Historic City Views | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

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

9 September 2023 0

It was during the latter part of the 19th century that Lucerne became a popular destination for artists, royalty and others to escape to. The German composer Richard Wagner established a residence at Tribschen in 1866 from which he lived…

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

10 July 2023 0

Prior to the industrial revolution in Wales there were small-scale industries scattered throughout Wales. These ranged from those connected to agriculture, such as milling and the manufacture of woollen textiles, through to mining and quarrying. Agriculture remained the dominant source…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Edinburgh, Scotland (1890s)

1 July 2023 0

Despite an enduring myth to the contrary, Edinburgh became an industrial centre with its traditional industries of printing, brewing and distilling continuing to grow in the 19th century and joined by new industries such as rubber works, engineering works and…

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

1 May 2023 0

Despite harsh penal laws and unfavourable trade restrictions imposed upon Ireland, Dublin flourished in the 18th century. The Georgian buildings which still define much of Dublin’s architectural landscape to this day were mostly built over a 50-year period spanning from…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Marienburg (Malbork), Prussia (1890s)

15 April 2023 0

It was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772 and became part of the newly established Province of West Prussia the following year. Prussians liquidated the municipal government and replaced it with new…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Bath, England (1890s)

28 March 2023 0

In the early 18th century, Bath acquired its first purpose-built theatre, the Old Orchard Street Theatre. It was rebuilt as the Theatre Royal, along with the Grand Pump Room attached to the Roman Baths and assembly rooms. Master of ceremonies…

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

20 March 2023 0

Stettin developed into a major Prussian port and became part of the German Empire in 1871. While most of the province retained its agrarian character, Stettin was industrialised, and its population rose from 27,000 in 1813 to 210,000 in 1900…

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

15 February 2023 0

As a young man, the famous German poet, Goethe visited the Harz several times and had a number of important lifetime experiences. These included his walks on the Brocken and his visit to the mines in Rammelsberg. Later, his observations…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Danzig (Gdańsk), West Prussia, Germany (1890s)

6 February 2023 0

Polish westerly Royal Prussia was annexed by the easterly Kingdom of Prussia during the late 18th century Partitions of Poland, with the city of Danzig becoming part of the Prussian Kingdom in 1793. The territory was administered in the new…

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

24 January 2023 0

The modern County Donegal was shired by order of the English Crown in 1585. The English authorities at Dublin Castle formed the new county by amalgamating the old Kingdom of Tír Chonaill with the old Lordship of Inishowen. However, although…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of St. Gotthard Railway, Switzerland (1890s)

10 January 2023 0

By the early years of the 1870s, northern Switzerland had a significant network of railways, with links to the adjoining railways of Germany and France. To the west, a line had reached Brig, in the upper Rhone valley, from Lausanne.…

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

2 January 2023 0

Wernigerode was the capital of the medieval County of Wernigerode and Stolberg-Wernigerode. In 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, it became part of the Prussian Province of Saxony. The Hasseröder brewery was founded in Wernigerode in 1872. After World War II,…

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

21 December 2022 0

Prussia gained the southern parts of Swedish Pomerania in 1720, invaded and annexed Pomerelia from Poland in 1772 and 1793, and gained the remainder of Swedish Pomerania in 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars. The former Brandenburg-Prussian Pomerania and the former…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Towns in Bavaria, Germany (1890s)

13 December 2022 0

When Bavaria became part of the newly formed German Empire, this action was considered controversial by Bavarian nationalists who had wanted to retain independence from the rest of Germany, as had Austria. As Bavaria had a heavily Catholic majority population,…

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

17 November 2022 0

Around 1800, large swathes of the Harz were deforested. The less resistant spruce monoculture, that arose as a consequence of the mining industry in the Upper Harz, was largely destroyed by a bark beetle outbreak and a storm of hurricane…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Blackpool, England (1890s)

12 November 2022 0

The most significant event in the early growth of the town occurred in 1846, with the completion of a branch line to Blackpool from Poulton on the main Preston and Wyre Joint Railway line from Preston to Fleetwood. Fleetwood declined…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria, Germany (1890s)

9 October 2022 0

Since 1803, the town has been a part of Bavaria. The famous German landscape painter Eugen Bracht visited Rothenburg in 1877; although he stayed only two days, he was clearly impressed. Some years later, especially artists of Romanticism, such as…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Colberg (Kołobrzeg), Pomerania, Germany (1890s)

25 September 2022 0

In the early 19th century, the town’s medieval fortifications were demolished and replaced by parks. The duke also started the collection of copperplate engravings that is today part of the Veste Coburg museum. Under his son, Ernest, the Schlossplatz with…

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

18 September 2022 0

The modern German black-red-gold tricolour flag’s first appearance anywhere in a German-ethnicity sovereign state, within what today comprises Germany, occurred in 1778 as the state flag of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, a defunct principality in the modern state’s borders. Some…

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…

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