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.
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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Sept. 1940. Pie Town, New Mexico. "Tying a ribbon on a calf's tail was one of the feature attractions at the Pie Town Fair rodeo." 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

Florida circa 1904. "Daytona Beach at Seabreeze." A setting conducive to various forms of sedate locomotion. Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Dayton, Ohio, circa 1902. "Polishing department, National Cash Register Co." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Cincinnati circa 1906. "Rookwood Pottery," noted maker of artsy mass-market ceramics. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
The latest video from Ken and Shorpilu Studios is "Newsies," about the newsboys who hawked papers on street corners at the turn of the last century, featuring the photography of Lewis Wickes Hine. For maximum impact, view it in Full-Screen mode at 1080p resolution (click "Play," select 1080p, then click the
icon).

Cleveland, Ohio, circa 1908. "New England Building, Euclid Avenue." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Rockville, Maryland, circa 1926. "Montgomery County Motor Co." Another look at the service garage. National Photo Company glass negative. View full size.