1955. A rainbow over the campus of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, seems to end on a row of classic 50s cars. The two-tone '53 Olds is nice, but I wish it wasn't obscuring the red-roofed Merc behind it. Shot by my brother, then a freshman there, on 35mm Kodachrome. View full size.

December 24, 1925. More of the "Uncle Sam's Follies" cast. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress.

November 24, 1925. Washington, D.C. Vivian and Dorothy Marinelli at the Hoffman-Hoskins Salon of Dance with "Pony Ballet" star Dick Nash, seen in our previous post as the tallest girl in the "Uncle Sam's Follies" chorus line. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

November 24, 1925. Washington, D.C. "Uncle Sam's Follies." View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress.

September 1940. St. Mary's County, Maryland. "Mrs. Louise Dyson, wife of Farm Security Administration borrower. She is the mother of fifteen children." Medium format safety negative by John Vachon for the FSA. View full size.

How do I even begin to explain why I did this? It was 1964; I was 18; I was big on photography; I was big on my record collection; I had a daylight photoflood bulb. At the time, it seemed like a no-brainer. Wards brand 35mm slide. View full size.

June 1941. "Rain. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

August 1963. Here I am at world famous Hollywood & Vine, or in this case, Don't Walk & Vine. Hint: I'm not the one in the green skirt and heels. View full size.

May 1940. Crawford County, Illinois. "Daughter of Farm Security Administration rehabilitation borrower listening to phonograph." View full size. Medium format safety negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration.

The Pike at Long Beach, California, August 1963. An old-style amusement park with wooden roller coaster "The Cyclone," closed in 1979. View full size.

June 1935. "Children of Oklahoma drought refugees on highway near Bakersfield, California. Family of six; no shelter, no food, no money and almost no gasoline. The child has bone tuberculosis." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration.

August 1941. "Boardinghouse in Baraga, Michigan," a.k.a. the Honeymoon Hotel. View full size. Medium format safety negative by John Vachon for the FSA. This was scanned from an uncaptioned and somewhat misfiled print of the negative. Thanks to Anonymous Tipster for pointing us in the right direction (north).

May 1939. Garage on Route 99 in Fresno County, California. View full size. Medium-format negative by Dorothea Lange, Farm Security Administration.

Here in 1954, this 1949 1948 Hudson was to remain our family car for two more years. (Since posting this, I've remembered the true model year.) Inside on the front seat you can barely make out my mother on the left, then me in the middle and Father behind the wheel. We're parked just down from the corner of 5th and B in San Rafael, California, probably about to head up Highway 101 to our summer place at the Russian River. In the background, the service bay of a Union 76 station shows this to be the days when gas stations were called service stations for a reason. My brother shot this on 2-1/4 square Ektachrome. Here I am "driving" it. And here's another shot of it. View full size.

May 25, 1864. "North Anna River, Virginia. Destroyed bridge of the Richmond & Fredericksburg Railroad." Wet plate glass negative, left half of stereo pair, by Timothy H. O'Sullivan. Library of Congress. View full size.