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.) Most 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.
Shorpy is an online archive of thousands of high-resolution photos from the 1850s to 1950s. Our namesake, Shorpy Higginbotham, was a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.
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Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "U.S. Weather Bureau kiosque, Pennsylvania Avenue." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1900. "Detroit River. Car ferry Michigan Central turning in ice." Our third look at one of these railcar transports. Detroit Publishing. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "U.S. Weather Bureau, exterior." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1926. "Joseph McReynolds service station." Our third look at this establishment. National Photo glass negative. View full size.

Orange, Virginia, circa 1910. "Woodberry Forest baseball team." And a couple of mascots. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1917. "Agriculture, Department of." Two young people wearing 4-H patches. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

City Point, Virginia. "Wharves after the explosion of ordnance barges on August 4, 1864." Wet-plate glass negative from photographs of the main Eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865. View full size.