The historian's dilemma is illustrated in these photographs of interiors. As complete room settings, most of them are quite foreign to us; we identify only with their parts--a familiar type of chair or table or vase. Household things are common fragments of history; their individual meanings and purposes are redefined rapidly, and their contexts are subject to alteration. Some objects survive many years because they are adaptable. Others grown obsolete and are discarded. The thousands of household things that appear in these pictures are seen as they were in actual daily use in the past. It is probable that the rooms did not remain as we see them for very long, for small revisions take place endlessly in any house. Were it not for the cameras of some six dozen photographers, these few scenes would have passed away quietly.

Gift of the Family of Clarence Koch.