Old bowling alleys are often things of beauty. Some are (in)famous. The NYTimes just had a wonderful feature on a little-known bowling alley in the basement of the Frick collection, complete with pristine antique bowling balls and a gravity-driven return mechanism. [Previously] (mandatory Big Lebowski reference)
posted by ericbop on Jun 11, 2009 - 16 comments

Peasant! Free your pregnant wife from work, don't allow her to pick up heavy items since this will harm her and the child. An excellent collection of vintage soviet propaganda, public health, and infographics posters from 20s to 30s, many with full translations.
posted by madamjujujive on Jun 7, 2009 - 17 comments

60s Pop Friday! Ladies and Gentlemen, from Queens, NY, it's the Shangri-Las! Mostly known for their grandly melodramatic songs about teen love gone awry, they aren't all downers. They've been covered by bands from France to Japan.
posted by The Whelk on Jun 5, 2009 - 12 comments

A creative New York couple and their wonderful, vintage photographs: pioneering filmmaker, Morris Engel, and award-winning photojournalist, Ruth Orkin, who is renowned for her iconic American Girl in Italy. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on May 31, 2009 - 5 comments

A man marries a woman because he loves her. So instead of blaming him if married love begins to cool, she should question herself. Vintage sexist ads. (Disclaimer: posted by Neil Gaiman on Twitter and shamelessly stolen.)
posted by misha on May 27, 2009 - 60 comments

Les Animaux tel qu'ils sont is a delightful 1920s French art instruction book, showing one how to draw various animals, from the previously discussed Agence Eureka.
posted by fings on May 22, 2009 - 7 comments

Frank Soltesz was a master of fascinating cutaway illustrations depicting "modern businesses" in the '40s and '50s - from hotels and hospitals to breweries, grocery stores, and more. (via Telstar Logistics Blog) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on May 3, 2009 - 50 comments

Moody's Collectibles sells vintage postcards, but they also make available a huge catalogue of their stock. You can browse geographically by US State, by country, and by topic. Or, you can search for anything from alligators to the California Zephyr. They also have a blog. [more inside]
posted by Rumple on Apr 26, 2009 - 8 comments

You can't buy a CycleKart and, even if you could, the racers wouldn't let you participate. You have to build your CycleKart. It's one of the many reasons this is a very cool hobby.
posted by Tom-B on Apr 22, 2009 - 35 comments

Dork Yearbook - vintage tech pr0n, now with thicker glasses and footsier pajamas!
posted by carsonb on Apr 13, 2009 - 16 comments

From cops vs. hoods and other toughies to mad science and dramatic ledges and bridgewalkers, a vast and entertaining collection of vintage pulp art categorized into themes.
posted by madamjujujive on Mar 26, 2009 - 17 comments

Well, I'll tell you, Yanni would sound great on this system at The Great Theater in Ephesus, Turkey. A log cabin in the Bluegrass mountains would be another perfect setting for this system. Wow - the possibilities are endless.
posted by squalor on Mar 20, 2009 - 60 comments

Movie posters carry the movie in one still image. But they're also a great overview of trends, both artistic and popular. Modern major film posters are common enough, and if you're looking for some discussion of modern posters, Movie Poster Addict might be your scene. But dig deeper and you come across quality versions of foreign films, such as Mexican posters (deep link to a section of Pulp Morgue) or hand painted posters from Russia, India and Pakistan, even the US. MeFi's own flapjax at midnite shared a collection of recent finds from the 1960s and '70s on in this Flickr set. [flapjax at midnite's collection via mefi projects] Some-what pre-vious-ly on Me-ta-Filter. And not from MetaFilter, but from our favorite list site: 20 baffling foreign movie posters.
posted by filthy light thief on Mar 18, 2009 - 13 comments

Good morning, Crono! (Cf.) Starting this Friday, the Vintage Game Club will play through the RPG classic Chrono Trigger, a game beloved and praised but perhaps not well understood. The discussion is beginning here (little substance so far). [more inside]
posted by grobstein on Mar 17, 2009 - 46 comments

A Crooked Gambling Supplies catalog from 1960, a 1914 Cyclopedia of 5,000 Puzzles, dozens of magic posters from the '20s to the '40s, and more fun ephemera from Old Catalog's flickr sets.
posted by madamjujujive on Mar 11, 2009 - 15 comments

