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How can I find USGS historical photographs?

The USGS Photographic Library, located at our library in Denver, Colorado, is an archive of still photographs dating from the 1870s and taken by USGS scientists as part of their field studies.

The works of pioneer photographers W.H. Jackson, T.H. O’Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, J.K. Hillers, Thomas Moran, A.J. Russell, E.O. Beaman, and William Bell are represented in the collection. Topics include USGS personnel, earthquakes, volcanoes, geologic hazards and other phenomena, historical mining operations, and earth science photographs.

Use the online USGS Photographic Library to access digital copies of photographs selected from the collection. Since only a portion of the collection’s 400,000 images are online, researchers are welcome to visit in person to view the collection, or our librarians can check the collection for you. For more information, call 303-236-1010.

A limited number of historical photographs are also in our online Multimedia Gallery and on USGS social media platforms like flickr and Instagram.

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Alaska Surveying

Does the Geographic Names Information System database contain entries for obsolete names and geographic features that no longer exist?

Yes, the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) includes features that no longer exist and names that are no longer used. If a feature no longer exists on the landscape, or the name has fallen out of use, the entry is marked “historical”. The designation “historical” has no reference to age, size, condition, extent of habitation, type of use, or any other factor. Examples of historical...

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Does the Geographic Names Information System database contain entries for obsolete names and geographic features that no longer exist?

Yes, the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) includes features that no longer exist and names that are no longer used. If a feature no longer exists on the landscape, or the name has fallen out of use, the entry is marked “historical”. The designation “historical” has no reference to age, size, condition, extent of habitation, type of use, or any other factor. Examples of historical...

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Men sitting around a table beside a wagon in 1870 Wyoming

Where can I find historical photographs from the Great Surveys of the American West?

A number of images from the "Great Surveys of the American West" can be downloaded through the online USGS Photographic Library. Before the USGS was established by Congress as a part of the Department of Interior, four surveys of the western United States took place between 1867 and 1879. Surveys led by Ferdinand Hayden and John Wesley Powell were sponsored by the Interior Department, and Surveys...

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Where can I find historical photographs from the Great Surveys of the American West?

A number of images from the "Great Surveys of the American West" can be downloaded through the online USGS Photographic Library. Before the USGS was established by Congress as a part of the Department of Interior, four surveys of the western United States took place between 1867 and 1879. Surveys led by Ferdinand Hayden and John Wesley Powell were sponsored by the Interior Department, and Surveys...

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Publications Warehouse

How can I find out-of-print USGS publications?

Out-of-print USGS publications and maps, depending on series and date, can be obtained in various ways: Check the USGS Publications Warehouse for online availability. If the publication is listed but does not have a link to a digital version, contact the Publications Warehouse Team to request a digital copy. Borrow from your local public, academic, or corporate library through a request for...

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How can I find out-of-print USGS publications?

Out-of-print USGS publications and maps, depending on series and date, can be obtained in various ways: Check the USGS Publications Warehouse for online availability. If the publication is listed but does not have a link to a digital version, contact the Publications Warehouse Team to request a digital copy. Borrow from your local public, academic, or corporate library through a request for...

Learn More
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How can I find publications of the USGS?

The USGS Publications Warehouse is an online catalog for searching all USGS publications and downloading free digital versions. USGS Libraries contain sets of all USGS publications plus many state geological survey publications. The public go in person to any USGS library to do research, but USGS library materials can only be borrowed by placing a request with your local library for Interlibrary...

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How can I find publications of the USGS?

The USGS Publications Warehouse is an online catalog for searching all USGS publications and downloading free digital versions. USGS Libraries contain sets of all USGS publications plus many state geological survey publications. The public go in person to any USGS library to do research, but USGS library materials can only be borrowed by placing a request with your local library for Interlibrary...

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USGS Embudo Personnel

Why does the USGS use the spelling "gage" instead of "gauge"?

The spelling of “gage” is part of our very rich USGS history. We have used that spelling for over a hundred years. In 1888, USGS Director John Wesley Powell met a very forward-thinking graduate student named Frederick Haynes Newell. Powell was so impressed that he made Newell the first full-time appointee to the new Irrigation Survey, which was created to investigate the potential for dams and...

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Why does the USGS use the spelling "gage" instead of "gauge"?

The spelling of “gage” is part of our very rich USGS history. We have used that spelling for over a hundred years. In 1888, USGS Director John Wesley Powell met a very forward-thinking graduate student named Frederick Haynes Newell. Powell was so impressed that he made Newell the first full-time appointee to the new Irrigation Survey, which was created to investigate the potential for dams and...

