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 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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August 1971 On vacation again, this time camping with my brother and sister-in-law at Hoopa, California. I'm not sure if my expression reflects my real mood, or if I'm just being a wise guy. Note how I set up this self-timer Kodachrome so that I was the one in focus. View full size.

March 1943. "Iden, New Mexico. One of the bunk cars for section workers of a train on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad between Clovis and Vaughn." Medium-format nitrate negative by Jack Delano. View full size.

"Donald R. Johnson, portrait, 1935." Harris & Ewing glass neg. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1918. "The Kitchen Clock." Which I'll just bet is a play about a kitchen that comes to life at the stroke of midnight. View full size.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr., husband of Eleanor, circa 1920 in Washington, D.C. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

One of my favorite places, the Sonoma Coast south of the mouth of the Russian River, captured by my brother during the golden hour on 35mm Kodacolor. His college friend Bob and me, gazing toward the setting sun. View full size.

May 16, 1925. Washington, D.C. "Mrs. Herbert Hoover and Mrs. James Ford at Girl Scouts' Little House," a cottage that served at different locations as model home and scouting headquarters. National Photo Company. View full size.