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:
October 1967. "Michigan Gov. George Romney in urban area." The Republican presidential aspirant during the "ghetto tour" that took him to more than a dozen inner cities following that year's race riots and civil unrest. From photos by James Karales for Look magazine. View full size.
April 1953. Washington, D.C. "Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin." Kodachrome by Frank Bauman for the Look magazine assignment "Joe McCarthy: The Man With the Power." Not to mention what looks like a pepper mill. View full size.
Extra credit assignment: Identify the cars. (The answers: 1960 Ford Starliner on the left; 1960 Studebaker Lark on the right.)
Spring 1960. "Efforts of John F. Kennedy's campaign team, including members of his family, in West Virginia during Kennedy's quest for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. Includes brother Bob at a drive-in in Bluefield." From photos by Bob Lerner for the Look magazine article "The Kennedys: A Family Political Machine." 35mm negative. View full size.
Spring 1938. "Cambridge, Massachusetts. Historical marker with trash cans." Medium format negative by Paul Vanderbilt. View full size.
For your Halloween enjoyment we present "The Commercial Vampire," a Leon Barritt cartoon from the July 20, 1898, issue of Vim, a short-lived satirical weekly published in New York. Painting department stores as bloodthirsty predators of small independent businesses, the same argument made today in some quarters against giant retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon. View full size.
Fifty years ago today in Washington on the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous address under the gaze of Abraham Lincoln, signer of the Emancipation Proclamation 100 years earlier.
August 28, 1963. "Emancipator looking down on demonstrators. Participants in the March on Washington in front of the Lincoln Memorial and massed along both sides of the Reflecting Pool, viewed from behind Abraham Lincoln statue." Photo by James K. Atherton for United Press International. View full size.
1952. "Republican presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower in campaign motorcade." Back when Lincoln convertibles were still part of the political scene. Who can name the city? Photo by Charlotte Brooks for the Look magazine assignment "The G.O.P.'s Future Will Be Up to Ike." View full size.
1970. "Lenore Romney, wife of former Michigan Gov. George Romney, campaigning for U.S. Senate in Michigan, and meeting with son Mitt in her hotel room in Marquette." Note the "Magic Fingers" coin box. Photo by Douglas R. Gilbert for the Look magazine article "Lenore Fights Alone." View full size.