Two women walking down a dark street in London, 1955. From Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images

Barrel of fun: Seated in a WPA wheelbarrow beside a gushing fire hydrant on the Lower East Side, four boys cool off in 95degree heat during 1939. From Bettmann/Corbis Archives

A motorcyclist prepares to turn while driving along a street which is engulfed in a thick haze combined by fog and smog, Los Angeles, 1958

From Bettmann/Corbis