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:

1922. "Miss Washington in bathing suit." Concealed yet revealed, Evelyn Lewis at the Wardman Park Hotel pool on a nippy day. Harris & Ewing. View full size.

1924. Washington, D.C. "Auto equipped with radio (made for Potomac Electric Power Co.)" Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

C-2 Army blimp makes record flight through fog and storm. Photographed upon arrival at Bolling Field. A powerful searchlight helped guide the craft through heavy fogs.
-- Washington Post, July 29, 1922
July 1922. Washington, D.C. "C-2 dirigible at Bolling Field." The mystery aircraft first seen here. A few months later it met a fiery end in a hangar explosion in Texas. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1907. "Street in Lakeport, New Hampshire." Points of interest in this view of the fair city (last seen here) include the Lovejoy & Prescott fire insurance agency, Adkin & Adkin Millinery, the L.E. Pickering restaurant, Frank Clow Wood & Coal ("Hard, Soft, Bobbin & Slab"), W.A. Moore Boots & Shoes, and a lady having a conversation with her horse. Not pictured: sign painter with a graduate degree in ampersands. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing. View full size.

UPDATE: The photo is from July 1922. The original caption:
"Army dirigible C-2 at Bolling Field." More here.
Washington, D.C., or vicinity in what looks to be the 1920s. Who can put a name to this unidentified flying object? 4x5 glass negative. View full size.

April 1942. An unknown diner reading World War 2 headlines from the Detroit News in a downtown Detroit cafe. Photo taken by my grandfather, Howard McGraw, of the Detroit News. Scanned from a 4x5 negative. View full size.

Yes, Billy was lost. But he was also plump and juicy!
May 1943. "Washington, D.C. A sign at the National Zoological Park." Photo by Esther Bubley for the Office of War Information. View full size.