MetaFilter posts tagged with photos and History

Careless Women Never Appeal To Gentlemen

The Whelk — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:02:42 -0800

Tips For Single Ladies: Helpful hints on dating and romance from 1938, with photos. (via)

Wisconsin Death Trip

Kattullus — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:22:36 -0800

Charles Van Schaick was a photographer in Black River Falls, Wisconsin in the late 19th and early 20th Century. His work was made famous by Michael Lesy in the book Wisconsin Death Trip in which the photographs were juxtaposed with local newsreports of murder, suicide, disease, insanity, animal mutilation and other calamities plus the occasional non-morbid event. Flickr set of photos used in Wisconsin Death Trip. Some of the texts from Wisconsin Death Trip. Robert Birnbaum interviews Michael Lesy about Wisconsin Death Trip and other things. Over 2500 photographs by Charles Van Schaick owned by The Wisconsin Historical Society. [Warning: Some of the photographs are of deceased infants]

Storage closets of the American Museum of Natural History

serazin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:12:32 -0800

Backstage at the American Museum of Natural History: an essay and a slideshow.

Disappearing Places

katillathehun — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:45:17 -0800

"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 disappearing and changed places.

Japan through wonderful vintage photos

madamjujujive — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:30:07 -0800

Vintage 3-D stereoviews of old Japan, Meiji and Taisho era swimsuit girls, working people, geisha, and kids, old Japan salt prints, dozens of T. Enami glass slides, and strange or offbeat images: all part of a vast and superb collection of Japanese photos from 1862 to 1930 by flickr user Okinawa Soba. More on the work of T-Enami, "King of the Stereoview, Master of the Lantern-Slide And Prolific, Anonymous Contributor To the World of Yokohama Album Views"

Images of Afghanistan

binturong — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:01:54 -0800

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.

Historical Photographs of China

peacay — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:23:32 -0800

The Sidney D Gamble Photograph Collection at Duke University consists of about 5,000 newly digitised pictures, taken predominantly in China between 1917 and 1932. Browse by subject, category or location tags. Photos taken in 1908 are to be added in the future. [via]

Bringing Back The Drive-In

Effigy2000 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:04:12 -0800

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!).

popculture advertising ephemera

madamjujujive — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:25:46 -0800

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.

Burn baby burn

dersins — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:50:47 -0800

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.

That's it! Back to Winnipeg!

Effigy2000 — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:10:42 -0800

Sweet guinea pig of Winnipeg! 250 stories about Winnipeg! (and Manitoba...)

Photographs of American Cities

jonson — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 09:43:34 -0800

Photographs of American Cities from the middle of the 20th Century.

Step Right Up

Miko — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:19:01 -0800

Circus History, with photos, logos, show routes, and more. See also Circus World, Circus Web, and Princeton's Circus Poster Archive.

The 52 Most Influential Photographs

Jimbob — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 04:36:02 -0800

52 Influential Photographs: From the oldest survivng photograph, to images of revolution, misery, beauty and humility, to...goatse and LOLCAT? You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Deja View: Historic landscape "rephotos" (1800s, 1970s, 1990s)

taz — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:15:41 -0800

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...]

Balboa Park

snsranch — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:25:19 -0800

No trip to San Diego's Historic Balboa Park would be complete without witnessing some awesome street performers.

Historic maps and photos of Africa

Rumple — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:26:14 -0800

Northwestern University hosts a fine collection of historic East African photographs, viewable as sample sets or in their original photo-albums (requires flash). But the real prize is their wonderful collection of 113 historic maps of Africa, which are zoomable to incredible detail, also 1, 2, 3. via

Russia in photos: 1941-1945

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 11 May 2007 20:52:30 -0800

Russia in photos: 1941-1945.

The 100 Year Old Photoblog

jonson — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:35:51 -0800

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.

Can you hear me now?

Mitheral — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 09:22:02 -0800

LA6NCA's WW2 German Radio Collection Pictures and a little history on many WW2 German radios including a cute as a button spy radio and the Lichtsprechgerät 80, an incoherent light audio transceiver. Also featured are a few photo essays of the equipment in use (Enigma, Luftwaffe Signals unit redeploying). [dorian

Feast your eyes

CunningLinguist — Tue, 02 May 2006 11:58:35 -0800

Search early 20th Century news photos. Welcome to the Library of Congress' new George Grantham Bain Collection: the extensive files of one of America's earliest news picture agencies. Some favorites after a morning spent perusing just a small number of the 50kish pics: The Whiteman Submarine Band, a fire truck heading to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, the flowers at Wilbur Wright's funeral, Ignaz Hildebrandt dead in Union Square, Theatre marquee, a fire in NYC, midday crowd in Union Square, Penn station on a Sunday, suffragettes......and many more.

The SF quake

mathowie — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 19:14:03 -0800

The Bancroft Library unveils a new 1906 San Francisco Earthquake site featuring a really cool clickable map that features photos from each section of town. Haight Street didn't look too bad, but just down the road, City Hall was leveled. The exhibit offers a guide to the event that look place nearly 100 years ago.

Walking memory lane

arse_hat — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 21:22:20 -0800

Photos of Christchurch NZ. Walk the High Street, stop at the corner chemist, or catch the Gaieties. Contains more than a thousand historic pictures, some of startling clarity.

Tallulah's Vintage Nudes

taz — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 03:13:38 -0800

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.

I've always felt that the past was somehow obscured by being viewed solely through a greyscale window

magullo — Fri, 16 Jan 2004 02:45:33 -0800

Dazzling, full-color shots of people long since dead, landscapes long since paved, and an empire long since overthrown.
A pre-WW I process for creating color image projections meets Photoshop®