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.

St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1865 following bombardment of the city during the Civil War. From photographs of the Federal Navy and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, 1863-1865. View full size. Left half of a glass-plate stereograph negative.

April 1865. Charleston, South Carolina, after bombardment by the Federal Navy. View from roof of the Mills House, looking up Meeting Street at ruins of the Circular Church, damaged in an 1861 fire. View full size. This is the scaffolded building seen in last week's Civil War posts. From photographs of the Federal Navy and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, 1863-1865. Right half of a wet-plate glass negative stereograph. Of interest is the faint registration of clouds, which I've brought out with the Shadows & Highlights filters in Photoshop. Most daytime outdoor photography from the 19th century shows blank white skies, a common characteristic of the blue-sensitive emulsions used in the days before panchromatic black-and-white emulsions came into use.

January 1941. Band composed of guests at a trailer park in Sarasota, Florida. View full size. Medium-format safety negative by Marion Post Wolcott.