January 1912, New York City. View full size. To the untrained observer this might be a pleasant domestic scene; to the eye (and lens) of social reformer Lewis Hine, however, it is a diorama of decadence and moral decay, with peril lurking in every detail. The object of his ire here is the use of child labor in tenement home work, specifically the assembly of artificial flowers: "Julin, a 6-year-old child, making pansies for her neighbors on top floor (Gatto), 106 Thompson St. They said she does this every day, 'but not all day.' A growler and dirty beer glasses in the window, unwashed dishes on the stove, clothes everywhere, and flowers likewise." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. (NB: Growler = beer pitcher.)

March 15, 1917. Oklahoma City. Jack Ryan is 6-year-old newsie who lives at 126½ West Reno Street. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. "Start of a glide; Wilbur in motion at left holding one end of glider (rebuilt with single vertical rudder), Orville lying prone in machine, and Dan Tate at right." October 10, 1902. 5x7 dry-plate glass negative attributed to the Wright Brothers. View full size.

October 10, 1902. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. "Start of a glide; Wilbur in motion at left holding one end of glider (rebuilt with single vertical rudder), Orville lying prone in machine, and Dan Tate at right." 5x7 dry-plate glass negative attributed to the Wright Brothers. View full size. This is a cleaned-up detail from the post above.

Christmas 1954. My grandmother Sarah Parish Hall at home in Miami Shores, Florida. She really knew how to do Christmas. (Here's the tree.) View full size.

"Boy looking at Xmas toys in shop window" in New York circa 1910. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

The Washington Bridge and High Bridge over the Harlem River along the northern boundary of Manhattan, looking south. Circa 1890 albumen print from a photograph by William Henry Jackson. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

Christmas tree at a New York lodging house in 1914. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. What did Santa bring? Chairs!

"Marconi Control Table" at a radio station in British Mandate Palestine circa 1939. View full size. | Alternate view. Glass negative from the archives of the Matson Photo Service, which documented the American Colony in Jerusalem.

July 1939. "Churchyard on annual cleaning up day, Wheeley's Church, Person County, N.C." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. Note the homemade twig brooms propped against the pine. From an earlier post, a group shot of the ladies. Is the church, in Gordonton, still there?

A radio mast in Ramallah, British-Mandate Palestine, sometime around 1939. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, Matson Photo Service. Alternate view.

January 1941. Another view of the Sarasota, Florida, trailer park concert posted yesterday. View full size. Medium-format negative by Marion Post Wolcott.

Six men and a horse in this St. Augustine, Florida, street view from around 1865. View full size. Left half of a glass-plate stereograph made by Samuel A. Cooley.

April 2, 1909. Children at play in the streets of New York, bundled against the cold. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection. The tyke on the right reminds me of Edward Gorey's ill-fated tots. What calamity will befall her?

1901. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Wilbur Wright and glider just after landing. 4x5 dry-plate glass negative attributed to Orville Wright. View full size. The fogging of the negative at the bottom of the frame, combined with the skid marks in the sand from an earlier landing, create the illusion that the glider is still flying.