Richmond, Virginia, in April 1865 showing the burned district along the James River. From photographs of the main Eastern theater of war and fallen Richmond compiled by Hirst Milhollen and Donald Mugridge. View full size.

As the sun rose on Richmond, such a spectacle was presented as can never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. All the horrors of the final conflagration, when the earth shall be wrapped in flames and "melt with fervent heat," were, it seemed to us, prefigured in our capital. The roaring, crackling and hissing of the flames, the bursting of shells at the Confederate Arsenal, the sounds of the Instruments of martial music, the neighing of the horses, the shoutings of the multitudes, gave an idea of all the horrors of Pandemonium. Above all this scene of terror hung a black shroud of smoke through which the sun shone with a lurid angry glare like an immense ball of blood that emitted sullen rays of light, as if loath to shine over a scene so appalling. Then a cry was raised: "The Yankees! The Yankees are coming!" — Richmond resident Sallie Putnam

Upon evacuation of the city, the Confederate government authorized the burning of warehouses and supplies, which resulted in the destruction of factories and houses in the business district. Before the charred ruins of Richmond had cooled, General Robert E. Lee, with the remnant of his army, surrendered to Ulysses Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. [From Embattled Capital, on the National Park Service's Richmond National Battlefield web page.]

January 1937. "Part of the family of a migrant fruit worker from Tennessee, camped near the packinghouse in Winter Haven, Florida." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.

January 1937. "Two children of a migrant fruit worker from Tennessee, standing before their temporary home. This family of eight is camped in a field near the packinghouse at Winter Haven, Florida." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.

The workplace of 100 years ago. "Operatives in Indianapolis Cotton Mill. Noon Hour. August 1908." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.

October 1942. Transport assembly hall at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant in Fort Worth, Texas. Lowering an engine into place. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem for the Office of War Information.

January 1937. Family of a migratory fruit worker from Tennessee, camped in a field near a citrus packer at Winter Haven, Florida. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration.

Richmond, April 1865. Partial view of the burned district. From photographs of the main Eastern theater of war and fallen Richmond compiled by Hirst Milhollen and Donald Mugridge. Detail of wet-plate glass negative. View full size | More.

April 1865. Ruins of the State Arsenal at Richmond showing stacked and scattered ammunition. From photographs of the main Eastern theater of war after the fall of Richmond, compiled by Hirst Milhollen and Donald Mugridge. View full size.

July 1939. Orange County, North Carolina. "Caroline Atwater, wife of Negro landholder, in the yard of her double one-and-a-half-story log house, telling where she was born and how she came to this place." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration.

Circa 1924. "Boy with mechanical toy" by Lewis Wickes Hine, taken after his epic, decade-long assignment for the National Child Labor Committee. View full size.

July 1939. "Congregation gathers after services to talk. Wheeley's [Wheeler's?] Church, Person County, North Carolina." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration.

Summer 1938. Uncaptioned. Somewhere in Ohio, possibly Marysville. 35mm negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

October 1935. Resident of Omar, West Virginia, seen here recently. 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Earl Smith, New York National League (Giants). Date written on this glass-plate negative is June 9, 1923. Although another from this 5181 series of pictures taken at the Polo Grounds has "5/13/20" scratched into the emulsion. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

January 1943. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains above Penasco, New Mexico, looking north into Colorado. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome by John Collier.