We present optical (B & R) and infrared (K_s) images and photometry for a
sample of 49 extremely late-type, edge-on disk galaxies selected from the Flat
Galaxy Catalog of Karenchentsev et al. (1993). Our sample was selected to
include galaxies with particularly large axial ratios, increading the
likelihood that the galaxies in the sample are truly edge-on. We have also
concentrated the sample on galaxies with low apparent surface brightness, in
order to increase the representation of intrinisically low surface brightness
galaxies. Finally, the sample was chosen to have no apprarent bulges or optical
warps so that the galaxies represent undisturbed, ``pure disk'' systems. The
resulting sample forms the basis for a much larger spectroscopic study designed
to place constraints on the physical quantities and processes which shape disk
galaxies. The imaging data presented in this paper has been painstakingly
reduced and calibrated to allow accurate surface photometry of features as
faint as 30 mag/sqr-arcsec in B and 29 mag/sqr-arcsec in R on scales larger
than 10 arcsec. Due to limitations in sky subtraction and flat fielding, the
infrared data can reach only to 22.5 mag/sqr-arcsec in K_s on comparable
scales. As part of this work, we have developed a new method for quantifying
the reliability of surface photometry, which provides useful diagnostics for
the presence of scattered light, optical emission from infrared cirrus, and
other sources of non-uniform sky backgrounds.Comment: scheduled to appear in the Astronomical Journal, LaTeX, 36 pages
including 7 pages of figures (fig 1-2,4). A low resolution version of Figure
3 is included in JPEG format; contours are seriously degraded. A full
resolution Postscript version of Figure 3 (10.6Mb,gzipped) is available
through anonymous ftp at
ftp://ftp.astro.washington.edu/pub/users/jd/FGC/dalcanton.f3.ps.g