In addition, the listings are arranged by subject-such as transportation, Native American life, military life, and mining-and thereunder chronologically. The name of the photographer together with the date of the item is given if available.

Information following quoted captions and all captions without quotes has been provided by the compiler. Within quoted captions, bracketed material has been added by the compiler of this list. The captions in quotation marks are those of the photographer or the person who cared for the photographs before they came into the custody of the National Archives. At that time Arizona, the last of the contiguous 48 United States, was admitted to the Union. While the records of Federal agencies continue to document changes on the face of western America and the efforts toward effecting some kind of progress, an arbitrary cutoff date of 1912 has been used. Listed below is a selection of photographs from the records of these agencies within the holdings of the Still Picture Branch at the National Archives. Some of these photographs have found their way into the National Archives as record materials of several Federal bureaus and offices, such as the Bureaus of Land Management (Record Group 49), Indian Affairs (Record Group 75), Public Roads (Record Group 30), Weather (Record Group 27), Agricultural Economics (Record Group 83), and Reclamation (Record Group 115) the Fish and Wildlife Service (Record Group 22), the Geological Survey (Record Group 57), Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitrations (Record Group 76), Office of the Chief of Engineers (Record Group 77), the Forest Service (Record Group 95), and the Signal Corps (Record Group 111). It is indeed a wonder that so many photographs have survived the hardships of the western experience, because early negatives were made of large glass plates. Private citizens and Government officials took the recently developed camera on their western adventures to record nature's curious sights and the marks that they made on the landscape. This transition from a 'wild' western frontier into organized segments of a federal union is documented in photographs. The discovery of gold would soon draw thousands more across the country. The religious persecution of the Mormons had led them to begin their migration westward by this time.

The West had long been explored and settled, however, the opportunity for legitimate land ownership along with other historic events caused a greater number of people to travel. (69-N-13606C)īy 1848 the United States had acquired official title to the contiguous land stretching westward to the Pacific, south to the Rio Grande, and north to the 49th parallel. Cover photograph: A Pioneer Family in Loup Valley, Nebr., ca.

Make Mine a Cowboy by Sandy Sullivan