New Orleans, 1906. "Arcade of Crescent and Tulane Theatres." At the Tulane, the blackface team of McIntyre and Heath headline "The Ham Tree," a musical novelty described by one reviewer as "an amplified vaudeville sketch." 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

January 1943. Washington, D.C. "Firehouse Station No. 4, one of the separate Negro units in the District. Lieutenant Mills on duty at the alarm desk. Two firemen in the rear quiz each other on the quarterly examinations they must take during their probation period." Acetate negative by Gordon Parks for the Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Locomotives in an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Medium format acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. Lititz, Pennsylvania. "Small town in wartime. Peanut stand next to the Lutz butcher shop finds it hard to get peanuts since the war started. Peanut oil is needed in industry." Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. Lititz, Pennsylvania. "Lititz Springs Pretzel Company, owned by Lewis C. Haines (background), who is unloading a tray of pretzels which has come up on a dumbwaiter from the baking room below. A son, Bob, weighs them and packs them in cans. Lititz was the first town in America where pretzels were made." Photo by Marjory Collins. View full size.

November 1942. "Sunray, Texas. Carbon black plant workers washing up at the end of the day." Acetate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. "Sunray, Texas. Workers at a carbon black plant." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size.

January 1943. Washington, D.C. "D.C.F.D. Engine Company No. 4 firehouse. Fire trucks." 4x5 inch acetate negative by Gordon Parks for the Office of War Information. View full size.

January 1943. "Conductor handling engineer copy of train orders before a Chicago and North Western freight pulls out of Chicago for Clinton, Iowa. Since the track between those points is under automatic train control, the engineer hands the conductor the key to the automatic train control lock of the engine. The conductor will keep the key in the caboose until the train arrives at its destination." Acetate negative by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1905. "Dupont Circle at Connecticut and Massachusetts Avenues N.W. White building at left is Patterson House, 15 Dupont Circle." Not to mention all those pedestrians. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size.

New York, 1904. "Knickerbocker Trust Building and Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Fifth Avenue at W. 34th Street." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size.

New York circa 1946. "Portrait of conductor Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) at Carnegie Hall." Acetate negative by William P. Gottlieb. View full size.

Chicago circa 1907. "Jackson Park -- Driveway and Field Museum." Formerly the 1893 Columbian Exposition's Palace of Fine Arts; today the Museum of Science and Industry. Detail of glass negative by Hans Behm, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

November 1942. "Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Cot house." The California Dormitory, offering not just "clean cots," but checkers and dominoes. Acetate negative by John Vachon. View full size.

November 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Maintenance crew repairing roundhouse tracks at an Illinois Central Railroad yard." Photo by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size.