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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]
February 1, 1917. An injured finger gets bandaged in the infirmary of the Hood Rubber Co. in Cambridge, Mass. View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Stair to attic from the second-floor hallway at Woodburn, a circa 1830 plantation house in South Carolina, before its restoration in 1960. View full size. Photograph by Jack Boucher, Historic American Buildings Survey.
Detail view of this shot of the attic stairs at Woodburn. Photograph by Jack Boucher, Historic American Buildings Survey. View full size.
Entrance hall and stair at Woodburn, a circa 1830 plantation house at Pendleton, South Carolina, before its restoration in 1960. View full size. Photograph by Jack Boucher, Historic American Buildings Survey.
September 1911. Merilda carrying cranberries at Eldridge Bog near Rochester, Mass. Witness Richard K. Conant. View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Circa 1909. Straw beds and footlockers in shack occupied by berry pickers. Anne Arundel County, Maryland. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Oct. 30, 1915. Fort Collins (vicinity), Colorado. "A case of 'Economic Need.' Jacob Rommel and his family live in this roomy shack, well-furnished, with a good range, organ, etc. They own a good home in Fort Collins, but late in April they moved out here, taking contract for nearly 40 acres of beets, working their 9- and 10-year-old girls hard at piling and topping (although they are not rugged) and they will not return until November. The little girl said, 'Piling is hardest, it gets your back. I have cut myself some, topping.' The older girl said, 'Don't you call us Russians, we're Germans' (although most of them were born in Russia). Family been in this country eleven years." Glass negative by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Sept. 28, 1910. Whites Bog at Brown Mills, New Jersey. Ten-year-old Rose Biodo, 1216 Annan St., Philadelphia. Working three summers. Minds baby and carries cranberries, two pecks at a time. Fourth week of school and the people here expect to remain two weeks more. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.
September 29, 1910. Upper-floor hallway opening onto 12 rooms in large shack occupied by cranberry pickers on Forsythe's Bog, Turkeytown, near Pemberton, New Jersey. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Little Miss Tarkington, the daughter of Mrs. W. Tarkington Jr., sits on the steps of the White House patiently waiting to snap a picture of President Warren G. Harding on June 29, 1922. From the National Photo Company collection. View full size.
April 1912. 10:30 p.m. at Center Market in Washington, D.C. Eleven-year-old celery vendor Gus Strateges, 212 Jackson Hall Alley. He sold until 11 p.m. and was out again Sunday morning selling papers and gum. Has been in this country only a year and a half. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Waco, Texas. November 1913. Isaac Boyett: "I'm de whole show." The twelve-year-old proprietor, manager and messenger of the Club Messenger Service, 402 Austin Street. The photo shows him in the heart of the Red Light district where he was delivering messages as he does several times a day. Said he knows the houses and some of the inmates. Has been doing this for one year, working until 9:30 P.M. Saturdays. Not so late on other nights. Makes from six to ten dollars a week. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. (Shorpynote: Isaac was born March 20, 1901, and died in May 1966 in Waco.)
A long shot of 12-year-old Isaac Boyett in the Red Light District of Waco. View full size. Scanned from glass-plate negative. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.
October 1940. Mr. Leatherman, homesteader, tying up cauliflower in his vegetable garden. Rabbit fence made of juniper stakes. Pie Town, New Mexico. View full size. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee.
September 1940. Barbecue dinner at the Catron County Fair at Pie Town, New Mexico. View full size. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee.