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.

A wedding photo taken on January 14, 1876 of my great-grand parents Charles (Karl?) Schmeltzer, 29, Austrian immigrant, coal miner and later farmer in New Vernon, Mercer County, PA and his wife Mary Kaufmann, 20, daughter of German immigrants. The photo was probably taken in East Brady, Clarion County, PA. View full size.
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