This circa 1958 candlelight candid offers a glimpse of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer city desk during a power outage. Start the presses! 4x5 inch acetate negative. View full size.

        Our annual salute to the start of vacation road-trip season, first posted here 15 years ago. Everyone buckled in? Let's go!

"Great Falls, Montana. Return after 3 weeks Vacation. June 27, 1964." This Kodachrome of a 1960 Chevrolet Parkwood station wagon is from a box of slides found on eBay. View full size.

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1964. "Jaycees -- Golden Gloves physicals." The first rule of Fight Club: You do not talk about Fight Club. 4x5 inch acetate negative. View full size.

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1956. "Police cars at Muscogee County Jail." Let's be careful out there! 4x5 inch acetate negative from the Shorpy News Photo Archive. View full size.

February 2, 1954. "Actress Hope Lange and diving instructor Chuck Diercksmeier diving off the Florida coast; Lange posed on seawall with an assortment of scuba equipment." 35mm negative from the Look magazine assignment "Everybody's Going Underwater." View full size.

Shorpy hereby declares the country club pool open for the summer! Lifeguard courtesy of the Junior League. 4x5 inch acetate negative from the Shorpy News Photo Archive. View full size.

February 1942. Woodville, California. "Nurse at Health Center clinic of FSA farm workers' community." Photo by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Meanwhile, back in the cement-sack warehouse, these guys are still piling it on. Columbus, Georgia, circa 1955. 4x5 inch acetate negative from the News Photo Archive. View full size.

October 1940. East Hartford, Connecticut. "New type of plating machine being used at the Hamilton Standard Propeller Corporation. It automatically dips the part into the proper solutions for the proper length of time." Acetate negative by Jack Delano. View full size.

Circa 1907. "Athenaeum -- Portsmouth, New Hampshire." Next door to Foye's and its 1,000 Palms. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

1906. "Kansas City Club, Wyandotte and West 12th Sts., Kansas City, Mo." Popcorn, anyone? 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

"Ruins of Pettibone Bros., New Montgomery Street." San Francisco in the aftermath of the earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1907. "Electric locomotive, New York Central & Hudson River R.R." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

November 11, 1950. New York. "Gimbel Brothers department store. Interior. Raymond Loewy Associates, architect." 4x5 inch acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

        Ah for the infinite loveliness of Gimbels. We're the most enticing, most alluring street floor that ever walked the ways of beauty. So captivating are we, you just can't resist us. Our walls are delicately tinted. Our counters are sleek. If we were a bell, we would tinkle. We're all this, and more, because Raymond Loewy, genius at transforming an ugly duckling into a raving beauty, has given us his magic touch. And the best part is, this beauty of ours will be a joy forever. Our loveliness will never pass into nothingness. Why? Because those sweet, sweet bargains and those low, low price tags keep coming and coming and coming ... (NYT ad, Feb. 1951)

September 14, 1951. "Tillett residence, 170 E. 80th Street, New York City. Mr. and Mrs. on couch." The influential textile designers D.D. (Doris Doctorow) and Leslie Tillett. 4x5 inch acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.