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Vintage: Regrading in Seattle (1900s)

Vintage: Regrading in Seattle (1900s)

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Seattle’s first 58 regrades “consisted largely of cutting the tops off high places and dumping the dirt into low places and onto the beach”. The most dramatic result of this was along that former beach, filling the land that constitutes today’s Central Waterfront. Today’s Western Avenue and Alaskan Way lie on this landfill. These informal regrades came to an end…
Vintage: Cliff House in San Francisco (1900s)

Vintage: Cliff House in San Francisco (1900s)

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In 1896, Adolph Sutro rebuilt the Cliff House from the ground up as a seven-story Victorian chateau, called by some “the Gingerbread Palace”, below his estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights. This was the same year work began on the Sutro Baths in a small cove immediately north of the restaurant. The baths included six of the large indoor…
Flying Train “Wuppertal Schwebebahn” in Germany, 1902

Flying Train “Wuppertal Schwebebahn” in Germany, 1902

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Construction on the actual Schwebebahn began in 1898, overseen by the government’s master builder, Wilhelm Feldmann. On 24 October 1900, Emperor Wilhelm II participated in a monorail trial run. In 1901 the railway came into operation. It opened in sections: the line from Kluse to Zoo/Stadion opened on 1 March, the line to the western terminus at Vohwinkel opened on…
Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Brussels in 1908

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Brussels in 1908

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During the 19th century, the population of Brussels grew considerably; from about 80,000 to more than 625,000 people for the city and its surroundings. The Senne had become a serious health hazard, and from 1867 to 1871, under the tenure of the city’s then-mayor, Jules Anspach, its entire course through the urban area was completely covered over. This allowed urban…
Vintage: Young Winston Churchill (1884-1904)

Vintage: Young Winston Churchill (1884-1904)

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Churchill was born at the family’s ancestral home, Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, on 30 November 1874, at which time the United Kingdom was the dominant world power. Direct descendants of the Dukes of Marlborough, his family were among the highest levels of the British aristocracy, and thus he was born into the country’s governing elite. His paternal grandfather, John Spencer-Churchill,…
Vintage: New York’s original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (1903)

Vintage: New York’s original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (1903)

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The original Waldorf-Astoria was among America’s first big hotels. When it was built during the Victorian era, and for years thereafter, it was considered the finest hotel in the world — and it soon became the most famous, for its reputation was carried wherever civilization had spread, and even where only explorers had gone. The roster of its clientele has…
Vintage: Paris by Émile Zola (1900s)

Vintage: Paris by Émile Zola (1900s)

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Émile Zola (1840 – 1902) was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the…
Vintage: R.M.S. “Mauretania” (1906)

Vintage: R.M.S. “Mauretania” (1906)

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RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Wigham Richardson and Swan Hunter for the British Cunard Line, launched on the afternoon of 20 September 1906. Mauretania departed Liverpool on her maiden voyage on 16 November 1907 under the command of Captain John Pritchard, and on the return voyage captured the record for the fastest…
Vintage: Claude Monet in His Studio at Giverny

Vintage: Claude Monet in His Studio at Giverny

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Monet’s ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. From 1883, Monet lived in Giverny, where he purchased a house and property and began a vast landscaping project which included lily ponds that would become…
Vintage: Daily Life of Suffolk, England (Edwardian Era)

Vintage: Daily Life of Suffolk, England (Edwardian Era)

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By the fifth century, the Angles (after whom East Anglia and England are named) had established control of the region. The Angles later became the “north folk” and the “south folk”, from which developed the names “Norfolk” and “Suffolk”. Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia, which later merged with Mercia and then Wessex. Suffolk was…
Vintage: Devon, England (1900s)

Vintage: Devon, England (1900s)

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The name Devon derives from the name of the Britons who inhabited the southwestern peninsula of Britain at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain known as the Dumnonii, thought to mean “deep valley dwellers” from proto Celtic *dubnos ‘deep’. Since the rise of seaside resorts with the arrival of the railways in the 19th century, Devon’s economy has…
Vintage: Victorian Play “Death and the Lady” (1906)

Vintage: Victorian Play “Death and the Lady” (1906)

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A vaudeville performance based on the old English ballad “Death and the Lady.” Photographed by Joseph Hall, 1906. In 1906, The Journal of the English Folk Song Society published a piece on the old English ballad “Death and the Lady.” Some enterprising female entertainer encountered the article and realized the story might be used as a great vaudeville piece about…
Vintage: Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltaneh – Persian princess

Vintage: Zahra Khanom Tadj es-Saltaneh – Persian princess

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Taj Saltaneh (1883 – 1936‎) was a Persian princess and memoirist of the Qajar Dynasty, a daughter of Naser al-Din Shah, the King of Persia from 1843 to May 1896 by his wife Turan es-Saltaneh. She was married to Amir Hussein Khan Shoja’-al Saltaneh and had four children, two daughters and two sons. They later divorced. She was the love…
Vintage: Coney Island, New York City (1900s)

Vintage: Coney Island, New York City (1900s)

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In 1824, the Gravesend and Coney Island Road and Bridge Company built the first bridge across Jamaica Ditch (by now known as Coney Island Creek), connecting the island with the mainland. The company also built a shell road across the island to the beaches. In 1829, the company also built the first hotel on the island: the Coney Island House,…
Vintage: Mug-shots of Prisoners (1900s)

Vintage: Mug-shots of Prisoners (1900s)

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“Some years ago I discovered a cache of glass negative mug shots taken in the early 20th century; each negative was inscribed with the man’s name and alleged crime. In order to research the life of each man pictured in the 500 negatives, I spent the next three years traveling back and forth from New York to the small Northern…