Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Many were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.

July 1940. "Manitowoc, Wisconsin." Hub of the fly-net industry. 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

New Orleans circa 1937. "Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, Chartres and St. Peter streets." 8x10 acetate negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.

September 2, 1905. St. Clair, Michigan. "Launch of steamer Frank J. Hecker." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

May 1938. Blankenship, Indiana. "Resting in front of general store." 35mm negative by Arthur Rothstein, Farm Security Administration. View full size.

May 1938. "Farm family, Scioto Farms, Ohio." 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
UPDATE: This is Earl Armentrout and his family, government rehabilitation clients who were relocated by the Resettlement Administration to a new house in a cooperative farming project, a story repeated thousands of times for families who were forced off the land by crop failures during the Dust Bowl era.

February 1942. "Midday nap. Nursery school of Farm Security Administration camp at Harlingen, Texas." 35mm negative by Arthur Rothstein. View full size.

February 1942. "Third grade classroom, Farm Security Administration camp at Weslaco, Texas." 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein. View full size.