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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.
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Today's Top 5
Washboard Abs: 1936
Submitted by Dave on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 12:13pm.
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March 1936. "Women washing clothes. Crabtree Recreational Project near Raleigh, North Carolina." 35mm nitrate negative by Carl Mydans for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Posed?
Submitted by William Christen on Sat, 09/04/2010 - 4:42pm.
My wife, a slat bonnet historian, was wondering if the women were posed at the tubs. The dresses are plain, but a little too nice for wash day, and the women would probably be wearing aprons. The woman on the left has her rings on and has an inexpensive looking cameo pin. Their hands look wet, but yet we do not see a lot of wash day paraphernalia about. They are likely wash tub veterans, but are they only pretending for the camera?
[No. - Dave]
"Your soaking in it"
Submitted by jimmylee42 on Sat, 09/04/2010 - 2:03pm.
Madge would have had a great TV commercial for Palmolive with these women.
[First they had to invent the apostrophe. - Dave]
The Photographer!
Submitted by Phaedrus on Sat, 09/04/2010 - 11:25am.
Wow, having you picture taken by a guy that will become one the greatest photographers of his generation. Even the great ones have to start somewhere.
Small World
Submitted by Marshall @KE4ZNR on Sat, 09/04/2010 - 10:54am.
This pic was taken just a few mins down the road from me in what is now Umstead State Park. Thanks Dave for a great local pic from the past!
Recreational project, big time
Submitted by Don Struke on Sat, 09/04/2010 - 1:54am.
Imagine the fun they had after they added some soap.
There's what a rub-board'll do to ya
Submitted by Marchbanks on Fri, 09/03/2010 - 1:54pm.
The faces say maybe 25 at the outside; the hands say 45.
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Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.
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Today's Top 5