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 portrait of two girls seated, one looking at the braided hair of the other. The photograph is by the Tonnesen Sisters of Chicago, c. 1900. The Tonnesen Sisters ran one of the country's first photo studios for the purpose of creating advertising images. They also ran one of the first professional modeling agencies. View full size.
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