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- All you need to make you Go
- All of That
- Egad
- Watch your step
- Baseball players or hoods?
- Still there
- Wrapped power pole
- Hollywood Bad Girl?
- Nonelectronic
- Wonderful talent
- A Bubbling Cup
- Knickers
- These fountains
- Germs? What Germs?
- Just Made It
- What's that guy doing?
- Long-lasting technology
- The only thing missing
- Not so easy on the eyes
- Lighting adjustment
- Cut and paste
- To the news
- Light fixture cages
- 67th Street
- Another Stunner
- Said Mother McG to her gullible son
- Bat boy
- "Hazy lazy crazy days of summer"
- Holy i-ball Batman!
- In the heat of the day
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About the Photos
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.
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Today's Top 5
Pop Art: 1938
Submitted by Dave on Tue, 02/19/2013 - 6:52pm.
July 1938. "Rear of grocery store in Baltimore." Only hinting at the delights that await within. Medium format nitrate negative by John Vachon. View full size.
Time Travel
Submitted by mrmertz on Sat, 02/23/2013 - 11:24am.
Have a small collection of vintage signs myself. The Morton Salts signs got my attention so decided to snap pic of the one we have in the kitchen above the cabinets. It's in really nice shape for its age.
Re: Gingerly Distilled
Submitted by Solo on Thu, 02/21/2013 - 1:15pm.
Living briefly in Ann Arundel County, MD in 1950, I had many occasions to enjoy the aroma of cooking mash from the Lord Calvert distillery. The bewitching scent enlivened many a trip from Odenton to Baltimore for me. As an adolescent, some ten years later, my first sip of whiskey was a monumental disappointment, for it tasted nothing like the delicious smell emanating from the distillery had suggested it should.
Things You Learn Reading Old Fences
Submitted by Solo on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 1:49pm.
1. Snuff can alleviate dental ills.
2. Phillip Morris cigs not only taste great (Lucy and Desi puff 'em constantly) but are, first and foremost, safe.
3. Many and varied were the off-brand soft drinks available in the Midwest in the late '30s.
What's Good For You !
Submitted by Book Reader on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 10:15am.
Ah yes, salt, soda, snuff and tobacco.
All the things the doctors say we should avoid; but as Dave says - they are all so DELIGHTFUL!
Gingerly distilled
Submitted by CGW on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 9:42am.
Lord Calvert became for a time one of Seagram's premium brands, first distilled at the plant south of town in Relay. Heavily marketed up into the 1960s, it now is sold ignominiously off the bottom shelf.
Puff your troubles away
Submitted by kreriver on Wed, 02/20/2013 - 1:06am.
with Dill's Best.
And the cannabis bunch thought they invented Nirvana.
All those signs
Submitted by Frisco1522 on Tue, 02/19/2013 - 11:56pm.
The American Pickers would have a field day here!
Dental snuff?
Submitted by Hawkins on Tue, 02/19/2013 - 10:53pm.
The upper right corner proclaims "Dental Snuff." Dental snuff? It turns out that Dental Snuff was created by a dentist.
In addition to being therapeutic, it had extremely hot models in its advertising cards.
Location, Location, Location
Submitted by Mr Mel on Tue, 02/19/2013 - 10:24pm.
Even the advertising posters are second class -- 7up & Model tobacco. The better areas had Coca-Cola and HRH Prince Albert in his can.
THE 100-YEAR-OLD PHOTO BLOG
Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.
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Today's Top 5