"So as you can see, Mr. Smith, pencils and spark plugs are not interchangeable."

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1952. "Pope Motor Co. service garage." 4x5 inch acetate negative from the Shorpy News Photo Archive. View full size.

Savannah, Georgia, 1904. "Colonial Park Cemetery." By the looks of it, in need of a trim from the Grim Reaper, or at least a spritz of Roundup. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1942. "Children playing, aiming sticks as guns." Kodachrome transparency by Louise Rosskam, Office of War Information. View full size.

The Windy City circa 1900. "Chicago Beach Hotel, Hyde Park Boulevard." On the Lake Michigan Riviera. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative. View full size.

Green Lake, Wisconsin, circa 1899. "Old mill at railway station." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1950, and a print shop making fruit crate labels, back in the days when apples and oranges had something like brand identity. 4x5 inch acetate negative from the Shorpy News Photo Archive. View full size.

San Francisco circa 1931. "Pierce-Arrow limousine." Latest entry in the Shorpy File of Funereally Funky Phaetons. 5x7 glass negative by Chris Helin. View full size.

Cuba circa 1904. "The old sugar mill at Finca near Havana." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Charleston, South Carolina, circa 1905. "Hotel St. John (Mills House), Meeting Street." Demolished in 1968. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

December 1942. "Locomotives in the roundhouse at a Chicago and North Western Railroad yard." Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size.

Circa 1941. "Miscellaneous lot of photographs by Barbara Wright. Tennessee, e.g. Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville." Here, we seem to have two city slickers going native in the pre-Happy Meal era. Locally sourced food! View full size.

September 1943. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "A mechanic at the Greyhound garage." Photo by Esther Bubley for the Office of War Information. View full size.

Circa 1941. From uncaptioned photos by Barbara Wright taken in and around Knoxville of various Tennessee Valley Authority flood control and hydropower projects, as well as the photographers picnicking on a mountain. View full size.

Richmond, California, circa 1958. "Harbor Patrol." Helming a Glasspar Seafair. 4x5 inch acetate negative from the Shorpy News Photo Archive. View full size.

April 1943. "Trucks unloading at the inbound freight house of the Illinois Central Railroad, South Water Street freight terminal, Chicago." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size.