1956. Edina, Minnesota. "Interior Garden Court with stairway to upper level in Southdale Regional Shopping Center, the first enclosed shopping mall." Color transparency by Grey Villet, Life magazine photo archive. View full size.

Dutchess County, New York, circa 1902. "Mount Beacon Casino and power house, Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, N.Y." At right, a car of the Mount Beacon Incline Railway. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size.

Indianapolis circa 1904. "North Delaware Street." Our third visit to this leafy enclave. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Photographic Co. View full size.

Indianapolis, Indiana, circa 1904. "Illinois Street, north from Washington." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size.

August 1864. "Camp of Chief Ambulance Officer, 9th Army Corps, in front of Petersburg, Virginia." Albumen print, photographer unknown. Civil War Glass Negatives and Prints collection, Library of Congress. View full size.

"Portrait of Billie Holiday at the Downbeat club, New York, ca. February 1947." Medium format negative by William Gottlieb. View full size.

        I especially tried to capture personality, but that's an elusive quality, and I was successful only a portion of the time. But I certainly hit it on the button here with a picture of Billie Holiday, whose voice was filled with anguish. I also tried to catch the beauty of her face -- she was at her most beautiful at that particular time, which was not too long after she had come out of prison on a drug charge. She couldn't get at any drugs while she was incarcerated, or alcohol, and she lost weight and she came out looking gorgeous, and her voice was, I think, at its peak. And I was fortunate enough to have spent some time with her during that period, and I caught this close-up of her in a way that you could really see the anguish that must have been coming out of her throat.

-- William Gottlieb, 1997

San Francisco circa 1930. "Marmon Big Eight rumble seat coupe at Golden Gate Park." Today's entry in the Shorpy Baedeker of Brobdingnagian Buggies. 5x7 inch glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.

A colorized version of this National Photo glass plate: Washington, D.C., circa 1921. "National Fruit Co. -- Eleventh Street N.W." View full size.

May 1941. "Workmen from the nearby Dupont powder plant in a cafe in Childersburg, Alabama." Acetate negative by Jack Delano. View full size.

May 1941. "Main street of Childersburg, Alabama." And a close-up of the restaurant glimpsed earlier from above. Medium format acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Charles City County, Virginia, circa 1935. "Kittiewan, Weyanoke vicinity, ca. 1730 plantation house." 8x10 negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.

September 1941. "One of the machines that grind wood into pulp at the Mississquoi Corporation paper mill at Sheldon Springs, Vermont." Medium format negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

New York circa 1888. "Street Arabs in 'sleeping quarters'." Photo by the Danish-American social reformer Jacob Riis (1849-1914). View full size.

May 1941. "Intersection of the two main streets of Childersburg, Alabama." Acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

        UPDATE: Our location, as pinpointed by commenter Silliaek, is Route 14 in Sharon, Vermont.

September 1941. From somewhere in Vermont comes this uncaptioned snap by Jack Delano, who was so smitten by this view of gas pumps and a church that he shot it twice. Medium format acetate negative. View full size.