Washington, D.C., circa 1922. "Sport Mart, 1303 F Street N.W." Shorpy would like one of each, please. National Photo Company glass negative. View full size. Update: For the window-shoppers among us, I've posted a bigger closeup here.

1917. "Langley, Samuel Pierpont. Secretary, Smithsonian Institute. Experimental tandem biplane on Potomac embodying Langley principles." View full size.

1912. "Army aviation, College Park. Tests of Curtiss plane for Army. Single control." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Previously in our living room we saw what it looked like with the family dressed up and posed formally. Here's what real, every-day life was like, captured by my brother in this candid, available light shot on 35mm Kodak Tri-X on April 21, 1955. Newspapers strewn around on the floor; my mother in her ubiquitous apron with her hair up in curlers; Father with his slippers kicked off, looking up from his paper (looks like our local Marin County daily, the San Rafael Independent-Journal) across the room at the TV. What that giant pile of stuff is next to my mother I haven't been able to figure out; some big, fabric-related project of hers perhaps. Where am I? My guess: behind my brother, on the floor, eyes glued to the TV. View full size.

November 1910. Huntsville, Alabama. "Closing hour, Saturday noon, at Dallas Mill. Every child in photo, so far as I was able to ascertain, works in that mill. When I questioned some of the youngest boys as to their ages, they said they were 12, and then other boys said they were lying. (Which sentiment I agreed with.)" Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.

November 1912. "Pitching Pennies. Providence, Rhode Island. For Child Welfare Exhibit." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.

1915. "Baker and O'Brien, transcontinental motorcyclists, at north of Ellipse below White House." Dick O'Brien and Bud Baker were two "Washington high school boys" who made a five-month, 10,000-mile round trip to the West Coast to see the California expositions. Said Dick: "Our experiences will prove mighty interesting when we start to tell them." Harris & Ewing Collection. View full size.

Another of the many swimming pools photographed by Frank Scherschel circa 1960. Throw in a tiki or two and we have all the makings of a Josh Agle painting. Anscochrome transparency, Life magazine photo archive. View full size.

1926. "Semmes Motor Co., Schrafft's truck." A Dodge truck in Big 4 Candy livery at 608 E Street N.W., Washington. National Photo glass negative. View full size.

Atlantic City, New Jersey, circa 1910. "Young's residence on Million Dollar Pier." The marble-encrusted Venetian "villa" at No. 1 Atlantic Ocean of showman and real-estate developer Captain John Young. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

Washington, D.C. "Dog Show, 1915. Mrs. Blanche Strebeigh Bonaparte." Dog owner Mrs. B. (this girl's mother) was married to Jerome Bonaparte, great-grandnephew of Napoleon. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

South Carolina, 1956. Another entry from Margaret Bourke-White's photoessay on segregation and civil rights in South. Will someone pass the salt? Color transparency from the Life magazine photo archive. View full size.

June 6, 1950. "Vis-O-Matic department store." A Vis-O-Matic spokesmodel, or perhaps even the queen of Vis-O-Matic, the Canadian catalog store whose slide-projection system of displaying merchandise was like a Buck Rogers premonition of online shopping. The Vis-O-Matic phenomenon seems to have been short-lived, with hardly any documentation online aside from these photos in the Life archive, and no word of its fate. Photo by Bernard Hoffman. View full size.

New York circa 1919. "Cripples at baseball." Victor Cassiere at left. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

March 23, 1913. New York. "Easter Sunday, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.