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.

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.

Waco, Texas. September 1913. "Messenger boy working for Mackay Telegraph Company. Said fifteen years old. Exposed to Red Light dangers." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

The YMCA "Eagle Hut" canteen for enlisted men in Bryant Park, New York City. June 12, 1918. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.

"Delta Upsilon Rough House." University of California at Berkeley circa 1915. View full size. 4x5 glass negative, Oliver Family Photo Collection.

August 1942, Corpus Christi, Texas: "It's an intricate operation, installing a 30-caliber machine gun in a Navy PBY plane, but not too tricky for Jesse Rhodes Waller. He's a Georgia man who's been in the Navy 5-1/2 years. At the Naval Air Base he sees that the flying ships are kept in tip-top shape. Waller is an aviation ordnance mate." View full size. Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem.

"Miss Twombly, whip of Ladies' Coach Run, and two other ladies beside coach on street." April 26, 1909. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.

Seaford, Delaware. May 1910. "Mother and children hulling strawberries at Johnson's Hulling Station. Cyral (in baby cart) is 2 yrs. old this May and works steadily hulling berries. At times Cyral would rest his little head on his arm and fall asleep for a few minutes and then wake up, commencing all over to hull berries. While it was found in this investigation that children 3, 4, 5 yrs. were accustomed to start out before sun-up to pick berries, we have not found many cases such as this." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.