July 1939. "Corner of tobacco farmer's front room. Shows enclosed stairway and corner of the new fancy bed. Person County, North Carolina." (Whitfield home.) Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. View full size.

December 1943. Another classic from Esther Bubley and her ever-inquiring camera: "Washington, D.C. In the library at the United Nations service center. Boys are urged to take books back to camp with them." View full size.

December 1943. "In the evening, Hugh Massman and his wife fold diapers. Joey's bureau drawer crib is moved to the side of their bed for the night." The Massmans were a young Navy family whose lives in Washington, D.C., were documented by Office of War Information photographer Esther Bubley. We're fortunate to have heard from their son Bascomb, whose comments have served as informative and entertaining annotations for these pictures. View full size.

August 1939. "Sick migrant child. Washington, Yakima Valley, Toppenish." The daughter of migrant laborers harvesting hops in Washington State. Medium format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the FSA. View full size.

July 1939. "Zollie Lyons, Negro sharecropper, home from the field for dinner at noontime, with his wife and part of his family. Note dog run. Wake County, North Carolina." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange.

From February 1942, another of Arthur Rothstein's photos of the Drake family entertaining at a Saturday night dance for the Farm Security Administration's resettlement camp at Weslaco, Texas, home to many farm families displaced by the droughts and bankruptcies of the Dust Bowl years. The fiddle player is Nathan Drake; on banjo and guitar are his sons Jasper ("Sleepy") and Weldon. Thanks to Jasper's daughters Connie and Janette for providing the names. View full size. (I'm having a Shorpy family moment here, having heard from the photographer's daughter, Annie Rothstein-Segan, and now Jasper's daughters. Life is a circle.)

July 1939. Whitfield family. Wife of tobacco sharecropper drying the baby after its bath in the kitchen. Person County, North Carolina, near Gordonton. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the FSA. View full size.

February 5, 1921. "Miss Bertha May Graf, chosen the prettiest girl at suffrage headquarters in Washington, will be chief flower girl at the National Woman's Party convention." Miss Graf resides at 1429 Longfellow Street NW in the District of Columbia. View full size. 4x5 glass negative, National Photo Company.

Spring 1865. Children on Canal Bridge at the foot of Seventh Street in Richmond after the fall of the city. Left half of a glass-plate stereograph. View full size.

July 3, 1913. "Fun at camp." Boy Scouts in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

Weslaco, Texas. The "musical Drake family," performing at a barn dance in the Farm Security Administration's Mercer G. Evans camp, February 1942. Medium-format safety negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. Update: The fiddler is Nathan Drake, the younger boy is Jasper "Sleepy" Drake, and behind him is brother Weldon Drake. View full size.

February 1942. Weslaco, Texas. Saturday night dance at the Farm Security Administration camp with music by the Drake family. View full size. Medium-format safety negative by Arthur Rothstein for the FSA.

February 1942. Weslaco, Texas. Younger members of the Drake family, including the young man shown playing at the barn dance elsewhere in today's posts, at the Farm Security Administration's Mercer Evans camp. Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the FSA. View full size. Update: The banjo player is Jasper "Sleepy" Drake; his sister Monnie is the guitarist.

January 1901. Dayton, Ohio. "Bertha Wright, age five, niece of the Wright brothers, daughter of Lorin Wright," with some of her many Christmas presents. Dry-plate glass negative by the Wright Brothers. View full size.

March 1941. Traffic on the main street of Fayetteville, North Carolina, at about 5 o'clock, when the workers start coming out of Fort Bragg. View from the "old marketplace." View full size. Medium-format safety negative by Jack Delano.