May 1938. "Quack doctor -- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1914. "Treasury Department -- Ofc. of U.S. Treasury -- second step in destruction of paper money. Machine cutting bills in halves." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Macomb County, Michigan, circa 1899. "Fountain House, Mount Clemens." Bath houses and mineral springs were the draw in this 19th-century spa town. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "Crandall's Apollo Theatre." Now playing: Louise Glaum in "Sex." National Photo Company glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1908. "Atlantic City, N.J. -- the bathing hour." Nattily attired in a variety of suits. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

October 1942. "Douglas Aircraft plant at Long Beach, California. An A-20 bomber being riveted by a woman worker." (With, yes, a power drill.) 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer, Office of War Information. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1912. "Naon children." Our second look at Romulo Naon Jr., son of the Argentinean ambassador, and his siblings -- patrician antecedents of the Addams Family. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

August 29, 1924. "Crowd at Washington Star scoreboard for A.L. Pennant game, Nationals-New York." The Nats beat the Yankees 5-1. A demonstration of the 1920s mania for baseball (and the straw boater), at just about the time radio was making mechanical scoreboards obsolete. National Photo Co. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1922. "Washington Times -- 42 L Street N.W." Photo of a long-vanished row house made in connection with a real estate listing. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1908. "Riverside Drive, New York." Tourists in an electric charabanc or "automobile bus." 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

New Orleans circa 1937. "Courtyard at 1133-1135 Chartres Street." Young and old, hangin' with the laundry. The head count here is three, the foot count nine. 8x10 acetate negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.

April 1974. Columbus, Indiana. "General view of soda fountain area -- Zaharako Bros. Ice Cream Parlor, 329 Washington Street. Family-run ice cream and confectionery business operating since 1900. This parlor was a major social center in Columbus for the first 50 years. Known for its elaborate interior and ice cream still made by the Zaharako family. Mexican onyx soda fountains purchased 1905; extra counter added 1949; store front modernized 1959." 5x7 negative by Jack E. Boucher, Historic American Buildings Survey. View full size.

March 15, 1926. Washington, D.C. "Lady Cathcart, Austin Fairman & George Vivian." Countess Vera Cathcart, playwright-star of the theatrical flop "Ashes of Love," whose visit to America was notable mostly for a scandal involving a champagne-filled bathtub. National Photo glass negative. View full size.

New York circa 1908. "West 23rd Street from Sixth Avenue." Two landmark skyscrapers on view -- the Flatiron Building at right and Metropolitan Life tower going up at left. At No. 62: The Best & Co. "Liliputian Bazaar." View full size.

New York circa 1920. "Caruso family." A portrait made the year before the legendary tenor's untimely death: Enrico Caruso with wife Dorothy Park Benjamin and their infant daughter Gloria, along with the family of his son Rodolfo Caruso. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.