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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New Orleans circa 1937. "1133-1135 Chartres Street." Laundry day in the Quarter. 8x10 inch acetate negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.

Pittsburgh circa 1910. "Wood Street and the Farmers Bank." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Ecorse, Michigan, circa 1909. "Freighter Shenango on the ways." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Chelsea, Michigan, circa 1905. "Glazier Stove Company, the foundry." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, circa 1905. "The Elevated station at 36th Street." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Philadelphia circa 1905. "The elevated railway at Delaware & South Streets." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

February 1942. Akron, Ohio. "Conversion. Beverage containers to aviation oxygen cylinders. Removal from solution tank at a rubber factory now producing metal essential for the Army. This bath, which follows the removal of the weld scale, gives the inside of the cylinder a further cleaning and removes all chemicals which may remain from the previous operation." 4x5 nitrate negative by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information. View full size.