Decade

1930s

Icarus, High Above New York. Lewis Hine photographs a steelworker swinging on a cable a quarter mile above Manhattan as America's tallest skyscraper rises.

No. 025 · Famous Americans

Icarus, High Above New York

By The Metropolitan Museum of Art

From $149

Nothing to Fear. Page one of the typed address from the National Archives: "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." A document piece (no photo).

No. 053 · Great Speeches

Nothing to Fear

By National Archives (NARA)

From $149

Franklin D. Roosevelt, president. Inaugurated on March 4, 1933. He died in office on April 12, 1945, during his fourth term.

No. 098 · Presidents

Franklin D. Roosevelt

By Wikimedia Commons

From $149

Navy Catalinas over the Golden Gate, 1937. Navy flying boats flew over the bridge in May 1937, the month it opened as the longest suspension span in the world.

No. 188 · Wings

Navy Catalinas over the Golden Gate, 1937

By Wikimedia Commons

From $149

Navy carriers pass under the unfinished Golden Gate, 1936. Months before the bridge opened, the carriers USS Lexington and Saratoga steamed under its cables; the span was the world's longest suspension bridge until 1964.

No. 189 · San Francisco

Navy carriers pass under the unfinished Golden Gate, 1936

By Wikimedia Commons

From $149

Manhattan from the Air, 1931. This government aerial was taken in October 1931, months after the Empire State Building opened.

No. 192 · New York

Manhattan from the Air, 1931

By Wikimedia Commons

From $149

Chrysler Building, Midtown 1932. Its stainless-steel spire was assembled in secret inside the building and hoisted into place in about 90 minutes in 1929, briefly making it the tallest building on earth.

No. 193 · New York

Chrysler Building, Midtown 1932

By Wikimedia Commons

From $149

Rockefeller Center, December 1933. Built through the Depression, Rockefeller Center employed some 40,000 people when work was scarce; the first Christmas tree there was put up by construction workers in 1931.

No. 194 · New York

Rockefeller Center, December 1933

By Wikimedia Commons

From $149

Historic Vegas neon, Fremont Street. Fremont Street got Nevada's first paved road and its first gaming license in 1931; its neon earned it the name Glitter Gulch.

No. 199 · Las Vegas

Historic Vegas neon, Fremont Street

By Wikimedia Commons

From $149

Hoover Dam from the air. Finished two years early in 1935, the dam holds enough concrete to pave a two-lane road from San Francisco to New York; its intake towers are crowned with Art Deco clocks for Nevada and Arizona time.

No. 200 · Las Vegas

Hoover Dam from the air

By Wikimedia Commons

From $149

Kids on 61st Street, 1938 (Walker Evans). Walker Evans, better known for stern Alabama portraits, spent a summer shooting kids in the street between First and Third Avenues in Manhattan.

No. 222 · Candid & Wit

Kids on 61st Street, 1938 (Walker Evans)

By Walker Evans

From $149

The General Plays the Organ, 1938 (Harris & Ewing). Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig cranked a street organ playing 'Sidewalks of New York' while senators clowned around him at the Alfalfa Club's annual outing in 1938.

No. 227 · Candid & Wit

The General Plays the Organ, 1938 (Harris & Ewing)

By Harris & Ewing

From $149

Curious Tom, 1936 (Harris & Ewing). Tom was the favorite cat at the Washington pound.

No. 232 · Candid & Wit

Curious Tom, 1936 (Harris & Ewing)

By Harris & Ewing

From $149

The Senate Cat, 1939 (Harris & Ewing). A stray cat wandered into the Senate Office Building and ended up on the desk of Rosalie Sutton, a staffer for Senator Claude Pepper.

No. 233 · Candid & Wit

The Senate Cat, 1939 (Harris & Ewing)

By Harris & Ewing

From $149

Too Much Sun, 1936 (Harris & Ewing). The Smithsonian's Charles Abbot set up a public demo of his solar engine, and the sun was so strong it melted the solder.

No. 235 · Candid & Wit

Too Much Sun, 1936 (Harris & Ewing)

By Harris & Ewing

From $149

Senatorial Sweat, 1939 (Harris & Ewing). Senator Allen Ellender of Louisiana sits sealed in an electric-lamp steam cabinet with only his head showing.

No. 236 · Candid & Wit

Senatorial Sweat, 1939 (Harris & Ewing)

By Harris & Ewing

From $149

Dyed Green for Nervous Putters, 1938 (Harris & Ewing). Golfers complained that brown patches on the greens rattled their putting, so Agriculture Department experts made an insecticide that also dyed the grass green.

No. 237 · Candid & Wit

Dyed Green for Nervous Putters, 1938 (Harris & Ewing)

By Harris & Ewing

From $149