During the depths of the Great Depression, American cities witnessed mass expulsions that would tear apart families and communities for generations. Between 1929 and 1939, somewhere between 300,000 and 2 million people of Mexican descent were forced or pres…
The Great Depression, a somber epoch in American history, is often characterized by the stark imagery of hardship. Traditionally, these images have been captured in grainy black and white, offering a glimpse into an era defined by Hoovervilles, snaking unem…
Old photos of New York City's Easter Parade offer a captivating glimpse into the past, showcasing the extravagant celebrations of the city's elite during the early 20th century. The Easter Parade was an annual event that saw New Yorkers dressed in their fin…
The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon, on the s…
This photo collection shows cool and vintage gadgets from the past invented to improve the smoking experience and provide solutions to mundane problems. Inventors introduced and advertised several cigarette accessories, such as automated lighters, remote sm…
These vintage photos capture everyday life in Amsterdam during the 1930s. Amsterdam was founded at the mouth of the Amstel River that was dammed to control flooding; the city's name derives from the Amstel dam. Originally a small fishing village in the late…
Founded in 1903, Harley-Davidson is one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression along with its historical rival, Indian Motorcycles. The company has survived numerous ownership arrangements, subsidiary arrangements, pe…
This collection of impressive photos captures the street scenes and everyday life of Los Angeles in the 1930s. Most of the pictures were taken by Ansel Adams which commissioned to document the city’s industry as the country was shoring up its air power. M…
With the birth of Émilie, Yvonne, Cécile, Marie, and Annette Dionne in 1934, the province of Ontario, coupled with Canada, discovered a “human goldmine”. From the moment the Quints were born, they were subjected to awful living standards and were abused by …
The term Dust Bowl was coined in 1935 when an AP reporter, Robert Geiger, used it to describe the drought-affected south-central United States in the aftermath of horrific dust storms. Historically, the Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that …
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 …
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 …
Nobody could tell exactly when it began and nobody could predict when it would end. At the outset, they didn’t even call it a depression. At worst it was a recession, a brief slump, a “correction” in the market, a glitch in the rising curve of prosperit…
The only thing as impressive as the Empire State Building are the men who built it and during that time rules for construction workers were a lot laxer than they are today. The hardworking men way up high who were moving girders, riveting, painting, and eve…
These stunning photographs of car wrecks in the 1930s were captured by Leslie Jones, a famous photographer who worked for the Boston Herald-Traveler from 1917 to 1956. Jones documented daily life in Boston and surrounding areas and some 40,000 of his negati…
Hooverville was the popular name attributed to shanty towns that sprung up throughout the United States during the Great Depression. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was …
During the Great Depression, millions of people were out of work across the United States. Unable to find another job locally, many unemployed people hit the road, traveling from place to place, hoping to find some work. A few of these people had cars, …
Al Capone started one of the first soup kitchens. The kitchen employed a few people but fed many more. In fact, preceding the passage of the Social Security Act, “soup kitchens” like the one Al Capone founded, provided the only meals that some unemployed A…
From the wreckage of the 1929 stock market crash, a new American obsession was born. As the economy crumbled, the companies that survived found themselves locked in fierce competition, and many turned to the power of design to stay relevant. Everyday object…
The golden era of American organized crime unfolded not in shadowy back alleys alone, but in broad daylight—through police mugshots, courtroom photographs, and news images that captured mobsters with an audacity that would seem unthinkable today. These men …