Pictorials category: 9720 books

The Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon (GRGH&M) Railway was part of a network of electric railroads that spread across southern Michigan in the early part of the 20th century. For nearly 30 years, the railway connected Grand Rapids with Muskegon and Grand Haven on the Lake Michigan shore....

Sayre dates to 1783, when a gristmill was built along Shepard Creek. Greater Sayre began around 1870 at a railroad junction near the Susquehanna River. Activity at that junction led to the community eventually named Sayre. Sayre experienced phenomenal growth with the expansion of the Lehigh Valley Railroad...

The Chicago Great Western Railway (CGW) was a Midwestern line that operated in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. Although this territory was served by much larger systems, the CGW was able to retain its share of passenger and freight business for 83 years through aggressive management,...

When Cortland was incorporated as a village in 1853, its population was mainly transplanted New Englanders and Irish immigrants, and it encompassed territory 1 mile from east to west. By 1871, two rail lines crossed the village, and their cargos of coal encouraged the development of industries, particularly...

Everyone lucky enough to live on Long Island already knows that it�s like nowhere else in the world. From lighthouses and a one-hundred-year-old carousel to World War II camps and missile sites, Long Island native Ralph Brady reveals the secrets to what makes this little-big island so special with...

The golden age of postcards coincided with several momentous events in San Francisco history, including a major earthquake and fire destroying over one third of the city, rapid reconstruction, strikes, political upheaval, parades, festivals, and a world�s fair. From World War I through World War II,...

In 1778, the first sailing vessel with cargo holds, the Archange, a schooner built for prominent British trader John Askin, found �quiet waters� in Milwaukee Bay. These quiet waters and the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic Rivers made Milwaukee a favorable destination for early settlers. Maritime...

In 1829, the Humane Hose Company and the Schuylkill Hydraulians Engine Company organized in the booming town of Pottsville, a mining center in Pennsylvania's anthracite coal region. Fire protection was urgently needed for this growing community. New fire companies such as the Good Intent, the Rough and...

On March 14, 1863, the New Jersey Legislature created the township of West Orange by combining all of the land of the existing Fairmount Township, formed only a year earlier, with a section of neighboring Orange. It created West Orange with its present-day boundaries and gave the new town a separate...

Surrounded by Long Beach, the relatively small city of Signal Hill has a rich and colorful history. Because they used the hill as a view and signal point for the surrounding ranchos, early Spanish settlers called the area Loma Sental, which translates to Signal Hill. At the turn of the 20th century,...

Ten miles west of Chicago on the west bank of the Des Plaines River sits Maywood, a village that was founded in 1869 by seven New England businessmen who established the Maywood Land Company. This prairie community, carefully laid out along the railroad, experienced a population boom after the Great...

In April 1834, the Green-Bay Intelligencer newspaper reported that a sawmill was being erected in a new settlement on the Milwaukee River. Less than one year later, the paper reported that �Milwaukey [sic], which 10 months ago, had only a single trading house, has now some 20 or 30 houses, and two...

Port Washington is located 17 miles east of Manhattan on Long Island�s North Shore. Once known as the �shellfish garden� of New York City, it is known for its bounteous bays, yachting and boatbuilding, celebrity residents, and pioneering aviation activities. Immigration, technology, economic changes,...

The first German immigrants arrived in Louisville nearly two hundred years ago. By 1850, they represented nearly 20 percent of the population, and they influenced every aspect of daily life, from politics to fine art. In 1861, Moses Levy opened the famed Levy Brothers department store. Kunz's "The...