Vintage photos and a history of General Cinemas. Before the 1960s, concessions were rare at movie theaters, but GCC introduced them widely and even launched their own exclusive drink: Sunkist soda. Also part of the GCC experience was their feature presentation bumper. [more inside]
posted by mattbucher on Mar 9, 2009 - 15 comments

There's the fascinating autistic musical savant Blind Tom Wiggins. There are musical clowns and minstrels, and poignant images of child musicians. There are tantalizing and truly exotic images of musicians from far-flung corners of the world: India, Persia, China, Japan... all this and more at the Vintage Musicians Flickr group. Oh, and who's that critter with the banjo? Why, that may just be the ORIGINAL LOL CAT.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Feb 26, 2009 - 11 comments

You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here. And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you, the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are bringing you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimony, of the miserable souls, who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places. My friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts of a flickr collection of old snapshots?
posted by gamera on Feb 14, 2009 - 18 comments

"It's like I used to enjoy firecrackers, but now it takes dynamite to get me high." Brit Eaton takes Outside magazine on a safari for vintage clothing in the wild west. (via)
posted by 1f2frfbf on Jan 21, 2009 - 19 comments

Kure Kure Takora was a Toho produced, short form children's television show from the Japan in the early 1970's. Meet the Cast: Kure Kure Takora, aka Gimme Gimme Octopus; his closest friend, the coin vomiting squash Chonbo; jellyfish bully Tororo; Monro, the sexy walrus who gets around; Debura,the grizzled and world-weary badger; Biragon, lazy trust-fund iguana; and last but not least, the picked on, Sea Cucumber Gang. An exhaustive listing of videos for all 220 episodes, most with plot breakdowns. [more inside]
posted by Lord_Pall on Jan 5, 2009 - 18 comments

The beautiful vintage photos of three Belgian friends - a doctor, a painter, and accountant - who shared their experiments in color photography from 1907 to 1920. (via The Wonderland of Mia Mäkilä) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Dec 26, 2008 - 17 comments

Gentlemen, are you searching for that special something to wear to the Paris Court Ball? Ladies, do you long to don a pelisse and kid shoes for your next round of afternoon calls? Vintage Textile can help. [more inside]
posted by chihiro on Oct 22, 2008 - 28 comments

People sleeping, gently vulnerable and evocative, vintage photographs. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Oct 11, 2008 - 50 comments

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 inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Sep 9, 2008 - 17 comments

Now I have seen a lion in a sidecar on a vertical wall of death. There are a lot of eye-popping images to be found on the vintage photographs livejournal group. The lion may be the eye-poppingest, but there's also this flattened elephant, this tiny photographer, and this soldier and dog in gas masks.
posted by Astro Zombie on Jul 31, 2008 - 43 comments

Vintage ads galore.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jul 12, 2008 - 25 comments

On this page
you can make a choice
out of several little stories
in different languages.
Most of them however can be enjoyed without speaking the used language.
posted by carsonb on Jun 29, 2008 - 1 comment

Since 1945, one of the great wineries of the world, Château Mouton Rothschild, has commissioned great painters, sculptors, and artists to illustrate their wine labels. [more inside]
posted by mattbucher on Jun 27, 2008 - 13 comments

People riding old bikes around dirt tracks. [more inside]
posted by Fiasco da Gama on May 28, 2008 - 6 comments

Protection from the Atomic Bomb A 1950 pamphlet provided by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
posted by jonson on May 6, 2008 - 27 comments

Arizona Then and Now -- When paired with vintage images of the 19th and 20th centuries, Arizona photographers Allen Dutton and Paul Scharbach's modern-day images reveal the changes that have shaped the state's landscape during the past 100-plus years. They searched the state to locate the precise spots from which to rephotograph the scenes captured by their predecessors, endeavoring to achieve the same angles, perspectives, and lighting as in the early photographs.
posted by netbros on Apr 28, 2008 - 17 comments

Enjoy 10 variously attributed^* vintage Monkey Cartoons and more courtesy STWALLSKULL and BOOM!
Also available for your viewing pleasure, an itemized list with embeddable links: [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Apr 12, 2008 - 3 comments

