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.

High Bridge, Kentucky, circa 1907. "High Bridge and Kentucky River." At right is a section of the stairway seen here yesterday. 8x10 glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1907. "High Bridge station, High Bridge, Kentucky." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

April 1865. "Richmond, Virginia. Destroyed Richmond & Petersburg locomotive." Aftermath of the Confederate evacuation in which Richmond's business district, accidentally torched by its own citizens, burned to the ground, the flames extinguished only with the aid of the occupying Federal Army. View full size.

Circa 1906. "Boston Harbor from East Boston." Our second glimpse at this bustling transport hub. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1908. "New Union Station." Idyllically uncongested. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

January 1939. "Railroad tracks, St. Louis, Missouri." 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

New York circa 1908. "The big Pennsylvania hole." Excavations for Pennsylvania Station. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.