Vintage: Portraits of Icelandic People by Daniel Bruun (late 19th Century)
Collection of portrait photos by Daniel Bruun (1856-1931), a member of the Danish Army, archaeologist and writer.
1800s
Vintage: Views of San Francisco by G. R. Fardon (1856)
Originally published in 1856, George Robinson Fardon’s San Francisco Album is the earliest existing photographic record of an American city. An unmatched historical document of San Francisco during its years of rapid growth and burgeoning prosperity in the wake of the Gold Rush, the album is aesthetically compelling as well. Fardon (1806-1886), arrived in San Francisco at age 43. He…
Vintage: Montparnasse Train Derailment in Paris (1895)
At first glance, the photos look like stills from an old disaster movie or a spectacular example of theme park scenery welcoming visitors to some wild new ride. However, these extraordinary images are actually testament to a real-life tragedy, the derailment of the Granville-Paris Express that on October 22, 1895 tore through the façade of the Gare Montparnasse, injuring a…
Vintage: Russian Beauties in Traditional Costumes (late 19th Century)
These photos were taken in the end of 19th century and now are kept in the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography. The women in the photos are wearing traditional costumes of different regions of Russia. And though you can see many regional differences in the outfits there are two similar basic elements – sarafan and kokoshnik. Sarafan is…
Vintage: Portraits of American Ladies by Mathew Brady (1863)
During the Civil War, Mathew Brady and his associates traveled throughout the eastern part of the country, capturing the effects of the War through photographs of people, towns, and battlefields. Additionally, Brady kept studios in Washington, DC and New York City, where many influential politicians and war heroes sat for portraits. Brady photographed many subjects in the time of the…
Vintage: Everyday Life of Ontario, Canada by Reuben R. Sallows (late 19th Century)
At the turn of the 20th century, when most cameras and photographers operated out of a studio, Ontario-based photographer Reuben R. Sallows (1855-1937) took his heavy, cumbersome equipment outside. He photographed people at work and play in the small towns, farmlands and in the expansive Canadian wilderness of Ontario, the western rovinces and northern Quebec. A rogue photographer, Sallows did…
Vintage: Everyday Life of France by Amélie Galup (late 19th Century)
Amélie Galup (1856-1943) taught herself photography in 1895 at the family home in Saint-Antonin-Nobleval, where she spent her vacations, turning the basement into a darkroom. She developed and printed the pictures she took of her husband, their two children and her family. Galup constructed a set in one room of the house, recreating the conditions of a portrait studio, backdrop…
Vintage: Chinese People from Qing Dynasty (1860s)
When the Tongzhi Emperor came to the throne at the age of five in 1861, these officials rallied around him in what was called the Tongzhi Restoration. Their aim was to adopt Western military technology in order to preserve Confucian values. Zeng Guofan, in alliance with Prince Gong, sponsored the rise of younger officials such as Li Hongzhang, who put…
Vintage: Everyday Life of New York by Wallace G. Levison (19th Century)
Wallace G. Levison was a chemist, inventor, and lecturer who founded the Departments of Mineralogy and Astronomy at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in the latter half of the 19th century. As the dawn of the 20th century approached, newer, more sensitive film emulsions were developed that allowed pictures to be taken with faster and faster shutter speeds.…
Vintage: Swedish churches from 1100-1900 AD
This set shows photos of Swedish churches from 1100-1900 AD – a mix of stone and wooden churches, cathedrals and chapels – country churches as well as city churches. We think that these pictures well describe the wide range of churches to be found all over the country in the 1800s. They also show the surrounding landscape or environment, often…
Vintage: Victorian Fashion (19th Century)
During the Victorian Era, a woman’s place was at home. Unlike in the earlier centuries when women could help their husbands and brothers in family businesses, in the nineteenth century, the gender roles became more defined than ever. Their dress styles reflected their lifestyle. Victorian fashion was not intended to be utilitarian. Clothes were seen as an expression of women’s…
Vintage: Volcanoes and Avalanches by Tempest Anderson (1900s)
Tempest Anderson (1846 – 1913) was an expert amateur photographer and vulcanologist. He was the world’s first volcano-chaser, scaling the world’s most dangerous slopes in his quest to photograph volcanoes as they erupted. He was a member of the Royal Society Commission which was appointed to investigate the aftermath of the eruptions of Soufriere volcano, St Vincent and Mont Pelee,…
Vintage: Battle of Antietam (1862)
he Battle of Antietam, also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign. It was the first field army–level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil and is the…
Vintage: Railroad Bridges With Timber Trestles
In the 1830s, the railroad boom started a new era in the building of railroad bridges pushing engineers to build towering wooden bridges that have become synonymous with the era. Timber trestles were one of the few railroad bridge forms that did not develop in Europe. The reason was that in the United States and Canada cheap lumber was widespread…
Vintage: Amsterdam Streets by George Hendrik Breitner (1890s-1900s)
George Hendrik Breitner (1857 – 1923) was a Dutch painter and photographer. An important figure in Amsterdam Impressionism, he is noted especially for his paintings of street scenes and harbours in a realistic style. He painted en plein air, and became interested in photography as a means of documenting street life and atmospheric effects – rainy weather in particular –…
Vintage: Portrait of Confederate States Army’s Generals by Mathew Brady (1860s)
Mathew Brady efforts to document the American Civil War on a grand scale by bringing his photographic studio onto the battlefields earned Brady his place in history. Despite the dangers, financial risk, and discouragement by his friends, Brady was later quoted as saying “I had to go. A spirit in my feet said ‘Go,’ and I went.” His first popular…
Vintage: 19th Century Royal Palace of Jaipur, India by Maharaja Ram Singh III
The pictures were taken between 1857 and 1865, and the collection of glass negatives were to remain untouched for more than a century. Under the watchful eye of British photographer T. Murray, the Maharaja – who became known as the country’s first Photographer Prince and who often used his four wives as subjects – developed his interest in the emerging…
Vintage: Everyday Life of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the 1880s
Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon. At first the area it covered did not include the Kingdom of Kandy, which was a protectorate from 1815, but from 1817 to 1948 the British possessions included the whole island of Ceylon, now the nation of Sri Lanka. via Patrick Montgomery
Vintage: Street Scenes of São Paulo, Brazil (1862 -1887)
After Brazil became independent from Portugal in 1822, as declared by Emperor Pedro I where the Monument of Ipiranga is located, he named São Paulo as an Imperial City. In 1827, a law school was founded at the Convent of São Francisco, these days a part of the University of São Paulo. The influx of students and teachers gave a…
Vintage: Street Shots of Oslo by Carl Størmer (1890s)
Carl Størmer (1874-1957) is one of Norway’s pioneer photographers. He is known as an astronomer and mathematician. In history books Størmer is referred to as “The Northern Lights photographer”: he will go down in history as the first person to construct a camera that could capture the Northern Lights. From 1893 to 1897 he took everyday pictures of people.
