Chariot racing was one of the most popular sports in the ancient Olympic Games and it was dangerous to both drivers and horses as they often suffered serious injury and even death. Two-wheeled carriages were drawn by horses and raced around a stadium ca…
The pictures in this collection are some of the earliest known portrait photographs to ever be taken. The subjects in the photos are older and no doubt wealthy, as photography was expensive and only accessible to those in a good financial position. T…
Imagine getting on a train and leaving your parents and your family behind. Imagine arriving in a new place, where you don’t speak the language and where everything is different. People wear clothes that seem strange; the food is different too. Imagine …
Picasso’s self-portraits are important because they span his entire career, and we can trace how his manner of self-depiction changed over time. It’s interesting to compare the self-portraits from, for instance, the Blue Period to those done when he was…
During the 1920s, car ownership exploded. Everyday consumers were making more money and families were able to afford vehicles. In turn, businesses such as drive-in movie theaters and restaurants became more popular. After all, if the notions that drove …
These instructional photos were shown as training materials for new hires at Krystal restaurants during the 1960s. They demonstrate examples for employees of how and how not to present themselves behind the counter. The brochure and orientational traini…
In October 1937, Farm Security Administration photographer Arthur Rothstein visited the small city of Hagerstown in Maryland. He spent a whole afternoon, strolling the streets of the town, taking pictures of residents, documenting their everyday life. In a …
In April 2003 Jørn Utzon, at the age of 85, was awarded the Pritzker Prize ─architecture’s ‘Nobel’. The citation reads: ‘There is no doubt that Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the twentieth century, an i…
These photos, taken by the Office of War Information photographer John Collier in 1943, show the Maine woodsmen of the Brown Company on a dangerous spring lumber drive. The men were tasked with guiding thousands of heavy, slippery logs on the spring pul…
These photos from the Gulbenkian Art Library capture the men and women of Lisbon and the nearby towns of Ericeira and Nazaré as they haul in their boats, mend their nets and sell their catch. A visual testimony of a vanished way of life on the Iberian coast. …
The World Trade Center project was initiated in the early 1960s through the influence of David Rockefeller in part to reclaim a part of the city that had fallen on hard times. The vision was meant to use the trade facility and urban renewal as tools to clea…
The Great Migrations from 1910 to 1960 brought hundreds of thousands of African-Americans from the South to Chicago, where they became an urban population. They created churches, community organizations, businesses, music, and literature. African Americans …
These vintage photographs come from an untitled album from the 1890s which records various self-defense hand-to-hand maneuvers. The two finely dressed gentlemen demonstrate a variety of defensive moves that involve chokeholds, body slams, kicks, chops, and …
After Germany’s annexation of Austria in March 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain traveled twice to the continent hoping to appease Hitler’s aggressive intentions, and to prevent another destructive European war, but with a distinct lack of success. …
These posters were published in the Soviet anti-religious magazine, Bezbozhnik (“The Godless”) from 1922 to 1941. The main purpose of the magazine was to thwart any religious beliefs that were supposedly too distracting for the working class. The magazi…
As the consequences of the Great Depression, unemployment, poverty, and the effects of the Dust Bowl ravaged the country in the 1930s, government programs such as the Farm Security Administration (FSA) were established. American photographers were employed to …
These photographs, taken by the Lomen family, capture the indigenous Yupik Eskimo and the prospectors of the Gold Rush in Alaska during the early decades of the 20th century. The term "Eskimo" is used in Alaska to refer to arctic Alaskans including Inup…
The Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw (or Kwakiutl) are Pacific Northwest Coast Indigenous people. Most live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland, and on islands around Johnstone Strait and Queen Charlotte Strait. Originally made up…
In the early years of the 20th century, a number of circuses toured Northern Ireland providing entertainment, tricks, and a lot of excitement for the crowds. Though the dim lighting condition inside the circus’ tent prevented images from being made of t…
Antonio Gaudí started work designing a building in 1883 he originally termed the “church of the poor”. After disagreements between the founding association and the original architect, Gaudí was assigned to lead the project in 1884, and thus produced an ent…