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:

February 1942. Janitor at the Farm Security Administration elementary school in Weslaco, Texas. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein. View full size.

December 1911. Family of Mrs. Mette making flowers in a very dirty tenement, 302 Mott Street, top floor. Josephine, 13, helps outside school hours until 9 P.M. sometimes. She is soon to be 14 and expects to go to work in an embroidery factory. Says she worked in that factory all last summer. Nicholas, 6 years old and Johnnie, 8 yrs. The old work some. All together earn only 40 to 50 cents a day. Baby (20 months old) plays with the flowers, and they expect he can help a little before long. The father drives a coach (or hack) irregularly. View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

January 1939. Navigating the business district of Herrin, Illinois, after a snowstorm. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein.

A Sunday afternoon street scene in Jackson, Ohio. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Theodor Jung for the Farm Security Administration.

October 1939. Newsboy in Montrose, Colorado. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.

July 1938. Houses on "The Hill" slum section of Pittsburgh. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.

February 1940. A grocery store in Salem, Illinois. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.