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.

Circa 1906. Saranac Lake, N.Y. "Street view looking west." Back when the Google-Wagon used glass negatives. 8x10 inch dry plate. View full size.
Google's Street View follows Broadway instead of Main Street, so we can't quite reproduce the angle of the photograph. The central buildings, however, can still be seen:

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