Circa 1920. "Houck Christmas tree." Everyone gather round for eggnog and carols! National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "Whistle Bottling Works. Woolworth window." An elaborate dime-store window display for Whistle orange soda, "the food drink." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

"Luna Park, Pittsburg, 1905." One of several amusement parks of the era that went by that name, the most famous being at Coney Island. At right: The park's "Scenictorium." Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size.

David Coxey 2d, the grandson of labor leader Jacob "General" Coxey, who led his "army of the unemployed" on a protest march to Washington in 1914. "Coxey's Army" was, in turn, led by young David and his intrepid mount after an incident in which the mule pulling the General's phaeton refused to cross a puddle until the pony went first. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

1915. "Eitel Friedrich, German ship taken over by U.S." The commerce raider Eitel Friedrich, a former passenger liner converted into an auxiliary cruiser for the German navy early in World War I, put into port at Newport News, Virginia, for repairs in March 1915 after sinking a number of British ships (and one U.S. merchant vessel) and taking on more than 300 British and French prisoners. After almost a month the captain decided to intern, and the vessel was towed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she remained under the German flag until being seized by the U.S. government in April 1917. (Harris & Ewing.) View full size.

New York, July 1948. "Young boy tossing a ball on a city street." Photograph by Cornell Capa, Life image archive. View full size.

I thought I'd get on the Frank Lloyd Wright bandwagon with this Kodachrome I took in December 1962 of the only federal government building Wright designed. It's the Post Office at the Marin County Civic Center, itself one of Wright's last projects. That's my brother adding a human interest angle. The neat half globe fell victim to vandalism long ago and was never replaced. I apologize for the lack of a Pontiac Bonneville parked provocatively in the foreground. View full size.

1910. "New York Public Library. A reading room." The NYPL on Fifth Avenue would open the following year. 8x10 glass negative, G.G. Bain. View full size.