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From the largest explosion in human history to the infamous Port Chicago Mutiny trial, Concord After World War II captures pivotal moments in California's history.

Explosive growth after the war made Concord a popular stop for presidents, celebrities, and musical events. A small town of about 1,500 people in the 1940s now is home to more than 120,000. Jazz musician Dave Brubeck was born here, and the internationally acclaimed Concord Blue Devils still perform here. The 1960s saw the birth of the annual Concord Jazz Festival and Concord Jazz Records. Concord became sister cities with Kitakami, Japan, in the 1970s. The controversial Spirit Poles were erected in the 1980s, and De La Salle High School’s unbelievable 151-game football winning streak began in the 1990s.

Area native Joel A. Harris is the author of Images of America: Concord and Past & Present: Concord. He is a state bar certified specialist in estate planning, trust, and probate law. Harris is a board member of the Concord Historical Society, who provided many of the outstanding images presented in this book. Other wonderful photographs are provided courtesy of the Contra Costa County Historical Society and local residents.

Brimming with the heart of Portland's Chinese American culture, Portland's Chinatowns demonstrates resilience, family, and the importance of the history behind the community of immigrants that made Oregon their home.

Portland’s early Chinese Americans faced exclusion laws, racial discrimination, and forced relocation, leading to the New Chinatown/Japantown Historical District in downtown Portland. From modest beginnings in labor intensive industries such as hand laundries, restaurants, and agriculture, many were able to eventually own property when the city laws changed, and their children had opportunities to pursue higher education and other professions. Chinese and Chinese Americans proudly served in every US conflict since the Civil War despite the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which limited citizenship. Historic photographs document their challenges, successes, and contributions, enriching our understanding of the American immigrant experience from the 1850s to the present day. These images celebrate the resiliency of Portland’s Chinese community as they have helped create a vibrant multicultural city.

Dr. Kristin Wong is a clinical pharmacist and a fourth-generation Chinese American whose family has been actively involved in the Portland Chinese community. These vintage photographs from the Portland Chinatown Museum, along with public archives and private collections, reveal the fascinating history that dates back over 175 years of what was America’s second-largest Chinatown in 1900.

Secondary education for African Americans in Washington, DC, marked a defining moment in the history of a people less than a decade removed from chattel slavery and legally prohibited from learning. In 1862, when legislation passed creating a “colored” school system, an educational foundation had been laid; by the decade’s end, thousands of people had received a basic education, and thousands more were in need.

A high school was needed to train grammar school graduates to teach in the rapidly growing system, which ultimately became a catalyst for academic excellence. When the first courses for Preparatory High School for Colored Youth were organized in a church basement in 1870, Black youth embarked on a journey of life-changing academic and personal growth. Many graduates not only became notable in fields ranging from arts to sciences, but even more helped to expand the city’s school system. Armstrong, Dunbar, and Cardozo High Schools emerged from this segregated system, each offering rigorous academic curriculums while shaping students’ civic, social, and physical development. 

Alice K. Thomas, educated in Washington, DC, holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and a master’s degree and doctorate in sociology. She writes and lectures on topics related to the experiences of African Americans. Her encounters with DC graduates often lead to nostalgic stories of the “good old days.” 

Lying deep within southwest Florida, the Big Cypress National Preserve protects over 1,000 square miles of the Big Cypress Swamp. Home to namesake cypress tree swamps as well as prairies, forested islands, ghost orchids, alligators, Florida panthers, and waterbirds, its human history spans thousands of years, becoming a refuge for the unconquered Seminole and Miccosukee people. Nearly inaccessible until the 1920s, when opened by roads and the railroad, it was America’s last frontier, settled by hardy pioneers, plume and alligator hunters, farmers, smugglers, and moonshiners. Avoiding large-scale development, the preserve was established over 50 years ago to protect the swamp and Everglades water resources while facilitating compatible traditional uses. Today, the preserve continues to support its swamp heritage, both natural and cultural, enabling Seminoles, Miccosukees, backwoodsmen, recreationists, and passing motorists to appreciate its unique environment.

