If pictures are worth 1,000 words, then the county has more than
57 million words to share with anybody who’s willing to look at
them.
SAN JOSE
If pictures are worth 1,000 words, then the county has more than 57 million words to share with anybody who’s willing to look at them.
Residents can get a sense of the last half-century in and beyond Gilroy if they hike up to the County of Santa Clara Archives in San Jose for a haven of 57,000 historical photographs.
County photographers snapped all the pictures that portray regional happenings and growth between 1950 and 1993, with particular emphasis on the 1960s and ’70s, according to Gwen Mitchell, a public affairs employee with the county.
“This collection documents the activities of forty years of county government, during a significant period of growth in Santa Clara County,” said Supervisor Don Gage, Chairman of the County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors. “There is no need to imagine the changes our county has experienced when these photographs help us witness this dynamic transformation during the second half of the twentieth century.”
The board of supervisors commissioned the archives in September 2004, and now its massive collection of photographs includes 50,000 negatives, 2,500 slides, and a medley of 4,500 prints ranging from portraits and aerial photographs of urban and rural areas to close-up shots of downtown facades and public ceremonies.
Since their own downtown is undergoing much change, Gilroyans might be interested in a group of photos that chronicle the county’s construction, from dirt lots to ribbon cuttings outside of courts, parks, airports and schools. Or perhaps landscape portraits of the Uvas Creek Reservoir or Coyote Lake: county lands where county photographers were more likely to venture than inside Gilroy’s city limits.
Although the archive’s pictures and negatives portray primarily “things the county pays for,” according to Connie Rogers, chairwoman of Gilroy’s Historical Society, the collection deserves viewing nonetheless, she said.
County Archivist Michael Griffith agreed, but he added that there are more than 40 images of GIlroy-specific sites: the old police station, the old City Hall, the Milias Hotel downtown and street shots of Santa Teresa Boulevard, for example.
“I would tell people from Gilroy to call me and tell me what they’re interested in,” Griffith said. “I don’t want people making long drives.”
Eventually the archive’s database will be online, Griffith said, making it possible for people to search for specific images before trekking up to San Jose. Meanwhile, residents who want to see historical photos of Gilroy without leaving the city can pop into the museum at the corner of Fifth and Church streets downtown, Rogers said.
The city is part of the county, though, and Rogers and Griffith agreed that all Santa Clara County residents can appreciate that angle.
“This collection captures a wide array of relevant moments in the county’s history,” Griffith told Mitchell. “Graphic documents are of particular interest to historians or authors tracing Santa Clara County’s past. Now that the collection is cataloged, locating images will be easier.”
The California Historic Records Advisory Board gave the extensive archival project an $8,500 grant, and the images will help researchers, historians and writers compile relevant information.
As for residents and the plain curious, an easy-to-navigate catalogue will allow them to view county images with ease, though they must pay for any copies, according to Mitchell.
