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.

"A Circus Girl." 1908 photograph by Frederick W. Glasier of Brockton, Massachusetts. View full size.
Considering the age of this print, the quality is unbelievable. I studied the history of photography in my early days as a photographer, and I never fail to be amazed at the quality of this stuff
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