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USGS Cartographer at Work
Image: USGS Cartographer at Work
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USGS Cartographer at Work
Image: USGS Topographic Field Party
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Image: USGS Topographer at Work
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USGS Topographer at Work
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USGS Embudo Personnel
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USGS personnel at the Embudo Station, New Mexico
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USGS Topographers at Work
Filter Total Items: 16

Minerals, lands, and geology for the common defence and general welfare, Volume 4, 1939-1961: A history of geology in relation to the development of public-land, federal science, and mapping policies and the development of mineral resources in the United

The fourth volume of the comprehensive history of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is titled “Minerals, Lands, and Geology for the Common Defence and General Welfare—Volume 4, 1939‒1961.” The title is based on a passage in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution. The late Mary C. Rabbitt (1915‒2002), a geophysicist who served with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (1948‒1949) and the USGS (1949‒19
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Mary C. Rabbitt, Clifford M. Nelson
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Core Science Systems Mission Area, Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, USGS Library, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program

A 125 year history of topographic mapping and GIS in the U.S. Geological Survey 1884-2009, part 1: 1884-1980

On December 4–5, 1884, John Wesley Powell persuaded the U.S. Congress to authorize the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to begin systematic topographic mapping of the United States.
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E. Lynn Usery, Dalia Varanka, Michael P. Finn
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Core Science Systems Mission Area, Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS), Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS)

Celebrating 125 years of the U.S. Geological Survey

In the 125 years since its creation, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has provided the science information needed to make vital decisions and safeguard society. In this anniversary year, we celebrate the mission that has guided us, the people and traditions that have shaped us, and the science and technology that will lead us into the future. Through a wealth of long-term data and research, w
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Kathleen K. Gohn

Digital archive : previously unpublished expedition sketches by Henry W. Elliott united with the Preliminary field report of the United States Geological Survey of Colorado and New Mexico, 1869, by F.V. Hayden

No abstract available.
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Kevin C. McKinney

Records and history of the United States Geological Survey

This publication contains two presentations in Portable Document Format (PDF). The first is Renee M. Jaussaud's inventory of the documents accessioned by the end of 1997 into Record Group 57 (Geological Survey) at the National Archives and Records Administration's (NARA) Archives II facility in College Park, Md., but not the materials in NARA's regional archives. The second is Mary C. Rabbitt's 'T
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Clifford M. Nelson
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Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, USGS Library, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program

A history of the Water Resources Branch, U.S. Geological Survey; Volume I, from predecessor surveys to June 30, 1919

This volume is the first in a series of chronological summaries of the activities and achievements of the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey. First published in 1939 through private subscription by interested personnel, Volume I is now available as a public document. The manuscripts of the following three volumes that cover the years 1919-47, all by the author of this volume, w
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R. Follansbee

The United States Geological Survey: 1879-1989

The United States Geological Survey was established on March 3, 1879, just a few hours before the mandatory close of the final session of the 45th Congress, when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed the bill appropriating money for sundry civil expenses of the Federal Government for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1879. The sundry civil expenses bill included a brief section establishing a new a
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Mary C. Rabbitt
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Minerals, lands, and geology for the common defence and general welfare, Volume 3, 1904-1939 : A history of geology in relation to the development of public-land, federal-science, and mapping policies and the development of mineral resources in the United

Mrs. Rabbitt's third volume covers the years 1904 to 1939, from the beginning of the conservation movement under Theodore Roosevelt to the beginning of World War II. From a national perspective, these were years of great development and change in the use of energy, trouble in the coal industry, and a great expansion in the oil industry. They were also years in which the public perceived for the fi
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Mary C. Rabbitt
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Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, USGS Library, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program

A Brief History of the U.S. Geological Survey

No abstract available.
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Mary C. Rabbitt
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Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program, USGS Library

Minerals, lands, and geology for the common defence and general welfare, Volume 2, 1879-1904 : A history of geology in relation to the development of public-land, federal-science, and mapping policies and the development of mineral resources in the United

In the traditional view of the Survey's first 25 years, which are the subject of much of this volume, John Wesley Powell, with his broad view of science and advanced ideas of land and water in the West, is the heroic figure. Clarence King is dismissed as brilliant but with a limited view of science as mining geology, and Charles D. Walcott is regarded primarily as a brilliant paleontologist chosen
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Mary C. Rabbitt
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Science Synthesis, Analysis and Research Program, USGS Library, Science Analytics and Synthesis (SAS) Program

Minerals, lands, and geology for the common defence and general welfare, Volume 1, Before 1879 : A history of public lands, federal science and mapping policy, and development of mineral resources in the United States

This volume, the first of a four-volume study, is concerned with events in the United States before the establishment of the U.S. Geological Survey, during the years in which geology evolved as a science and began to influence economic development and national policy. Subsequent volumes continue the story but focus on the Survey and its role in the events and developments of later years. The metho
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Mary C. Rabbitt
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Images of the U.S. Geological Survey, 1879-1979

This collection of photographs reflects 100 years of public service by the U.S. Geological Survey since its founding on March 3, 1879: "... for the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain."
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E. L. Yochelson, C.M. Nelson
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Historical Maps at Your Fingertips

Earlier this month, the USGS launched “TopoView 2.1”, an enhancement to the current popular TopoView mapping service that lets users discover...

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USGS Continues to Write History

The fourth volume of the comprehensive history of the U.S. Geological Survey, Minerals, Lands, and Geology for the Common Defence and General Welfare...

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