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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]
San Francisco circa 1924. "Oldsmobile touring sedan." Latest entry on the Shorpy Roster of Defunct Dreadnoughts. Glass negative by Chris Helin. View full size.
Minnesota circa 1899. "Winona, a sawmill plant." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Fredericksburg, Va., circa 1927. "Tenement, 203 Charlotte St., residence of 'Governor Hill.' Photo taken on commission from Mrs. Devore of Chatham." Note the head-on-a-pike signage. Photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.
Mah Jong Game Fantasy
Colorful Chinese Legend Enacted
With Society Girls as Human Tiles.
Feb. 6, 1925. "Three Washington society buds in spectacle. The misses Beatrice McLean (left), debutante daughter of Capt. and Mrs. Ridley McLean; Helen Thompson; and Eugenie LeJeune, daughter of General and Mrs. John A. LeJeune; all members of the 'Group of the Winds' who will take part in the human 'Game of Mah Jongg, The Great Dramatic Spectacle,' to be presented for the first time in the Washington Auditorium under the auspices of the Belleau Wood Memorial Association." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.
Well, not like this because she's only about 6 years old here. But there's her mama and it is San Francisco, anyway. The only people in this photo I do remember besides her are her twin brother (my Uncle Albert) and her older brother (my Uncle Frank). I never met her older sister (my Aunt Mary) or her mother and father. Missing from the group is her oldest brother, Uncle Jack, away at college. My grandfather, a carpenter, may have built this house; we do know that he rebuilt the family home that was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. This is a scan I made from the original 5x7 inch glass plate negative. View full size.
1936. "Bacon's Castle, James River vicinity, Surry County, Virginia. Built by Arthur Allen circa 1660. Seized and fortified during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676." 8x10 inch acetate negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.
September 1911. "Crowded tenement used by cranberry pickers ('Bravas' or 'black Portuguese,' from the islands of Cape Verde) in bogs near Wareham, Massachusetts." Gelatin silver print by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
San Francisco circa 1925. "Marmon '74' Sedan." Advertised as "a luxurious closed car at practically the cost of an open car." Latest exhibit in the Shorpy Pantheon of Posthumous Phaetons. 5x7 glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.
May 1943. "Stockton, California. Mexican agricultural laborers who have come to help harvest beets eating their lunch." Medium format nitrate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.
May 1943. Arlington, Va. "Idaho Hall, Arlington Farms, a residence for women working in government for the duration of the war." Medium format nitrate negative by Esther Bubley for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Circa 1906. "Harbor from Crocker Park, Marblehead, Massachusetts." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Washington, D.C. "K.K.K. parade on Pennsylvania Avenue, 8/8/25." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
"Market Street, San Francisco, 1920." Starring the Palace Hotel and, rising behind, the Call Building. 8x10 glass negative. photographer unknown. View full size.
San Francisco, 1920. "Underwriters Fire Patrol truck." 5x7 inch glass negative by Christopher Helin. View full size.
June 1953. "Activities at the Sun Fun Festival, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Mickey Spillane, one of the beauty pageant judges, on the beach with a woman." From photos by Jim Hansen for the Look magazine assignment "Behind the Scenes -- Beauty and the Beach." View full size.