THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL PHOTO ARCHIVE • FRAMED PRINTS • STOCK IMAGES

Senior Sneak was the name applied to Marin Catholic High School's pre-graduation recreation getaway day, which for the class of 1955, including my brother and his roll of Tri-X film, was on May 18th that year. There was nothing particularly sneaky about it, since it was school-sponsored -- another shot depicts the principal at the refreshment counter clad in a distinctly non-priestly Hawaiian shirt. The location is Adobe Creek Lodge in Los Altos Hills, 50 miles south of the school on the San Francisco Peninsula. View full size.

"Georgie #2". Found 35mm Kodachrome slide. View full size.

My mom Thérèse Helene (Larochelle) Lavoie (1943-2019) when she was around 20 years-old in the early 1960s near Saint-Isidore, Dorchester, Québec, Canada. A similar photograph taken at the same time was captured in an oil painting.

Grand Island, Nebraska. 1951.

Second Street looking NW toward Market Street, which seems to still be coping with BART construction. Far as I know, 1970 is as good a guess as any. 4x5 Ektachrome, 180 mm Symmar and a polarizer.

My college buddy and I drove in a 77 Ford Pinto from Los Gatos to the south rim of the grand canyon and got there right at day break. Hours through the desert at night was brutal in trying to stay awake (and find open gas stations). We'd been up for 24 hours but I don't think it was a problem as the sun was coming up over this breath taking place. The Pinto by the way broke it's timing belt the day after we got back to Dallas.

My mother's older sister Mary in a glass plate negative taken about 1916 in the family home in San Francisco. She's also been seen on Shorpy here in the same room and with her Model T Roadster here. Mary's was a short life; she died from tuberculosis in 1922. View full size.

A highly unusual Open Front, Hand Propelled Lever Driven Velocipede Tricycle. Date is ca 1867 but likely earlier. Steering is with the feet controlling the front wheels. One half of an Albumen Stereoview. Rider identified on the reverse as C.A. Way of Charlestown, New Hampshire. These types of vehicles were all a part of the historic development of the cycle to the modern bicycle as we know it today. View full size.

Circa 1874. Albumen carte de visite. An early clubman. England. Bike has an open head, spoon brake with straight handlebars. Accessorised with a hub lamp. Photographer is C. Carter. View full size.

My niece and nephews were coming down for an Easter egg hunt, so that gave my brother, his wife and me an excuse to color some eggs for the first time since our own childhood. I made a caricature of my brother, another that was supposed to look like the Western Hemisphere, and at the bottom center in a sort of holiday mashup, an homage to one of our favorite vintage Christmas tree ornaments. The brown ones were made via the traditional onion skin method and some forgotten arcane process produced the blue-and-white mottled jobs. Paste-on printed features from an egg-dyeing kit are on two, and two more are named for their creators. All posed against the lawn at the family home in Idyllic Larkspur™, California and immortalized by me with this Polaroid snapshot. View full size.

Thank you to our Patreon supporters who help keep the lights on at Shorpy. Your contribution lets you browse Shorpy free of ads and get access to special content and other rewards (we've mailed out more than 1,500 photo postcards).

But, importantly, you get our everlasting gratitude and a warm feeling for helping support Shorpy. You can become a Patreon or make a one-time contribution on PayPal.

From a box of family photos on glass purchased in England, along with a magic lantern projector.

The photo was taken in south Philadelphia on Castle Ave. in front of my grandfather's house. The car is a Plymouth and I believe it is a 1939 model. One day my father was angry at me for playing with the manual choke and stalling out the car. Funny how that still sticks in my mind. I was only 2 years old at that time.

This is a 1950s Kodachrome stereo slide I bought some years ago, similar to the recent photo of Native Americans fishing in Oregon. Free viewing to see the 3D isn't difficult and worth doing to get the sense of action. This lot also included stereo slides of Glen Canyon dam under construction.

1961 (approx) Brownsburg, Indiana at our ancestral farm house. I'm the boy in the sweater. My sister is to my left and three of our cousins are pictured along with their mother playing the piano. I also see Grandma reflected in the window. My Dad was the photographer.

Singing carols at the farm house was a highlight of the holiday family gathering and welded for all time the emotions of Christmas to Christmas music for me.