Well, I know theses are books, and may belong in the Literature section, but seeing as they are mostly photographic history I feel that they belong here. They are a record of the history of specific areas & locales of America. Oh, they do have some brief written history in them which is interesting too but it is mainly the photographs & the accompanying text that are the most interesting. I started picking up the books about our local areas & home towns. Paso Robles & San Luis Obispo. There are homes, buildings and other things in these towns that I see every day but was curious about the history of them. These books bring those to life. There are families called out in these books about my area that I've grown up with that have been in this area since the mid 1800's. Jessie James' Uncle, Drury James, was one of the Founders of Paso Robles & The old El Paso de Robles Inn. Several buildings & homes that were built & photographed back in the late 1800's are still standing & being used today. It is neat to look at the old photographs and see the homes today. Some have not changed one iota, while others have had their modifications & additions. One place was an early auto garage that took up about half a block. Now that place is a huge antique store, but you can still see the remnants of the old auto garage here & there inside & outside the building. There are buildings that are long gone that shouldn't be, because what they replaced them with just doesn't measure up.
I am always interested in the history of an area that I reside in. These books help fill the gaps & give a visual history. I'm sure there is a book in this series for just about any area that we live in, in this Nation of ours. Even the old military bases, places like Camp Robers & Camp San Luis Obospo.
Have any of you picked up these books for your area that you either now live in or the area that you grew up in? What little tidbits of information did you find out about your hometown or local surroundings?
Here's a link to the publishing site that has a list of the books and the areas that they represent.
http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SRCH&srch_series=1&sort=name.asc&Search=Images%20of%20America
When we move up to the Pacific Northwest I'm going to pick up a couples of these that represent the area. These books can be found in the travel or reference sections of just about any local book store. Borders Books and Barnes & Noble carry a respectable collection for the region that you are in. If you have one of those local, check it out.
Cheers!
Dan
