It’s time to get your detective hats on! The Library of Congress has posted a mystery photos album and Flickr members are invited to help discover some of the backstories to these images.

The public is welcome to browse the album and help in identifying people and objects in the photos, along with any other notable facts that might fill in the story for each of these shots. This mystery photos album consists of many uncaptioned images from the Harris & Ewing studio, located in Washington, D.C which was owned and operated by George Washington Harris and Martha Ewing. 

The Harris & Ewing collection consists of over 40,000 glass negatives, and this particular album is a smaller sampling of that larger collection. According to the Library of Congress, these photos are noted to be from the period between 1905-1945. Some of these images have captions, but many are without any caption at all, which is where you come in. If you are interested in spending some time sleuthing, the Library of Congress offers steps that may help in tracking down more information to help in the identification process. You can see those tips in the mystery photos album description. You are invited to leave any feedback or information you find that might add to the story of a photo, in the comments section of that image on their Flickr site. 

Enjoy a look through this album, and check out the Library of Congress’ full Flickr catalog to see many other moments in history that are documented and stored there. 

To learn more about the Harris & Ewing studio, check out these links:

View all the Harris & Ewing negatives in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

Read about the Harris & Ewing studio on Wikipedia.