About the Collection
Two collection strengths at DeGolyer Library are materials from or about the Western United States and materials relating to transportation history, particularly the history of railroads. Included in the U.S. West digital collection are photographs by important U.S. Western landscape photographers Carleton Watkins, Andrew Russell, Alexander Gardner, William Henry Jackson, John Hillers, Charles Roscoe Savage, F. Jay Haynes, Edward Curtis, Robert Benecke, and Laura Gilpin. DeGolyer Library holds several very rare U.S. Western accessions, including Alexander Gardner’s 1867 portfolio, Across the Continent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad (Route of the 35th Parallel), which is one of only four known copies of this early, significant landscape project.
Highlights include:
- Central Pacific Railroad Stereographs: ca. 1867-1869, various stereoscopic views of Central Pacific Railroad snow shed, bridges, and cuts.
- Collection of Carleton E. Watkins Western Stereoscopic Views: 1867-1881, stereographs of Yosemite, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, Mission Dolores, Truckee River Bridge, Farallone Islands, Oregon Railroad, Columbia River, and more.
- Collection of C.R. Savage Photographs: ca. 1870-1890, views by C.R. Savage of Salt Lake City and Utah, and more.
- Explorations in Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico and the Colorado River: 1871-1874, a boxed set of stereographs made by William Bell and Timothy O'Sullivan documenting surveys west of the 100th Meridian in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and New Mexico.
- Collection of F. Jay Haynes Photographs of Yellowstone National Park: ca. 1880-1890, including Broad panel views, Yellowstone Park; Portfolio, marbled cover; Portfolio, brown cover; and Album, tan cover.
- Journey Through the Yellowstone National Park and Northwestern Wyoming, 1883: Photographs document President Chester A. Arthur's excursion through Northwestern Wyoming to Yellowstone National Park in August 1883.
- Les Geysers d'Amerique: ca. 1871-1875, album of photographs made by William Henry Jackson while with the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories, includes views of geysers and geological formations in Yellowstone National Park.
- On the Kansas Pacific Railway: 1873, a series of photographs by Robert Benecke taken along the Kansas Pacific line for the railroad company. Included are views of Kansas, Colorado, and Missouri.
- Panorama of San Francisco from California St. Hill: 1877, by Eadweard Muybridge.
- San Francisco Album: Photographs of the Most Beautiful Views and Public Buildings of San Francisco: 1856, by G.R. Fardon.
- The Great Union Pacific Railroad, Excursion to the Hundredth Meridian: From New York to Platte City: 1867, a railroad excursion by the Union Pacific Railroad to the 100th Meridian from New York to Platte City. Described are incidents of the excursion, characteristics of the country, meeting at Platte City, and a reception at Chicago.
- Union Pacific Railroad Illustrations, 1869, and Union Pacific Railroad. Photographical Illustrations (also known as The Great West illustrated in a series of photographic views across the Continent taken along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad ...): 1869, by Andrew Russell.
- Western Expedition, Railroad and Survey Stereographs: 1866-1874, a group of stereos by Western expedition, railroad and survey photographers, Timothy O'Sullivan, E.O.Beaman, John K. Hillers, and Andrew J. Russell. Included is the Union Pacific Rail Road, Excursion to the 100th Meridian, October 1866.
