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.) Most 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.

I think the dapper fellow on the far right is/was my father, Jessie C. Hayes, b. 1909. He left the farm for Chicago as soon as he could, then came back to this area about the time of this photo before meeting and marrying our mother. View full size.

Summer 1938. "Son of Virgil Thaxton, farmer, in Thaxton farmhouse near Mechanicsburg, Ohio." 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn. View full size.

August 1938. "A cleaning and pressing shop in Urbana, Ohio." 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

August 1938. Urbana, Ohio. "Street scene." 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

October 1935. "Scene in Jackson Square, New Orleans." 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

August 1938. "Sideshow, county fair, central Ohio." 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

October 1935. "Advertisements for popular malaria cure. Natchez, Mississippi." Photo by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.