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.
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Lexington, Massachusetts, circa 1901. "Harrington House." The residence of one Dr. Bertha C. Downing. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., or vicinity circa 1920. The caption just says "football." Who can identify the venue? Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1904. "On the beach." Someone pass the Coppertone, please. 8x10 dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

September 1, 1900. "Wabash Avenue north from Adams Street, Chicago." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

January 14, 1939. "National Capital digs out after storm. Nearly five inches of snow blanketed Washington yesterday, followed by sleet. Icy steps made the going to and from the Capitol difficult until workmen arrived this morning and scraped away the menace." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Another mirth-provoking look at the clothing, footwear and vehicle choices of the 70s, just a bit down the street from a similar scene three years earlier. This time, in January 1974, I join my brother and sister-in-law in a pose by their now different green foreign car, a Fiat station wagon. I'll leave it up to the chorus of commenters as to whether the various changes overall represent progress or regression. I'll only say that once again, my sister-in-law is the most stylish. Kodachrome 64 slide from my brother's camera. View full size.

Detroit circa 1905. "The Campus Martius." This middle section of a three-part panorama features City Hall and one of Detroit's celebrated arc-lamp standards, or "moonlight towers" -- appropriately reminiscent of Wells and Verne in a plaza named after Mars. Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size.