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, , which is one of only four known copies of this early, significant landscape project.
Highlights include:
- : ca. 1867-1869, various stereoscopic views of Central Pacific Railroad snow shed, bridges, and cuts.
- : 1867-1881, stereographs of Yosemite, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, Mission Dolores, Truckee River Bridge, Farallone Islands, Oregon Railroad, Columbia River, and more.
- : ca. 1870-1890, views by C.R. Savage of Salt Lake City and Utah, and more.
- : 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.
- : ca. 1880-1890, including ; ; ; and .
- : Photographs document President Chester A. Arthur's excursion through Northwestern Wyoming to Yellowstone National Park in August 1883.
- : 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.
- : 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.
- : 1877, by Eadweard Muybridge.
- : 1856, by G.R. Fardon.
- : 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.
- , 1869, and (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.
- : 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 .