It's the Friday before Christmas, time for a hallowed holiday tradition here at Shorpy: The Office Xmas Party! Which has been going on for 99 years now. Will Clarence in Sales ever get up the nerve to ask out Hermione from Accounting? Is there gin in that oilcan? Ask the bear.

December 1925. "Washington, D.C. -- Western Electric Co. group." There are enough little dramas playing out here to keep the forensic partyologists busy until Groundhog Day. 8x10 inch glass negative, National Photo Company Collection. View full size.

Occupied Germany at the U.S.-Soviet sector The East/West German border circa 1951, ten years before the Berlin Wall was built. U.S. Army soldiers Harry Manville, Dave Crosson, and Ray Kwapil (my dad). I have the Agfa Karat 35mm and Rolleicord 6x6cm Dad is dangling. Nice cameras, they are still working.

Location: "Untersuhl by Eisenach, Germany, East-West German border on Autobahn" is written on the slide mount. Another of Dad's photos is here: Munich c. 1952. | View full size.

Omaha, Nebraska, 1910. "Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Locomotive CBQ 2867." 4x5 inch glass negative, Louis A. Marre Rail Transportation Photograph Collection. View full size.

May 1949. Washington, D.C. "Charles Farrar on Harley-Davidson motorcycle." 4x5 inch acetate negative by the African-American photographer Robert H. McNeill (1917-2005). View full size.

December 12, 1967. Wheaton, Maryland. "Shoppers walk past People's Drug and Christmas decorations at Wheaton Plaza shopping center." Back when "shopping days until Christmas" was a thing. 35mm negative by Warren K. Leffler for U.S. News & World Report. View full size.

May 17, 1928. Washington, D.C. "Mrs. Victor J. Evans, who with her husband, a Washington attorney, have a private zoo just outside of the National Capital, is shown feeding the blue and white macaws she has tamed." 4x5 inch glass negative by Harris & Ewing. View full size.

October 28, 1935. Washington, D.C. "Diving exhibition. Navy Day was celebrated at the Washington Navy Yard [a day late, since the 27th was a Sunday] by various exhibitions including the diving show put on here by 2nd Class Gunner's Mate Emerson Burie Buie. A diving school is maintained at the yard." 4x5 glass negative by Harris & Ewing. View full size.

March 1943. "Santa Fe Railroad activities across New Mexico. Men coming out of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad shops in Albuquerque at the end of the day's shift." Acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. Lititz, Pennsylvania. "Tracks of the Lancaster-Reading Railroad. Two trains come through every day. In the distance is the local chocolate factory." Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. "Neffsville, Pennsylvania. Thanksgiving dinner at the house of Earle Landis." Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. "Neffsville, Pennsylvania. Saying grace before carving the turkey at Thanksgiving dinner in the home of Earle Landis." The relish tray and Mrs. Landis make an appearance. Acetate negative by Marjory Collins, Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. "Neffsville, Pennsylvania. Serving the turkey at Thanksgiving dinner in the home of Earle Landis." Photo by Marjory Collins, Office of War Information. View full size.

November 1942. "Neffsville, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Earle Landis taking Thanksgiving pies from the oven." Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.

May 19 or 20, 1864. "Fredericksburg, Virginia. Burial of Federal dead. Photograph from the main Eastern theater of war, Grant's Wilderness Campaign, May-June 1864." Wet plate glass negative, Civil War Photographs Collection, Library of Congress. View full size.

March 1943. "Santa Fe Railroad conductor's work table in the caboose enroute to Gallup, New Mexico." Acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.