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Vintage photos of:
Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
August 27, 1927. "Raymond Ruddy, 15-year-old New York Athletic Club swimmer who won the race on the Potomac, with members of the victorious team -- Lee, Fissler, Farley and Geibel -- on Washington Canoe Club float at Chain Bridge." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.
NEW YORK BOY, 15, IS WINNER
OF THREE-MILE SWIM ON POTOMACRaymond Ruddy First in Test for President's Cup
"His tapering legs and well-formed body apparently visualized the Greek athlete to all, as this comparison was general as he stood on the Washington Canoe Club float at the finish."
-- Washington PostRAY RUDDY, OLYMPIC SWIM STAR, KILLED
BY PLUNGE DOWN FLIGHT OF STAIRSRaymond Ruddy, whose achievements as a swimmer and water-poloist caused him to be ranked among the outstanding athletes of the world, died at 7 o'clock last night at the age of 27 in Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center from the effects of a fall twenty-four hours earlier.
The swimmer was about to leave the home of his aunt when his foot caught in the carpet of a stairway leading down from the second floor. He lost his balance and fell nearly the entire flight, striking his head against a radiator on the first floor.-- New York Times, Dec. 5, 1938
"Jewett touring car." Somewhere in Northern California, sometime in 1922, and You Are There. Blocking traffic. 8x6 inch glass negative. View full size.
August 1912. Roxbury, Mass. "Home work on tags. Home of Martin Gibbons, 268 Centre Street. James 11, years old; Helen, 9 years; and Mary, 6, work on tags. Helen said she could tie the most (5,000 a day at 30 cents). Mary does some but can do only 1,000 a day. They work nights a good deal. The night before, Helen and James worked until 11 p.m." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Oct. 12, 1953. "Becton Dickinson, East Rutherford, New Jersey. Reception room to entrance. Fellheimer & Wagner, architect." All this patio needs now is a charcoal grill. Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.
Circa 1899. "Sidewheeler City of Alpena." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
The CITY OF ALPENA, launched from the Detroit Dry Dock Co. in Wyandotte in 1893, was one of several elegant paddlewheel steamboats operated by the Detroit & Cleveland Line out of Detroit. The line dated to 1849 and eventually included 10 large vessels, serving ports all over Lake Erie and Lake Huron.
The impressive CITY OF ALPENA and sister ship CITY OF MACKINAC were 285 feet long and driven by 2,000-horsepower steam engines. They carried as many as 400 passengers along with significant cargoes of package freight, merchandise and foodstuffs. They provided a critical link to big cities like Toledo, Detroit and Saginaw in the years before completion of railroads and highways to the communities of booming Northeast Michigan.
The CITY OF ALPENA was taken off the "Coast Line to Mackinac" in 1921 when the lumbering industry had moved to the West Coast and railroads connected most of the towns in the region. She operated afterward on Lake Michigan as the CITY OF SAUGATUCK, and ended up in the late 1930s as a barge, carrying pulpwood and later petroleum products. The once-proud ship was broken up for scrap in 1957.
-- C. Patrick Labadie, Historian
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Circa 1930. "Henley House, ca. 1728, Princess Anne County, Virginia." 8x10 inch acetate negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.
San Francisco circa 1918. "Peerless truck." With a dump body by Modern Vehicle Company of San Francisco. 5x7 glass negative by Chris Helin. View full size.
Kodachrome slide taken by my dad while we were in Pacific Grove for the Christmas holiday, December, 1967. From the Monterey Herald:
"On Sunday, Dec. 24, 1967, the old Carmel Canning Company on Cannery Row caught fire and burned for more than four hours. The blaze, which had more than 65 firemen respond from Monterey, Seaside and Pacific Grove, caused an estimated $250,000 in damage. Fire and smoke billowed from the structure, causing embers to fall on homes in New Monterey and start smaller fires. Fire Chief Clifford Hebrard said it was his opinion “that the fire was set.” An arson investigation was to take place the next day." View full size.
May 1937. "Children from Chickasaw, Oklahoma, in a potato pickers' camp near Shafter, California." Medium format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
November 1938. "Migrant cotton picker's children who live in a tent in the government camp instead of along the highway or in a ditch bank. Shafter Camp, California." Medium format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. View full size.
November 1938. "Home of rural rehabilitation client, Tulare County, California. They bought 20 acres of raw unimproved land with a first payment of 50 dollars which was money saved out of relief budget (August 1936). They received a Farm Security Administration loan of $700 for stock and equipment. Now they have a one-room shack, seven cows, three sows, and homemade pumping plant, along with 10 acres of improved permanent pasture. Cream check approximately 30 dollars per month. Husband also works about ten days a month outside the farm. Husband is 26 years old, wife 22, three small children. Been in California five years. 'Piece by piece this place gets put together. One more piece of pipe and our water tank will be finished'." Medium format negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
"Loading steamer Chalmette during high water, March 23, 1903, New Orleans." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
New York circa 1910. "The Curb Market, Broad Street." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
March 1943. "Isleta, New Mexico. The Santa Fe depot. Horizontal arms on pole indicate a 'red beard,' that is a message is to be picked up by the train crew." Photo by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
New York circa 1921. "Frank Craven." Actor, director, playwright, producer, Stage Manager. 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size.