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:
1956. "Segregation in South Carolina. Separate and unequal recreation facilities." I've looked at hundreds of photos from this assignment and would have to agree -- the white folks in general seem to be having a lot less fun in their hopelessly boring bars, uptight country clubs and over-chlorinated swimming pools. Eventually they got wise. Color transparency by Margaret Bourke-White. View full size.
Washington circa 1921. "Loomis Radio School." Another look at the technical school run by Mary Texanna Loomis. National Photo Company. View full size.
June 6, 1950. Pembroke, Ontario. "Vis-O-Matic department store." A variation on mail-order shopping, the Vis-O-Matic system used color slides to display merchandise to potential customers, with orders placed by Teletype and delivered to your door. Photo by Bernard Hoffman, Life image archive. View full size.
Winnetka, Illinois. June 1950. "Student Rue Lawrence wearing frilly summer dress and bright lipstick in classroom at New Trier High School." Rue was on the cover of the October 16, 1950, issue of Life. Color transparency by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Life magazine photo archive. View full size.
"George H. Corson, 1920" is the caption for this enigmatic and slightly damaged photo of bathers in the Potomac River. National Photo Company. View full size.
Washington, 1921. "People's Drug Store, 929 Seventh Street N.W., exterior." The scene at Mass and Seventh, evidently the hernia capital of our nation's capital. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
July 1956. Greenville, North Carolina. "Segregationist tobacco sharecropper Marshall Joyner and family bowing heads in prayer before dinner." Color transparency by Margaret Bourke-White, Life photo archive. View full size.
Washington, D.C., circa 1915. "Child with birdcage." A budding Audubon with her notes. Or maybe a recipe. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.