Tacoma and Vicinity

Oakland Land, Loan and Trust CompanyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.3

Word count: 58K words
Chapters: 6

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Tacoma and Vicinity by Loan and Trust Company Oakland LandAuthor: Oakland Land, Loan and Trust Company,Language: English, Class: F850.5: United States local history: Pacific States, Release Date: Dec 10, 2016

Editor's review

This book is a guide to Tacoma and the surrounding region issued by the Oakland Land Loan and Trust Company, belonging to the category of local history of the American Pacific Coast. Its value lies not in literary quality but in offering a systematic description of Tacoma's urban appearance, locational advantages, and development potential at a particular period, bearing a distinct chamber-of-commerce and real-estate promotional perspective. Readers can observe how early urban promotional texts organized geographical, industrial, and daily-life information, and can also treat it as primary material for studying Washington State local history, the history of urban promotion, and the rise of Pacific Northwest cities in the railway era. The text is in English and relatively short, suitable as supplementary reading for local history research or as a case study of urban promotional literature. It should be read with a critical sense of historical sources, noting its promotional stance and selective narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying the local history and urban development history of the American Pacific Northwest
Researchers interested in urban promotional texts, chamber-of-commerce publications, and the history of real-estate promotion
Undergraduate or graduate students needing English primary sources for urban case analysis
Enthusiasts with a specific interest in Tacoma's urban history

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking literary travelogues or vivid narrative works
Readers of rigorous historical monographs requiring systematic academic argumentation and annotations
Readers unaccustomed to English originals who rely on Chinese translations

Reading tips

Consult background on the early urban history of Tacoma and Washington State before entering the text, to better situate its promotional discourse.
Mark geographical descriptions and industrial promotional passages while reading, comparing them with later historical sources.
Read alongside contemporary promotional brochures from other Pacific Coast cities to observe shared rhetorical patterns.
For research use, record the publisher's stance and note its promotional nature when citing.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a literary work?

No. It belongs to local history and urban guide literature, compiled and issued by a land loan and trust company, mainly introducing the geography, location, and development of Tacoma and the surrounding region, with a promotional character; it should not be expected as literary reading.

What language proficiency is needed to read this book?

The original is in English, mainly geographical and urban description, with relatively plain sentence structures. A moderate English reading ability suffices to read through; for research purposes, familiarity with basic terminology and place names in American local history is recommended.

Is this book suitable as a primary source for local history research?

It can be used as supplementary primary material, but it was compiled by a commercial institution with an obvious promotional stance and selective narrative. Researchers should cross-verify with other historical sources and note its nature as promotional text when citing.

Why does the version information include a note about Project Gutenberg?

The book is released as an e-book by Project Gutenberg, and the page introduction includes general information about the platform and its founder Michael Hart. This part is platform information, not the main text of the book, and can be skipped when reading.

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About the author

Oakland Land, Loan and Trust Company Author

Oakland Land, Loan and Trust Company is a publishing entity credited under an institutional name rather than an individual author, and public information about it is limited. The library holds only one work under this name, Tacoma and Vicinity. Judging from the title, the book concerns Tacoma and its surrounding areas and belongs to the genre of local gazetteers or geographical accounts. Its content most likely covers land, development, and community conditions in the region, echoing the institution's background in land, loan, and trust business. Local materials compiled by land and trust institutions of this kind usually emphasize practical information and local surveys, with a factual rather than literary style, and offer some reference value for understanding the local conditions of the Tacoma area at the time. Owing to limited sources, its specific compilers, the process of compilation, and its circulation and influence remain to be further verified.