U.S. Army Quartermaster's Department, Alexandria, Virginia. View full size. Albumen print from a photograph by Andrew J. Russell taken during the Civil War (1861-1865). Note the elaborate signal mast on the roof.

My dad's brother Charlie on a 1949 cruise to the Bahamas in the sailboat they built. View full size. 35mm Kodachrome by Marvin Hall.

"Christmas 1954." My grandmother in her living room in Miami Shores four years before I was born. She made the mantel decoration, which saw service for many years, with Brazilian pepper berries from a big tree in the backyard, mixed with pine cones, all attached to a chicken wire frame. Grandmother, handy with a needle and thread, also made the curtains herself. She was, needless to say, big on Christmas. Scanned from a 35mm Kodachrome slide. View full size.

New York Stock Exchange and Wilks Building at Wall and Broad streets, 1921. View larger. Irving Underhill photo. Note the size of the camera.

Coal and sand chutes at the Argentine Yard, Santa Fe R.R., Kansas City, Kansas. March 1943. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.

Santa Fe freight about to leave for the West Coast from the Corwith yard in Chicago. March 1943. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano, who went with the train to California, taking pictures along the way with his Graflex Speed Graphic. Look for them here in the coming days.

From 1907, a bird's-eye view of Wabash Avenue in Chicago, showing the celebrated "El," or elevated railway, as well as a number of piano manufacturers and the National Casket Company. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.