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:

August 1942. "Training in marksmanship helps girls at Roosevelt High School in Los Angeles develop into responsible women. Part of Victory Corps activities there, rifle practice encourages girls to be accurate in handling firearms. Practicing on the rifle range in the school's basement." Large format acetate negative by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1933. Gatlinburg, Tennessee. "Beulah Ogle preparing warp for weaving at the Pi Beta Phi School. She is a new weaver at the school and lives on a mountain farm." Another example of Lewis Hine's post-newsie oeuvre. Large format nitrate negative, National Archives. View full size.

1936. "Mount Holyoke, Mass. Paragon Rubber Co. and American Character Doll. Building rubber doll moulds." Photo by Lewis Hine, who seems to have moved on to bigger things once he was done snapping newsies. View full size.

February 1942. Detroit, Michigan. "Sign in a grocery window in the Negro district: 'chitlins and hog maws'." Not to mention Taystee Bread. Medium-format nitrate negative by Arthur Siegel for the Office of War Information. View full size.

February 1939. "Young couple, migrant laborers, who work in packinghouse at Canal Point, Florida." The girl seen earlier here. Medium-format nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

June 1937. "Baltimore, Maryland. For every Social Security account number issued an 'employee master card' is made in the Social Security board records office. Testifying data, given on the application blank form SS-5, is transferred to this master card in the form of upended quadrangular holes, punched by key punch machines, which have a keyboard like a typewriter. Each key struck by an operator causes a hole to be punched in the card. The position of a hole determines the letter or number other machines will reproduce from the master card. From this master card is made an actuarial card, to be used later for statistical purposes. The master card also is used in other machines which sort them numerically, according to account numbers, alphabetically according to the name code, translate the holes into numbers and letters, and print the data on individual ledger sheets, indexes, registry of accounts and other uses. The photograph above shows records office workers punching master cards on key punch machines." Whew. Longest caption ever? Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1949, an unlabeled Kodachrome of Linda and her mom along with some characters seen in a previous episode of the family saga. View full size.