Western History books from Bored Feet Press
Do you want to know more about the history of photography in the Western USA? From Native Americans to Chinese Americans to Italian Americans in the Western USA, you'll find fascinating reading and research material with these selections from Bored Feet Press.
For more information about any of these books, click on the title.
Dark Journey
The Tragedy of the Donner Party
Allan W. Eckert
A compelling, accessible, historically accurate new narrative about the Donner-Reed Party's traumatic journey west. Eckert digested all the available documents — books, journals, letters and more — then produced a comprehensive yet poignant and dramatic account of what is known about this tormented journey.
Two Peoples, One Place
Humboldt History, Volume One
Ray Raphael & Freeman House
In this fascinating account by two acclaimed and accomplished authors, the reader views what happened when Euro-Americans and Native Americans competed for a place they both relished. This book details Humboldt's native peoples and their contact with the newcomers.
An Everyday History of Somewhere
Ray Raphael
This classic, award-winning people's history of California's north coast is an evocative blend of oral history and narrative. These stories resonate with truth for anyone who has ever visited the area. As the subtitle says, "Being the true story of Indians, deer, homesteaders, potatoes, loggers, trees, fishermen, salmon, and other living things in the back woods of Northern California."
Elusive Truth—Four Photographers at Manzanar: Ansel Adams, Clem Albers, Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake
Gerald H. Robinson,
Introduction by Archie Miyatake
In 1942 the United States government declared 110,000 American Japanese residents of the U.S. threat to national security and incarcerated them in eleven relocation camps around the country. This book tells the story of one such camp, Manzanar.
On the Road with Mark Twain in California and Nevada
New Revised Edition
George J. Williams III
This book details what is known of Twain’s years in the West, providing details of his stay in each of more than two dozen towns he lived in and visited. This book also tells visitors what they will find in these towns today.
The Donner Party
Weathering the Storm
Mark McLaughlin
This unique look at the 1846-47 winter of entrapment the Donner Party suffered in the snowbound Sierra Nevada focuses on the extremely harsh conditions of that long and legendary winter.
Mark Twain and the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
Revised Edition
George J. Williams III
How Mark Twain's humorous frog story launched his legendary career. On a prospecting trip to Angel's Camp, Twain first heard the tales of the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Twain's version of the tale became an international success and launched his legendary career.
Mark Twain: His Life in Virginia City, Nevada
2nd Revised Edition
George J. Williams III
This well researched account of Clemens' twenty-one months as reporter for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1985.
Game of my Life: San Francisco Giants
Memorable Stories of Giants Baseball, 2nd Edition
Matt Johanson
From the first San Francisco Giants game at Seals Stadium in 1958 through the team's glorious and remarkable world championship in 2010, Johanson recalls the greatest games chosen by Giants heroes, both famous and obscure.
Rosa May
The Search for a Mining Camp Legend
George Williams III
Rosa May worked as a prostitute and madam in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s in towns of Virginia City, Carson City and Bodie. Rosa May died in Bodie while nursing sick miners. Despite her efforts to save lives, she was banished to Bodie's outcast cemetery.
qh awàla·li: water coming down place
A History of Gualala, Mendocino County, California
Annette White-Parks
A history of Gualala, bordering Mendocino and Sonoma Counties on the California Pacific west coast from the early 1800s to the mid 20th century. 160 pages illuminated with over 50 historical photographs, 8 original maps.
Aurelius O. Carpenter
Photographer of the Mendocino Frontier
Marvin A. Schenck, Karen Holmes, and Sherrie Smith-Ferri
Aurelius Carpenter photographed the frontier of northern California's rural Mendocino County region.He documented the lives of Pomo Indians and White settlers, the coming of the railroad, logging and shipping industries, and the agricultural endeavors and natural beauties of the area.
Circles of Life
Katsina Imagery on Hopi Wicker Basketry
Judith W. Finger and Andrew D. Finger
The Hopi people are well known for their skill and artistry in creating ceramics, jewelry, and most especially, katsina dolls, but this is the first book to detail the basketry art.
A Fair Distance
Lois Boblett's Western Memoir, 1851-1922
L. Darlene Spargo
A Fair Distance is the richly detailed memoir of Lois Boblett (1844-1925). L. Darlene Spargo weaves meticulously researched historical details through Boblett's memoir. Boblett's words provide new insight into the roles women played in the Western Migration.
