1800s

Vintage: Altstadt, Dresden, Saxony, Germany in the late 19th Century

Vintage: Altstadt, Dresden, Saxony, Germany in the late 19th Century

The city of Dresden had a distinctive silhouette, captured in famous paintings by Bernardo Bellotto and by Norwegian painter Johan Christian Dahl. Between 1806 and 1918 the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Saxony (which was a part of the German Empire from 1871). During the Napoleonic Wars the French emperor made it a base of operations, winning…
Historic photos of China from 1889-1891

Historic photos of China from 1889-1891

In the 19th century, the great Chinese Diaspora began. Losses due to emigration were added to by conflicts and catastrophes such as the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79, in which between 9 and 13 million people died. In 1898, the Guangxu Emperor drafted a reform plan to establish a modern constitutional monarchy, but these plans were thwarted by the Empress…
Grant Park in Chicago

Grant Park in Chicago

The city officially designated the land as a park on April 29, 1844, naming it Lake Park. When the Illinois Central Railroad was built into Chicago in 1852, it was permitted to lay track along the lakefront on a causeway built offshore from the park. The resulting lagoon became stagnant, and was largely filled in 1871 with debris from the…
Vintage photos of Moscow in the past (19th century)

Vintage photos of Moscow in the past (19th century)

The city of Moscow gradually grew around the Moscow Kremlin, beginning in the 14th century. It was the capital of Great Russia, also known as the Grand Duchy of Moscow (or Muscovy), from 1340 to 1547 and then the Tsardom of Russia until 1712 (when the capital was moved to Saint Petersburg). It was the capital of the Russian Soviet…
Warsaw in the late 19th Century

Warsaw in the late 19th Century

Warsaw flourished in the late 19th century under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875–92), a Russian-born general appointed by Tsar Alexander III. Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and sewer systems designed and built by the English engineer William Lindley and his son, William Heerlein Lindley, as well as the expansion and modernization of horsecars, street lighting and gas works. Starynkiewicz…
Philip Davies: Panoramas of Lost London

Philip Davies: Panoramas of Lost London

Nearly 300 spectacular photographs of Londons lost buildings from the London Metropolitan Archive in Panoramic format. Tudor, Georgian and Victorian buidings, some of them historic masterpieces, captured in location just before their destruction between 1870-1945. Philip Davies Panoramas of Lost London Transatlantic Press, 2011 ISBN-13: 978-1907176722 368 pages, Hardcover 37x29cm Order the book: www.amazon.co.uk
The only surviving images of veterans of Napoleonic Wars taken in 1858

The only surviving images of veterans of Napoleonic Wars taken in 1858

Napoléon Bonaparte’s final defeat was the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Even after his death in 1821, the surviving soldiers of Grande Armée revered his historic leadership. Each year on May 5, the anniversary of Napoléon’s death, the veterans marched to Paris’ Place Vendôme in full uniform to pay respects to their emperor. These photographs were taken on one of…