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.
Vintage photos of:

1963. Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore on the set of The Dick Van Dyke Show with Jerry Paris directing in front of the studio audience that served as their unbilled co-star. Photo by Earl Theisen for Look magazine. View full size.

June 1863. "Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia. Capt. J.B. Howard, Office of Assistant Quartermaster, Army of the Potomac." A colorful crew, even in monochrome. Wet plate glass negative by Timothy O'Sullivan. View full size.

1922. "Miss Washington in bathing suit." Concealed yet revealed, Evelyn Lewis at the Wardman Park Hotel pool on a nippy day. Harris & Ewing. View full size.

1924. Washington, D.C. "Auto equipped with radio (made for Potomac Electric Power Co.)" Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

C-2 Army blimp makes record flight through fog and storm. Photographed upon arrival at Bolling Field. A powerful searchlight helped guide the craft through heavy fogs.
-- Washington Post, July 29, 1922
July 1922. Washington, D.C. "C-2 dirigible at Bolling Field." The mystery aircraft first seen here. A few months later it met a fiery end in a hangar explosion in Texas. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1907. "Street in Lakeport, New Hampshire." Points of interest in this view of the fair city (last seen here) include the Lovejoy & Prescott fire insurance agency, Adkin & Adkin Millinery, the L.E. Pickering restaurant, Frank Clow Wood & Coal ("Hard, Soft, Bobbin & Slab"), W.A. Moore Boots & Shoes, and a lady having a conversation with her horse. Not pictured: sign painter with a graduate degree in ampersands. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing. View full size.

UPDATE: The photo is from July 1922. The original caption:
"Army dirigible C-2 at Bolling Field." More here.
Washington, D.C., or vicinity in what looks to be the 1920s. Who can put a name to this unidentified flying object? 4x5 glass negative. View full size.