"The War in the West." 1864 photo (half of a stereograph) by George N. Barnard. Atlanta Intelligencer newspaper office by the railroad depot. Exposure times were so long that anyone walking appears only as an ectoplasmic blur. View full size. Note tents in background and troop train with soldiers atop the boxcars.

Chain gang of convicts engaged in road work, Autumn 1910. Pitt County, North Carolina. The inmates are quartered in the wagons, which are equipped with bunks and move from place to place as labor is utilized. The central figure is J.Z. McLawhon, county superintendent of chain gangs. The dogs are bloodhounds used for running down any attempted escapes. View full size.

Washington tenements, Nov. 1935. View full size. Photo by Carl Mydans.

Pittsburgh slum dwelling, 1938. View full size. Photograph by Arthur Rothstein.

"Summit Avenue Ensemble." Photographer Thomas Askew's twin sons Clarence and Norman, son Arthur, neighbor Jake Sansome, and sons Robert and Walter at the Askew home in Atlanta. 1899 or 1900. View full size. The Askew residence, at 114 Summit Avenue, burned in the Great Fire of 1917.

Washington, D.C., 1921. "Times boy and bicycle." Winner of a Mead Ranger bike by virtue of selling 30 newspaper subscriptions. The Ranger contest was a promotion of various papers from about 1917 to 1923. National Photo Co. Collection. View full size.

Western Union messengers in Hartford, Conn. March 1909. They are on duty, alternate nights, until 10 P.M. Messenger #32 is Thomas De Lucco, 9 years old, who works second job as newsboy. View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.