"Summit Avenue Ensemble." Photographer Thomas Askew's twin sons Clarence and Norman, son Arthur, neighbor Jake Sansome, and sons Robert and Walter at the Askew home in Atlanta. 1899 or 1900. View full size. The Askew residence, at 114 Summit Avenue, burned in the Great Fire of 1917.

Washington, D.C., 1921. "Times boy and bicycle." Winner of a Mead Ranger bike by virtue of selling 30 newspaper subscriptions. The Ranger contest was a promotion of various papers from about 1917 to 1923. National Photo Co. Collection. View full size.

Western Union messengers in Hartford, Conn. March 1909. They are on duty, alternate nights, until 10 P.M. Messenger #32 is Thomas De Lucco, 9 years old, who works second job as newsboy. View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Middleweight boxer George “Knockout” Brown (on right) and sparring partner, probably around 1912. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.

Harlem newsboy. May-June 1943. View full size. Photograph by Gordon Parks.

Company houses at Scotts Run mining camp near Morgantown, West Virginia. July 1935. View full size. Photograph by Walker Evans.

June 1913. Poughkeepsie, New York. "Washington Varsity 8." View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection. So why do some of the rowers in these pictures (above, and also two men here) have bandaged abs ... chafing from where the oars hit? Intra-crew knife fights?

A world's record 384-pound black sea bass caught by Franklin Schenck of Brooklyn with rod and reel off Catalina Island, California, on August 17, 1900. View full size

Just in from NASA, a spectacular image assembled from 48 frames taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of the Carina Nebula 7500 light-years away, which means we are seeing these stars as they were in 5500 BC — making this the oldest picture on Shorpy so far. The bright star at left is Eta Carinae, which can be seen throwing off two enormous lobes of gas prior to exploding — possibly in the next few thousand years, maybe tomorrow — as a titanic supernova. We're offering this as a JG fine art print, made using NASA's 480mb master file.

Four prize winners in the 1922 beauty show at Washington Bathing Beach, Washington, D.C. Left to right: Gay Gatley, Eva Fridell, Anna Niebel, Iola Swinnerton. View full size. National Photo Company Collection.

I was watching an episode from the second season (1958-59) of "Leave It to Beaver" tonight when I got to the part where Ward reads a note from Beaver's principal, Mrs. Rayburn. If you freeze-frame the note it says:

Child living in Oklahoma City shacktown. August 1936. View full size. Farm Security Administration photograph by Dorothea Lange.

Interior of tenant farmer home. Little Rock, Arkansas. October 1935. The "round thing" is an old-fashioned convex mirror. View full size. Photo by Ben Shahn.

Children of rehabilitation client, Maria Plantation, Arkansas. October 1935. View full size. Farm Security Administration photograph by Ben Shahn.

Interior of Ozarks cabin housing six people in Missouri. May 1936. View full size. Farm Security Administration photograph by Carl Mydans.