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.

September 1939. "Rural schoolroom in Wisconsin." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration.

April 1938. Store in Halifax, North Carolina, with signs advertising carbonated beverages and patent medicines. View full size. Photograph by John Vachon.

"The Fly in the Ointment," dated May 22, 1920. Even bigger laffs. More Shorpy funnies on the Comics Page. Subscribe to the Shorpy Comics Feed!

May 1939. Coal miner's son in Kempton, West Virginia. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon, Farm Security Administration.

Lady resident of a St. Paul rooming house. September 1939. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by by John Vachon, Farm Security Administration.

October 1938. Farm wife and baby waiting in the car while her husband attends the auction. Oskaloosa, Kansas. View full size. Photograph by John Vachon.

October 1938. Farm girl in Seward County, Nebraska. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration.