Montgomery County, Maryland, circa 1928. "Glen Echo Park." Another look at this old-school attraction in the Washington suburbs. View full size.

November 1938. "Man chewing piece of snake which he has just bitten off. State fair sideshow in Donaldsonville, Louisiana." 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

November 1937. "School at Greenbelt, Maryland." Notable for being an early planned community, one of three "Green-" towns midwifed by the Depression-era Resettlement Administration. 35mm negative by John Vachon. View full size.

January 22, 1921. Washington, D.C. "Paul E. Garber (Smithsonian museum)." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Saratoga Springs, New York, circa 1904. "Union Avenue." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Uncaptioned photo from a batch of 35mm negatives taken by John Vachon in the fall of 1937 in Annapolis, Maryland, and Newport News, Virginia. The car, a Cord convertible, would be worth around a zillion bucks today. View full size.

December 1941. Akron, Ohio. "Manufacture of self-sealing gas tanks, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co." A patriotic ensemble of red, white and blue. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer, Office of War Information. View full size.

Detroit circa 1919. "View of Woodward Avenue and Washington Boulevard; Whitney Building and Grand Circus Park." Also one of the "Winged Victory" statues seen earlier here. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

Jacksonville, Florida (vicinity), circa 1905. The unfortunate title for this one in the Detroit Publishing catalog: "A Darky Homestead." Note the birdhouse on the dormer. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Cleveland, Ohio, circa 1911. "The Public Square -- Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument." A bustling scene, patriotically decorated. View full size.

April 21, 1923. Washington, D.C. "Gartley -- U of Virginia, American Legion track meet, Central High stadium." National Photo Co. glass negative. View full size.

Medford, Mass., late fall 1977. A vintage Big Wheel toy by Mattel. (You can tell it's Mattel -- it's swell!) Kids were crazy for these things. Back when kids played outside! View full size.

Dayton, Ohio, circa 1904. "Conover Building." This 13-story structure, later enlarged, still stands at Third and Main. 8x10 glass negative. View full size.

As photographic film continues its inexorable decline to the status of quaint, if not forgotten, technology, I offer this example demonstrating one of its often-derided properties: grain. If you follow home video fora, you'll see many who think it's something to be minimized if not expunged entirely. Of course, grain is why there is an image in the first place. I think the heavy grain structure in this 35mm Kodacolor 1000 negative I shot in 1985 lends a rather painterly quality, especially viewed full-size. The flatironish building in the center is San Francisco's Columbus Tower, aka the Sentinel Building, begun a year before the earthquake and completed a year later in 1907. Since 1970, it's been the headquarters of Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope studio; The Godfather was edited and sound- mixed here. Also, a K-car an M-body Chrysler Fifth Avenue taxi. View full size.

May 1936. "Boys playing. Decatur Homesteads, Indiana." 35mm nitrate negative by Carl Mydans for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.