Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Most were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.
Shorpy is an online archive of thousands of high-resolution photos from the 1850s to 1950s. Our namesake, Shorpy Higginbotham, was a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.
Shorpymetrics 30D
Pageviews: 2.3M
Ad views: 6M+
Alexa Rank: 33,000
Quantcast: 9,200
Technorati: Top 1,500
Google PR: 6

September 1938. Capels, West Virginia. "Coal miner waiting for lift home." Medium-format nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.

August 1940. "Port Gibson, Mississippi." Medium-format nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Toledo, Ohio, circa 1905. "Post Office, Madison Avenue." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

April 1865. Richmond, Virginia. "Federal soldier guarding Whitworth gun on wharf awaiting shipment." Wet plate glass negative. View full size.

November 1942. Lititz, Pennsylvania. "Mennonite farmer and wife at the farmer's market." These folks look like they'd be only too happy to bend your ear about their birds. Photo by Marjory Collins, Office of War Information. View full size.

April 1913. Rome, Georgia. Neil Power, 10 years old. Said "turns stockings in Rome Hosiery Mill." A shy, pathetic figure. "Hain't been to school much." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.

Florida circa 1905. "Tennis courts at Palm Beach." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.