New York municipal lodging house circa 1909. "Fumigating clothing." From the New York Times: "There is a basement and subbasement, the latter containing the boiler and batteries for lighting and heating. The basement contains the shower baths for men and the steam and formaldehyde cleansers, the laundry, and the vacuum sweeping apparatus. ... All applicants for accommodations will be forced to undress before going to their rooms, which they will enter after they have taken a bath and their clothes have been thoroughly fumigated. The arrangements for the latter are most novel. The clothes are placed in small crates or boxes, which are then wheeled into large steam and formaldehyde retorts. When they are finally taken from their place before the men and women to which they belong are ready to leave the house in the morning, they are entirely cleaned." 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

"Bread & Coffee." The new Department of Public Charities municipal lodging house at 432 East 25th Street in New York, which opened in February 1909 after four years of construction. "The first municipal lodging house fitted up by the city was a boat moored at the foot of East 26th Street in 1895, followed a few years after by the building at 398 First Avenue, just north of 23rd Street." (NYT) 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

February 1943. Heil & Co., Milwaukee. "Agnes Cliemka, age 23, husband may be going into the service any day. Agnes used to work in a department store. Checking fuel hose on gasoline trailer before it is turned over to the Air Force." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem. View full size.

August 1939. "Western Washington, Grays Harbor County, north of Elma. Hand irrigation on small rented subsistence farm. Family have been on place for one year." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange.

January 19, 1923. "Dog Smoking." View full size. National Photo Company.

Washington, D.C., 1924. "Dog catchers." View full size. National Photo Co.

January 1942. Louisville, Kentucky. "Large pipe elbows for the Army are formed at Tube Turns Inc., by heating lengths of pipe with gas flames and forcing them around a die." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer. View full size.

1921 or 1922. "Detroit Electric car at the State, War and Navy building in Washington." View full size. National Photo Company Collection.

Houston, October 1913. "Eleven-year-old Western Union messenger #51. J.T. Marshall. Been day boy here for five months. Goes to Red Light district some and knows some of the girls." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

April 1917. "Making bread. Pauls Valley Training School. Pauls Valley, Oklahoma." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

"Home economics in public schools. Kitchen in housekeeping flat, New York," circa 1910. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

April 1865. "Farmville, Virginia, vicinity. High bridge of the South Side Railroad across the Appomattox." From photographs of the main Eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865. Wet collodion glass plate negative, left half of stereograph pair, by Timothy H. O'Sullivan; from Civil War photographs compiled by Hirst Milhollen and Donald Mugridge. View full size.

1865. "Charleston, South Carolina. Ruins of the Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar (Broad and Legare Streets) destroyed in the fire of December 1861." From photographs of the Federal Navy and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy, 1863-1865. Glass plate negative, left half of stereograph pair, from Civil War photos compiled by Milhollen and Mugridge. View full size.

1865. "Charleston, South Carolina. Ruins of Roman Catholic Cathedral. View of doorway." Glass plate negative, left half of stereograph pair. View full size.

1865. "Petersburg, Virginia. Sections of chevaux-de-frise before Confederate main works." From photographs of the main Eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865. Glass plate negative, left half of stereograph pair, from Civil War photos compiled by Milhollen and Mugridge. View full size.