San Francisco rebuilds after the devastating earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. 8½x6½ inch glass negative from Wyland Stanley Collection of San Francisco historical memorabilia later acquired by Marilyn Blaisdell. View full size.

1906. "Cossitt Library and Post Office, Memphis, Tennessee." This Romanesque castle in red sandstone, at Front and Monroe on the banks of the Mississippi, was the city's first public library when it opened in 1893. View full size.

April 1943. "Baltimore, Maryland. Third shift workers waiting on a street corner to be picked up by car pools around midnight." Last seen at the lunch counter. Photo by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.

"Demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington, D.C., during the influenza pandemic of 1918." 4x5 glass negative. View full size.

San Francisco circa 1920. "Oldsmobile coupe on Gough Street at Lafayette Park." Seats three! 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.

Circa 1910. "Topinabee Landing, Hamill's Inland Route, Cheboygan-Petoskey, Michigan." Excursionists on the dock, just in from an outing. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1930. "Gibbs, Mrs. Malcolm." Maude Foote Gibbs, fiftyish wife of the People's Drug Store founder, modeling a very distant ancestor of the polka-dot bikini. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

        "We'll have what she's having."

April 1943. "Baltimore, Maryland. Third-shift defense workers getting snack at drugstore on corner where their shared car will pick them up around midnight." Photo by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.

1921. "Fageol dump truck at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Atlas Mortar made from Acme Diamond Lime." Nattily pinstriped! 8x10 glass negative acquired from the Wyland Stanley Collection and scanned by Shorpy. View full size.

        Mary Cumming, Vassar '57, has an interesting first job in New York as a secretary in the office of industrial designer Raymond Loewy. She landed the job without the help of friends and now gets $70 a week. Several young men dance attendance on Mary, but she would like to work two years more before settling down ...

1956. "New York. Mary Cumming, 21, secretary in the office of designer Raymond Loewy." The young lady last seen here crossing the street. Photo by Phillip Harrington for the Look magazine assignment "Career Girl." View full size.

1931. "Boston skyline view -- United Shoe Machinery Corp. Bldg., Custom House Tower, etc." Yes, there really is an enormous Art Deco skyscraper called the United Shoe Machinery building, and it still stands. 4x5 glass negative. View full size.

1904. "Courthouse -- Columbus, O." Continuing today's Columbian theme. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Circa 1905. "Caravels and La Rabida (Sanitarium for Children), Jackson Park, Chicago. Replicas of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria that participated in the World's Columbian Exposition." Note the hand-propelled trike. Happy Columbus Day from Shorpy! 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

"1928 Hudson." Somewhere in the Bay Area. Pass me the flask, will you? (And who's driving this rig?) 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.

Amelia County, Virginia, in the early 1960s. Sunday dinner at the Miller house, with the farm of Marvin and Thelma Warriner in the background. Photo by Helen Warriner-Burke. View full size.