Monday, July 04, 2005

Houseworth Images

The set of Houseworth stereo halves from the Society of California Pioneers, all 1495 of them, have been placed on the California On-Line website.  

It's worth going through – lots of good size and very clear bitmap images, including some railroad material I had never seen before.  Like CP Huntington in its first years as SP #1, still with its Danforth sand box and basket bell cradle, several San Francisco & San Jose views, including a couple of Mason built #11, plus some earlier ones.  Also most of the Western Pacific views, the Placerville wagon route to the Comstock, and the Dutch Flat and Donner wagon road route.  And of course lots of early Central Pacific views, both during construction and after.  

The down side is they are organized randomly, not in numerical order (although they do include the numbers and captions).  They do have a topical filter that can sort for similar images.  

Most views are between the early 1860s and the early 1870s, with a few unnumbered images for the 1880s.  

Kyle K. Wyatt
Curator of History & Technology
California State Railroad Museum
111 "I" Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

My work address is: kwyatt@parks.ca.gov
My personal address is: kylewyatt@aol.com