Interior retail stalls at Washington Market in New York City in 1917. New York Word-Telegram & Sun Newspaper Collection. View full size.

March 22, 1948. The New York City Public Market at First Avenue and East 73rd Street (?), an example of the food market in transition. A typical 19th-century market would have many separate vendors in an open-air space like a town square. By the early 1900s the open-air space had given way to separate vendors under a large shed roof with no walls, often near the train station. Here in 1948 the space is enclosed, but still with separate vendors (greengrocer, butcher, dry goods, fishmonger etc.). After the introduction of centralized distribution and self-service for the various product categories, the individual vendors fade from the scene and the market has a new name: "super-market," now spelled without the hyphen. View full size. 5x7 safety negative by Gottscho-Schleisner.

March 22, 1948. Bright Star Provisions at the Brooklyn Terminal Market in Flatbush. View full size. 5x7 safety negative by Gottscho-Schleisner.

November 1908. "A typical Spinner" at Lancaster Cotton Mills in South Carolina. View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

The spirits do come back, if you stay for the second show. 1915 poster advertising an appearance by the magician Howard Thurston (1869-1936), the "King of Cards." Strobridge Lithography, Cincinnati & New York. View full size.

November 1908: Gastonia, North Carolina. Lacy, 12 years old, and Savannah, 11. Have worked two years. Father said "The little one is a crackerjack on spinnin', at least so the boss says. She ain't satisfied unless in the mill. The oldest one isn't so good at it. Not as quick." (Note the tense, serious looks on the younger. Older one more like a real girl.) View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

1913 (?) poster advertising a Minneapolis appearance by Claude Alexander, one of the most famous (and wealthy) mentalists of his time. View full size.