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Nestled between the Pine Mountains and plentiful Flint River, Pike County and its county seat were named after army general and adventurer Zebulon Pike. Early settlers, as adventurous and independent as the county's famed namesake explorer, built homes and raised families extending for generations in the gently rolling acres of central Georgia. Many residents became well known across the state. Austin Dabney, freed slave and Revolutionary War hero, supported the white family who nursed him to health after a crippling battle wound. Journalist Jacques "Jackie" Futrelle became a famous novelist and playwright before losing his life on the Titanic. After training World War I pilots, early aviator Doug Davis returned home to build the first hangar at Atlanta's airport, to make countless barnstorming trips, and to win early racing and aerobatic competitions. Generations of men and women raised families and worked in the fields, orchards, turkey farms, country groceries, and busy canneries, cotton gins, and packing plants. Some served in the military or carried on family traditions like the Jugtown potters. From Indian trails, stagecoach stops, and train depots to paved highways and Zebulon's Crazy Eight Track, Pike County's history is quite a journey.

Kingsport, the "Model City," was the first American city in the 20th century that was privately financed and professionally planned. Chartered in 1917, it was also the first city in Tennessee to adopt a city manager form of government. Kingsport's location on the Clinchfield Railroad played a significant role in the development of the city, but it was the early visionaries and leaders who embraced the city's potential and transformed it. City planner John Nolen, expanding on existing city plans, created a unique physical design and layout with areas zoned specifically for industrial, residential, commercial, and spiritual development. Downtown Kingsport, anchored by the iconic Church Circle on one end and the historic train depot on the other, was the heart of industrial and economic growth. Take a cruise down Broad Street from its early beginnings to the modern era.

When cotton was king and Jackson was president, Daniel Hillman built a bloomery forge on Roupes Creek near the Jefferson and Tuscaloosa County line. As the birthplace of the Birmingham Iron and Steel District, the forge grew into an important battery of three blast furnaces capable of producing 22 tons of iron daily for Confederate munitions. The Tannehill Furnaces--the handiwork of Moses Stroup, one of the South's leading ironmasters--are among the best preserved 19th-century ironworks in America. Along with the Iron and Steel Museum of Alabama, the furnace ruins form the centerpiece of Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park, which attracts 400,000 visitors annually. It is Alabama's most visited Civil War site.

Between 1915 and 1930, nine towns in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia hosted teams in one of the most successful Class D minor leagues in professional baseball. The Blue Ridge League launched the careers of legendary Hall of Famers Lefty Grove and Hack Wilson and served as a training ground or final stop for over 100 major-league players. This feisty league challenged laws prohibiting Sabbath baseball games (resulting in mass arrests of players and management), pioneered night baseball, served as a laboratory for the establishment of baseball's farm system, and helped develop a postseason five-state championship series.

Friendsville is a small town with a rich, varied history. It had its beginnings in the late 1790s, when several related families with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) moved from North Carolina into what is now Blount County and established a Friends meeting about 12 miles from Maryville, the county seat. The families built a gristmill and a sawmill and later sold town lots. The Friendsville Post Office was established in 1850, and the town was incorporated in 1953. Friendsville has played a remarkable role in the history of the United States. The Friends, who did not support war or slavery, operated several stops on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, helping runaway slaves, freed African Americans, and southern residents who wanted to fight for the North or move north to avoid the war. The area is now noted for its marble production, with Friendsville pink marble gracing such buildings as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Over sunrise and sunset, the Sneads Ferry high-rise bridge enhances the panoramic view of the quaint fishing and farming community. Encapsulated by the pine forests and the New River, families from England, Scotland, and other areas in Europe found passage and refuge in this area. Men sailed and rowed boats along the banks and toiled on the sea. Even today, the early morning fishermen are on their boats, mending nets, fixing their rigging, and gearing their engines for the weeks or months they will be gone. Since 1941, the U.S. Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune has expanded and boosted the real estate of the township. The photographs in Images of America: Sneads Ferry recount the memories and the emotions of a simpler time.

