Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
Vintage photos of:
June 1943. Louisville, Kentucky. "Virginia Lively used to be a beauty operator. Today she works at a filling station." Sears gasoline -- who knew? Photo by Howard Hollem for the Office of War Information. View full size.
New York, June 6, 1944. ALLIED ARMIES LAND ON COAST OF FRANCE. GREAT INVASION OF CONTINENT BEGINS. "D-Day. Crowd watching the news line on the New York Times building at Times Square." Photo by Howard Hollem or Edward Meyer for the Office of War Information. View full size.
August 1942. Corpus Christi, Texas. "Mrs. Virginia Davis, a riveter in the assembly and repair department of the Naval Air Base, supervises Chas. Potter, a NYA trainee from Michigan. After eight weeks of training he will go into civil service. Should he be inducted or enlist in the armed service, he will be valuable to mechanized units of the Army or Navy." Pay attention, sonny -- you might end up flying this thing. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem, Office of War Information. View full size.
August 1942. "Women in white doctor Navy planes (motors) at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mildred Webb, an National Youth Administration trainee at the base, is learning to operate a cutting machine in the Assembly and Repair Department. After about eight weeks as an apprentice she will be eligible for a civil service job in the capacity for which she has been trained." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem, Office of War Information. View full size.
August 1942. Corpus Christi, Texas. "Aviation Cadet Thanas at Naval Air Base." 4x5 Kodachrome by Howard Hollem, Office of War Information. View full size.
January 1942. "Bantam, Connecticut. Defense homes. Little Ann Heath is eager to try out all the facilities of her parents' new four-room defense housing unit, after spending most of her life in a single furnished room. Here she pushes her footstool to the sink in order to help her mother clean up the dinner dishes. Mrs. Heath, a native of Winsted, a city some 25 miles away, is delighted with her new kitchen -- the first she's ever had which she actually considers as a kitchen, and is trying out all the recipes she has collected in five years of married life. The Heaths pay $30 monthly for their apartment." Medium format nitrate negative by Howard Hollem for the Office of War Information. View full size.
June 6, 1944. "New York. Part of the parade on D-Day, Madison Square." Medium format negative by Howard Hollem, Office of War Information. View full size.
January 1942. Bantam, Connecticut. "Defense homes. Fred Heath works on the night shift at the Warren McArthur plant in Bantam, and spends his days with Mrs. Heath and their three-year-old daughter, Ann. Here they are in the living room of the Heaths' new four-room apartment, part of the new eighty-unit defense housing project just five minutes walk from the plant. The Heaths, who pay thirty dollars rent, like overstuffed chairs, and Ann also likes her overstuffed Teddy Bear." 4x5 nitrate negative by Howard Hollem. View full size.