I really dig this Library of Congress photo of these sailors on the USS Arkansas back around 1912 or so. Totally cool.

I found these photos on the Library of Congress’s photo stream on Flickr. What you’re seeing are three old American battleships in the 1910s, most likely near New York, judging from some of the comments.

USS Michigan, BB-27

USS Alabama, BB-8

USS Utah, BB-31

*Sigh*

My First Life was spent as a photojournalist. I started, inspired by my dad’s camera collection, in high school shooting photos for the school paper and yearbook. I continued through college and even did internships and freelance work for small-town newspapers in Texas and one in Kansas. I ended my first life as Digitization crept in and I shifted into my current life working with the Web and technology.

But seeing old-school physical images, even when they’ve been digitized, pulls at strings of my past and for a moment, I can almost smell the chemicals an feel that sensation of seeing history being recorded on the paper as the image comes to life.

Go browse the Library of Congress’s photos on Flickr.