THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL PHOTO ARCHIVE • FRAMED PRINTS • STOCK IMAGES

Circa 1904 somewhere in North America. "Switchboard in dynamo room." (UPDATE: Also seen here.) 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

New York circa 1924. "L.M. Cockaday and Maj. Kendall Banning." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

December 23, 1936. Washington, D.C. "Bureau of Standards. Standardization of card colors. Kenneth Kelley judging colors of dyes." Whatever you labor at, Shorpy wishes you a happy Labor Day. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "Daniels and Navy telephone exchange." Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy. National Photo glass negative. View full size.

June 1940. Washington, D.C. "Direct postal telegraph wire at a truck service station on U.S. 1 (New York Avenue)." So the place was something of an Internet cafe, without the lattes or wifi. 35mm negative by Jack Delano. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1932. "Ben Franklin Press" is all it says here. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Feb. 7, 1922. "Hobart Reese." Whose talent seems to have been an ability to type Abraham Lincoln the hard way. National Photo glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "Post Office money order machine." A sort of typewriter-cash register hybrid. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

Turin, Italy, circa 1912. "Bernocchi (left) and wireless iconograph." The inventor Francesco de Bernocchi and his fax-like device, which by means of "Hertzian waves" was said to facilitate the "exact wireless transmission of messages, sketches, autographs, shorthand and other signs, with a secrecy hitherto unattained." Bain News Service glass negative. View full size.

New York, August 1917. "Wireless instruction -- Pratt Institute." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1928. "T.R. Shipp -- Star Radio." Shipp, the client for whom this photo was made, was Atwater Kent's public relations guru. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1923. "Geo. W. Parezo electric shop, interior." Our fourth glimpse at the Parezo electrical supply store on Ninth Street. View full size.

New York, 1921. "Victor record display, New York Band Instrument Co. window." Over two dozen Nippers here by my count, as well as some handsome Victrolas in the kind of place that was the Apple Store of its day. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1926. "Industrial Exposition. Frank R. Porter -- booth at auditorium." With neighboring displays on telephone etiquette and the Morris Plan Bank. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "Loomis Radio School." Another look behind the scenes at the technical school run by Mary Texanna Loomis. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.