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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]
August 1942, Corpus Christi, Texas: "It's an intricate operation, installing a 30-caliber machine gun in a Navy PBY plane, but not too tricky for Jesse Rhodes Waller. He's a Georgia man who's been in the Navy 5-1/2 years. At the Naval Air Base he sees that the flying ships are kept in tip-top shape. Waller is an aviation ordnance mate." View full size. Kodachrome transparency by Howard Hollem.
"Miss Twombly, whip of Ladies' Coach Run, and two other ladies beside coach on street." April 26, 1909. View full size. George Grantham Bain Collection.
Seaford, Delaware. May 1910. "Mother and children hulling strawberries at Johnson's Hulling Station. Cyral (in baby cart) is 2 yrs. old this May and works steadily hulling berries. At times Cyral would rest his little head on his arm and fall asleep for a few minutes and then wake up, commencing all over to hull berries. While it was found in this investigation that children 3, 4, 5 yrs. were accustomed to start out before sun-up to pick berries, we have not found many cases such as this." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Raymond Bykes, Western Union No. 23, Norfolk Va. Said he was fourteen. Works until after one a.m. every night. He is precocious and not a little "tough." Has been here at this office for only three months, but he already knows the Red Light District thoroughly and goes there constantly. He told me he often sleeps down at the Bay Line boat docks all night. Several times I saw his mother hanging around the office, but she seemed more concerned about getting his pay envelope than anything else. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, 1911. View full size
"A mother hulling berries while she nurses her infant. Her other children sit beside her, also at work. Little Mabel Cuthrie [Guthrie?], 4 yrs. old started working last year." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, Seaford, Delaware, 1910. View full size.
A fashion model underwater in the dolphin tank at Marineland, Florida. View full size. A similar image by fashion photographer Toni Frissell was published in Vogue in October 1939. Frissell had a knack for taking photos of women underwater. In 1947 she took another photo at Weeki Wachee Spring, which we posted as Lady in the Water.
A tap dancing class in the gymnasium at Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa. Photo by Jack Delano, 1942. View full size.
A woman sitting on a wall looks at the mountains behind her. The image is by fashion photographer Toni Frissell and was published in Harper's Bazaar in February 1947. View full size.
"Young fellows in front of pool hall," in Jackson, Ohio. Photo by Theodor Jung, 1936. View full size.
This picture shows the "Four Novelty Grahams" acrobatic performers at the Victoria Theatre, Philadelphia. The father is 23 years of age. Willie Graham is 5 years of age, and Herbert Graham is 3 years of age. At 9 P.M. on June 10th, 1910, these children were performing on the stage. Four times daily they do a turn which lasts from 12 to 14 minutes. Herbert Graham, the youngest, was said by the father to have commenced performing on the stage as an acrobat when he was 10 months of age. Willie, now 5, is said to be the youngest acrobat in the world. The mother of these boys was formerly a school teacher, and is now performing with this trio on the stage. The children are bright and strong, but have a playfulness about them which shows them to have forgotten the best years of childhood. Photo by Lewis W. Hine, 1910. View full size.
June 1938. Nettie Featherston, laborer's wife with three children near Childress, Texas. "I just prayed and prayed and prayed all the time that God would take care of us and not let my children starve." View full size | Audio interview.
June 1938. Nettie Featherston, wife of a migratory laborer with three children. Near Childress, Texas. "If you die, you're dead – that's all." View full size. Photo: Dorothea Lange. Bio of Nettie (1898-1984) and audio interview.
U.S. 99 in Kern County on the Tehachapi Ridge. February 1939. Migrant workers travel seasonally back and forth between the Imperial Valley and San Joaquin Valley over this ridge. View full size. Photograph by Dorothea Lange. (The billboard up ahead: "76 miles to GRAPEVINE air cooled cafe.")
Dorothea Lange, Resettlement Administration photographer, in California atop car with her giant camera. February 1936. View full size.