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.
PdH in nuclear physics from Duke. Worked in high resolution optical measurement technqiues for 25 yrs. I am the author of Forensic Genealogy and The Dead Horse Investigation: Forensic Photo Analysis for everyone. I love researching old photographs. We have featured a couple from Shorpy in our weekly photo quizzes on our website at www.forensicgenealogy.info. I am also the author of DNA & Genealogy, which gives the basics on how DNA can be used to solve genealogical mysteries.