Highlandtown is arguably the most colorful, eclectic, and diverse neighborhood in Baltimore. Dating from the mid-19th century, the community gained its foothold when a plethora of European immigrants settled into modest brick row houses neatly laid out on numbered streets that replaced early farms. A majority lived within sight, sound, and/or smell of the waterfront factories, foundries, and shipyards where mostly men toiled. With last names like DiPasquale, Markwood, Skurzynski, Vogler, Regan, and Schultz, each brought with them a unique language, heritage, and culture. Aromas of ethnic cooking mingled with those of nearby businesses and industries, and the air was filled with chatter in German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and heavily accented English.

Independence was named to celebrate the newfound independence of Kenton County when it was formed from Campbell County in 1840. Incorporated on February 24, 1842, the new county seat and courthouse were located in the exact center of Kenton County on 5 acres donated by John McCollum. For decades, the area was mostly farmland, with the exception of a commercial center around the courthouse. The first courthouse, built in the 1840s, was replaced in 1912 by the current iconic Kenton County Courthouse. Parades have long been a staple, and men would line the streets for Roman candle fights on July Fourth in the 1800s. These rural beginnings are traced to the present-day growth of suburbs and commercial areas that may potentially result in Independence being Northern Kentucky's largest city. From a population of only 1,715 in 1970, the city has grown to over 22,000 in 2009 without losing its small-town feel.

In the 1750s, Quakers from Pennsylvania and Virginia settled in the North Carolina Piedmont, eventually organizing Spring Friends Meeting in 1763. The Friends still gather by the spring and wait for the light to descend upon them 250 years later. Spring Meeting nursed the injured and dying in the American Revolution, said goodbye to members migrating to farmlands in the Northwest, stood against slavery in the antebellum years, helped reconstruct the South in the late 1800s, and held their pacifist beliefs throughout the 20th century. A record-setting World Series pitcher, leading educators, missionaries, and major figures in North Carolina Quaker leadership fill its rolls. Persevering through the ebb and flow of revivals and apathy, Spring Meeting has left its mark in history. Today the spring flows, the front door remains unlocked, and members still gather on First Sundays.

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the city of Charlottesville thrives amidst numerous tangible reminders of an incredibly rich history. Founded in 1762, the heart of early Charlottesville was the stage for some of the most important figures in early American history, including Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Growing side by side with Jefferson's University of Virginia, Charlottesville developed into a bustling community whose businesses, families, and celebrations were well documented in photographs beginning in the 1880s. The collection of images reproduced in Images of America: Charlottesville tells the story of the creation, growth, hardship, transformation, and success of a city beloved by residents and visitors alike.

Pioneer settlers came to the west-central Pinellas peninsula in the years before the Civil War. The arrival of the railroad in 1888 brought truck farmers and expansive citrus groves. Decades before the city's incorporation in 1905, Largo became an important area for raising livestock, harvesting crops and timber, and trading citrus. Largo's farmers fed nearby urban communities during the Florida land boom while also providing winter fruits and vegetables to distant markets. Packing houses dotted the rural landscape during the years prior to World War II. By the 1960s, Largo expanded eastward toward Tampa Bay as new subdivisions sprouted in former groves. Known at various times as Citrus City, Fair City, Clean Air Capital, and City of Progress, Largo has grown from its roots as a small farming settlement to become the central crossroads and the third largest city in Florida's most densely populated county.

Uniquely, Jefferson County had all of the elements necessary for the fabrication of iron and steel within its borders. Coal, limestone, and iron ore all lay within close proximity to Birmingham. The right amounts of business acumen, industrial planning, and labor force came together creating the industry that made Birmingham the "Magic City." The coal mining towns in the Birmingham Industrial District have rich histories--a Hollywood movie was made in one, a novel was written about another, and a soccer championship was won in yet another town. These coal towns and the miners who lived in them are as responsible as anyone for the birth of Birmingham industry.