Historical Portrait
Girls on Water Car, Lindsay, California, 1919
Archive record
Two young women pose on a Southern Pacific Railroad water car in Lindsay, California, 1919. Public domain historical photograph from the early 20th century.
About this photograph
Two young women posed on a Southern Pacific Railroad water car in Lindsay in 1919. The photographer is not recorded.
Lindsay lies in Tulare County in California's San Joaquin Valley. The county was settled heavily in the later nineteenth century and became a farming region dependent on irrigated agriculture.
Water cars were used by railroads to supply water to remote sections of track, work camps, and construction sites where no permanent water source existed. The presence of these women on the car suggests some connection to railroad operations, though their specific role or relationship to the equipment is not documented in the archive record.
The photograph comes from the Tulare County Library's local history collection, which holds images of ordinary residents, families, schools, and businesses rather than public figures. It was made publicly available through California Revealed, a statewide programme that digitises material from California libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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