1909. "Consul Peter smoking." Peter, "famous monkey of the Parisian music halls," was an act at Oscar Hammerstein's Paradise Roof Garden in New York. As the subject of "Consul Crosses the Atlantic," he was also perhaps the first chimp movie star. George Grantham Bain Collection glass negative. View full size.

Here's my mother's drapes and curtains again, not to mention my mother, along with me and my father. I didn't get decked out like that for an ordinary Sunday, so this has to be some special occasion. Mother's all dolled up, but the fancy apron and the condensation on the window point to a major cooking operation going on in the kitchen. All the relatives are probably coming over. Her African violets are cooperating by not only being alive, but blooming. Appropriately enough, there's a Saturday Evening Post in the magazine rack, and, good California family that we are, a Sunset. The only mystery is the yardstick on the floor under the chair. An Ansco Color slide by my brother. Phantom images from the desk lamp must mean he had a couple misfires before the flash went off. View full size.

An uncaptioned circa 1915 glass negative taken outside a Victrola "talking machine" store in Washington, D.C. Harris & Ewing Collection. View full size.

"Boy Scouts, 1913." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

1864. "Atlanta, Georgia, railroad yards." Wet plate collodion glass negative, left half of stereograph pair, by George N. Barnard. View full size.

December 1942. "One of the Chicago and North Western R.R. classification yards." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size.

Circa 1920. "Stove. Standard Engraving Co." Continuing the Shorpy Cavalcade of Iron Age Kitchen Equipment. National Photo glass negative. View full size.