Kern County Local History Photograph Collection

Kern County Library staff
Kern County Library
701 Truxtun Avenue
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Phone: (661) 868-0701
Email: http://www.kerncountylibrary.org/HTML/f/ref.html
URL: http://www.kerncountylibrary.org/
© 2010
Kern County Library


Descriptive Summary

Title: Kern County Local History Photograph Collection
Dates: 1853-2001
Collection number: Consult repository
Collector: Kern County Library
Collection Size: 260 photographs
Repository: Kern County Library
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Abstract: Kern County Library's photograph collection includes images of historical interest of Bakersfield and other areas of Kern County from the late 1800s to 2001. Images document buildings, business people, city views, earthquakes, education, floods, government officials, hospitals, hotels, industry, libraries, military facilities, organizations, parades and processions, petroleum industry, stores and shops, theaters, and transportation.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English and French

Access

Collection is available for research.

Publication Rights

Property rights reside with the Kern County Library.

Preferred Citation

Kern County Local History Photograph Collection. Kern County Library, Bakersfield, California.

Acquisition Information

This collection was created by Kern County Library staff from 2005-2007 as part of the Local History Digital Resources Project.

Processing Information

These photographs were assembled from various photograph collections in the Kern County Library's Jack Maguire Local History Room and digitized as part of a one-year project from July 2005 through June 2010. The project provides access to primary graphic resources documenting the history of Kern County, in accordance with the library's mission to make the world of knowledge and ideas accessible to the public, to provide for their educational, informational, and cultural needs. The project created a foundational virtual collection of images and an associated Encoded Archival Description (EAD) collection description, which are available to the public through the library's home page  in addition to the California Digital Library's Online Archive of California website .
The digitization project was part of the California Local History Digital Resources Project (LHDRP), a program supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Together with the California Digital Library (CDL), Califa, and InfoPeople, the LHDRP enables libraries to gather, preserve, and provide permanent access to local history materials maintained by California cultural heritage institutions through a single statewide access point. For more information, see the LHDRP website .
Project activities included conservation, photographic documentation (metadata), digitization, and cataloging of most photographs in the Maguire Local History Room vault. Julie Page of the California Preservation Program examined the collection in July 2005, and many of her recommendations regarding conservation and preservation were carried out during the course of the project.
Digitization of the first 225 images was performed by Northern Micrographics. The library scanned 35 additional images in-house.
For more detailed project information, please see the project website.

Scope and Content of Collection

Kern County Library's photograph collection includes images of historical interest of Bakersfield and other areas of Kern County from the late 1800s to 2001. Images document buildings, business people, city views, earthquakes, education, floods, hospitals, hotels, industry, libraries, military facilities, organizations, parades and processions, petroleum industry, stores and shops, theaters, and transportation.
Format is primarily black-and-white photographs, with 10% of the collection being color photographs. The photographs document city life and commercial activities. Of particular interest are a large group of photographs depicting the early history of the petroleum industry. The bulk of these photographs were taken by amateur photographers, and include captions and dates.
Items were selected from a wide range of photograph collections housed in the Kern County Library, including the photographs of Kathleen Walker; photographs from the "Shades of the Westside" and "Shades of the Hill" collections; the scrapbooks of Frederic Chandler Ripley, Jr., of the Chanslor-Canfield-Midway Oil Company; a scrapbook of the Kern County Land and Cattle Company, a scrapbook of Kern County schools' nutrition experiments, and the scrapbook of project engineer Roland Stone of the China Lake Naval Weapons Center.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection.

Names

Baker, Bill
Baxter, Warner
Bewick, G.T
Blake, George
Briggs, Paul
Bruce, Jimmy
Bufano, Bennie
Catani, J.R
Christo, 1935-2009
Crites, Arthur S.
Cuddy, John
Cullimore, Clarence
DeLaveaga, Mila (1910-2005)
Dopyera, Bob
Dowd, Ed
Durant, Russell Clifford
Dyke, H.R.
Earhart, Amelia
Fay, Ella
Ford, Tennessee Ernie 1919-1991
Fox Theater
Fritts, Evelyn Tiffany
Gable, Clarke
Gault family
Gault, Finis
Gault, Josephine; Gault, Pauline
Gault, Pauline
General Petroleum Corporation
George, Jessie
George, Travis
Gianopulos, Margaret
Hagin, Berdel
Havely, Carl
Higley, Bert
Hilliard, John Morrison
Jackson, Leroy
Jastro, Henry A.
Jefferson School
Laidley, Mariella
Langford, Sam
Lebeck, Peter
LeGar, Edward
LeGar, Kenneth C.
Lester, Jack
Livezey, Charles V.
Lopez, J. J
Lopez, Mary
Magee, Lois
Maxwell Jr., Adrian I.
Meachem, J.J.
Meachem, Kay
Meachem, Mary
Mills, Dale
Mitchell, John
Montez, Angelita
Murray, Bud
Napoleon, Cleo
Napoleon, George
Napoleon, Jules
Napoleon, Lucille
Nielsen, G.H.
O'Brien, Thomas
Parry, Mrs. Lloyd
Pavy, Ellen
Petersen, Adolf
Pettypoal, Ed
Press, Harry
Ripley, Frederic Chandler (1877-1960)
Rolf, Carrie
Ross, Charles P.
Rutan, Dick
Schmidt Jr., Walter
Schmidt, Olive
Scribner, W.H.
Shell, Mary K.
Siegal, Benny "Bugsy"
Skaggs, Lloyd
Spencer, Addie
Standard Oil Company
Stark, Mary
Stewart, Wesley
Stoner, Austin Foster (1862-1915)
Strongin, Seymore
Taft College
Tiffany, E.L
Tiffany, Margie
Tiffany, Met
Vasiliki, Peter
Warner, George
White, Jim
Wilson, Eleanor
Winter, Mary
Young, Robert
Wilson, Eleanor (1902-1991)

Places

Bakersfield (Calif.)
Arvin (Calif.)
China Lake (Calif.)
Delano (Calif.)
Fellows (Calif.)
Keene (Calif.)
Kern County (Calif.)
Lamont (Calif.)
Maricopa (Calif.)
Midland (Calif.)
Oildale (Calif.)
Randsburg (Calif.)
Rosamond (Calif.)
Taft (Calif.)
Tehachapi (Calif.)
Tejon Ranch (Calif.)
Wasco (Calif.)

Topics

Buildings--California--Kern County
Business People--California--Kern County
City views--California--Kern County
Earthquakes--California--Kern County
Education--Primary--California--Kern County
Education--Secondary-- California--Kern County
Floods--California--Kern County
Government Officials--California--Kern County
Hospitals--California--Kern County
Hotels--California--Kern County
Industry--California--Kern County
Libraries--California--Kern County
Military Facilities--California--Kern County
Organizations--California--Bakersfield
Parades & processions--California--Bakersfield
Petroleum Industry--California--Kern County
Stores and Shops--California--Kern County
Theaters--California--Kern County
Transportation--California--Kern County

Genres and Forms of Materials

Photographic prints