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:

January 1912. "Veronica Mikula, says 12 years old, 93 N. Front Street. Steven Mikula (works in mill) says 15 years. Photo taken in spare unused room too cold to warm. They crowd together in kitchen. New Bedford, Massachusetts." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

January 1911. Boys working in the #9 breaker of the Pennsylvania Coal Co. mine at Hughestown Borough near Pittston, Pennsylvania. In this group are Sam Belloma of Pine Street and Angelo Ross of 142 Panama Street. View full size.

January 1911. Breaker boys in #9 Breaker, Pennsylvania Coal Company mine at Hughestown Borough near Pittston. Smallest boy is Angelo Ross, 142 Panama Street, Hughestown Borough. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

January 1911. "First Aid to the Injured" man with Draeger Oxygen Helmet. Avondale Shaft, D.L. & W. [Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad] Colliery near Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.

January 1911. Shaft #6, Pennsylvania Coal Co. mine at South Pittston. "At the close of the day. Waiting for the cage to go up. Small boy in front is Joe Pume, a Nipper, 163 Pine St." View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.

"A Circus Girl." 1908 photograph by Frederick W. Glasier of Brockton, Massachusetts. View full size.