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:

October 1943. Washington, D.C. "In the cafeteria at Woodrow Wilson High School." Photo by Esther Bubley, Office of War Information. View full size.

Circa 1910. "Woodberry Forest Gymnasium Team." Prep-school gymnasts from Orange, Virginia. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1937. "Jean Wallace." The daughter of Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture and future Vice President, at the Wardman Park Hotel pool. Harrs & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

February 7, 1922. Washington, D.C. "Mrs. P.A. Drury Jr." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

May 1864. "Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. Dead Confederate soldier near Mrs. Alsop's house." Wet-plate glass negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan. Photos from Grant's Wilderness Campaign, May-June 1864. View full size.

May 17, 1910. Alton, Illinois, "Noon hour. These boys are all working in the Illinois Glass Company. Smallest boy, Frank Dwyer, 1009½ E. Sixth Street, says he has been working here three months. Joe Dwyer (brother) has been working here over two years. Henry Maul, 513 Central Avenue. Frank Schenk, lives with uncle, 611 Central Avenue. Emil Ohley, 1012 E. Sixth Street. William Jarett, 825 E. Fifth Street. Fred Metz, 707 Bloomfield Street. In addition to their telling me they worked, I saw them beginning work just before 1 p.m. Photo at 12:30." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.

"Allen car, 1920." And your little dog, too, on G Street Northwest in Washington, D.C. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.