Feast your eyes

May 2, 2006 11:58 AM

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.
posted by CunningLinguist (37 comments total)

Best part? Most can be downloaded for free uncompressed.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:58 AM on May 2, 2006

One more: Celebrity reporters outside a society wedding (olde timey paparazzi).
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:22 PM on May 2, 2006

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

Thank you!
posted by Miko at 12:24 PM on May 2, 2006

I like this one

and this one

Thanks
posted by banishedimmortal at 12:30 PM on May 2, 2006

Very cool!
posted by Thorzdad at 12:32 PM on May 2, 2006

Hell of a snowmobile.
posted by Miko at 12:32 PM on May 2, 2006

These must have looked so cool in the sky.
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:36 PM on May 2, 2006

Except, you know, when this happened.
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:37 PM on May 2, 2006

subway fire.
posted by CunningLinguist at 12:41 PM on May 2, 2006

I loves me some flapper hawtness. Yum!

P.S. Thanks for killing my productivity, CL.
posted by The Bellman at 1:01 PM on May 2, 2006

Good use of tax dollars. (really, I mean it)
posted by marxchivist at 1:02 PM on May 2, 2006

This is a shining example of why we need a healthy public domain. Kudos!
posted by zsazsa at 1:05 PM on May 2, 2006

So how does one let them know that they have mis-identified one of the photos? This one is not Fenway Park.
posted by Gungho at 1:12 PM on May 2, 2006

Sad: both Penn station and Gimbels are gone now. But how gorgeous it was.
posted by CunningLinguist at 1:13 PM on May 2, 2006

everytime i see p[hotos like these i think to myself...maybe i was born in the wrong decade. but then i come to metafilter...
posted by ShawnString at 1:14 PM on May 2, 2006

O.K., so who the hell was Ignaz Hildebrandt??
Anybody have a clue??
posted by Floydd at 1:17 PM on May 2, 2006

[this is fucking awesome]
posted by keswick at 1:17 PM on May 2, 2006

Just amazing. There goes the rest of my day...
posted by mkhall at 1:47 PM on May 2, 2006

I dunno, Gungho. It looks to be the New York Giants playing the Red Sox.
The Giants had Jeff Tesreau pitching and Chief Meyers catching in 1912, and Boston had Joe Wood and Hick Cady. (Their names are on the board in the center of the picture)
Aha! It's a World Series game!
Could it be Polo Grounds IV??

This is fun! Now who the hell was Ignaz Hildebrandt???
posted by Floydd at 1:48 PM on May 2, 2006

O.K., so who the hell was Ignaz Hildebrandt??

Hildebrandt was one of two people killed in the bombing of a Socialist rally in NYC's Union Square on 3/28/08.
posted by ryanshepard at 1:51 PM on May 2, 2006

Thanks, ryanshepard, but the picture tells me all I need to know about the dead Ignaz. I'm curious about him when he was alive.
posted by Floydd at 2:00 PM on May 2, 2006

It is fast too.
posted by R. Mutt at 2:36 PM on May 2, 2006

Free Coffee At Bowery Mission For Unemployed

What a bleak scene... interesting that this was before paper cups, though. Someone must have volunteered to carefully wash out all the mugs, too.
posted by ducksauce at 3:07 PM on May 2, 2006

Good use of tax dollars. (really, I mean it).

Yeah. Visiting the Library of Congress for the first time this winter, I wanted to fall to my knees in gratitude. It's the kind of thing that makes you say: This is what a civil society is for.
posted by Miko at 3:09 PM on May 2, 2006

Okay, a few more.

Here's a great picture of Tammany Hall.

Philadelphia MeFites might enjoy these three pictures picture of Mummers from 1909

And this is a great picture of the newly reconstructed Grand Central Terminal before it was crowded by skyscrapers.

I can't tell you how much I loved this post.
posted by ducksauce at 3:19 PM on May 2, 2006

CunningLinguist: "Penn station on a Sunday"

I don't know if this was a joke, but it's actually a shot of a crowd awaiting Billy Sunday's arrival. The station is not typically that crowded on weekends.
posted by rafter at 4:54 PM on May 2, 2006

I loves me some flapper hawtness.

Careful. They're old enough to be your (great) grandmother. In fact, they just might be your (great) grandmother.
posted by crunchland at 5:04 PM on May 2, 2006

Thanks, ryanshepard, but the picture tells me all I need to know about the dead Ignaz. I'm curious about him when he was alive.

The New York Times reported the next day that Hildebrandt was a tailor, lived on 133rd St., and was apparently not involved in the plot - just standing next to the accused bomber when the bomb exploded prematurely. He apparently died instantly. No details beyond that, though.
posted by ryanshepard at 5:51 PM on May 2, 2006

CL, if the GDP drops this quarter, it's your fault.

So very fabulous, all of it. Thanks!
posted by vetiver at 6:15 PM on May 2, 2006

WooHoo!

Great resource...thanks!

I'm so much happier when my taxes turn out to support something useful.
posted by taosbat at 6:56 PM on May 2, 2006

It's fun to print the HQ versions of these on 8x10's at your handy internet photo place. Good decoration.
posted by smackfu at 6:58 PM on May 2, 2006

I don't know if this was a joke


Um, no. Just me being a moron, sorry. I'd never heard of Billy Sunday. Thought it was just a cutesy caption.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:36 PM on May 2, 2006

Yes Ffllooyydd it is the Polo grounds IV. I see this photo
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/I?ils:13:./temp/~pp_qfJE::displayType=1:m856sd=ggbain:m856sf=13274:@@@mdb=ggbain
posted by Gungho at 8:02 PM on May 2, 2006

Thanks, ryanshepard, that's just what I was wondering.
And good eye, Gungho! I know nothing about baseball but was inspired to research the photo based on your callout.
Thanks for the memories, CunningLinguist.
posted by Floydd at 6:15 AM on May 3, 2006

John Schrank in Milwaukee.

(I'm addicted.)
posted by Floydd at 7:58 AM on May 3, 2006

Temporary file open error. Display failed.

Dang it, stop abusing the server, I wants in too!
posted by blue_beetle at 9:20 AM on May 3, 2006

Ha! Smoking Monkey
posted by blue_beetle at 9:21 AM on May 3, 2006