Following the advent of the automobile in the 1890s, motoring grew fashionable among wealthy people. As early cars had no roofs or doors and were driven mostly on dirt roads, motorists needed clothes that could protect them from wind, cold, and dust. Conseq…
In the 1930s, make-up legend Max Factor came up with an ingenious invention combining phrenology, cosmetics, and a pseudo-scientific approach to analyze a woman's facial flaws. This is the Beauty Micrometer, a Clockwork Orange-style device that claimed to …
These pictures taken by John Frank Keith depict working-class Philadelphians, individually, and as groups standing on sidewalks, in front of streetscape, and sitting on stoops. Most of his photographs did not identify the subjects. Despite his day job as …
These photos, taken by Eugène Atget, document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization. Atget took up photography in the late 1880s and supplied studies for painters, architects, and stage designers.…
These interesting photos, captured by photographer Charles Percy Pickering between 1863 and 1868, illustrate the ability of alcohol to transform a fine upstanding citizen into a staggering wreck. Across the five pictures, an upright, dignified gentleman s…
These vintage advertisements, published in magazines and newspapers from the 1930s to the 1960s show how weight gain was aspired to then as firmly as we today aspire to weight loss. The ads tout scientific ways to "add attractive pounds and inches" (a compl…
The term "burlesque" means a literary, dramatic, or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. It’s a form of theatrical entertainment featuring parodic humor, …
These photos include old advertisements that preyed on women’s need for marital security in order to sell products in the mid-20th century and are collected by Andrew Heisel. It’s no surprise advertisers pay attention to consumers’ emotions in order to …
Advertising has always been an interesting way to trace how modern society has evolved. At the core, the marketing campaigns are based on what people want and what appeals to them. When you judge human history based on old advertisements, the past will …
These vintage photos show one of the unique features of Detroit in winter: the famous ice fountain on Washington Boulevard. Several jets of water are allowed to play all winter, resulting in tons of crystal and massive berg of ice that at times reached heig…
These vivid photos from inside the 1972 Texas State Fair exhibition hall show people sampling a wide variety of the products of their state, from eggs and beef to pecans and spring water. The Dallas State Fair & Exposition, to which the present State Fa…
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 …
Spirit photography began in the late 19th century, around the time that the spiritualism movement was gaining traction across Europe and the United States. The photographers who practiced it claimed that they could capture images of portrait subjects and th…
The Golden State got its nickname from the Sierra Nevada gold that lured so many miners and settlers to the West, but California has earned much more wealth from so-called “black gold” than from metallic gold. When Europeans finally arrived in Californi…
Dubbed by the media as the “world’s largest log cabin,” (actually, second largest), the Forestry Building was constructed as part of Portland’s Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition of 1905. The cabin was an enormous structure, measuring 206 feet long (…
The rapid rise of automobiles at the turn of the 20th century presented an immediate problem: where to park all these vehicles roaming the streets? The concept for vertical parking garages was and is driven by two factors: a need for parking spaces and …
Tucked away among the canyons and mountainous terrain in southern Jordan, the city of Petra has stood for well over 2,500 years. In that time, Petra has gone from an early settlement to a crucial and wealthy trading hub in the region, and then to a forg…
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, photographer Clifton R. Adams was commissioned by the National Geographic to document life in England. Adams’ beautiful autochromes—a process of producing color images by using potato starch—present images that capture…
The Hollywood sign may be unique among American icons. It is a landmark whose white letters are familiar around the world as the prime symbol of the movies. Day after day tourists with cameras wander into surrounding Griffith Park or troll up and down t…
Arising as a daredevil stunt in the aerial shows of the 1920s, wing walking was the act of moving along the wings of a biplane during flight. It started around 1920 at aerial barnstorming shows and originally began as a demonstration of planes’ balance …