1930s

Vintage: Hooverville in New York City (1930s)

Vintage: Hooverville in New York City (1930s)

Homelessness was present before the Great Depression, and was a common sight before 1929. Most large cities built municipal lodging houses for the homeless, but the Depression exponentially increased demand. The homeless clustered in shanty towns close to free soup kitchens. These settlements were often trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated or ignored out of necessity. The…
Vintage: Nazi Propaganda Film Director Leni Riefenstahl (1930s)

Vintage: Nazi Propaganda Film Director Leni Riefenstahl (1930s)

Leni Riefenstahl (1902 – 2003) was a German film director. Riefenstahl heard Nazi Party (NSDAP) leader Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his talent as a public speaker. Describing the experience in her memoir, Riefenstahl wrote, “I had an almost apocalyptic vision that I was never able to forget. It seemed as if the…
Vintage: Bugatti Cars (1920s and 1930s)

Vintage: Bugatti Cars (1920s and 1930s)

Founder Ettore Bugatti was born in Milan, Italy, and the automobile company that bears his name was founded in 1909 in Molsheim located in the Alsace region which was part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1919. The company was known both for the level of detail of its engineering in its automobiles, and for the artistic manner in…
Vintage: Glass Plate Negatives of Carole Lombard (1930s)

Vintage: Glass Plate Negatives of Carole Lombard (1930s)

Carole Lombard (1908 – 1942) was born into a wealthy family in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but was raised in Los Angeles by her single mother. At 12, she was recruited by the film director Allan Dwan and made her screen debut in A Perfect Crime (1921). Eager to become an actress, she signed a contract with the Fox Film Corporation…
10 Iconic Beauties Who Defined 1930s Style

10 Iconic Beauties Who Defined 1930s Style

At the start of the decade, following the fallout from the Great Depression in America, 1930s fashion as well as all other aspects of normality were profoundly changed. Almost overnight the vivaciousness of the 1920s fashion flapper disappeared, with a sophisticated and more conservative style becoming de rigueur. Moving into the latter half of the decade, 1930s fashion was heavily…
Vintage: Canadian Brides by Yousuf Karsh (1930s)

Vintage: Canadian Brides by Yousuf Karsh (1930s)

Renowned Armenian–Canadian portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) – one of the great portrait photographers of the 20th century by Time magazine and the Metropolitan Museum of Art – has a wide array of wedding photographs, particularly portraits of the bride. via Library and Archives Canada
Vintage: The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Vintage: The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 American horror film, the first sequel to Frankenstein (1931). Bride of Frankenstein was directed by James Whale and stars Boris Karloff as The Monster, Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of his mate and Mary Shelley, Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein, and Ernest Thesiger as Doctor Septimus Pretorius.
Vintage: Trams in Poland (1930s)

Vintage: Trams in Poland (1930s)

In 1927, a privately owned light rail line called EKD was built, connecting several neighboring towns with the center of Warsaw using electric railcars similar to trams, only larger and more massive, with frequent stops and tracks running along the streets in city; however the system was incompatible with the Warsaw trams as it used standard gauge tracks while the…
Vintage: It Happened One Night (1934)

Vintage: It Happened One Night (1934)

It Happened One Night is a 1934 American romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father’s thumb, and falls in love with a roguish reporter (Clark Gable).
Vintage: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Vintage: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American swashbuckler film directed by Michael Curtiz. The film is about a Saxon knight who, in King Richard’s absence in the Holy Land during the Crusades, fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army against Prince John and the Norman lords oppressing the Saxon commoners.
Vintage: Modern Times (1936)

Vintage: Modern Times (1936)

Modern Times is a 1936 comedy film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in which his iconic Little Tramp character struggles to survive in the modern, industrialized world. The film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression, conditions created, in Chaplin’s view, by the efficiencies of modern industrialization.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the most well-known and commercially successful adaptation based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.
Behind the Scenes: The 39 Steps (1935)

Behind the Scenes: The 39 Steps (1935)

The 39 Steps is a 1935 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. Loosely based on the 1915 adventure novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan, the film is about a man in London who tries to help a counter-espionage agent prevent an organisation of spies called The 39 Steps from stealing top…
Vintage: City Lights (1931)

Vintage: City Lights (1931)

City Lights is a 1931 American romantic comedy film written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin. The story follows the misadventures of Chaplin’s Tramp as he falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) and develops a turbulent friendship with an alcoholic millionaire (Harry Myers).
Classic Vintage Lesbian Erotica/Nudes (1930s)

Classic Vintage Lesbian Erotica/Nudes (1930s)

Photo collection of 1930s French postcards of nude women and vintage erotica. There was a great sapphic movement in Paris at this time as independent women experimented with relationships with each other as well as men (these bisexual flappers were known as garçonne). This was increasingly reflected in the cards themselves which, began to not just show a number of…
Vintage: City Life in Denmark (1933)

Vintage: City Life in Denmark (1933)

Berit Wallenberg (1902–1995) was a Swedish archaeologist and art historian. She began photographing as a teenager and she always brought her camera on the many travels she made in Sweden and abroad, sometimes with her family or with other students, sometimes on her own and under modest conditions. The main purpose of her travels was to study art, architecture and…