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.

Related to discussion of this post is the pie chart above ("Results of Diagnoses of 1,000 Cases") from the Sept. 28, 1913, New York Times article linked here.
From new Shorpy member Paola:
Dear Shorpy,
I discovered today your website and I in the past two hours I have been looking at it. It's an amazing site. I recognize many pictures from the wonderful collection of Library of Congress. I was sick at home this weekend and I spent all my time losing myself in the library Print and Photography website. The collection is huge and your website for me is like a travel guide.
I am Italian, I live in Milano. I graduated in Bologna University in art history. I am journalist and my current work is photo editor of Geo magazine.
Thank you Shorpy for your work and keep on.
Best wishes. Paola
Grazie, Paola! Hope you are feeling better soon.

A 1920 reunion of the 30th Infantry Division (The Hickory Division) of WWI AEF fame. The old guy in gray is my great-great-grandfather Noah Frady, possibly the oldest American Civil War vet alive in Asheville at the time.
Also present are his son-in-law (in doorway, wearing white suit at left) and his grandsons... the smallest one running alongside is my grandfather, Max Rhodes.