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.

Another in a series of professional 8x10 pictures taken in Atlantic City in August, 1953 for Better Living Magazine, featuring my in-laws. My father-in-law is towards the right in of the line, with my brother-in-law in his arms. My mother-in-law is standing in front of them. My father-in-law was 33 years old at the time. Now he's 93 and still in amazing health. View full size.

March 1937. "Ditch bank housing for Mexican field workers. Imperial Valley, California." Washtub and ashcans under the eucalyptus allée. Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1917. "Union Station." In the distance, a glimpse of a long-vanished Capitol Hill landmark, the Washington Brewery smokestack advertising SPARKLING ALE. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

New York, 1952. "Martha Raye in rehearsal for her television show, All-Star Revue." The Big Mouth had a decent set of gams as well as gums. Photo by Charlotte Brooks for "Perpetual Commotion" in Look magazine. View full size.

JoeH has identified the mystery man as Washington inventor and television pioneer Charles Francis Jenkins (1867-1934), pictured here with what might be considered an early flat-panel video display, its 48-pixel-square grid composed of small neon lamps.
Washington, D.C., in 1928. "NO CAPTION" is the caption for this one; again we turn to the crowd-source wisdom of the Shorpy masses to inquire: What the heck is it? (Close-up here.) Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

February 1937. "During the flood, cows and chickens were moved to the highest ground possible. Near Cache, Illinois." Aftermath of the Ohio River Valley flood. Photo by Russell Lee for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

Circa 1901. "Paterson, N.J., from Water Works Park." Lovely Paterson, Pearl of the Passaic. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.