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.

New York's new post office on Eighth Avenue circa 1912. Enlarged in 1934, it's now called the James Farley Building. View full size. In this seemingly deserted time exposure we can see the ghostly images of three different sets of legs.

September 1961. Girls on an amusement park ride at Battersea Park, London. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Charles Eames. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1921. "Montessori School." View full size. 4x5 glass negative, National Photo Company.

New York, 1912. "Washington Market Centennial. With outside sheds removed by President McAneny. Also new window fronts affording light and air for interiors and the sidewalk restored to the public." View full size. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection.

"Man operating water tricycle" (Supplemented by wind power?) Circa 1913. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

"Boxing mail in the New York post office." View full size. Circa 1913. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. Note the spittoon.

Along the lines of the Beaver Letter, we're excited to present the Jim Letter from the opening credits of "The Office." You might think it would have something to do with the Dunder Mifflin paper company's Scranton branch, but actually it's a Los Angeles Department of City Planning (zoning) document showing revisions to the L.A. Municipal Code. Specifically, Section 12.22.C.20(f).