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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Saratoga Springs, New York, circa 1901. "Atrium in the House of Pansa." Replica of an ancient Roman home at the Pompeia, a museum in the upstate New York resort town of Saratoga Springs offering "Illustrations of History and Art." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Back to the sunny South circa 1905. "Carondelet Street, New Orleans." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

New York circa 1905. "Fifth Avenue after a snow storm." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Mississippi circa 1901. "Gate to the Hamilton residence, Bay St. Louis." Mrs. Hamilton, perhaps, showing off her neatly sculpted entryway. View full size.

Circa 1905. "Commercial Club building, Indianapolis, Indiana." Looking west on Pearl Street at South Meridian. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size | Detail

New Orleans circa 1905. "Camp Street." A different perspective on the previously posted view along Canal Street. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1903. The caption for this glass negative has been misplaced -- who will be the first person to identify this city and its famous thoroughfare? UPDATE: And the answer is, as most guessers correctly guessed, Canal Street in New Orleans! 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.