Constance Talmadge (1898-1973) was a star of the silent screen who made her mark in 1918 when she appeared in D W Griffith’s “Intolerance” b...

Barbary Coast was the red light district of San Francisco. It sprang into existence in 1849 with the California Gold Rush and for 60 yea...

This ancient Giant Sequoia tree was estimated (in the 1920s) to be 4846 years old, a suspiciously precise number. Whatever the true figu...

In April last year the Guardian retold the story of the Great American Streetcar Scandal . It’s a depressing tale of unregulated capital...

It’s a great day when a card like this turns up. All our expectations of postcard imagery are overturned. A steam powered freight train...

This extravagantly produced book dates from around 1910 and promotes the scenic value of a train journey through the High Sierras from S...

Meet Tex the Trainer, resplendent in shiny lace-up boots, necktie and suspenders. Tex makes light of his celebrity status as he demonstr...