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Vintage photos of:
Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
Greene County, N.Y., circa 1902. "Palenville Hotel, Catskill Mountains." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Buffalo, New York, circa 1900. "Tifft House, Main Street." Demolished 1902; home to Minehan's Hair Store (offering "a full line of switches, waves, fringes and wigs"). 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size.
Washington, D.C., 1920. "Tidal Basin bathing beach -- Tom Miller, 1912 Irving Street N.E." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
New York circa 1922. "Paul Specht band." Last seen at the Astor Roof Garden, and now in the recording studio also seen here. Note arrangement of the scores around the acoustic recording horn. 5x7 glass negative. View full size.
Circa 1907. North Adams, Massachusetts. "Main Street, looking west." Last seen here, looking the other way. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.
San Francisco, 1931. "Auburn at Golden Gate Park." Similar to the car seen earlier here. 5x7 inch glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.
Lake Erie circa 1900. "Harbor entrance at Conneaut, Ohio." Where ore from the Lake Superior iron ranges was unloaded for transport by rail to the smelting furnaces of Ohio and Pennsylvania. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.
November 1942. Babies' Hospital, New York. "Nurse training. At the ping-pong table in the game room, Susan Petty, student nurse, enjoys a bit of relaxation after a busy day's work in the wards." Photo by Fritz Henle. View full size.
Union Square, San Francisco, looking north up Powell Street, circa 1958. I believe my parents were in America at the time to attend the 13th Junior Chamber International World Congress at the Hotel Leamington in Minneapolis; I am only assuming this as there is a transparency in the same container in a similar mount of the front of the hotel with a "Welcome JCI" sign under the veranda, so they may have all been photographed and processed around the same time period. If a Shorpy detective can narrow down the year that would be most welcome so I can date these transparencies in this album.
This Kodachrome transparency, taken by my father using a Kodak Retina 1a camera, is one of many that he had photographed over the years; I'm scanning the collection myself, using an Epson V370 photo & slide scanner. As I progress through all the transparencies I will post some more of the interesting late '50s America images here. View full size.
July 1943. Washington, D.C. "Waiting for the parade to recruit civilian defense volunteers." Entertaining themselves with the hand-held device known as a "newspaper." Photo by Esther Bubley, Office of War Information. View full size.
New York circa 1922. "Paul Specht Orchestra, Hotel Astor Roof Garden." Take five, boys, and don't burn the house down. 5x7 inch glass negative. View full size.
March 14, 1925. New York. "Isabella Fosta, soprano." And traveling companion. 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size.
San Francisco. "Dort touring car, 1921." Latest display at the Shorpy Exposition of Obscure Autos. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.
October 1922. New York. "Kopp" is all it says on this glass negative depicting a pair of kettledrums next to what might be a speaker horn or a mega-microphone. Bain News Service. View full size.
Washington, D.C, circa 1921. "National Benefit Life Insurance, interior." Described in contemporary accounts as the nation's largest "colored insurance company." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative, retouched to obscure whatever is on the wall behind that lamp in the corner. View full size.