Polish strikers at N.Y. Mills, Utica (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

My favorite photo site, Flickr, got a big boost today from the Library of Congress. In a move all Americans should applaud, the Library of Congress uploaded photos dating back to the turn the century for everyone to see and use. The pictures have no copyright limitations.

I did a quick search for my hometown and came up with three photos of New York Mills, including the one above that shows Polish workers on strike. I don’t believe any relatives are pictured, but I think the photo falls within the time (1910-1915) my great-grandparents settled in New York Mills. There’s another similar shot and a third picture of one of our famous mills (No. 2, I think).

As someone who loves photos, I’m going to have fun looking at these shots. So far, Flickr has 1,500 photos from the 1910s and another 1,650 color shots from the 1930s and 1940s.

(Hat tip to John Wonderlich and Katherine Mangu-Ward.)