The history of Toronto in photos is 90 some odd posts linked to provide a thematically organized visual overview. The vast majority of the photographs featured derive from the Toronto Archives. Should you be interested in a less visually oriented take on Toronto history, there is also the
Nostalgia Tripping series, which was designed to be a bit more about storytelling than just the photos.
posted by netbros
on Dec 5, 2011 -
20 comments
Beautiful Type is a patchwork of photos and illustrations having a relationship with typography.
AisleOne is focused on graphic design, typography, grid systems, minimalism and modernism.
iABC is a collection of beautiful letters.
Inspiration Bit has a nice archive of articles about web typography.
Nicetype is about fonts, logos, posters and software.
Twenty-Six Types celebrates the beautiful letters.
Typenuts is type-themed iPhone and desktop wallpapers.
Typoretum is about typography, letterpress and printing history. Enjoy.
posted by netbros
on Nov 6, 2011 -
5 comments
Robert F. Gallagher served in the United States Army's 815th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion (Third Army) in the European Theater during WWII. He has posted his memoir online:
"Scratch One Messerschmitt," told from numerous photos he took during the war and the detailed notes he made shortly afterwards.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 23, 2010 -
7 comments
Historypin uses Google Maps and Street View technology and hopes to become the largest user-generated archive of the world's historical images and stories. Historypin lets you layer old images onto modern Street View scenes, giving a series of peaks into the past. Upload and pin your own old photos, as well as the stories behind them, onto the map.
posted by dobbs
on Jun 29, 2010 -
20 comments
Once Upon a Time in Afghanistan. "It is important to know that disorder, terrorism, and violence against schools that educate girls are not inevitable. I want to show Afghanistan's youth of today how their parents and grandparents really lived."
posted by availablelight
on Jun 3, 2010 -
8 comments
"
I remember having rootbeer floats on the porch swing on hot summer nights... I remember playing with my cousins and the neighbors in the side yard. I remember running to the train tracks just a few blocks away and counting the train cars (sometimes over 100!) as they streamed by. I remember 'Uncle' Bill showing me his missing finger that he lost while working the trains... This is someone else’s house now but my memories still live there." From
Disappearing Places: An archive and collective map of places that no longer exist, at least not as they once did.
[more inside]
posted by katillathehun
on Dec 10, 2008 -
23 comments
A few hundred photos of Afghanistan by a Canadian photographer. Some from the 1970s, some since 2000. Just a reminder there's more to the country than a testing ground for military technology and terrorist tactics. Some beautiful images and some scenes of everyday life. Accompanied by the photographer's personal commentary.
posted by binturong
on Aug 13, 2008 -
14 comments
The first drive-in movie theater was opened on June 6, 1933, by salesman Richard M. Hollingshead in Camden, N.J. On the bill was a twilight showing of the British comedy
Wife Beware. And so the drive-in era was born, peaking in 1958 with almost 5,000 theaters in the U.S alone. These days you'd be hard pressed trying to find one but thankfully there are plenty of
handy lists online telling you just where to find one (
there's even one for Aussies like me!). And that's not all we have to be thankful for;
the drive-in scene is apparently witnessing something of a "mini-revival" at present. Don't feel like going out? Then why not make your own? First
you'll need instructions on how to build one. Then you'll need intermission-advertisements (
you can download or even just watch heaps of them for free here). And then you'll need
a handy list of the kinds of films they used to show at the drive-in. If you're in the US, you'll need to know some of the
special rules the FCC has for drive-ins, and if you have any more questions, I'm sure the fine folk at the
United Drive-In Theater Owners Association could help. All of this sound like too much work? Then just sit back and check out the videos and photos on
this nice site (it's about drive-ins, of course!).
posted by Effigy2000
on Feb 18, 2008 -
43 comments
From about 1875 to the 1940s,
cigarette cards spurred tobacco sales. Sets offer a glimpse into the popculture of the times, spanning
newsmakers,
cinema celebrities, and
sports stars; cute illustrated subjects, like
"frisky" and
children with rosy cheeks; handy info like
air raid precautions,
first aid, and
amusing tricks; and neat stuff like
famous escapes,
exotic races, and
figures of speech. Browse
more fun sets of vintage images.
posted by madamjujujive
on Dec 11, 2007 -
21 comments
The great Seattle Fire.
"The spring of 1889 in Seattle had been beautiful....Unfortunately, the unusually good weather proved to be disastrous, as the dry conditions conspired with a handful of other elements to allow for the worst fire in city history...the fire burned until 3:00 am. When it was done, the damage was enormous. 120 acres (25 city blocks) had been destroyed, as was every wharf and Mill from Union to Jackson Streets. Although the loss of human life was evidently low (no statistics were kept on that) it was estimated that 1 million rats were killed...." Photo gallery. A roughly contemporaneous
account. A Historylink
essay on the fire. How the fire
changed Seattle's architecture.
posted by dersins
on Nov 7, 2007 -
8 comments
The Third View project is a fascinating presentation of "rephotographs" of over 100 historic landscape sites in the American West that presents original 19th-century survey photographs, photographed again in the 1970s, then once again in the '90s - from the original vantage points, under similar lighting conditions, at (roughly) the same time of day and year.
[Flash, and you'll probably need to allow pop-ups; a little more info inside...]
posted by taz
on Jun 15, 2007 -
13 comments
Shorpy is an unusual photoblog; billed as "the 100-year-old photography blog," it focuses on found images from many, many decades gone by.
Some favorites,
so far.
posted by jonson
on Mar 19, 2007 -
26 comments
Big Hats and Eroticism is just one of the many features of
Tallulahs.com, an excellent site dedicated to images of the
vintage nude. There's also lots of wonderful trivia and commentary, such as a
brief biography of the
Mante sisters (immortalized in the brilliant ballerina images of painter
Edgar Degas), and the story of
Liane de Pougy, convent girl turned runaway wife, turned
celebrated dancer of the French stage, turned
Romanian Princess. Or you can read about the
mystery of H. Traut,
elusive photographer of "the gentle eroticism of fairyland" whose
images graced hundreds of postcards for several years until he
seemingly vanished from the scene some time before WWI. Interested in
drawing or painting nudes yourself? Here's a page of
classical nude poses - studies in various categories that you can work from, including "
The beauty of butts" and "
seductive smoking"! Plus, you can peruse
Tallulah's own art nudes, and a fabulous
links page. NSFW, obviously.
posted by taz
on Aug 9, 2004 -
4 comments
Staffordshire Past Track. History and images of an English Midlands county :
old photographs and
online
exhibitions on
historic churches,
celebrations,
birth,
death,
serial killers and
mining (and
the 1984-85 strike).
Related sites :-
the
Museums of the Potteries, the area around Stoke-on-Trent which played a major role in the Industrial Revolution;
thepotteries.org, including
postcards and
photographs;
In
Search of Agenoria, black and white photographs of the post-industrial Black Country landscape;
A Miner's Son- more mining history in the Midlands (with more on the 1984-85 strike, possibly the most divisive political event in recent British history);
save Bethesda Chapel, a historic Methodist chapel in Stoke; panoramic views and history of
Lichfield Cathedral and
other
Staffordshire places.
posted by plep
on Aug 25, 2003 -
4 comments
The California Museum of Photography has several interesting exhibits currently online. The images taken in Iraq (ca. 1956) and Afghanistan (ca. 1933) are timely and timeless. Read the essay on the vernacular church exhibit for a wonderful and brief exposure to the language of art photography.
posted by newlydead
on May 6, 2003 -
2 comments
