Western History and Genealogy

Digital Image Collection Help

Search

• Generally, you will search using keywords. More advanced methods, like Boolean, truncation or wildcard searches can be useful.
• If you find too many items, narrow your search by adding another term. If your search finds no matches in the digital database, broaden your search by omitting words, using a more general term or trying a synonym.
• When you find images you like, click on the subject heading, creator or any link in the record to perform a new search. Subject headings can also be a good way to select different keyword combinations.
• The following searches are possible:
  
• Keyword
  A keyword search finds the word or words you enter anywhere in the catalog record for the photograph.
• Creator or Name (Photographer)
  A creator or name search matches words you enter to the name of the photographer or subjects photographed. For example, performing a search on the name “Boos” returns photographs made by Edward H. Boos.
• Subject Heading
  A subject heading search matches the words you enter to subject categories recognized by the Library of Congress. A search on Indians would return photographs with a subject heading containing Indians of North America.
• Boolean
  A Boolean search uses AND, OR and BUT NOT to broaden or narrow your search.
  
  Expand your search by using OR between search terms, such as:
  houses or cabins or chalets
  
  Narrow your search using AND or BUT NOT
  interiors and houses
  Indians but not Hopi
  
  Combine Boolean operators with parentheses to group concepts together:
  (hopi or ute) and dwellings
  
  

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• Truncation and Wildcard
  Use an asterisk * with part of a subject, keyword or name to expand the search: this also helps if you don't know the exact spelling. The * character may be appended to the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word.
  
  grand* will find grand, grandfather, grandmother, grandstand, etc.
  
  bab* finds baby, babies, Babcock, Babbitt, etc.
  
  *house will find items with house, courthouse, outhouse, etc.
  
  h*se will find items on house, horse, hose, etc.
  
  Use a question mark ? with part of a subject or name to expand the search by a specific number of characters. The ? wildcard character can be appended to the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word.
  
  h??se will find horse and house but not hose
  wom?n retrieves women and woman
  
  

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Browsing

• Browsing will help you locate items that might be missed by direct searches. It is an alternative to searching when a term cannot be exactly matched. The following browses are possible:
• Title Browse
  Enter a word or words to browse an alphabetical list of titles starting from the word(s) you entered.
• Creator or Name Browse
  The name browse feature allows one to find a particular name and similar names. This search includes names of photographers and the names of the subjects of the photograph. For example, browsing for Sitting Bull returns a match to Sitting Bull 1834-1890 and Sitting Bull, Louie.
• Subject Browse
  A subject browse will find the subjects that either match or are alphabetically close to the search term. For example, a search on camping returns Camping Colorado 1890-1910.
• Call Number
  If you have saved an important call number, a call number browse will take you to a photograph and those around it. For example, a search on B65 returns the corresponding image and catalog record titled General George A. Custer.

Search the Digital Image Catalog (formerly Photoswest)

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Outdoor portrait of a man with a bicycle by hollyhocks and a frame house in (probably) Denver, Colorado. [between 1904 and 1910?]