Arthur Rothstein

 Farmer after shopping trip, Skyline Farms, Alabama, 1937

 Homemade swimming pool built by steelworkers for their children, 

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1938

 Homesteaders with family, Scioto Farms, Ohio, 1938

 Inhabitants of Gees Bend, Alabama, 1937

 Mandy Handley, wife of tenant farmer, Walker County, Alabama, 1937

 Mr. and Mrs. Louis Lynch, tract no. 189, Johnston County, North Carolina, 1936

 Mrs. Louise Temple feeds some of her turkeys on their farm in Chaffee County, Colorado, 1939

 Schoolteacher at Corbin Hollow, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, 1935

 Sheepherder with a large flock, Madison County, Montana, 1939

Shoveling snow off the sidewalk, Chillicothe, Ohio, 1940

Edward S. Curtis - Plains Indians

These are all portraits of "Sioux" Indians (they prefer the term "Lakota").

 Hollow Horn Bear

 Interior of tepee, man kneeling on ground removing buffalo hide around skull on ground

 Jack Red Cloud

 Little Dog

 Mother and child, Ogalala

 Oglala War Party

 Red Elk Woman, a Sioux girl

 Slow Bull, Oglala

When winter comes, Dakota

Detroit Publishing - New York City

More pictures of the Big Apple from Detroit Publishing.

 Jewish market on the East Side, New York, New York, 1890-1901

 Looking east from the Singer Tower, New York, 1900-1910

 Maypole dance, Central Park, New York, 1905

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1903

 New York, New York, yard of tenement, 1900-1910

On the streets in a New York blizzard, 1899

And here is the famous picture of the Italian neighborhood of Mulberry Street:

 Mulberry Street, New York, New York, ca. 1900

And a colorized version of the same picture:

Civil War era portraits

The art of portrait photography was well established by the mid-19th century. The people in these portraits seem stiff and unsmiling to modern eyes; this is partly due to the style of the time (public display of emotion was "unseemly") and photographic technology (people had to hold the pose for a long time while the photographic plate was exposed, and it's easier to hold an unsmiling pose than a smiling one). Regardless, there is something very poignant about these faces from a previous century - particularly the ones of Civil War soldiers and their families, likely taken before the men headed off to the war. Once the men left, they were gone into an unknown fate - no Skyping with the family on off-duty shifts for them!

These photos have been heavily edited.

 Unidentified African American woman

 Unidentified girl in mourning dress holding framed photograph of her father

 Unidentified soldier and woman

 Unidentified soldier in Union first lieutenant's uniform next to unidentified woman

 Unidentified soldier in Union frock coat holding Company G, 12th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment forage cap next to unidentified woman

[although I said public display of emotion might have been considered unseemly then, I never
said it didn't happen - this woman is obviously terrified at the prospect of losing her man]
 

 Unidentified soldier in Union sergeant's uniform holding kepi with unidentified woman

Unidentified soldier in Union sergeant's uniform next to unidentified woman

Ben Shahn

Here's another set of photos from FSA photographer Ben Shahn.

 At the July 4th celebration, Ashville, Ohio, 1938

 Colored mother and child, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1935

 Cultivating corn, central Ohio, 1938

 Dwellers in Circleville's 'Hooverville,' Ohio, 1938

 Ex-farmer and children, now on WPA, central Ohio, 1938

 Family on relief near Urbana, Ohio, 1938

 Loading bundles of wheat for hauling to thresher, central Ohio, 1938

Members of threshing crew, central Ohio, 1938

Lewis Hine - Mill Workers, ctd

Here's another set of Lewis Hine's photos of mill workers - mostly of child laborers.

 The superintendent and one of the spinners, Catawba Cotton Mills, Newton, NC. Others smaller still. Ten boys and girls this size and smaller out of a force of 40 employees, 1908

 This little girl is so small she has to stand on a box to reach her machine. She is regularly employed as a knitter in Loudon Hosiery Mills, Loudon, Tennessee, 1910

 Two of the helpers in the Tifton Cotton Mill at Tifton, Georgia, 1909

 Two of the tiny workers, a raveler and a looper in Loudon Hosiery Mills. 

Loudon, Tennessee, 1910

 Warper at his machine, Newton, NC, 1908

[what an amazing picture!]

 Worker in the Cherokee Hosiery Mill, Rome, Georgia, 1913

Young woman at spinning machine in cotton mill. 

Mollahan Mills, Newberry, South Carolina, 1908

Authors

Here are some photos of great authors.

 Charles Dickens

[bio and e-texts]

 Fyodor Dostoevsky

[bio and e-texts]

 Edgar Allen Poe

[bio and e-texts]

 Edith Wharton

[bio and e-texts]

 Ernest Hemingway (child at far right)

[extensive Wikipedia entry]

 Gertrude Stein

[bio and some poetry]

 Mark Twain

[bio and e-texts]

Harriet Beecher Stowe

[bio and e-texts]

John Steinbeck

[extensive Wikipedia entry]