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.

Children playing with Campbell Kid dolls. New York City, March 1912. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

"Durward Nickerson, Western Union messenger #55. Birmingham, Alabama. 18 years old. Lives in Bessemer, R.F.D. #1. Saturday night, Sept. 26, 1914, he took investigator through the old Red Light on Avenue A, pointed out the various resorts, told about the inmates he has known there. Only a half dozen of them were open now. Durward has put in two years in messenger work and shows the results of temptations open to him. He has recently returned from a hobo trip through 25 states. He was not inclined to tell much about the shady side of messenger work, but one could easily see that he has been through much that he might have avoided in a profitable kind of work." View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Sunbathers at the city park swimming pool in Caldwell, Idaho. July 1941. The girls are rubbing olive oil on each other. View full size. Photograph by Russell Lee.

Basketball at Durland's Riding Academy, New York. 1908. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection. Since 1949, the Durland's building at Central Park West has been home to ABC, at 7 West 66th Street. Until 1999, the sets for "20/20" and "Good Morning America" were in the main riding ring (above).

Basketball on the tanbark at Durland's Riding Academy, New York. 1908. Evidently it's traveling if you let go of the reins. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection. Check out how this pic looked before restoration.

"Backstage" at the girlie show at the Vermont state fair, Rutland. September 1941. View full size. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.

Lady residents of a St. Paul rooming house. September 1939. View full size. Photograph by John Vachon.