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.

Summer 1939. Traveling carnival at Bozeman, Montana. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.
This is what carnies call a "pit show." The attraction (maybe a giant snake, "wild man" geek, or freak animal) is at ground level. Customers pay, climb stairs out of frame to right, pass along the platform to gaze down at the attraction, and can be seen exiting to left.
Today's Top 5