California Gold
The Story of the Gold Rush
Phyllis Zauner
In this new reprint of this rowdy California Gold Rush account, originally published in 1980, Zauner captures the fury and color of the days of ‘49, and even ‘48. Using the letters of gold rush miners, diaries and newspaper accounts, this books reveals the crazy times of Gold Rush California, fueled by one of the largest human migrations the world has known. Zauner describes many California Gold Rush towns in their early days and some of what remains.
The Lovely Sea View
A Study of the Marine Photographs
Published by Gustave Le Gray, 1856-1858
Ken Jacobson
This important monograph on the photographer Le Gray was published in a limited edition. Gorgeous duotones and extraordinary detective work transport the reader into the world of French and English art photography in the 1850s.
Arizona Real Photo Postcards
A History & Portfolio
Jeremy Rowe
Rowe explores interesting facets of early Arizona as visually captured by professional and amateur postcard photographers. The topics include mining, labor unrest, the advent of the automobile, Indians, disasters, the Mexican Border War, and photography.
My Checkered Life
Luzena Stanley Wilson in Early California
Fern Henry
This historic memoir is Luzena Stanley Wilson's classic account of her family's 1849 overland journey to California and their experiences there during and after the Gold Rush.
William Henry Jackson
An Annotated Bibliography 1862-1995
Thomas H. Harrell
An essential resource on a great western photographer.
Bury My Bones in America
The Saga of a Chinese Family
Lani Ah Tye Farkas
One of the few published histories of a Chinese family in America, this book provides a rare glimpse of a chinese-american family, through the Gold Rush, Tong Wars, early San Francisco, the 1906 Earthquake, opium dens, and international diplomacy.
California
Its Gold and Its Inhabitants
Sir Henry Huntley
British nobelman Huntley spent most of his life in the New World. This is a reprint of his memoirs of travels and adventures in northern California during the Gold Rush, first published in the 19th century.
Woodleaf Legacy
Story of a California Gold Rush Town
Rosemary Mossinger
This lively history, describes life in a small northern Sierra town. It begins with the native Maidu village, then documents the fur traders, the early mines, through years of resorts, stagecoaches and stage robbers, and lumbering.
The Savage View
Charles Savage, Pioneer Mormon Photographer
Bradley W. Richards, M.D.
The only full length biography of an excellent western photographer who emigrated to Utah in 1855, then captured more than 50 years of western landscapes, faces,and places.
Photographers in Arizona 1850-1920
A History and Directory
Jeremy Rowe
This book presents a 70-year visual history of a legendary land, an exciting window into one of the most colorful periods and places in our western heritage.
Thirty Years Ago 1849-1879
Gold Rush Memories of a Daguerrotype Artist
George Dornin
A forty-niner and photographer spins his true life Gold Rush story. Edited by renowned photo historian Peter Palmquist.
Humble Work and Mad Wanderings
Street Life in the Machine Age
Ken Appollo
This remarkable book presents fascinating images from an impassioned photo-historian of street life. Striking images and stories depict street people from the last half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.
Great Spirit
North American Indian Portraits
Edward McAndrews
Portraits of Native Americans by little-known photographers.
The Remarkable Carlo Gentile
Pioneer Italian Photographer
Cesare Marino
This book tells the intriguing story of Buffalo Bill's first Wild West Show photographer. The Italian photographer Carlo Gentile left his native land at age 21 and traveled around the world, landing in San Francisco in the 1850s.
Dassonville
California Photographer (1879-1957)
Peter Palmquist; Researched and edited by Susan Herzig and Paul Hertzmann
This beautiful book is the first about an influential, superb California photographer widely published in his day and the winner of numerous prizes and honors.
Natives, Newcomers, Exiles, Fugitives
Northern California Writers and their Work
Jonah Raskin
In this book Jonah Raskin examines thirty northern California writers (fifteen of them women) and their work in the context of the region in which they live and the literary community there.
American Photographic Patents
The Daguerrotype & Wet Plate Era 1840-1880
Janice G. Schimmelman
This new book lists 810 invention patents and 22 design patents pertaining to a wide range of photographic processes, equipment and methodology.
Twenty Remarkable Women Seen Through their Handwriting
Marian Gimby Brannan
Master Graphoanalyst Brannan presents short biographies of twenty highly accomplished women, then uniquely and dramatically pairs their histories with an analysis of their handwriting, creating a vivid personal encounter with each subject.
