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:

Lower Manhattan circa 1904. "New York Stock Exchange, Wall and Broad streets." Note the not very successful attempt to retouch three ghost pedestrians out of the picture. Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size.

Pittsburgh circa 1905. "Alvin Theatre." Coming soon: Eva Tanguay, "The Sambo Girl." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Georgia circa 1904. "Naval stores, Chesnutt & O'Neill, Savannah." A center of the resin and turpentine, or naval stores, industry. View full size.

Ypsilanti, Michigan, circa 1902. "Starkweather Hall, Students' Christian Association, Michigan State Normal College." Not far from the Ypsi Water Tower. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

1902. "Mr. Foster's office in Palm Beach." An outpost of the Ask Mr. Foster chain of travel agencies and souvenir shops started in Florida by Ward Foster in the 1880s. 8x10 glass negative by William Henry Jackson. View full size.

Washington, D.C., or vicinity, 1924. Exhibit C in the Case of the Battered Buick -- our third photo with the caption "Max Wiehle" and our second look at this tattered Model T, which we can now see is at a "Repair Shop Garage." Where the mechanics seem to be following the baseball scores. View full size.

New York circa 1908. "Brooklyn Bridge." It seems like only 38,000 yesterdays. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.