1800s | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

Vintage: Old Cincinnati Library

14 September 2022 0

In 1874 the project of the “Old Main” Public Library was completed at 629 Vine Street with a capacity capable of holding close to 300,000 books. The interior was designed by J.W. McLaughlin and contrasted the bleak exterior of the…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of County Cork, Ireland (1890s)

6 September 2022 0

In the early 17th century, the townland of Leamcon (near Schull) was a pirate stronghold, and pirates traded easily in Baltimore and Whiddy Island. In the 19th century, Cork was a centre for the Fenians and for the constitutional nationalism…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Bernese Oberland, Switzerland (1890s)

24 August 2022 0

In 1729, Albrecht von Haller published the poem Die Alpen about his travels through the alpine regions. This combined with other reports and alpine paintings started the tourism industry in the Bernese Oberland. By 1800 there were resorts on Lake…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of County Kerry, Ireland (1890s)

2 August 2022 0

In the 17th and 18th centuries Kerry became increasingly populated by poor tenant farmers, who came to rely on the potato as their main food source. As a result, when the potato crop failed in 1845, Kerry was very hard…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Konigsberg, East Prussia (Kaliningrad, Russia) 1890s

25 July 2022 0

After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Königsberg became the capital of the newly formed province of East Prussia in 1773, which replaced the Province of Prussia in 1773. By 1800 the city was approximately five miles (8.0 km)…

1800s

Vintage: Interiors of North German Lloyd ships (1890s)

18 July 2022 0

The German shipping company North German Lloyd (NDL) was founded by the Bremen merchants Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann on 20 February 1857, after the dissolution of the Ocean Steam Navigation Company, a joint German-American enterprise. The new shipping…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Helgoland, Germany (1890s)

4 July 2022 0

In 1826, Heligoland became a seaside spa and soon turned into a popular tourist resort for the European upper class. The island attracted artists and writers, especially from Germany and Austria who apparently enjoyed the comparatively liberal atmosphere, including Heinrich…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Tessin, Switzerland (1890s)

25 June 2022 0

In the early 19th century, the contemporary Franco-Danish scholar Conrad Malte-Brun stated that: “The canton of Tesino [Ticino] is the poorest, and the people the most ignorant of any in Switzerland. The finest silk in the district is obtained at…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (1890s)

14 June 2022 0

Contrary to the hopes of German Schleswig-Holsteiners, the area did not gain its independence, but was annexed as a province of Prussia in 1867. Also following the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, section five of the Peace of Prague stipulated that…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Towns in Scotland (1890s)

3 June 2022 0

Industrialisation, urbanisation and the Disruption of 1843 all undermined the tradition of parish schools. From 1830 the state began to fund buildings with grants; then from 1846 it was funding schools by direct sponsorship; and in 1872 Scotland moved to…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Anhalt, Germany (1890s)

22 May 2022 0

After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the remaining Anhalt divisions – Bernburg, Dessau and Köthen – were elevated to duchies by Napoleon while the Electorate of Saxony became a Kingdom; all were part of Napoleon’s Confederation…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Lubeck, Germany (1890s)

10 May 2022 0

Humans settled in the area around what today is Lübeck after the last Ice Age ended about 9700 BCE. Lübeck is famous for having been the cradle and the de facto capital of the Hanseatic League. Its city centre is…

1800s

Vintage: Young Winston Churchill (1884-1904)

28 December 2019 0

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…

1800s

Vintage: The Forth Bridge Construction (1890s)

22 December 2019 0

Construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Duke of Rothesay, the future Edward VII. The bridge spans the Forth between the villages of South Queensferry and North Queensferry and has…

1800s

Vintage: Shropshire Shop Fronts by Joseph Lewis della-Porta (1888)

8 November 2019 0

Joseph (Lewis) Della Porta was from a family of shopkeepers. His father, also called Joseph, was an immigrant from Northern Italy. He settled in Shrewsbury in about 1848 and established a small shop on Princess Street. The business prospered and…

1800s

Vintage: Alaska (1896 – 1899)

18 October 2019 0

Various scenes in Alaska in such areas as Devil’s Lake, Skagway, Miles Canon, Chilcoot Pass, Lake Bennet, and Sitka by an unidentified amateur, taken between 1896 and 1899, and held by the DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.

1800s

Vintage: Portraits of Vietnamese People by Émile Gsell (1880s)

22 September 2019 0

Émile Gsell was born in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Haut-Rhin, France on 31 December 1838. He served in the military from 1858 to 1866, during which time he learned photography and travelled to Cochin China (now Southern Vietnam). In Cochin China, Gsell was…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Holy Land, Syria (19th Century)

10 September 2019 0

In 1516, the Ottoman Empire invaded the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, conquering Syria, and incorporating it into its empire. The Ottoman system was not burdensome to Syrians because the Turks respected Arabic as the language of the Quran, and accepted…

1800s

Vintage: Italy (19th Century)

22 August 2019 0

In many ways, the roots of several well known aspects of Italian culture find their origin in the 19th century. The land, the food and the people were all shaped by warfare, struggle and the desire for independence. Most of…

1800s

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Benares (Varanasi), India (1890s)

10 July 2019 0

The Kingdom of Benares was given official status by the Mughals in 1737, and continued as a dynasty-governed area until Indian independence in 1947, during the reign of Dr. Vibhuti Narayan Singh. In the 18th century, Muhammad Shah ordered the…

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