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.

October 1938. "Young farmer of Jefferson County, Kansas." One-hundred percent organic. Medium-format negative by John Vachon. View full size.
He and millions like him, over several generations, had a big part to play in building our country into what it is today.
Studying a picture like this should teach us all not to feel sorry for ourselves.
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