Heat wave in New York. July 6, 1911. "Licking blocks of ice on a hot day." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

1924. Alexandria, Virginia, schoolteacher Elizabeth Ramey and her car, a Model T Ford. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

New York, 1917. Examining a potential recruit aboard the Recruit. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

New York, 1917. "Mascots aboard Recruit." Furry/feathery companions for sailors on the "landship" in Union Square. View full size. G.G. Bain Collection.

1924. "Miss Elizabeth Ramey. Alexandria, Va. Ford owner." Photo taken for the Ford Motor Co. or one of its dealers. View full size. National Photo Company.

1924. Washington, D.C. "Ford Motor Co. NuGrape delivery truck." Note the perforated solid rubber tires. View full size. National Photo Co. Collection.

New York, 1917. "Aboard the Recruit." Our first glimpse of life on the "landship" U.S.S. Recruit, a wooden destroyer set up in Union Square as a Navy recruiting station. For our marooned sailors there was a phonograph, dancing and a pet goat. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

New York, 1917. "Landship Recruit on Union Square." The U.S.S. Recruit, a wooden battleship erected by the Navy, served as a World War I recruiting station at Union Square from 1917 to 1920, when it "set sail" for Coney Island. This is the first in a series of photographs depicting life around and aboard the landlocked boat. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

February 23, 1924. A winter frolic along the frozen banks of the Potomac in Washington. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

"Push Ball, U.S.A." A game of pushball at Central Stadium in Washington circa 1923. View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

March 22, 1924. Washington, D.C. "Theodore Roosevelt III, boxing." National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. View full size.

February 1939. "Child of migratory packinghouse workers. Belle Glade, Florida." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the FSA.

Washington, D.C., 1922. "Auto accident." View full size. National Photo Co.

Lightweight boxing champ "Bat" Nelson in 1911. After retiring from the ring, Bat (short for Battling; aka the Durable Dane, born Oscar Nielsen) dabbled in fight promotion and vaudeville. In January 1954, "a pathetic little man of 80 pounds, his mind a complete blank," Bat was committed to the Chicago State Hospital; a month later he was dead of lung cancer at age 71. With 68 wins, 19 draws and 19 losses, Bat once said that although he had "lost several fights," he had never been beaten. 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.

1904. "Boy with dog." Oceanside, Long Island. 8x10 dry plate glass negative by the pioneering portrait photographer Gertrude Käsebier. View full size.