1904. "Fouquet House and Delaware & Hudson R.R. station, Plattsburgh, N.Y." Panorama made from two 8x10 inch glass negatives. View full size.

The historic Capitol Records Tower and Equitable Building dominate my slide from August 1963. But we're more interested in the Checker cab, the weird streetlight, the fallout shelter sign, the men in suits, the women in hats carrying purses and the Via Vigna Inn, aren't we? Less interesting: bizarre color issues courtesy Montgomery Ward-branded film. View full size.

San Francisco, 1926. "Rickenbacker coupe." Today's selection from the Shorpy Archive of Arboreal Autos. 5x7 glass negative by Chris Helin. View full size.

For a change, here are some cars in San Francisco that aren't 90 to 100 years old. My favorite part, though, is the family photo op in progress over on the left, which I just now noticed. I was in Ghirardelli Square when I took this Kodachrome slide in summer 1966. View full size.

September 1940. Eureka, Colorado. "The Sunnyside mill, now abandoned. There is still gold ore here but the best has been taken out and now the lower grades which are expensive to process do not attract the mine and mill operators." Acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

July 1936. "Hillhouse, Mississippi. Girls with food for Fourth of July celebration at Delta Cooperative Farm settled by evicted sharecroppers from Arkansas, organized in 1935 by Sherwood Eddy, a New York writer and reformer." Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

June 1939. "Dudes at bar. Birney, Montana." Medium format acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

September 1940. "Old house in Silverton, Colorado. This was the type of house built by mine and mill operators in the early mining days and indicates that the owners felt that the mining operations would be of a permanent nature." Acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Did you know that cats like to be inside things? Oh, OK. But nobody at our place expected this. Seen here, the top of the windmill has been stored away for either safe-keeping or the approaching winter; a wind-driven wheel animated a farmer chopping wood. I forget how, why or possibly from whom we got it, but almost immediately upon installation Kitty crawled into it and forever after it led her top ten list of favorite places in our Larkspur, California yard. I shot this in fall 1973 on glorious Kodachrome. Sharp-eyed folk will note it's partly double-exposed. View full size.

September 1940. "Railroad yards. Durango, Colorado." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

My grandparents Ralph E. and Mildred M. Archer, center and right, in the camera shop they owned and operated from 1929 to 1961 in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Originally at 104 Exchange Place and then later just around the corner at 113 West Central Avenue. Scan from a 35mm Kodachrome slide. View full size.

September 1940. "Railway station at Ophir, Colorado, a small gold mining town. A narrow-gauge railway runs into the town with supplies and takes out the ore." Photo by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

September 1940. "House dating from the early boom days of Silverton, Colorado." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee. View full size.

Titusville, Pennsylvania, 1946. West Central Avenue as seen from the Archer Camera Shop, showing a newsstand, bus stop and the Orpheum Theatre. The movie playing is "Throw a Saddle on a Star," which is how I was able to date this Kodachrome slide taken by my grandfather from his camera shop that he and my grandmother owned and operated from 1929 to 1961. View full size.

December 1940. "Workers eating lunch on curb across the street from the Consolidated Aircraft factory. San Diego, California." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.