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Vintage photos of:
Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
June 1942. Gas-welding a joint in a line of spiral pipe at the Tennessee Valley Authority's new Douglas Dam on the French Broad River. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer, Office of War Information.
"Lansburgh bathing girls" in 1922 near Washington, D.C. Girl on the right: Iola Swinnerton. View full size. 4x5 glass negative, National Photo Company.
February 1939. Calipatria, Imperial Valley. Farm Security Administration emergency migratory labor camp. Daughter of ex-tenant farmers on thirds and fourths in cotton. Had fifty dollars when set out. Went to Phoenix, picked cotton, pulled bolls, made eighty cents a day. Stayed until school closed. Went to Idaho, picked peas until August. Left McCall with forty dollars "in hand." Went to Cedar City and Parowan, Utah, a distance of 700 miles. Picked peas through September. Went to Hollister, California. Picked peas through October. Left Hollister for Calipatria for early peas which froze. Now receiving Farm Security Administration food grant and waiting for work to begin. "Back in Oklahoma, we are sinking. You work your head off for a crop and then see it burn up. You live in debts that you can never get out of. This isn't a good life, but I say that it's a better life than it was." View full size. Photo and caption by Dorothea Lange.
July 1939 near Muskogee, Oklahoma. "Migrant family ready to depart for the journey to California." Elmer Thomas at the wheel. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
June 1937. "Old Negro. He hoes, picks cotton and is full of good humor. Aldridge Plantation, Mississippi." View full size. Photo and caption by Dorothea Lange.
"Old Store." April 13, 1937. A.J. Coleman Grocery at State Highways 14 and 86 in Pickensville, Alabama. South elevation showing door. View full size. Photograph by Alex Bush for the Historic American Buildings Survey.
July 1939. "Negro drinking at 'colored' water cooler in Oklahoma City streetcar terminal." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee.
July 1939. "Woman with children at streetcar terminal in Oklahoma City." 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration. View full size.
July 1939. "Elmer Thomas, migrant to California, tying sack of laundry onto front lamp bracket near Muskogee, Oklahoma." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration.
September 1911. Cranberry pickers at Smart's Bog near South Carver, Mass. "Annette Roy, the youngest worker. Said 7 years old. Picked last year. Lives at 171 Orange Street, Fall River. Also Napoleon Ruel, 53 Hopkins Street. Said 9 years old." View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Statue of Liberty circa 1908. Top of the head as seen from the torch. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.
The New York of 1908 as seen from the 33rd floor of the Metropolitan Life building. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.
October 1911. Lowell, Massachusetts. "Joseph Philip, 5 Wall Street, pin boy in Les Miserables Bowling Alley, said 11 years old and worked until midnight every night. Said he made $2.25 last week and $1.76 the week before." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.
March 1943. Washing one of the Santa Fe R.R. 5,400-horsepower diesel freight locomotives in the roundhouse at Argentine, Kansas. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano.
Sept. 24, 1923. Watching the planes at the Bolling Field Air Circus in Washington, D.C. National Photo Company collection, View full size.