1912. "Navy aviation. Commodore J.C. Gillmore in Curtiss headless plane, dual control, at College Park Army flying field. Lieutenant Milling, right." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. View full size.

"Boy Scout training demonstration, 1912." Part of a series showing bandaged Boy Scouts in Washington. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

...it's DeSoto! Specifically, a 1957 DeSoto. "This baby can flick its tail at anything on the road!" In this case, the Mar Monte Hotel in Santa Barbara in 1958. Detail from my brother-in-law's Anscochrome slide. Not his car, though. Full size.

1914. "Alley clearance, slum views." Vestiges of the 19th century in a Washington, D.C., alleyway. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, 1912. "Edward Beale McLean with Mrs. McLean." Edward (Ned) would become publisher of the Washington Post; his wife, the mining heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean, was the last private owner of the Hope Diamond. Their tempestuous union would be the fodder for countless headlines leading up to their divorce in 1929. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

San Francisco c. 1902. Building St. Boniface Church. The monk in the center, holding the roll of plans, is the German-born Adrian Wewer, O.S.F (1836-1914), architect of this and over 100 church and other buildings in the U.S. Next to him on the left, the big strapping guy in the dark hat and holding a cigar stub, is my grandfather on my mother's side. Four years later, the building was reduced to an empty shell in the earthquake and fire. Scanned from a period 8 x10 probably contact-printed from a glass plate. View full size.

"Baghdad By the Bay" was San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen's nickname for The City, and the title of his collection of affectionate essays published in 1949. My sister took this nicely-detailed 120 Ektachrome transparency just 5 years later, before the neighborhood Victorians became gentrified and the downtown skyline Manhattanized. The intersection at the lower left is Hayes and Shrader. View full size.