THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL PHOTO ARCHIVE • FRAMED PRINTS • STOCK IMAGES

"Howard M. Gore. February 26, 1924." Mr. G, secretary of agriculture in the Coolidge administration, was later governor of West Virginia. And evidently kind of a geek. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

Electrical circuits and motors at Howard University in Washington, D.C., circa 1925. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

"Ansell, Bishop & Turner window display. 1920." A Victrola dealer in Washington, D.C., puts Nipper in the game. View full size. National Photo Co. glass negative.

"Washington, D.C., Industrial Exposition 1926. Hopkins Titanafram." Here's a fascinating glimpse back to a time when titanaframs were the size of sombreros. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

My brother's do-it-yourself hi-fi. From Top: tweeter, woofer, Webcor portable phonograph, Heathkit amplifier. One of his high school buddies assembled the Heathkit for him. He took this in the upstairs bedroom we shared until a year or so later. That's my bed on the right. Check out our cool wallpaper. View full size.

1925. "Condenser assembling department." Another view of workers putting radios together at the vast Atwater Kent factory in Philadelphia. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress.

The Atwater Kent radio factory in Philadelphia circa 1925. 8x10 glass negative, National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress. View full size.

"Radio set assembling room, 1925." Another view of the Atwater Kent factory in Philadelphia. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

March 12, 1925. "C.W. Mitman of Smithsonian Institution with giant and midget bulbs." View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

1928. Speaker grille assembly at the Atwater Kent radio factory in Philadelphia. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

May 24, 1913. Joseph N. Callahan modeling "Coxey's Life Saver and Water Wings." View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

Philadelphia, 1925. Frank Aiken and Atwater Kent at the new Atwater Kent radio factory. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

On the left: "Full Current: Young woman using an electric device for massage and stimulation of her face and neck." On the right: "Chest Developer: Woman at dressing table holding electric vibrating machine against her chest." Royal Specialty Company, Cleveland, 1909. Library of Congress copyright deposit, series of five 8x10 photographs: "Chest Developer," "Full Current," "Feels Good," "I Always Use It," "Smoothing the Wrinkles." View full size.

The photos you see here on Shorpy are not just resized versions of the images found in the Library of Congress archives -- they are extracted from the LOC's full-resolution reference tiffs: a process that generally takes anywhere from half an hour to several hours per monochrome image, depending on the amount of work that needs to be done to bring detail out of the shadows, suppress overexposed highlights, and remove blemishes caused by dust, scratches and mold. Color images require correction for color cast as well. The before-and-after composite above shows the condition of some of these old glass negatives a century after they were exposed, and how they look after a day at the digital restoration spa. This one is from 1908. View full size. Below is the 36 mb archival tiff resized to 512 px wide. The restored version is here.

Below is another before-and-after example. Restored version.

Below: Another monochrome example. Click to enlarge.

"Man demonstrating ship rescue apparatus" circa 1915 somewhere near New York City. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.