July 1938. "Rear of grocery store in Baltimore." Only hinting at the delights that await within. Medium format nitrate negative by John Vachon. View full size.

March 1937. "Four families, three of them related with 15 children, from the Dust Bowl in Texas in an overnight roadside camp near Calipatria, California." Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

February 24, 1953. "Suffolk County Federal Savings. Babylon, Long Island, New York. Mortgage room. C.M. Johnson, client." At left, Miss Miller; at right, Miss Information. Large-format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1923. "Sport Mart, 1410 New York Avenue N.W." Continuing our day of window-shopping. National Photo glass negative. View full size.

July 1941. "Store window display. Chicago, Illinois." High concept retailing -- one's eye is drawn immediately to the fancy footwear on display. Or maybe summers in Chicago are just especially hot? We'll leave the interpretation up to you. 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon. View full size.

Summer 1938. "Street scene, New York City." Here's a fellow who looks like he has a story to tell. Medium format negative by Jack Allison. View full size.

My dad was born in Maryland and lived there until he was 12. In 1964 he and my mother visited old family friends the Winklers in Silver Spring. This is their house where they stayed, my mother Janice sitting on the front steps. She was pregnant with my sister at the time. View full size.

Circa 1905. "C. & O. terminal piers, Newport News, Virginia." The Kanawha in port. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

"Michigan Avenue, Chicago, July 1941." And just a block ago, they were strangers. 35mm negative by John Vachon, who has a lens for the ladies. View full size.

May 1936. "Sheep ranch in Converse County, Wyoming." Medium-format neg by Arthur Rothstein for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

My father, in his comfy leather chair, and our houseguest Bob have their eyes glued to the TV, almost undoubtedly watching the news. We don't know what that news was or its import, but a headline in the San Francisco Examiner reflects an epochal moment: "7 Men Ready for First Space Flight." Three months later Alan Shepard was the one of those Project Mercury astronauts to do it. This 127 Ektachrome transparency has a processing date of February 1961 on the mount.

Bob, a Cal Poly classmate of my brother's, lived with us for a bit while apartment-hunting. Father's clip-on bow tie is actually part of his Jolly Store grocery clerk outfit, indicating he probably just got home, pausing just long enough to slip into his slippers. We also continue the saga of Mother's window treatment, with different-but-similar drapes and curtains. Her love/hate relationship with African violets appears to be in the hate phase at the moment as there are none to be seen. I was standing on the stairway landing, thus the high angle. Man, that leather chair was comfy. View full size.

August 13, 1957. "Hotel Zeiger. Ellenville, New York. General lobby." Join us in the Jubilee Room for cocktails and dancing! That stair rail looks like it was filched off a pool table. Large format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

July 1939. "Theatre on 9th Street. Washington, D.C." Seventeen years after our previous visit. Large format nitrate negative by David Myers. View full size.

September 1942. "Rochester, New York. Mrs. Babcock, Shirley and Earl greeting Mr. Babcock in front of the house." The nucleus of this nuclear family, orbited by his little electron. Large format negative by Ralph Amdursky. View full size.

Circa 1900. "Charleston, S.C., from St. Michael's Church." St. Philip's Church at right. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.