Shorpy Historic Photo Archive - Vintage Fine Art Prints

Electri City 1906

Dave — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:39:59 +0000

Houghton, Michigan, circa 1906. "Sheldon Street." Houghton was nothing if not well wired. 8x10 dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

Beach Picnic: 1941

Dave — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:03:46 +0000

January 1941. Sarasota, Florida. "Guest of Sarasota trailer park with his family, picnicking at the beach." Photograph by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.

Ninety-Nine Bottles: 1940

Dave — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:14:05 +0000

March 1940. "Skiers from Boston relaxing in lodge at North Conway, New Hampshire." Medium format negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.

Factory Town: 1908

Dave — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:16:11 +0000

Braddock, Pennsylvania, circa 1908. "Edgar Thomson Works, Carnegie Steel Co." Part of a ginormous seven-section panorama of smoke-belching, throbbing industry. 8x10 dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.

Pensacola: 1904

Dave — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:15:22 +0000

Pensacola, Florida, circa 1904. "Opera House and American National Bank." An interesting assortment of street furniture and electrical gear. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Silent Night: 1940

Dave — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:38:52 +0000

March 1940. "Center of town. Woodstock, Vermont. Snowy night." Medium format acetate negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.

Homeward Bound: 1938

Dave — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:51:01 +0000

September 1938. Capels, West Virginia. "Miner waiting for ride home. Each miner pays twenty-five cents a week to owner of car." Medium format negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

One Last Dance: 1941

Dave — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:29:55 +0000

"Untitled. San Francisco, December 1941." Lunch 30 cents, dinner 40 cents, and a "sandwitch" is 15. Medium format negative by John Collier. View full size.

Island Swingers: 1905

Dave — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:16:39 +0000

St. Paul, Minnesota, circa 1905. "Girls' playground, Harriet Island." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Dymaxion House: 1941

Dave — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:17:45 +0000

May 1941. "Diamaxion [Dymaxion] house, metal, adapted corn bin, built by Butler Brothers, Kansas City. Designed and promoted by R. Buckminister Fuller." Medium format negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.

Snowbirds: 1941

Dave — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:59:12 +0000

January 1941. Sarasota, Florida. "Guests of trailer park enjoying the sun and sea breeze at the beach." Nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.

Eggs in Nest: 1925

Dave — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:15:36 +0000

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "Howard University classroom." On the blackboard: egg recipes. National Photo Co. glass negative. View full size.

Texas Tomatoes: 1939

Dave — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:41:15 +0000

March 1939. San Antonio, Texas. "Wives of vegetable peddlers sometimes accompany their husbands to the early morning market." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Old School: 1905

Dave — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:32:41 +0000

"Head of a Girl, 1905." Hampton, Virginia. "Girl at elementary school affiliated with the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute." Gum bichromate print by pioneering fine-art photographer Fred Holland Day (1864-1933), whose work we'll be seeing more of every Sunday for the next few months. View full size.

iTunes: 1939

Dave — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:38:49 +0000

April 1939. "White migrant strawberry picker playing guitar in his tent near Hammond, Louisiana." Safety negative by Russell Lee. View full size.

King Copper: 1905

Dave — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:29:42 +0000

Houghton, Michigan, circa 1905. "Loading copper on steamer Juniata." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Varsity Stickman: 1924

Dave — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:14:36 +0000

1924. "Lewis, Maryland Agricultural College." Gomer Lewis, University of Maryland lacrosse star. National Photo Co. glass negative. View full size.

Transit: 1906

Dave — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:19:00 +0000

The Ohio River circa 1906. "Canal locks at Louisville, Kentucky." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Pre-Avatar: 1982

tterrace — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:24:01 +0000

A friend of mine and I "enjoy" 3-D on television in 1982, when there was a boomlet of local stations showing 3-D films such as "Creature from the Black Lagoon" using the anaglyph method, which used red and blue lenses to separate the images rather than the polarized system originally used in the theaters thirty years earlier. I say "enjoy" because the effect was problematic. If you had your color adjusted correctly it was possible to get a moderate dimensional effect out of the blur. With my never-rectified amblyopia, I could get it mostly when things were flying at the camera.

We're watching it on my Advent VideoBeam, no longer in the basement of my folks' house, but in my new digs in Petaluma. Fans of the yellow lamp will notice that it's already starting to deteriorate, the hinge holding the middle shade being secured with duct tape. Another indication of the absence of parental caregiving is the burst cushion of my red chair. Other necessary video room adjuncts visible are Ritz Crackers, a TV Guide (is that Farrah Fawcett?) and shelves full of Betamax tapes. Oh, and under my chair a metal file box storing my card catalog of said tapes. The blue binder contains a hand-typed list of just the cartoons. Computerization of the collection was still four years in the future.

Scanned from a print from a friend's 110 camera. View full size.

Street View: 1905

Dave — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:24:48 +0000

Minneapolis, Minnesota, circa 1905. "Chamber of Commerce." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

La Dolce Vita: 1938

Dave — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:23:54 +0000

September 1938. Racine, West Virginia. "Farmer's son who helps make sorghum molasses from sugarcane." Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.

Wigwam Village: 1940

Dave — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:02:31 +0000

July 1940. "Cabins imitating the Indian teepee for tourists along highway south of Bardstown, Kentucky. (Wigwam Village #2, Cave City)." Medium format negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

Cheese: 1940

Dave — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:00:45 +0000

August 1940. Pine Mountain, Kentucky. Marion Post Wolcott on assignment for the Resettlement Administration at the Stinking Creek home of the "mountain woman" in the previous post. Medium-format nitrate negative. View full size.

Mountain Woman: 1940

Dave — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:56:00 +0000

August 1940. Pine Mountain, Kentucky. "Mountain woman by her home up Stinking Creek." Nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.

Paper Pusher: 1941

Dave — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:50:50 +0000

September 1941. Sheldon Springs, Vermont. "Feeding machine that grinds wood into pulp, one of the last stages in making paper at the Mississquoi Corporation mill." Medium-format nitrate negative by Jack Delano. View full size.

The Handsome Family: 1941

Dave — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:31:26 +0000

August 1941. "The family of Gottlieb Zahler in their new farm in Lacona, New York, to which they moved from the Pine Camp relocation area." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

Hot Sugar: 1942

Dave — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:39:30 +0000

January 1942. Guanica, Puerto Rico. "Burning a sugar cane field. This process destroys the leaves and makes the cane easier to harvest." Medium-format safety negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.

Incendiary: 1938

Dave — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:55:51 +0000

September 1938. Capels, West Virginia. "Coal miner waiting for lift home." Medium-format nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.

Pit Crew: 1940

Dave — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:06:12 +0000

August 1940. "Port Gibson, Mississippi." Medium-format nitrate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Wholly Toledo: 1905

Dave — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:52:36 +0000

Toledo, Ohio, circa 1905. "Post Office, Madison Avenue." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.