As it turns out, you can get free stuff from the government. In this case, that something is a bunch of great old historic photos that are available through the Library of Congress. We spent many nights over the past few weeks trolling the LoC web site to find some of the best pictures that represent life with cars from days gone by, from the early 1900s through the mid 1950s.

This photo collection has races from the turn of the century, including Barney Oldfield racing a plane against his car, and lots of photos of scrap yards and car plants gearing up for World War II.

We have 77 cool photos to see by clicking here for the BangShift.com gallery.