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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 1938. In Memphis, hundreds of colored laborers congregate near the bridge every morning at daylight in hopes of work chopping cotton on a plantation, where they are taken by truck. Reduced acreage has made employment scarce for this class of seasonal labor in all towns. "You can't live the commonest way on six bits a day. Not alone nor no way. A man like me can't get no foothold. It's a mighty tough old go. The people here in the morning are hungry, raggedy, but they don't make no hungry march." View full size. Photograph by Dorothea Lange.
June 1938. Pittsburg County, Oklahoma. "Family walking on highway, five children. Started from Idabel, bound for Krebs. In 1936 the father farmed on thirds and fourths at Eagleton, McCurtain County. Was taken sick with pneumonia and lost farm. Was refused relief in county of 15 years' residence because of temporary residence elsewhere." Photo by Dorothea Lange. View full size.
November 1938. "Kern County, California. Cotton picker's child listening to speeches of organizer at strike meeting to raise wages from 75 cents to 90 cents a hundred pounds. Strike unsuccessful." View full size. Photo by Dorothea Lange.
"Children's Delight" carousel wagon with piano or calliope, circa 1910. George B. Marx Wagon Co., Brooklyn. View full size.
February 3, 1913. "Interior: N.Y. Post Office." 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.
New York's new post office on Eighth Avenue circa 1912. Enlarged in 1934, it's now called the James Farley Building. View full size. In this seemingly deserted time exposure we can see the ghostly images of three different sets of legs.
September 1961. Girls on an amusement park ride at Battersea Park, London. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Charles Eames. View full size.
Washington, D.C., 1921. "Montessori School." View full size. 4x5 glass negative, National Photo Company.
New York, 1912. "Washington Market Centennial. With outside sheds removed by President McAneny. Also new window fronts affording light and air for interiors and the sidewalk restored to the public." View full size. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection.
"Man operating water tricycle" (Supplemented by wind power?) Circa 1913. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.
"Boxing mail in the New York post office." View full size. Circa 1913. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. Note the spittoon.
Along the lines of the Beaver Letter, we're excited to present the Jim Letter from the opening credits of "The Office." You might think it would have something to do with the Dunder Mifflin paper company's Scranton branch, but actually it's a Los Angeles Department of City Planning (zoning) document showing revisions to the L.A. Municipal Code. Specifically, Section 12.22.C.20(f).
June 1942. Electrical transformer at the TVA Chickamauga Dam near Chattanooga. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer.