thenandnow

This is The Great Seal of the United States.
Shown are the die, the counter-die, and the press.
The device is kept at the State Department.

"These stand in the Exhibit Hall of the Department, [and are now] inside a glass enclosure which is kept locked at all times, even during the sealing of a document. The mahogany cabinet’s doors also are kept locked, and the press is bolted and padlocked in position except when in use." [1]

More information, including photographs, about the history of the seal dating back to July 4, 1776, can be read at the State Department's Bureau of Public Affairs.

The Great Seal in use today

Pixel Wrangler Good answer Pixel. I thought it was some kind of hot air regulator.

another photo commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Seal_press_with_All...

Thanks Pixel Wrangler for figuring out what this is. We'll update the catalog record. They may keep it locked up today but back then apparently it was not so secure.

To stamp a document.

Street View

High Street West, Dorchester, England – Then & Now (100+ years later)
 
There appear to be only modest changes to this High Street in over a century of time. (The 1890 photograph shows 3 buildings in the foreground that aren't included in the camera position of the 2010 photograph.)

The building tinted pink, on the left, in the photo above is The Old Tea House, built in 1635. It continues today as a tea house and restaurant. The square tower in the distance is St. Peter's Church, built in 1454.
 
 
   "High West Street, Dorchester" (2010)           "High Street West, Dorchester" (c.1890)
              by John Steedman                                         by Library of Congress
     
 
 
   "Old Tea Shop and Rajput, High West Street, Dorchester" (2007)   by dorsetbays

 

Interior of covered bridge at Scotts Mills, Oregon; looking toward the sawmill in the evening. (c.1948?)

Scotts Mills Bridge, also known as Newlen Bridge, crossed Butte Creek on the Clackamas and Marion County line in the small logging community of Scotts Mills. (Population: 360 in 2013.)

Reported as being built in either 1906 or 1924, the bridge was used extensively in the community until 1951 when Marion County replaced it with the present steel bridge of a Warren polygonal pony truss design on what is now known as South Nowlens Bridge Road. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]


Bridge at Scotts Mills, Oregon– Then and Now (50+ Years Later)

"Bridge of Scotts Mills, Oregon" 2011 by Miary Andria


"Interior of covered bridge looking toward sawmill"
c.1948 by Wanda Gifford – OSU Archives