The Blue Bell diner at 619 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington. June 1948. View full size | Even larger | Read the menu. The Blue Bell had an upscale cousin on 10th Street, the Waffle Shop. Photograph by Theodor Horydczak.

October 1942. Experimental staff at the North American Aviation plant in Ingle- wood, Calif., observing wind tunnel tests on a model of the B-25 ("Billy Mitchell") bomber. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.

A homemade swimming pool for steelworkers' children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Photograph by Arthur Rothstein, July, 1938. View full size.

The American minstrel performer Japanese Tommy, aka Thomas Dilward, circa 1860. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. View large as life.

"See what Prince will do for me." Prince Albert, Ida Cuthbertson's "famous educated horse." Brown Studio, Riverside, circa 1909. View full size.

The Brooklyn Bridge circa 1910. View full size. Detroit Publishing Co.

June 1942. Working on power transmission and utility lines near the TVA hydro- electric plant at Chickamauga Dam or Douglas Dam, Tennessee. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer, Office of War Information.

Bermuda Hundred, Virginia. Signal tower on left of the line near the Appomattox River. Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the Army of the James, June 1864-April 1865. Wet collodion glass plate. View full size | Even larger. Signal towers, employed by both the Confederate and Union armies during the Civil War to transmit coded messages, used flags by day and torches by night.

Williamsburg Bridge, New York, c 1903-1910. View full size. Detroit Publishing.

New York, November 13, 1909. "Irish wrestler Pat Connelly." 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

June 1942. Truck driver at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Douglas Dam. View full size. Amazing 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.

Chicago moviegoers waiting to see "The Philadelphia Story" starring Stewart, Grant and Hepburn. April 1941. View full size. Photograph by Russell Lee.

Easter Sunday, April 1941. Boys waiting for the processional at an Episcopal church in South Side Chicago. View full size. Photograph by Russell Lee. Observe, young people of today, how the young people of yesterday dressed: Up.

Easter Sunday, April 1941. Waiting for the processional at an Episcopal church in South Side Chicago. View full size. Photograph by Russell Lee.

East Side peddler, New York. Circa 1915. View full size. 5x7 glass negative. George Grantham Bain Collection.