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Vintage: Chicago’s 1919 race riot

Vintage: Chicago’s 1919 race riot

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The riots began after an incident at a South side beach where an African-American teenager was killed, setting off five violence-filled days where dozens died and hundreds were injured. The rioting wasn’t quelled until Gov. Frank Lowden sent in 6,500 state militia troops to draw a line between the white and black districts. In the end, 23 African-Americans and 15…
Historic B&W photos of Naples, Italy (19th century)

Historic B&W photos of Naples, Italy (19th century)

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After the Expedition of the Thousand led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, which culminated in the controversial Siege of Gaeta, Naples became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 as part of the Italian unification, ending the era of Bourbon rule. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies had been wealthy, and as many as 443.2 million ducats were taken from the…
Vintage: Prohibition in Boston (1920s)

Vintage: Prohibition in Boston (1920s)

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Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. Prohibition ended with the…
Historic B&W photos of Rotterdam, Holland (19th century)

Historic B&W photos of Rotterdam, Holland (19th century)

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The port of Rotterdam grew slowly but steadily into a port of importance. The greatest spurt of growth, both in port activity and population, followed the completion of the Nieuwe Waterweg in 1872. The city and harbor started to expand on the south bank of the river. The Witte Huis or White House skyscraper, inspired by American office buildings and…
World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893

World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893

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The World’s Columbian Exposition was a World’s Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World in 1492. The Exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on architecture, sanitation, the arts, Chicago’s self-image, and American industrial optimism. Most of the buildings of the fair…
Neofuturistic architecture of Eero Saarinen (1950s and 60s)

Neofuturistic architecture of Eero Saarinen (1950s and 60s)

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Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for shaping his neofuturistic style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism. Photographer Balthazar Korab worked for Saarinen, skillfully capturing the nuances, shapes, and lines of his structures and documenting the creative process involved. In the process,…
Vintage: Dracula (1931)

Vintage: Dracula (1931)

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Dracula is a 1931 vampire-horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the title character. The concept of Dracula is taken from the stageplay as opposed to the novel, and the results are highly theatrical. Lugosi laughs evilly throughout; no wonder, his depiction of the Count-as-seducer is aeons removed from the feral creature represented in Nosferatu and…
Vintage: Altstadt, Dresden, Saxony, Germany in the late 19th Century

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

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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…
Stanley Kubrick’s Photos from the 1940s

Stanley Kubrick’s Photos from the 1940s

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Stanley Kubrick—who wrote and directed Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining—was one of America’s most influential filmmakers. Directors ranging from the Coen Brothers to Tim Burton paid visual homage to his works in their own films, and no less than Steven Spielberg said: “Nobody could shoot a picture better in history.” In fact…
Vintage: historic photos of Peking, China (1920s)

Vintage: historic photos of Peking, China (1920s)

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An older English spelling, Peking, is the Postal Map Romanization of the same two characters as they are pronounced in Chinese dialects spoken in the southern port towns first visited by European traders and missionaries. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, prior to a phonetic shift in the northern dialects to the modern pronunciation.
The Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919

The Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919

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The Boston Molasses Disaster occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. A large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and for decades afterward, residents claimed…
Cats and Dogs Dressed as People (1910s)

Cats and Dogs Dressed as People (1910s)

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Harry Whittier Frees (1879–1953) was an American photographer who created novelty postcards and children’s books based on his photographs of live, posed animals. He dressed the animals and posed them in human situations with props, often with captions; these can be seen as progenitors of modern lolcats.
Historic photos of China from 1889-1891

Historic photos of China from 1889-1891

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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…
Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932)

Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932)

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Freaks is a rarity, a horror film that horrifies rather than frightens. It was slated on its release in 1932, has been blamed for the downhill career trajectories thereafter of the key players, and was banned in many countries for more than thirty years. Yet in 1994 it was selected for the National Film Registry’s archives, and now enjoys both…
Shanghai postcards from 1930s

Shanghai postcards from 1930s

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For centuries a major administrative, shipping, and trading town, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to European recognition of its favorable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five opened to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War while the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty…
Swedish life in the 1930s

Swedish life in the 1930s

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Einar Erici was a skilful amateur photographer. His main motifs were churches and church organs, according to his field of science. The photos were taken during the first half of the 20th century on his travels across Sweden. Most of them are from the provinces of Gotland and Uppland. However, main focus of the set will be on another and…