From a set of Kodaslide transparencies found in a mailer postmarked 8/12/40; rate was 1½ cents from Rochester, NY (developed by Kodak) to Paul Smiths, NY. The rest of the set is here. View full size.

Washington, 1916. "Horse shows. Ralph Coffin jumping his horse over Sylvanus Stokes's Rolls-Royce on Rabbit." Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

Washington circa 1916. "Fairview Hotel, 1st Street and Florida Avenue." The proprietor is former slave and "colored philosopher" Keith Sutherland. See the comments below for more on him. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

1915. "Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, nee Eleanor Wilson. Baby McAdoo's open-air bed." The infant with the precarious perch was Ellen McAdoo, born in 1915 to Woodrow Wilson's daughter and Treasury Secretary William McAdoo. At the age of 31 she killed herself with an overdose of sleeping pills. View full size.

"Wall Street bomb." Aftermath of the explosion that killed dozens of people in New York's financial district on September 16, 1920, when a horse wagon loaded with dynamite and iron sash weights blew up in front of the J.P. Morgan bank at 23 Wall Street. The attack, which was attributed to Italian anarchists, was never solved. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

1915. "Mrs. H. Morgan Hill, Dog Show." Another photo from the Washington dog show series of pictures. If you crossed William Wegman and Richard Avedon, this might be the stylistic result. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.

Somewhere in suburbia circa 1960. Probably South Florida. Anscochrome transparency by Frank Scherschel, Life magazine photo archive. View full size.

1903. The Zuni elder Si Wa Wata Wa. Who does not look like someone who put up with much nonsense. Photograph by Edward S. Curtis. View full size.

Washington circa 1925. "Bureau of Identification, Department of Justice." More thrilling cases from the Bureau's files. This was the forerunner of today's FBI, before they got the F. National Photo Company glass negative. View full size.

July 1863. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. "John L. Burns, the 'old hero of Gettysburg,' with gun and crutches." Burns, born ca. 1793, was a 70-year-old veteran of the War of 1812 when he was wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg, having volunteered his services as a sharpshooter to the Federal Army. He died of pneumonia in 1872. Wet-plate glass negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan. View full size.

November 1912. Providence, Rhode Island. "Spruce Street. Tiny girl with big bag she is carrying home." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.

September 1947. Warrenton, Virginia. "Midnight picnic being given by Eve Prince." Photo by Martha Holmes. Exciting news: Google and Time Inc. are putting the entire Life magazine photo archive of some 10 million images online. If I post one every day, we'll be done in about 27,000 years. View full size.

"1701 9th St. N.W., Washington." 1919 or 1920. It seems to be skating weather. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Bureau of Identification, Department of Justice." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

Circa 1910. "The Picture Gallery, New York Public Library." Please, no talking while we gaze upon the Art. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size.