THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL PHOTO ARCHIVE • FRAMED PRINTS • STOCK IMAGES

From a discarded negative collection that belonged to a San Diego area barber. 120 format. View full size.

My great-grandfather was a Textile League ball player in the little mill village of Tucapau, South Carolina, in probably the late aughts. He didn't care what the mill job was as long as he could play on their team. The story in the family is that one of his upcountry cousins was also a Textile League player -- a standout talent named Shoeless Joe. View full size.

Cucamonga, California, circa 1964. My piano teacher Mrs. Stewart, who seemed impossibly old when I was 8 years old 61 years ago, STILL seems impossibly old. Her equally old husband took a photo of her students every year with his big 1920s box camera; this is the only one of three that I still possess. I am third from the right in the front row, with the crew cut. To my right is Bruce D., with the bow tie; next to him is a kid I only know as Russell. Next to him is Patty L., and all of us boys liked her. Mrs. Stewart had quarterly recitals, and she would tape our performances and play us back our mistakes the next lesson. View full size.

A former beau of my late mother in law, Aloyse Aubrey; she did NOT marry him. I have forgotten his name, but the back of the photo says: "B-25c #42-64513, 'Rafisque' Army Air Base, Dakar, W. Africa, 4/26/43." It looks like this is one of the stops used to ferry bombers to the North African theater. It also looks like this airman didn't put a lot of time into painting the nose of his bomber. View full size.

Employees of the Goodrich Tire Store in Pontiac, Michigan, in December 1935. My grandfather Arvid Alexis (seated at center) was the manager. According to one of my cousins, he was the man that HQ would send out to underperforming stores to fix the problems and fire the problem employees. I only knew him as an old man, and I was a bit scared of him, but he did have a subtle sense of humor that would occasionally surface. View full size.

Christmas 1949 in Valparaiso, Indiana. That's Grandma in a Kodachrome slide. View full size.

        Our Christmas coda is this cocktail-hour Kodachrome submitted by Shorpy charter member Delworthio 16 years ago, in 2008. Cheers!

Occupied Germany at the U.S.-Soviet sector The East/West German border circa 1951, ten years before the Berlin Wall was built. U.S. Army soldiers Harry Manville, Dave Crosson, and Ray Kwapil (my dad). I have the Agfa Karat 35mm and Rolleicord 6x6cm Dad is dangling. Nice cameras, they are still working.

Location: "Untersuhl by Eisenach, Germany, East-West German border on Autobahn" is written on the slide mount. Another of Dad's photos is here: Munich c. 1952. | View full size.

My wife's grandmother and a friend outside the family bakery in Nicetown, Philadelphia, around 1945. Located on North 15th Street. View full size.

The Philadelphia Pipe Bending Company, founded in 1880, is still in operation today. Here we see two workers standing inside some large coils with advertising signage. 6½ x 8½ inch glass negative. View full size.

Dayton, Ohio, circa 1925. Mrs. Margaret Combs with her grandsons Arthur and Charles Neil (at left), and Robert and Edward Galloway. View full size.

Maintenance being done on the USS Potomac (AT-50) in Dry Dock No. 1 of League Island (Philadelphia Naval Yard) in 1907. 6½ x 8½ inch glass negative. View full size.

October 21, 1914. Bronx, New York. A Cross, Austin, & Ireland Lumber Co. truck accident on the trolley tracks at East 138th Street and Southern (now Bruckner) Boulevard. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.

Newburyport, Massachusetts, circa 1904. A graduating class of nurses outside the main entrance to the Anna Jaques Hospital. 6½ x 8½ inch glass negative. View full size.

My wife's cousin, Tony Granieri, with his new 1957 Dodge Royal Lancer at his house in Salt Lake City. Tony was a WWII veteran and earned the Purple Heart for injuries to his legs. He was self-conscious about that and never wore shorts the rest of his life. View full size.

My brothers, circa 1960, from the family 35mm slide collection. 1018 Jones Ave, Racine Wisconsin I do not know the location, it does not look like any lot we lived on. My guess is it was a neighbor's house in South Bend, Indiana, where we have visited them before. | View full size.

      A holiday chestnut worth reheating over the Shorpy Duraflame.

"Christmas 1954." My grandmother Sarah Hall (1904-2000) in her living room in Miami Shores four years before I was born. She made the mantel decoration, which saw service for many years, with Brazilian pepper berries from a big tree in the backyard, mixed with pine cones, all attached to a chicken wire frame. Grandmother, handy with a needle and thread, also made the curtains. She was, needless to say, big on Christmas. 35mm Kodachrome. View full size.