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.

This is my grandfather (forefront) at work in the North End of Boston around 1915. He came to the US from Italy (as a little boy) around the turn of the century and started working in a barbershop sweeping floors. View full size.
Today's Top 5