James A. Kushlan is an author, conservationist, and South Florida historian with a University of Miami doctorate focused on the Big Cypress Swamp. He has authored 12 books. Kirsten Hines is an author, photographer, and conservationist. Her writing and photography highlight wildlife, including in her recent books Wild Florida: An Animal Odyssey and Birds of Florida. This is the fifth book they have coauthored for Arcadia Publishing on South Florida. 

Nineteenth-century Chinese pioneers voyaged across the vast oceans to reach the last steamboat stop in the 旄舝 Gold Mountain, bringing centuries of wisdom from China’s ancient civilization.

Tehama County played a crucial role in shaping California’s early statehood. Its fertile terrain presented ample opportunities to succeed. Despite harsh discriminatory laws and racially driven tunnel folklore to perpetuate a negative narrative, five original families— Foey (Wong), 謯 Chew (Yuen), 鄺 Fong, 衒 On (Liu), and 蠊 Chin—made Red Bluff their permanent home, thriving as merchants and productive citizens. Individuals like Dr. Chew Yuen and Bo Do Hong operated traditional Chinese medicine practices throughout America with Red Bluff as their headquarters. Tehama County blended cultures, with its most distinguishable townsmen attending an annual Chinese and American banquet in Red Bluff’s Chinatown, merging the two cultures together. The deep bonds formed would culminate into a powerful petition by 20 influential leaders in support of the Chew family, who were detained at Angel Island in 1916, proving that Tehama County valued the Chinese community. This single act of kindness set the stage for a 20th-century Chinese American pioneer to be born, Dr. Kenneth Kendall Chew, and his research in aquaculture would change the world.

The Helen and Joe Chew Foundation has selected rare images from its collection and invited Chinese American descendants to narrate their origin stories, preserving the legacy of these pioneering families for future generations.

The wild west is exemplified in a pictorial history of Rural Roswell and South Springs Ranch, capturing accounts of ranching, war, and outlaws in the southeast region.

Years ago, much of southeastern New Mexico belonged to the “Cattle King of the Pecos,” John Simpson Chisum.

His vast domain stretched up both sides of the mighty Pecos River, ranging from just south of Fort Sumner all the way down to Seven Rivers.

Chisum faced many challenges, surviving both the Lincoln County War and threats from its star player, Billy the Kid. From the 1870s until his death in 1884, Chisum called the Roswell region home. Significant ranching operations included Bosque Grande north of Roswell and the South Springs Ranch south of the fledgling town.

Chisum’s various ranching outfits and those of his successors, like J.J. Hagerman, J.P. White’s LFD Farm, the Oasis Ranch of East Grand Plains, farms and ranches of friends like Pat Garrett and John W. Poe, plus many other unique facets and locations in rural Roswell, are included in historic photographs. 

John LeMay, author of over 50 historical titles, including Images of America: Roswell, and the Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico use their extensive photograph archives to chronicle the history of John Chisum, his South Springs Ranch, and rural Roswell with over 200 rarely seen images. 

Pirate history, costumes, and decorated boats and ships have been the center of the famed Gasparilla Pirate Festival for over a century.

Since 1904, Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla has staged an annual mock pirate invasion of Tampa, Florida, a tradition that has become known as Gasparilla. The name of the event originated from stories and tales regarding Gasparilla, a legendary pirate who reportedly roamed the Gulf of Mexico on Florida’s west coast in the early 1800s.

The sound of cannon fire heard for miles across the Tampa Bay area signals the arrival of the José Gasparilla ship and the beginning of the piratical invasion of Tampa. Thousands of spectators line the waterways to watch the ship and massive boat flotilla make their way to dock at the Tampa Convention Center.

Following the traditional demand for the keys to the city, a parade is staged, the third-largest one-day parade in the country. Tampa’s iconic Bayshore Boulevard is lined with several hundred thousand spectators, krewes, and other participants who produce a spectacular parade.

The history committee of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla has provided the historical references for the book, and photographic materials have been obtained from leading institutions, including the Tampa–Hillsborough County Public Library System, the State of Florida Archives, and the University of South Florida Library Special Collections.