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.) Many 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.
Fine-art prints by Juniper Gallery on a variety of archival art papers.
7993 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 05/25/2013 - 12:16am
Black-and-white historical streetscape and skyline photographs of major American cities from the 1900s, 1910s, 1920s and 1930s. New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and more.
4536 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/24/2013 - 7:05pm
Shorpy contributor galleries.
351 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 04/06/2013 - 7:33pm
Photos uploaded by visitors to Shorpy.com. To see your photos here, register for a user account and become a member! It may take a day or two for your photos to appear. If you're already a registered user, make sure you're logged in and then click here to upload. To see member submissions in blog form, click here.
4323 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/24/2013 - 9:06pm
Large-format (mostly 4x5) Kodachrome transparencies shot for the Office of War Information. Repository: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division. The images you see here have been adjusted by the Webmaster for color and contrast.
371 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/16/2013 - 1:28pm
7818 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 05/25/2013 - 12:16am
103 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 03/19/2013 - 12:44pm
512 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:50pm
42 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 09/20/2011 - 1:26am
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 12/01/2007 - 10:26am
195 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 04/29/2013 - 1:48pm
2 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 09/10/2011 - 12:15am
Hundreds of black-and-white photos of battleships, dreadnoughts, riverboats, paddle wheelers, cruise ships, ocean liners and Great Lakes freighters and ore carriers. Photos of suspension and truss bridges including the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge and 59th Street Bridge.
521 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 05/21/2013 - 4:57pm
40 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 01/12/2013 - 4:14am
Historical color and black-and-white photos of cars and trucks from the early 20th century: Model T Ford, Packard, Cadillac, Franklin, Renault, Oldsmobile and other marques from the brass era of automobiles; tailfinned road locomotives from the 1950s and beyond.
1050 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/24/2013 - 1:05pm
Black-and-white historical photos from the American Civil War. Wet plate collodion glass plate negatives exposed by Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan and other noted Civil War photographers. There are hundreds of photos in this gallery.
256 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 05/20/2013 - 3:22pm
Vintage colorized photos from Shorpy contributors.
487 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/24/2013 - 9:02pm
Willie and Vivian Cornett of Leatherwood, Kentucky, their 12 children and grandchildren as documented by William Gedney in 1964 and 1972. Photographs from Duke University's William Gale Gedney (1932-1989) Photographs and Writings Collection.
18 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 07/20/2012 - 11:05pm
109 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 06/24/2012 - 12:32am
19 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 02/19/2013 - 2:04pm
160 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 04/09/2013 - 11:41am
152 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 04/03/2013 - 12:26pm
Who was he, and what became of him? The answer is ... Out There. Maybe.
6 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 10/04/2012 - 4:54am
Photos of a 21-year-old Elvis Presley in 1956.
7 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 05/12/2013 - 12:51pm
193 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 05/05/2013 - 9:57am
68 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 10/07/2012 - 6:25pm
66 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 04/05/2013 - 11:18pm
Black-and-white historical photos of the Flatiron Building, a.k.a the Fuller Building, at Fifth Avenue and Broadway in Manhattan.
15 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 07/19/2012 - 2:54pm
143 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 05/08/2013 - 5:01pm
100 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 05/05/2013 - 6:38pm
Download free iPhone Wallpaper. These historic images are cropped to fit perfectly on your iPhone.
31 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 09/11/2008 - 11:20am
17 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 08/21/2012 - 2:38pm
Filling stations from the 1910s and 1920s.
97 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/23/2013 - 3:30pm
Photos from 1901 documenting the Glazier Stove factory in Chelsea, Michigan.
13 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 10/20/2012 - 12:56pm
34 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 03/26/2013 - 2:31pm
Herbert Bell and Joe Garso, one-legged bicycle riders.
4 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 1:35pm
289 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 03/31/2013 - 2:53pm
38 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 06/08/2011 - 4:14pm
An assortment of teens, tots, juveniles, youngsters, girls, boys and babes.
1236 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/24/2013 - 7:05pm
148 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 05/19/2013 - 9:40pm
5 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 08/05/2012 - 6:48pm
44 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 10/15/2012 - 5:36pm
5 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 11/28/2007 - 4:49pm
115 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 04/05/2013 - 12:53pm
107 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 04/03/2013 - 5:10am
Photos of motorbikes like the Harley-Davidson and Indian as well as motorized bicycles.
27 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/09/2013 - 4:20pm
113 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 05/22/2013 - 12:07pm
44 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 05/25/2013 - 12:16am
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 11/04/2008 - 4:05am
39 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/02/2013 - 9:23am
People's Drug Stores, a once-ubiquitous retail chain in the Washington, D.C., area that was something like the Starbucks of patent remedies, cigars and "rubber goods." Interiors including soda fountains and exteriors including window displays.
30 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 12/08/2011 - 12:07pm
164 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 03/15/2013 - 3:42pm
32 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 08/14/2012 - 7:04am
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 08/30/2012 - 1:05pm
52 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/09/2013 - 4:20pm
276 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 05/20/2013 - 3:22pm
30 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 12/07/2012 - 6:14pm
149 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/09/2013 - 8:03pm
61 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 01/21/2013 - 6:53am
Black-and-white and color historical photos of American railroads, locomotives, trains, depots and stations from the late 19th century and early to mid 20th century. Photos of steam locomotives and diesel engines. Elevated railways in New York and Chicago. There are hundreds of photos in this gallery.
662 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 05/22/2013 - 12:43pm
World War 2 Japanese-American relocation camps.
19 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 08/21/2012 - 10:34pm
237 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 04/13/2013 - 5:45pm
Spanish-American War photos
4 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 04/02/2013 - 11:36am
Clowns that are scary. Which of course would be all clowns.
8 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 08/29/2012 - 9:31pm
137 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/23/2013 - 1:32pm
580 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:18pm
628 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/23/2013 - 3:30pm
Black-and-white historical photos of streetcars, trolleys and interurban railways from the early 20th century. Electric street railways and traction lines.
334 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 05/21/2013 - 4:57pm
229 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 05/21/2013 - 7:30pm
5 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 07/03/2009 - 2:18pm
157 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 05/25/2013 - 12:16am
Washington, D.C., lawyer Raymond Dickey and family, and Christmas tree.
6 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 12/10/2012 - 2:39pm
88 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 05/22/2013 - 5:30pm
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 11/04/2008 - 4:05am
113 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 08/18/2012 - 12:41pm
Photos relating to television sets and television shows.
16 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/24/2013 - 2:56pm
Photographs from the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums in England, including mug shots from the North Shields police department.
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 01/17/2012 - 1:41pm
13 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 02/06/2011 - 9:06pm
24 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 03/06/2012 - 5:00am
World War 2 photos documenting life on the home front, including defense plants manufacturing aircraft and armaments, and the railroads and trains that moved them to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Many large-format Kodachromes by Jack Delano and other photographers on assignment for the Office of War Information, as well as photos by Ansel Adams documenting Japanese-American internment camps along the West Coast.
384 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/23/2013 - 8:39pm
137 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 04/18/2013 - 7:50pm
32 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 04/29/2013 - 1:48pm