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:

Little Miss Tarkington, the daughter of Mrs. W. Tarkington Jr., sits on the steps of the White House patiently waiting to snap a picture of President Warren G. Harding on June 29, 1922. From the National Photo Company collection. View full size.

April 1912. 10:30 p.m. at Center Market in Washington, D.C. Eleven-year-old celery vendor Gus Strateges, 212 Jackson Hall Alley. He sold until 11 p.m. and was out again Sunday morning selling papers and gum. Has been in this country only a year and a half. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Waco, Texas. November 1913. Isaac Boyett: "I'm de whole show." The twelve-year-old proprietor, manager and messenger of the Club Messenger Service, 402 Austin Street. The photo shows him in the heart of the Red Light district where he was delivering messages as he does several times a day. Said he knows the houses and some of the inmates. Has been doing this for one year, working until 9:30 P.M. Saturdays. Not so late on other nights. Makes from six to ten dollars a week. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. (Shorpynote: Isaac was born March 20, 1901, and died in May 1966 in Waco.)

A long shot of 12-year-old Isaac Boyett in the Red Light District of Waco. View full size. Scanned from glass-plate negative. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

October 1940. Mr. Leatherman, homesteader, tying up cauliflower in his vegetable garden. Rabbit fence made of juniper stakes. Pie Town, New Mexico. View full size. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee.

September 1940. Barbecue dinner at the Catron County Fair at Pie Town, New Mexico. View full size. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee.

September 1940. Crops and vegetables at Catron County Fair at Pie Town, New Mexico. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee, one of hundreds of photos he made of Pie Town for the Farm Security Administration.