin is best known as the Home of the Yankee Peddler. The first white settler, John Beckley, arrived in 1650, followed by a few families from Farmington in the late 1600s. Initially, Berlin was both a religious and an agrarian community. Farming was...

In 1837, Henry Janes applied for a post office called Black Hawk for the southern Wisconsin settlement where he ran a ferry across the Rock River. The postmaster general, however, noticed a town already by that name in the Iowa part of Wisconsin Territory, and he assigned the name Janesville, with Janes...

The town of Berlin on Maryland�s Eastern Shore was founded on a 300acre tract of land called Burley, part of a land grant to Col. William Stevens that was surveyed in 1677. The town developed on the crossroads of the Sinepuxent Road, going east toward the Atlantic coast and the Philadelphia Post Road,...

The first land claim in what would become the city of Ballard was made in 1852, but it wasn�t until a ship captain named William Rankin Ballard lost a bet with a business partner and found himself the owner of 160 acres of seemingly worthless land that the city prospered and became the �Shingle Capital...

Rochester: Labor and Leisure is a visual celebration of the industrial strengths and the commercial successes of an earlier time. Located on the Genesee River, the city used the waterway to full advantage. Industries lined the riverbank, and the town thrived with enterprise and initiative. Rochester's...

Rochester owes much to those who made it the exceptional andunique city it has become. Many of the civic, commercial, industrial, and entertainment leaders who brought fame and prosperity to the city are saluted in Rochester Leaders and Their Legacies. A gallery of rare photographs reveals the images...

With its roots as a small community known as Log Town in the 1750s, agriculture was the way of life for people in Gaithersburg. Today most of the farmland has been developed into shopping centers, businesses, and housing developments. With growth, Gaithersburg has become a center of science and technology...

Railroads were key to Rockford�s rise as a thriving manufacturing and commercial center. With an area population of over 200,000 residents and a reputation for manufactured goods, Rockford had a critical need for railroads into the bust years of the 1970s. Eventually four railroads rose to prominence...

Coatesville has always been a city of visionaries, from its namesake, Moses Coates, a prosperous farmer and the area's first postmaster, to Rebecca Lukens, the "Woman of Steel" and one of the first female business executives in the United States. As the Lukens Steel Company prospered along the banks...

�The perfume of the orange blossoms . . . the beauty of every scene, combine to make me wonder whether I am not in Paradise,� wrote one visitor to Winter Park, Florida, in 1918. Just five miles north of Orlando, Winter Park�s oak-lined brick streets and its quiet lakes have been attracting visitors...

Alfred and Alfred Station reveals the heritage of a southwestern New York State community nestled in the hills of Allegany County. With more than 200 pictures, the story honors the early pioneers who in 1807 permanently settled on forested land once inhabited by the Seneca Nation. It focuses on not only...