Philadelphia circa 1908. "Baldwin Locomotive Works." Panorama of two 8x10 inch glass negatives, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Circa 1905. "Post office, Saginaw, Michigan." Perhaps our most Disneyesque P.O. so far. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Circa 1900. "Main altar, Church of Notre Dame, Montreal, Quebec." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

The Detroit Opera House circa 1904, starring an electric runabout out front. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Circa 1906, continuing our tour of the Derby City. "Courthouse and Thomas Jefferson statue, Louisville, Kentucky." The building, which took over 20 years to complete, was called an "elephantine monstrosity" by one local newspaper. Elephantine or not, the pigeons like it. 8x10 glass negative. View full size.

My brother and I enjoy a day on the green with the hollyhocks in our Larkspur, California yard. He's about 12, me about 3. Later, we may have played in the pretend city we built, which he precociously named Le Petit Orléans. All I remember about it are the roads and the telephone lines we made with string and wooden mock chicken leg skewers from Mother's kitchen. Much later, the area in the upper right was the locale of my model church. I also note that the gizmo between me and the hollyhocks appears to share DNA with the other gizmo I'm holding in this shot. My father had an adventure each summer trying to find the pipe in the lawn that held the umbrella (also green, for all you colorizers). I still have the diagram he made, triangulating from trees on the slope, but it never seemed to help much. If I ever write my autobiography, this will illustrate the chapter "You Never Had It So Good." My sister took the photo. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1916. "Convention of former slaves. Annie Parram, age 104; Anna Angales, age 105; Elizabeth Berkeley, 125; Sadie Thompson, 110." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Louisville, Kentucky, circa 1906. "Lincoln Savings Bank." An interesting sampling of signage here, including the second appearance on Shorpy in recent weeks of an advertisement for Capt. Woodward's trained seals. View full size.

I don't know much about the photo other than it was taken in Holland, Michigan, at my great-grandpa's business where they made and installed cement septic tanks. You can see some toward the right of the photo. The car is a 1957 Oldsmobile. Also note the boat in the building. 35mm color slide. View full size.

Circa 1907. "The 'W' --- Walden's Ridge, Tennessee." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Circa 1900. "U.S.S. Kentucky -- quarter deck and after gun turrets." 8x10 inch glass negative by Edward Hart, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

"H. Kaczmarek, woman baseball player." Her teammates included Belle North and Regina Gross. 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size.

Circa 1906. "City Hall, Louisville, Kentucky." Continuing our survey of public buildings in the Derby City. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., 1924. "Van Tine & Johnson." Harry Van Tine and Joe Johnson in a photographic survey of Washington-area lensmen. View full size.

November 1938. "Shack of day laborer who works in sugarcane fields near New Iberia. He comes from a parish in northern Louisiana." 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.