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.

October 1914. Montgomery, Alabama. "Willie Cheatham, Western Union messenger #1. Says he is 16 now; been messenger for 6 years. Late Sunday night, October 4th, I talked with him, still on duty, until 10 P.M. 'You bet I know every crooked house in town. Went to school with one of those girls when she was straight. Her mother died and she went bad. Some young girls were there too. I go out to Red Light some with messages and packages, and if I want to, I bust right in and sit down.' Hard face." View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Somewhere in Hawaii in 1962 - who can tell us where? 35mm Ektachrome transparency from a California thrift store. View full size.

"Going-to-the-Sun Hwy., Glacier Nat. Park, Montana. June 8, 1963." 35mm Kodachrome transparency. View full size. Today we continue our selection of vacation slides found on eBay and in a thrift store out west (tip of the Shorpy cap to Tom Munoz). Above is the vacationing Great Falls family we met yesterday, in a picture taken the year after this one. Anyone ready for a sandwich?

"Bath house at Lukens Lake near Peru, Indiana. July 1956." 35mm Kodachrome transparency. View full size.

1956 Chrysler and owner at the Crescent View Apartments, somewhere in Florida. 35mm Ektachrome transparency. View full size. This is the sensible-looking kind of lady who ran the world when I was a little kid - growing up in Florida!

Waco, Texas. September 1913. "Eight-year-old newsie. Many youngsters get up early to sell papers. One 10-year-old starts out at 3 A.M. every day and goes to school." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.