Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
Vintage photos of:
Oak Park, Illinois, 1952. My grandmother (left), mother (center), and aunts. One of my cousins is leaning against the wall, her feet visible in the lower center of the photo. The occasion was probably a holiday, as the ladies are wearing their Sunday best, and that huge cooking pot had to have held a turkey. My mom, the only adult in the photo who's still with us, thinks it may have been Christmas. 35mm slide. View full size.
Washington, D.C., circa 1922. "Star Building from air." The Washington Star newspaper building at the center is at the intersection of 11th Street N.W. and Pennsylvania Avenue, which runs diagonally across the photo. The big building with the tower us the Old Post Office. There's a lot to see here, including laundry hung out to dry. National Photo Company glass negative. View full size.
September 23, 1926. "White House dog, medicine balls." And that's all they wrote. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
Christmas 1953. Oak Park, Illinois. My cousin Tom experiencing the thrill of his first Lionel electric train. My Uncle Bill is manning the transformer, and my dad, who was a real-life railroad engineer, is on the right. 35mm slide. View full size.
St. Louis, Missouri. "11 a.m. Monday May 9, 1910. Newsies at Skeeter's Branch, Jefferson near Franklin. They were all smoking." Our third visit with this memorable group. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Los Angeles, February 1947. "Young upcoming Hollywood starlet Marilyn Monroe practicing in dance class." Photo by J.R. Eyerman. View full size.
Washington, 1916. "Telephone girls ride during car strike. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.
Los Angeles, 1960. "Case Study House No. 22. Stahl Residence, 1635 Woods Drive. Architect: Pierre Koenig." Color transparency by Julius Shulman. More to come on this house, which has achieved a measure of fame in the annals of modern architecture due a certain black-and-white photograph. View full size.