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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]
November 24, 1983. Nineteen years after this previous shot our kitchen is still more or less salmon and my mother's 1955-vintage O'Keefe & Merritt range is still doing yeoman service, in this case having just disgorged the turkey, which my father is carving, while Mother herself makes the gravy. I can still almost smell it. Scanned from my 35mm Kodak Vericolor negative. View full size.
June 6, 1950. "Vis-O-Matic department store," a premonition of virtual retailing. One of at least 200 photographs taken by Bernard Hoffman at retail magnate Laurence Freiman's newfangled catalog store in Pembroke, Ontario. The cards were an index of merchandise on color slides viewed by customers on rear-projection screens. Life magazine image archive. View full size.
November 17, 1921. "Harding turkey." A present for President Warren Harding arrives at the White House. G.G. Bain Collection glass negative. View full size.
November 1911. "Thanksgiving maskers." A door-to-door ritual for kids in costume back when Thanksgiving was a kind of proto-Halloween. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.
November 20, 1920. "White House Turkey." Alternate title: Coop d'Etat. With l'etat being Texas.National Photo Co. Collection glass negative. View full size.
October 7, 1922. Washington, D.C. "Auto accident, 13th and S." If you don't like my driving, get off the sidewalk! National Photo glass negative. View full size.
"White House turkey." November 20, 1920. News item, "30-Lb. Mystery Turkey Reaches White House": A 30-pound turkey, cooped in a miniature White House, arrived at the White House yesterday and was admitted, though he had no credentials whatsoever. "There was nothing attached to the turkey showing the donor, but we understand that one was coming from someplace in Texas," said an official at the White House. "The mystery," it was stated, "will probably be solved within a day or two." National Photo glass negative. View full size.
Circa 1926. "Ford car at National Museum." A Model T outside the Smithsonian Institution's main exhibit hall, completed in 1910. Today the building serves as the National Museum of Natural History. National Photo Co. View full size.
South Carolina, 1956. More from this series of pictures on life in the South. Color transparency by Margaret Bourke-White, Life magazine archive. View full size.
More from the South Carolina roadhouse. So far I've found five pictures of these two mixing it up, either wrestling or dancing. The captions don't say anything about what's going on, but the girl seems delighted. Color transparency by Margaret Bourke-White, Life magazine image archive. View full size.
Washington, D.C., circa 1917. "Post Office postmen on scooters." Kind of a Segway vibe here. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.
March 1915. "San Francisco by wagon from Staten Island, New York." Three guys and a dog and their two-horsepower hybrid in Washington, taking the Overland Trail west. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.
Circa 1920. "People's Drug Store, 15th & G Streets N.W., Washington." Also at 703 15th: Many other tenants. National Photo Co. glass negative. View full size.
1956. "Segregation in South Carolina. Separate and unequal recreation facilities." I've looked at hundreds of photos from this assignment and would have to agree -- the white folks in general seem to be having a lot less fun in their hopelessly boring bars, uptight country clubs and over-chlorinated swimming pools. Eventually they got wise. Color transparency by Margaret Bourke-White. View full size.
Washington circa 1921. "Loomis Radio School." Another look at the technical school run by Mary Texanna Loomis. National Photo Company. View full size.