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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:
Christmas in Buffalo, NY. 1917. The year is a guesstimate based on the birth dates of Hermann (1912, on the left) and Johanna (1911). They are enjoying their new toys under the tree lit with actual candles.
In additional to the traditional train by the tree I find most fascinating the horse-drawn milk delivery wagon. This image doesn't show it well but the horse is mounted on a wheeled platform for smoother playtime.
This image was digitized from a 4x5 glass negative.
The stick-like structure in the center of the train track looks like an early version of the Tinkertoy. The sticks seem to be connected by star-like disks. I wasn't aware such a toy existed then, yet, there it is.
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