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…
Edward Linley Sambourne was one of the first photographers to capture street fashion by using a hidden camera. He made his living as an artist and is most notably known for his drawings and cartoons in Punch magazine, where he eventually became a full-t…
During World War II, letters were essential for soldiers and sailors stationed overseas. The average soldier wrote six letters a week. Those letters took anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks to cross the ocean to the United States. Each letter received at home assure…
After World War II had ended, the surrendered Japan was devastated. All the large cities, industries, and transportation networks were severely damaged. A severe shortage of food continued for several years. Allied forces led by the United States occupi…
From the 1960s to the late 1980s, New York City’s iconic Times Square was a difficult place to be. Felony and crime rates were high, despite heightened police existence. A plethora of go-go bars, sex shops, peep show establishments, and adult theaters becam…
On August 25, 1914, the German army ravaged the Belgian city of Leuven (Louvain). Virtually the entire city center was systematically destroyed by the German occupying forces. The fire destroyed more than two thousand buildings and 248 citizens were killed…
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 …
In 1942, twenty-one-year-old Esther Bubley, accepted a position with the Office of War Information (OWI) in Washington, D.C. to work as a darkroom lab technician. The OWI had recently absorbed the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and their stable of l…
There are several accounts from the 1850s describing the unexplained appearance in photographs of translucent figures representing the departed. According to Owen Davies in The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts, ghost photography started with photographic…
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 …
During the Second World War, propaganda posters in the United States were commonly seen on a walk or commute to work, a trip to the store, in a newspaper or magazine, and any other time one went around town. Posters were not the only form of propaganda used…