Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
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 1939. "Works Progress Administration worker and his wife sitting in front of their shack home on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. This man said that last year he thought maybe he would be a little better off when he got the WPA work and had a small amount of cash coming in but that he was worse off now. 'Last year I had a cow and some chickens and I had to sell my cow and eat my chickens. I get worse off every year'." Photo by Russell Lee. View full size.
June 1939. "Day laborer and his family who live in the Arkansas River bottoms near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. This entire family was taking anti-rabic serum after drinking milk from a cow which had rabies. There were no public funds for this treatment and a local man was financing it." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
June 1939. "Migrant workers eating dinner by the side of their car (Ford Model T) while they are camped near Prague, Lincoln County, Oklahoma." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
May 1939. "Ranch owner's son resting after the roundup. Cattle ranch near Marfa, Texas." Photo: Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
April 1939. San Augustine, Texas. "Oil and gasoline service station at night." Photo by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
"1954. Mike's 7th Birthday." First scan from a big box of red-border Kodachromes we got on eBay. These seem to be from a family in Wisconsin. View full size.
Circa 1907. "Northampton, Massachusetts -- Elm Street." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
1963. "Parking structure, New Haven, Connecticut. Temple Street Garage exit ramp. Paul Rudolph, architect." Photo by Ezra Stoller. View full size.
April 1939. "Wholesale truck in front of grocery store. San Augustine, Texas." Photo by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
New Orleans, June 15, 1957 -- on the same day that I took the Canal Street photo pictured here, my goal was to find a streetcar that still retained the destination for the Desire line, made famous by playwright Tennessee Williams. In 1957 the Desire line had used buses for almost 10 years, but I approached the operators on their break at the foot of the Canal Ferry loop and asked them if they could roll the destination sign to "Desire" to allow me a photo shoot. The first three or four cars only contained signs for the two remaining streetcar lines, Canal and St. Charles. Then on about the fifth try, bingo, Car 910's signs still had the full complement of abandoned streetcar lines, so the kindly motorman set it for Desire and continued on his rest break until I had completed my photographic endeavor. 35mm Kodachrome by William D. Volkmer. View full size.
December 1941. "Employees of a wrecking company eating lunch. New York, New York." Medium format negative by Edwin Rosskam. View full size.
April 1939. "Office of train dispatcher and Western Union. San Augustine, Texas." Photo by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
August 29, 1950. "Storm over Manhattan. New York: The towering buildings of Manhattan are silhouetted against heavy clouds which gathered over the city just before a sudden electrical rainstorm late in the afternoon of Aug. 29. This view looks south from the area of Central Park." Acme Newspicture. View full size.
April 1939. "Baseball game in San Augustine, Texas." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
1963. "Parking structure, New Haven, Connecticut. Temple Street Garage, exterior. Paul Rudolph, architect." Photo by Ezra Stoller. View full size.