Washington, D.C., circa 1934. "Leon's Delicatessen, 1131 14th Street NW. Window display of whiskey." Courtesy of Leon Slavin (1893-1975), who, according to his obituary, "obtained the first off-sale retail liquor license in Washington after the repeal of Prohibition." 8x10 negative by Theodor Horydczak. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1924. Tweaking the dials on a Freed Eisemann Neutrodyne receiver and a Western Electric 138 amplifier. On the shelf: Westinghouse "Rectigon" battery chargers. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

August 1965. Cal Poly's San Luis Obispo campus underwent a building boom in the early 1960s, still prime time for Mid-Century Modern architecture (earlier I posted another example). Here we have the college's Administration Building a year after it opened, the landscaping so new it looks like an architect's rendering. My Kodachrome slide also captured these cars: first, something of a rarity, a sporty French Facel Vega; next, a 1965 Oldsmobile Starfire Coupe; finally, part of a 1964 Dodge, the part that shows that Chrysler Corporation's "Forward Look" was now a thing of the past. I took this shot at my brother's alma mater on either the way to or the way back from a visit to my sister and her family in Diamond Bar which, incidentally, is near Cal Poly's Pomona campus. View full size.

March 30, 1955. "Fontainebleau Hotel, Miami Beach. Over pool to hotel. Morris Lapidus, client." The luxe hostelry's first "season" after its opening. Large-format acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

August 1961. Summer in Hyannis Port: "President John F. Kennedy driving a golf cart full of Kennedy [Shriver, Smith, Lawford] family children." Photo by Stanley Tretick for the Look magazine assignment "Uncle Jack." View full size.

Circa 1909. "King's Chapel, Boston." Note the unusually explicit One-Way sign on the lamppost: "Vehicles Must Go in Direction of Arrow." View full size.

Circa 1937. "61 Washington Street, Charleston." A house that's seen a lot of living. 8x10 inch acetate negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.

July 1954. "Commuters on platform after getting off train. Park Forest, Illinois." Photo by Bob Sandberg for Look magazine. View full size.

December 1921. Washington, D.C. "Machinists Association." Mad amenities in this office paradise include windows and a sink. Note the Burroughs tabulator with glass sides. National Photo Company glass negative. View full size.

      "Robert Murray, boy soprano with a voice reaching to the D which falls on the sixth ledger line above the treble clef, said to be the highest voice on record, has been astonishing New York City. His imitations of bird calls at a concert given at the Hippodrome are said to have been remarkable." -- The Etude, January 1922

November 1920. New York. "Murray singing 'Queen of Night'." Robert Murray, "phenomenal boy soprano" from Tacoma, Washington. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

1953. Marilyn Monroe with Look magazine photographer John Vachon in Alberta, Canada, after she hurt her ankle filming River of No Return. View full size.

November 1904. Ecorse, Michigan. "Great Lake Engineering Works. Steamer Detroit, Michigan Central Transfer, before the launch." The giant railcar ferry seen here. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

Washington, D.C., or vicinity. 1927. "Girls with apples." Possibly promoting National Apple Week. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

"Memphis Bridge spanning Mississippi River between Memphis, Tennessee, and West Memphis, Arkansas. Cantilever span detail, view to southwest." 1985 photo by Clayton B. Fraser for the Historic American Buildings Survey. View full size.

1938. "Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Joe Gladski, wife of a coal miner at Maple Hill." Photo by Sheldon Dick, Resettlement Administration. View full size.