Vintage

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: Everyday Life and Street Scenes of Nuremberg (1910s)

Vintage: Everyday Life and Street Scenes of Nuremberg (1910s)

Nuremberg held great significance during the Nazi Germany era. Because of the city’s relevance to the Holy Roman Empire and its position in the centre of Germany, the Nazi Party chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions — the Nuremberg rallies. The rallies were held 1927, 1929 and annually 1933–1938 in Nuremberg. After Adolf Hitler’s…
Vintage: Everyday Life in Jamaica (1890s)

Vintage: Everyday Life in Jamaica (1890s)

The second half of the nineteenth century was a period of severe economic decline for Jamaica. Low crop prices, droughts, and disease led to serious social unrest, culminating in the Morant Bay rebellions of 1865. However, renewed British administration after the 1865 rebellion, in the form of Crown colony status, resulted in some social and economic progress as well as…
Vintage: Helsinki in the late 19th Century (1890s)

Vintage: Helsinki in the late 19th Century (1890s)

During the 19th century, Helsinki became the economic and cultural center of Finland; as elsewhere, technological advancements such as railroads and industrialization were key factors behind the city’s growth. The first Helsinki railway station opened in 1862 with service to Hämeenlinna. Beginning from the late 19th century, the Finnish language became more and more dominant in the city, since the…
Vintage: Los Angeles Retro Restaurants

Vintage: Los Angeles Retro Restaurants

We’re used to seeing swanky rooftop restaurants and bars, taco stands and outdoor patios decorated with lights in Los Angeles. But back in the day we had restaurants and food stands that took architecture to the next level, with wacky buildings shaped as actual items like tamales, hot dogs and planes. via LAist
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: Japan in the late XIX Century (Meiji period, 1870s-1880s)

Vintage: Japan in the late XIX Century (Meiji period, 1870s-1880s)

In 1869 The Emperor was restored to nominal supreme power, and the imperial family moved to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo (“eastern capital”). However, the most powerful men in the government were former samurai from Chōshū and Satsuma rather than the Emperor, who was fifteen in 1868. These men, known as the Meiji oligarchs, oversaw the dramatic changes Japan would…
Historic B&W photos of Amsterdam, Holland in the 19th Century

Historic B&W photos of Amsterdam, Holland in the 19th Century

The end of the 19th century is sometimes called Amsterdam’s second Golden Age. New museums, a train station, and the Concertgebouw were built; in this same time, the Industrial Revolution reached the city. The Amsterdam-Rhine Canal was dug to give Amsterdam a direct connection to the Rhine, and the North Sea Canal was dug to give the port a shorter…
Vintage Daguerreotype portraits from XIX Century (1844 – 1860)

Vintage Daguerreotype portraits from XIX Century (1844 – 1860)

Mathew B. Brady (1822 – 1896) was one of the first American photographers, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique in America. Brady opened his own studio in New York in 1844, and photographed Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, among other celebrities. Here is a collection of mid 19th century Daguerreotypes produced by Mathew Brady’s studio (1844 – 1860). From the…
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,…
Historic B&W photos of Florence, Italy in the 19th Century

Historic B&W photos of Florence, Italy in the 19th Century

Florence replaced Turin as Italy’s capital in 1865 and, in an effort to modernise the city, the old market in the Piazza del Mercato Vecchio and many medieval houses were pulled down and replaced by a more formal street plan with newer houses. The Piazza (first renamed Piazza Vittorio Emmanuele II, then Piazza della Repubblica, the present name) was significantly…
Vintage: U.S Airmail Service (1918-1927)

Vintage: U.S Airmail Service (1918-1927)

The first scheduled U.S. Air Mail service began on May 15, 1918, using six converted United States Army Air Service Curtiss JN-4HM “Jenny” biplanes flown by Army pilots under the command of Major Reuben H. Fleet and operating on a route between Washington, D.C. (Washington Polo Grounds) and New York City (Belmont Park) with an intermediate stop in Philadelphia (Bustleton…
Vintage: Kids and their Pedal Cars (1920s-1950s)

Vintage: Kids and their Pedal Cars (1920s-1950s)

Reaching the peak of popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s, pedal cars experienced a resurgence in the 1950s to 1960s with chain-driven models. With postwar prosperity in the 1950s, pedal cars grew more popular and were available in all major stores. From the early 1920s through the late 1960s, pedal cars, like automobiles, were produced in many different…
Vintage Black and White photos of German Castles

Vintage Black and White photos of German Castles

The centuries of invasive enterprises of the Romans from the South, Vikings from the North, and the multitude of marauding tribes and nomads from the East, each wreaking their own special brand of terror, necessitated construction of border, royal and community fortifications throughout Europe. But individual castle building is what sets Europe apart from previous defensive constructions. Personal castle building…
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…