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.

In this Kodachrome picture are the McGough family of Highlands, New Jersey, having their Christmas portrait made. Everyone is home for Christmas except for one person, Lawrence McGough, who was serving overseas as a B-17 bomber crewman. Note the picture of Lawrence in uniform in the background. View full size.
Today's Top 5