With 2013 being the 125th anniversary of the National Geographic Society, it was high time for us do something fun and magical with our photographic archive. And even after publishing 632 archival photographs on National Geographic’s “Found” Tumblr, working on the edit is still my favorite part of the week.

I look for a variety of images that range in date from the late 1800s to the 1990s. It’s my job to search through thousands of digitized images to find just the right formula to surprise, inspire, or intrigue you.

Here are some of my all-time favorites:

One of the things that makes the National Geographic archive so special is our large collection of Autochromes—photographs that were shot using early color plate