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 on Dec 11, 2007 - View this thread

Vintage Images l Vintage Ephemera l Gallery of Geishas: Art eZine has some interesting visuals, great collection of resources and links to all kinds of cool collages using a variety of vintage ephemera, like Junkyard Dolls or All Wired Up.
posted on Nov 14, 2007 - View this thread

Crime and punishment - a curiously compelling and quirky collection of historic crime photos, including unusual mugshots, corpses & crime scenes. A few favorite characters: idle and disorderly persons; "something amazing" about Harry; a cocky quartet; an illicit drug trader who "drives his own motor car and dresses well"; a subject who refused to open his eyes; charged with conspiring to procure a miscarriage; and guilty of unlawfully possessing cocaine.
This is just one of many marvelous vintage image sets from a historical consultant from Amsterdam - a mammoth treasure trove!
posted on Oct 3, 2007 - View this thread

It's only a paper moon - a charming vintage photo collection. (via recogedor)
posted on Sep 21, 2007 - View this thread

Japan in America: the Turn of the Twentieth Century - an exhibit of ads, cartoons, art and other popculture artifacts from the decades leading up to WWI. (image menu is at the bottom of the page)
posted on Sep 9, 2006 - View this thread

Ivan Brunetti, in addition to drawing dirty little comics (nsfw) and illustrations, has a great collection of vintage photographs of models, both demure and not-so-demure (again, nsfw), Hollywood starlets, cats, and comics ephemera. Finally, he also has a blog featuring a Doodle-a-Day.
posted on Feb 28, 2005 - View this thread

Postcard Man: Worldwide Vintage Postcards.
posted on Oct 6, 2003 - View this thread

Kodak Girl - Martha Cooper began her love affair with photography when her dad gave her a Kodak Baby Brownie sometime around 1946. A professional photographer, for the last 25 years she's also been an avid collector of photographica. Her focus is on images of women with cameras. Browse through more than a century of historic photos, quirky memorabilia, advertising, toys, comics, movie stills and figurines - it's a fascinating site! In her own photos, Ms. Cooper favors art, anthropology, and urban folk culture. Her colorful work can be viewed at NYCity Snaps.
posted on Sep 29, 2002 - View this thread