New York circa 1908. "Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street." Where hustle meets bustle. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Circa 1910. "Schlitz Hotel, Atlantic City." On the Boardwalk at Ocean Avenue. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

San Francisco circa 1920. "Locomobile touring sedan." An expensive open car fortified against the elements with yet another variation on the so-called "California top." 5x7 inch glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.

This is my mom, Dorothy Porter, and my two older sisters, Madge and June, on a family vacation trip to Folly Beach, South Carolina in the summer of 1950. Not sure if the old carousel was at Folly Beach or if this was perhaps taken at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion. 35mm Kodachrome slide. View full size.

April 20, 1965. "Vending Machines, Cigarettes." 35mm negative by Marion S. Trikosko for U.S. News & World Report. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1928. "Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. office boys football team." National Photo Company glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1936. "Dept. of Interior exhibit -- kitchen at all electric farm." An early manifestation of the government's push for rural electrification, three years after the Tennessee Valley Authority was created by act of Congress. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Somewhere in Washington, D.C., circa 1928. "S.W. Barrow" is all it says here. Who can pinpoint the location? 8x10 glass negative, National Photo Co. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "National Fruit Co. banana truck." 8x10 inch glass negative, National Photo Company Collection. View full size.

June 1943. Arlington, Virginia. "One of several alcoves off the corridor in Idaho Hall, Arlington Farms, a residence for women who work in the U.S. government for the duration of the war." Medium format nitrate negative by Esther Bubley for the Office of War Information. View full size.

September 11, 1900. "Masonic Temple, State Street, Chicago -- Temple Theatre and Central Music Hall." Completed 1892; demolished 1939. Shortly after this photo was taken, Central Music Hall met the wrecking ball to make way for the Marshall Field department store. 8x10 glass negative. View full size.

San Francisco circa 1920. "Haynes touring car at de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park." Dapper flapper at the wheel, poised to take flight. Could this be our first photo by Chris Helin to portray someone famous? 5x7 glassneg. View full size.

        "The 175 room hotel burned to the ground during a blizzard on January 7, 1927."

Circa 1907. "Atlantic House, Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

        At the corner of Witherell and Adams Avenues, is the largest and most complete of its kind in the world and boasts of a gymnasium second to none in the country. It was erected in 1908 and has cost in the neighborhood of $700,000.

Detroit circa 1909. "The new Y.M.C.A. building." Razed in 1998 to make way for Comerica Park baseball stadium. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

1937. "Slater House, St. Augustine, St. Johns County, Florida. Dr. Chatelain's photographs. P.A. Wolfe, photographer." 8x10 inch acetate negative attributed to Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.