July 1938. "Young boy in Baltimore slum area." Potential model for the A&F catalog. Medium-format nitrate negative by John Vachon. View full size.

Summer 1938. "Negro asleep. Florence County, South Carolina." 3¼x4¼ negative in the FSA archive attributed to "Cox, photographer." View full size.

Norfolk, Virginia, circa 1906. "Atlantic Hotel, Granby Street." Demolished 1970s. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

July 1942. Washington, D.C. "Sunday swimmers at the municipal pool." These girls are all about the comics. So where's Superman? Medium format nitrate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.

December 1937. "Gas station in Minneapolis." The Minnesota tropics, where snow dusts the painted palms. Photo by John Vachon. View full size.

July 1938. "Rear of grocery store in Baltimore." Only hinting at the delights that await within. Medium format nitrate negative by John Vachon. View full size.

March 1937. "Four families, three of them related with 15 children, from the Dust Bowl in Texas in an overnight roadside camp near Calipatria, California." Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

February 24, 1953. "Suffolk County Federal Savings. Babylon, Long Island, New York. Mortgage room. C.M. Johnson, client." At left, Miss Miller; at right, Miss Information. Large-format negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1923. "Sport Mart, 1410 New York Avenue N.W." Continuing our day of window-shopping. National Photo glass negative. View full size.

July 1941. "Store window display. Chicago, Illinois." High concept retailing -- one's eye is drawn immediately to the fancy footwear on display. Or maybe summers in Chicago are just especially hot? We'll leave the interpretation up to you. 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon. View full size.

Summer 1938. "Street scene, New York City." Here's a fellow who looks like he has a story to tell. Medium format negative by Jack Allison. View full size.

My dad was born in Maryland and lived there until he was 12. In 1964 he and my mother visited old family friends the Winklers in Silver Spring. This is their house where they stayed, my mother Janice sitting on the front steps. She was pregnant with my sister at the time. View full size.

Circa 1905. "C. & O. terminal piers, Newport News, Virginia." The Kanawha in port. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

"Michigan Avenue, Chicago, July 1941." And just a block ago, they were strangers. 35mm negative by John Vachon, who has a lens for the ladies. View full size.

May 1936. "Sheep ranch in Converse County, Wyoming." Medium-format neg by Arthur Rothstein for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.