1900s

Vintage: San Francisco Before the Quake (1900s)

Vintage: San Francisco Before the Quake (1900s)

By 1890, San Francisco’s population approached 300,000, making it the eighth-largest city in the United States at the time. Around 1901, San Francisco was a major city known for its flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene. The first North American plague epidemic was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904.
Vintage: Everyday Life of Seoul in Korean Empire (1900s)

Vintage: Everyday Life of Seoul in Korean Empire (1900s)

In the late 19th century, after hundreds of years of isolation, Seoul opened its gates to foreigners and began to modernize. Seoul became the first city in East Asia to have electricity, trolley cars, water, telephone, and telegraph systems all at the same time. Much of this was due to trade with foreign countries like France and United States. For…
Vintage: New York City Manhattan Skyscrapers (early 20th Century)

Vintage: New York City Manhattan Skyscrapers (early 20th Century)

New York has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles spanning distinct historical and cultural periods. These include the Woolworth Building (1913), an early Gothic revival skyscraper with large-scale gothic architectural detail. The 1916 Zoning Resolution required setback in new buildings, and restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets…
Vintage: Japan Daily Life by Arnold Genthe (1908)

Vintage: Japan Daily Life by Arnold Genthe (1908)

Arnold Genthe was born in Berlin, Prussia, to Louise Zober and Hermann Genthe, a professor of Latin and Greek at the Graues Kloster (Grey Monastery) in Berlin. Genthe followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a classically trained scholar; he received a doctorate in philology in 1894 from the University of Jena, where he knew artist Adolf Menzel, his mother’s cousin.…
Vintage: Boats of Old China (Junks) in the 1900s

Vintage: Boats of Old China (Junks) in the 1900s

A junk is an ancient Chinese sailing ship design that is still in use today. Junks were efficient and sturdy ships that sailed long distances as early as the 2nd century AD, although whether this is indeed a date by which the hull form which we know as the junk’s had found its final form is extremely dubious. Most scholars…
Vintage: Sami People and Arctic (1900s)

Vintage: Sami People and Arctic (1900s)

The Sami people are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The Sami are the only indigenous people of Scandinavia recognized and protected under the international conventions of indigenous peoples, and are hence the northernmost indigenous people of Europe. Sami ancestral…
Vintage: Early XX Century Flying Machines

Vintage: Early XX Century Flying Machines

Gustave Weißkopf was a German who emigrated to the U.S., where he soon changed his name to Whitehead. From 1897 to 1915, he designed and built flying machines and engines. On 14 August 1901, Whitehead claimed to have carried out a controlled, powered flight in his Number 21 monoplane at Fairfield, Connecticut. An account of the flight appeared in the…
Vintage: American Child Laborers by Lewis Hine (1900s-1910s)

Vintage: American Child Laborers by Lewis Hine (1900s-1910s)

In 1908 Lewis Hine became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), leaving his teaching position. Over the next decade, Hine documented child labor, with focus on the use of child labor in the Carolina Piedmont, to aid the NCLC’s lobbying efforts to end the practice. In 1913, he documented child laborers among cotton mill workers with a…
Vintage: Daily Life of Vienna, Austria by Emil Mayer (1900s-1910s)

Vintage: Daily Life of Vienna, Austria by Emil Mayer (1900s-1910s)

From 1891 to 1896 Emil Mayer studied law at the University of Vienna. In 1896, he earned the juris doctorate. In 1894, while still a student, he converted from the Jewish community to Catholicism. After his studies he settled in Vienna, where he worked as a lawyer. His first experience in photography was as an amateur. He was a member…
Vintage: Streets of St. Louis, Missouri (1900s)

Vintage: Streets of St. Louis, Missouri (1900s)

During the decades after the Civil War, St. Louis grew to become the nation’s fourth largest city, after New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. It also experienced rapid infrastructure and transportation development and the growth of heavy industry. The period culminated with the 1904 World’s Fair and 1904 Summer Olympics, which were held concurrently in St. Louis. During the 1880s,…
Vintage: Edwardian Markets in the 1900s

Vintage: Edwardian Markets in the 1900s

Oliver Williamson gives a transaction cost explanation for the rise of the modern corporation and argues that the wide variety of governance structures and forms of organization were an evolutionary response by businesses to lower the information and coordination costs involved in production. Thus the period from 1870 through 1900 was characterized by freedom of contract which enabled entrepreneurs to…
Vintage: Liverpool (early 20th century)

Vintage: Liverpool (early 20th century)

By the start of the 19th century, a large volume of trade was passing through Liverpool, and the construction of major buildings reflected this wealth. In 1830, Liverpool and Manchester became the first cities to have an intercity rail link, through the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The population continued to rise rapidly, especially during the 1840s when Irish migrants began…
Vintage: Rio de Janeiro (1880s-1910s)

Vintage: Rio de Janeiro (1880s-1910s)

When Prince Pedro proclaimed the independence of Brazil in 1822, he decided to keep Rio de Janeiro as the capital of his new empire. Rio continued as the capital of Brazil after 1889, when the monarchy was replaced by a republic. Until the early years of the 20th century, the city was largely limited to the neighbourhood now known as…
Vintage: Niagara Falls during Winter (19th Century)

Vintage: Niagara Falls during Winter (19th Century)

There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the falls. According to Iroquoian scholar Bruce Trigger, “Niagara” is derived from the name given to a branch of the local native Neutral Confederacy, who are described as being called the “Niagagarega” people on several late-17th-century French maps of the area.[13] According to George R. Stewart, it comes…
Vintage: Havana (early 20th Century)

Vintage: Havana (early 20th Century)

As trade between Caribbean and North American states increased in the early 19th century, Havana became a flourishing and fashionable city. Havana’s theaters featured the most distinguished actors of the age, and prosperity among the burgeoning middle-class led to expensive new classical mansions being erected. During this period Havana became known as the Paris of the Antilles. The 20th century…
Vinatge: The Great Baltimore Fire in 1904

Vinatge: The Great Baltimore Fire in 1904

The Great Baltimore Fire raged in Baltimore exactly 113 years ago (February 7, 1904). 1,231 firefighters helped bring the blaze under control, both professional paid Truck and Engine companies from the city’s B.C.F.D. and volunteers from the surrounding counties and outlying towns of Maryland, as well as out-of-state units that arrived on the major railroads. It destroyed much of central…
Vintage Glass Plate images of Streets from Sydney City (1900s)

Vintage Glass Plate images of Streets from Sydney City (1900s)

The year 1840 was the final year of convict transportation to Sydney, which by this time had a population of 35,000. The municipal council of Sydney was incorporated in 1842 and became Australia’s first city.Gold was discovered in the colony in 1851 and with it came thousands of people seeking to make money. Sydney’s population reached 200,000 by 1871. Following…