Everything you need to know about playing Nintendo.
posted by dhammond on Apr 10, 2008 - 64 comments

NBC offers Way Back Wednesdays where you can watch full vintage episodes online of Rod Serling's Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Emergency, Battlestar Galactica, The A-Team, Buck Rogers, and Miami Vice.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner on Apr 3, 2008 - 24 comments

120 pages of old logos, scanned from a 1970s book called “World of Logotypes.”
posted by tepidmonkey on Mar 18, 2008 - 20 comments

Two historic photography collections from Sydney's Powerhouse Museum: The Tyrell Collection - glass plate negatives from the Sydney studios of Charles Kerry and Henry King from 1884-1917 depicting a local record of the times; and the Hedda Morrison Collection - photographs from China, 1933-1946. The collection also includes personal papers and objects, such as Chinese papercuts, belt toggles, and photos from a 1930s-era folk festival in Germany.
posted by madamjujujive on Mar 16, 2008 - 4 comments

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - I'm A Little Dinosaur
Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - New England
Jonathan Richman - Now Is Better Than Before
Spring is in the air today and here are a few slices of vintage Jonathan just because... [more inside]
posted by y2karl on Mar 2, 2008 - 45 comments

Images of Asia l India then and now video l Historical Chinese Postcard Project: 1896 - 1920.
posted by nickyskye on Feb 8, 2008 - 9 comments

"Of all the various types of optical objects known to exist, far and away the most magnificent and attractive are the optical fans." These sly spying devices, now rare collector curiosities, were once a more discreet and chic alternative for spying on your neighbors in fashionable gatherings than opera glasses, spyglasses, or jealousy glasses.
posted by madamjujujive on Feb 6, 2008 - 19 comments

Not exactly breaking news, but still:
The Late Allen Ginsberg and Beck in Conversation
Related YouTuber: Beck on the late Allen Ginsberg
To complete the circle: Jackass by the South Austin Jug Band.
posted by y2karl on Feb 5, 2008 - 26 comments

African-American Snapshots & Portraits (page is slow to load) (previously) (via).
posted by JPowers on Feb 4, 2008 - 6 comments

Changing Times: Los Angeles in Photographs, 1920-1990
posted by miss lynnster on Jan 13, 2008 - 15 comments

2007 has come to a close and so we now conclude our broadcast day. [more inside]
posted by dhammond on Dec 31, 2007 - 31 comments

The Katzenjammer Kids* are 110 years old this month, the world's longest running comic. Watch 1918's Policy & Pie (pt. 2), rare animation by creator Rudolph Dirks who lost the strip to William Randolph Hearst in a court case. The strip was taken over by Harold H. Knerr, but Dirks retained rights to the characters and produced a rival cartoon under The Captain & the Kids for Pulitzer papers for several decades. Five artists followed Dirks and Knerr creating the strip for Hearst.
posted by madamjujujive on Dec 27, 2007 - 14 comments

Peace on Earth - 1939 Disney animation directed by Hugh Harman. And Goodwill to Men, a 1955 remake by Hanna-Barbera.
posted by madamjujujive on Dec 24, 2007 - 30 comments

Vintage Soviet-era Christmas Cards. They're certainly cheerful! (via)
posted by Jimbob on Dec 20, 2007 - 43 comments

Record Envelope is a blog devoted to the bygone era of creative sleeves for vinyl 45s.
posted by dhammond on Dec 12, 2007 - 10 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

Puzzled about what to get the history buff, throwback or Luddite on your holiday shopping list? Explore the sutler's wares in the world of historic reproduction clothing! Strut your eighteenth-century style with Jas. Townsend & Son, or dress for the Lewis & Clark expedition with Smoke & Fire. USHist.com provides the finest in Mexican War and Cavalry/Indian War apparel, as well as fashion to end all wars in theWWI collection. Don't forget the ladies (and weak-minded gents) left at home - Blockade Runner offers fine Civil War civvies. [more inside]
posted by Miko on Dec 11, 2007 - 22 comments

The American Sign Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and documenting historic and vintage signs from the American landscape.
posted by fandango_matt on Nov 29, 2007 - 13 comments