March 3, 1909. Southern Railway wreck at Tye River, Virginia. A tampered switch derailed Southern No. 35, a mail train. Engineer H.C. Linn was slightly injured. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.

"Noontime rest for a full-fledged assembly worker at the Long Beach, Calif., plant of Douglas Aircraft Company." October 1942. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information.

The Control Room: Servicemen getting towels and soap from an attendant in the enlisted men's shower room at the United Nations service center in Washington. December 1943. View full size. Photograph by Esther Bubley. More here.

Touching up the U.S. Army Air Forces insignia on a "Vengeance" dive bomber manufactured at Consolidated-Vultee's Nashville division. February 1943. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.

February 1943. "Capping and inspecting tubing that goes into the manufacture of the 'Vengeance' A-31 dive bomber made at Consolidated-Vultee's Nashville division." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer. View full size.

July/Aug. 9, 1910: The French actress Polaire, her little blind dog and the young man she provocatively called her "slave." Newspapers of the day were a bit more circumspect. The Washington Post of April 11, 1915: "Mlle. Polaire has been chief- ly remarkable for her tiny waist, her jewels, her black footman and her dashing originality in any role of life." Full size. G.G. Bain Collection. More here.

May 1942. Patriotic display at the Beecher Street School in Southington, Conn. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Fenno Jacobs.