The Library of Congress Homepage

Free to Use and Reuse: Older People

This selection of images from the 19th and 20th centuries shows older women and men in the United States. They appear in formal portraits; scenes at work and at home; as grandparents and veterans; with happiness, sorrow, and determination. Browse more content that is free to use and reuse

• 

  Kate Carter washing dishes in a kitchen, Wentworth, North Carolina. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 1985.

• 

  Old woman in mourning--Yuki people. Photo by Edward Curtis, 1924.

• 

  The Lopez children often call on their grandfather in the evenings to hear tales of the old days when Trampas was a thriving sheep town. Photo by John Collier, 1943.

• 

  Grandfather and grandchild, New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 1980-1990.

• 

  Star pupil, eighty-two years old, reading her lesson in adult class. Gee's Bend, Alabama. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, 1939.

• 

  Michael Yonemitsu, x-ray technician, and Harry Sumida in x-ray room, Manzanar Relocation Center, California. Photo by Ansel Adams, 1943.

• 

  Frances B. Johnston in garden in New Orleans with "Pops" Whitesell. Photo by Johnston, about 1950.

• 

  Old people [Senior citizens, N.Y.C.]. Photo by Bernard Gotfryd, 1970-1990.

• 

  Mrs. Fannie Lee Teals, quilting, Tifton, Georgia. Photo by Beverly J. Robinson, 1977. American Folklife Center

• 

  Bearded man with a pipe. Photo by Lawrence V. Kupper, 1901.

• 

  A tiny celestial goes on the scale, Chinatown, New York. Photo by Red Cros, 1922.

• 

  C.T. Hibino, artist, Manzanar Relocation Center, California. Photo by Ansel Adams, 1943.

• Parishoners of St. Thomas Church resting after spending many hours preparing food for a benefit picnic supper. Near Bardstown, Kentucky. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, 1940.

• Babcock airplane plant, Deland, Florida. Together these three men have a total of 160 years of experience as skilled machinists. Photo by Howard Hollem, 1942.

• Two grandmothers who are keeping up the production schedule of the La Roe's family shop at Eustis, Florida. Photo by Howard Hollem, 1942.

• The Life and age of woman, stages of woman's life from the cradle to the grave. Print by James Baillie, 1848.

• The Life and age of man, stages of man's life from the cradle to the grave. Print by James Baillie, 1848.

• The last men of the Revolution. Photographs by Nelson and Roswell Moore, 1864.

• John L. Burns, the old hero of Gettysburg, recovering from his wounds. Photo by Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries, 1863.

• Nancy Maria Donaldson Johnson, teacher, inventor, missionary. Photo about 1875.

• Old woman in apron and shawl. Painting by Otto Bacher, 1876-1909.

• Old woman opening box while three children watch. Drawing by Edwin Austin Abbey, 1870-1911.

• Elderly woman. Photo by Charles Henry Currier, 1890-1900.

• Old "Nana." (Warrior and chief of the Chiricahua Apache.) Photo copyright by A.F. Randall, 1884.

• Playing grandmother. Chromolithograph, 1890.

• Elderly woman in a rocking chair peeling apple with young girl standing in front of her. Photo by Elizabeth B. Brownell, about 1900.

• Chief Hoo-sis-mox-mox of the Palouse people. Photo by Lee Moorhouse, 1900.

• A Difficult passage. Photo by William Hirsch, 1902.

• Strictly Confidential. Chromolithograph, 1908.

• Unidentified Civil War veteran and unidentified World War I soldier. Photo by James B. Schriever, 1914-1918.

• Reunion of people born into slavery–Lewis Martin, age 100, Martha Elizabeth Banks, age 104; and Amy War, age 103; with Rev. S.P. Drew, born free. Photo by Harris & Ewing, 1917.

• Woman spinning. Photo by Doris Ulmann, 1930

• Grandmother from Oklahoma and her pieced quilt. California, Kern County. (Dresden plate quilt pattern.) Photo by Dorothea Lange, 1936.

• Mexican woman cooking tortillas. San Antonio, Texas. Photo by Russell Lee, 1939

• Life begins at 70. Washington, D.C., ... Mrs. Isabelle Haggett at 75 is now a co-ed at George Washington University. Photo by Harris & Ewing, 1939

• Collecting old bottles is hobby of retired professor W. Edwin Priest. Washington, D.C. Photo by Harris & Ewing, 1939

• Jim Grey, retired old farmer of Ledyard, Connecticut, waiting for the noon mail at the crossroads. Photo by Jack Delano, 1940.

• New York, New York. Old Chinese woman in Chinatown. Photo by Marjory Collins, 1942.

• Women in industry. Flare gun production. ... Mrs. Annette Caines of Detroit, who manned a milling machine in a gun factory during the last war and hasn't stopped work since. Photo by Ann Rosener, 1942

• New York, New York. A follower of the late Marcus Garvey who started the "Back to Africa" movement. Photo by Gordon Parks, 1943.

• Daytona Beach, Florida. Woman who says she is 104 years old. Photo by Gordon Parks, 1943.

• Gloucester, Massachusetts. Mrs. Mary Machado, her daughter Mrs. Isabell Lopez, her daughter Irene, an infant great-grandchild Dorothy, Jr. and her mother Dorothy, Sr., and a grandson Francis, the son of Irene. Photo by Gordon Parks, 1943.

• Children's folktale contest and old people's birthday party, held at Shinsundo Studio, Chicago, Illinois. (Korean Americans) Photo by Chungmoo Choi, 1977.

• Senior citizens, Massachusetts. Photo by Bernard Gotfryd, about 1980.

• Senior citizens, Florida, at Mets training camp. Photo by Bernard Gotfryd, about 1980.