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.
Alfred T. Palmer (1906-1993). Images from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
143 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 04/19/2013 - 7:16pm
Arthur Rothstein (1915-1985). This American photographer covered everything from the Dust Bowl for the Farm Security Administration to news stories for Look magazine. Arthur Rothstein grew up in the Bronx and attended Columbia University where he helped found the University Camera Club. Arthur Rothstein later worked the Columbia University School of Journalism.
180 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 05/20/2013 - 5:46pm
Alexander Gardner (1821-1882), Civil War photographer. Images from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
13 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 09/25/2012 - 6:15pm
Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995). Images from the Time-Life archive.
4 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 09/12/2011 - 3:41pm
Andreas Feininger (1906-1999). Images from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
8 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 08/30/2012 - 6:47pm
Ann Rosener. Images from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
20 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 04/16/2013 - 5:59pm
Ansel Adams (1902-1984). Images from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
14 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 10/07/2008 - 2:15am
Arthur Siegel, photographer for the Office of War Information. Images from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
29 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 05/21/2013 - 7:30pm
Ben Shahn (1898-1969), Lithuanian-born artist and photographer. Images from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
84 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 05/23/2012 - 12:35pm
Carl Mydans (1907-2004). Images from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
39 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 07/25/2012 - 12:34pm
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 07/31/2010 - 1:54pm
6 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 04/23/2013 - 12:18pm
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 08/14/2011 - 11:09pm
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965). This socially conscious documentarian of Dust Bowl migrants in the 1930s took one of the most famous photographs of the Depression era, Migrant Mother. Dorothea Lange was born on May 26, 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey and learned photography at Columbia University in New York. During the Great Depression Dorothea Lange worked for the Farm Security Administration documenting the plight of the unemployed, homeless and migrant laborers. Dorothea Lange died on October 11, 1965.
159 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/24/2013 - 1:05pm
Glass negatives from the Detroit Photographic / Detroit Publishing collection at the Library of Congress. These glass plates were the starting point for the millions of colored postcards sold by Detroit Publishing in the early years of the 20th century. The images were made using Detroit Publishing's patented Photochrom process.
In 1939, a year before his death, Detroit Publishing partner William Henry Jackson, whose western plates formed the basis of the company's holdings in its early days, gave the negatives and prints to the Edison Institute (now known as the Henry Ford Museum) in Dearborn, Michigan. In 1949, the Edison Institute gave all of the negatives and many duplicate photographs to the Colorado Historical Society. The Colorado Historical Society transferred most of the negatives and prints for sites east of the Mississippi to the Library of Congress later that year.
1866 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/23/2013 - 1:32pm
36 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 03/22/2013 - 3:07pm
4 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 09/11/2011 - 11:18pm
4 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 04/11/2013 - 10:55am
29 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/17/2013 - 2:59pm
57 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 04/29/2013 - 11:59am
2 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 9:25pm
Photographs of the pioneering feminist Frances Benjamin Johnston, commissioned by the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South.
88 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 04/13/2013 - 2:09pm
7 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 09/05/2012 - 6:12pm
Fitz W. Guerin (1846 -1903). Images from the Library of Congress
14 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 12/09/2009 - 12:31pm
Photos taken mostly in and around New York City by newsphoto pioneer George Grantham Bain's Bain News Service.
597 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/09/2013 - 12:40am
26 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 07/21/2012 - 11:17pm
18 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 08/09/2012 - 12:55am
26 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 05/04/2013 - 11:50am
74 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 05/08/2013 - 5:17pm
47 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 02/22/2013 - 10:03pm
Historic American Buildings Survey
12 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 04/11/2012 - 5:35pm
Harris & Ewing black-and-white photographs imaged directly from large-format glass negatives. The photographs were made by the prominent Washington, D.C., photo studio founded in 1905 by George Harris and Martha Ewing. Harris & Ewing glass plates currently residing in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Collection.
696 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 05/20/2013 - 12:15pm
3 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 09/05/2012 - 4:57pm
7 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 08/10/2012 - 5:47pm
72 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 03/11/2013 - 5:47am
1914-1997. Farm Security Administration photographer noted for his work in Puerto Rico. Here at Shorpy, his large-format Kodachromes of trains and railroads are among the most popular posts.
256 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 05/19/2013 - 9:40pm
3 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 05/20/2008 - 1:37am
8 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 06/15/2012 - 3:08am
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 12/12/2007 - 12:17pm
208 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/16/2013 - 5:03pm
9 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 09/11/2011 - 1:49pm
6 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 09/13/2011 - 2:12pm
Photos taken by Lewis Wickes Hine for the National Child Labor Commission and its report to Congress.
480 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 05/05/2013 - 9:57am
Life magazine photo archive.
28 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 09/12/2011 - 3:41pm
Photos taken by various photographers for Look magazine in the 1940s, '50s and '60s.
26 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/24/2013 - 2:56pm
12 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 12/11/2012 - 1:27pm
5 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 11/28/2008 - 7:53pm
61 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 02/24/2013 - 4:27pm
46 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/23/2013 - 8:39pm
Photographs by Martha McMillan Roberts.
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 07/27/2012 - 9:10pm
11 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 11/25/2012 - 5:16pm
28 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 05/24/2011 - 2:35am
Photographs taken in and near Washington, D.C., by the National Photo Co., whose archive of thousands of negatives (mostly glass plates) and prints was donated by proprietor Herbert E. French to the Library of Congress in 1947.
1691 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 05/02/2013 - 5:11pm
5 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 08/12/2012 - 5:27pm
Photos of a young Elvis Presley.
7 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 05/12/2013 - 12:51pm
Photos for the U.S. Office of War Information of the Babcocks, a "typical war worker's family" living in Rochester, New York.
7 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 03/01/2013 - 3:13pm
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 09/09/2011 - 2:34pm
290 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 05/24/2013 - 9:09am
11 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 09/06/2010 - 10:26pm
1 photo in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 01/09/2008 - 9:03pm
4 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 05/20/2013 - 2:43pm
16 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 05/18/2013 - 9:29pm
13 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 12/04/2011 - 1:17pm
5 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 09/11/2011 - 1:51pm
22 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Tue, 04/30/2013 - 12:59pm
13 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Mon, 05/13/2013 - 11:51am
Walker Evans (1903-1975) is best know for his photography for the Farm Security Administration. Walker Evans was born on November 3, 1903 in St. Louis, Missouri, and began taking photographs in 1928. During the Great Depression Walker Evans worked for the FSA documenting the hardships and poverty of the era, focusing on the rural south. Walker Evans died April 10, 1975.
48 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Wed, 11/07/2012 - 7:05pm
4 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 07/29/2012 - 9:42pm
Photographs from Duke University's William Gale Gedney (1932-1989) Photographs and Writings Collection.
19 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Fri, 07/20/2012 - 11:05pm
2 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Thu, 08/09/2012 - 7:31pm
72 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sun, 04/28/2013 - 2:41pm
10 photos in this gallery
Last updated: Sat, 06/14/2008 - 4:24pm