Shorpy.com isn’t just another photo blog: it’s devoted to photos from the past, presented as simply and straightforwardly as modern blog-photos are. Obviously, folks at the turn of the century didn’t have cell phone cameras and the total image saturation that we have today, but the well from which Shorpy has to draw is nevertheless deep and fascinating. Here are some examples:

A line of unemployed men drink free coffee at the Bowery Mission in New York City on Jan. 2, 1908. The long table is covered with cups.

Before Rosie was a riveter. Rosie, 7, is a regular oyster shucker at Varn & Platt Canning Co. in Bluffton, South Carolina. It is her second year at it. She is illiterate and works all day. Shucks only a few pots a day. February, 1913.