Flickr site posts historic pictures

Flickr and the Library of Congress have joined to create an online collection of historical photos from U.S. history.

The site, designated “The Commons,” is at http://flickr.com/commons. It’s the kind of site that will take you hours to pore over.

The pilot project has two large sets of photos posted from the Library of Congress’s massive archive. The larger set of photos, with about 1,600 color images, covers life in the United States in the 1930s and ‘40s.

It’s a wonderful collection covering the nation’s Great Depression.

The second group is a black-and-white collection of 1,500 photographs covering life in and around New York City from 1900-20. The images in that group document sports, theater, celebrities, crime, strikes, disasters and political activities, with a special emphasis on life in the city.

The Commons encourages Web visitors to add information or tag the photos if historically pertinent details (such as the identity of the person in the picture) are incomplete.

Spokane Trip Planner

We recommend Spokane County bus riders consider the recently launched STA Trip Planner, an online tool for planning bus rides. It just started last week. It’s at spokanetransit.com.