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.) Most 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.

"Boy looking at Xmas toys in shop window" in New York circa 1910. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.
Look at those pointy things on the windowsill. I guess that was to keep people from sitting there.
Today's Top 5