1938. "Petitin's Store, Grand Coteau, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. Building dates to ca. 1834." While this ad-encrusted grocery might strike you as charmingly rustic, the Dr. Pepper sign seems to have so offended the photographer's sensibilities that for the other pictures she took, she draped it with a cloth. 8x10 acetate negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.

May 1942. "Southington, Connecticut. Schoolchildren pledging allegiance to the flag." Photo by Fenno Jacobs for the Office of War Information. View full size.

Sept. 3, 1943. "U.S.O. canteen, Penn Station, Harrisburg, Pa. Serving bar." Our second look at this proto-Googie extravaganza, brought to you by Travelers Aid and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Gottscho-Schleisner photo. View full size.

Circa 1911. "Washington from Washington Monument." Points of interest in this first installment of a six-segment panoramic view include B Street (today's Constitution Avenue), running diagonally from the Potomac Electric powerhouse at lower left; Louisiana Avenue, branching off in the general direction of Union Station at upper right; the Old Post Office and its clock tower at left-center across Pennsylvania Avenue from the Raleigh Hotel under construction; the Agriculture Department greenhouses in the foreground with a corner of the Smithsonian "National Museum" at far right, just below Center Market; Liberty Market at upper left, below what looks to be a vast tent encampment; and, at right-upper-center, the Pension Office north of Judiciary Square and the District Court House. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920s. "Wrecked house" is all it says on this undated (and moldy) 8x6 glass negative. Are there enough clues to fill in the blanks of this bricks-and-mortar mystery? National Photo Company. View full size.

1938. Stuttgart, Germany. "Von der 6. Reichstagung der Auslandsdeutschen (Hitler Youth in tent during festivities for the 6th Annual National Days of Foreign Germans)." Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann, Kochstraße 10, Berlin. View full size.

        Step on a crack ...

June 1943. Arlington County, Virginia. "Arlington Farms, war duration residence halls. Sunbathers on the sidewalk in the back of Idaho Hall." Photo by Esther Bubley for the Office of War Information. View full size.