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.
Photography is the closest thing I've got to a hobby. These old photos make me wish I'd spent more time burning up film and working in a darkroom breathing vapors from photochemicals. And this site's a great diversion in the middle of the workday.