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:

1914. Dr. Charles Campbell and a "municipal bat-roost" in San Antonio, Texas ("for one of man's best friends"), his idea for mosquito control at a time when malaria was a major public health problem in the U.S. Disguised as a favorite bat habitat — a church steeple, complete with cross — the roost was fitted with a trapdoor and stilts to facilitate the harvesting of guano by the wagonload for use as fertilizer. 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size.

April 1943. Schoolchildren in San Augustine County, Texas. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by John Vachon, Office of War Information. View full size.

1864. View from the Capitol at Nashville, Tennessee. View full size. Wet collodion glass-plate stereograph negative by George N. Barnard.

1864. Union Army soldier at Confederate fortifications outside of Atlanta. Wet collodion glass-plate negative by George N. Barnard. View full size.

January 1909. Two of the "helpers" in the Tifton Cotton Mill at Tifton, Georgia. They work regularly. View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

June 1911. Ethel Shumate. Has been rolling cigarettes in Danville (Virginia) factory for six months. Lives at 614 Upper Street. Said she was 13 years old, but it is doubtful. View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

February 19, 1925. "M.S. Strock measuring radio lengths at the Bureau of Standards." View full size. 4x5 glass negative, National Photo Co. Collection.