Historic City Views | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

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…

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…

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

10 June 2019 0

From 1782 onwards, the city was reshaped with large-scale civil engineering projects aimed at merging all the seven islands of Bombay into a single amalgamated mass by way of a causeway called the Hornby Vellard, which was completed by 1784.…

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

10 May 2019 0

In 1757, the Afghan ruler, Ahmad Shah Durrani, sacked Delhi. He returned to Afghanistan leaving a Mughal puppet ruler in nominal control. The Marathas again occupied Delhi in 1758, and were in control until their defeat in 1761 at the…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Singapore (1890s)

10 April 2019 0

Raffles arrived in Singapore on 28 January 1819 and soon recognised the island as a natural choice for the new port. The island was then nominally ruled by the Sultan of Johor, who was controlled by the Dutch and the…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Madrid, Spain (1890s)

10 March 2019 0

On 27 October 1807, Charles IV and Napoleon I signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau, which allowed the passage of French troops through Spanish territory to join the Spanish troops and invade Portugal, which had refused to obey the order of…

Vintage: Old Hamburg (1910s)

27 February 2019 0

After periodic political unrest, particularly in 1848, Hamburg adopted in 1860 a semidemocratic constitution that provided for the election of the Senate, the governing body of the city-state, by adult taxpaying males. Other innovations included the separation of powers, the…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Middle East (19th Century)

15 February 2019 0

Large parts of the Middle East became a warground between the Ottomans and Iranian Safavids for centuries starting in the early 16th century. By 1700, the Ottomans had been driven out of Hungary and the balance of power along the…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Lisboa, Portugal (1890s)

10 February 2019 0

In the first years of the 19th century, Portugal was invaded by the troops of Napoléon Bonaparte, forcing Queen Maria I and Prince-Regent John (future John VI) to flee temporarily to Brazil. By the time the new King returned to…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Barcelona, Spain (1890s)

10 January 2019 0

While Cerdà’s Extension was being built and filled out, the city began to plan how it could host the 1888 Great Exhibition. This event was seen as an opportunity to put Barcelona on the world stage, to show all the…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Monaco (1890s)

22 December 2018 0

Designated as a protectorate of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna after Napoleon’s defeat, Monaco’s sovereignty was confirmed by the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861. France accepted the existence of the Principality of Monaco, but annexed…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Peking, China (19th Century)

18 November 2018 0

During the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces captured the outskirts of the city, looting and burning the Old Summer Palace in 1860. Under the Convention of Peking ending that war, Western powers for the first time secured the right to…

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

8 November 2018 0

Throughout the late 18th and 19th century, the city was a centre of the East India Company’s opium trade. By the 1850s, Calcutta had two areas: White Town, which was primarily British and centred on Chowringhee and Dalhousie Square; and…

Vintage: Helsinki in the late 19th Century

12 January 2018 0

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…

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

3 December 2017 0

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…

Vintage: Helsinki in the late XIX Century (1890s)

1 December 2017 0

Historic B&W photos of Lyon, France in 19th Century

26 November 2017 0

Thanks to the silk trade, the Lyon became an important industrial town during the 19th century. In 1831 and 1834, the canuts (silk workers) of Lyon staged two major uprisings for better working conditions and pay. The 1831 uprising saw…

Historic B&W photos of London, England (19th Century)

7 November 2017 0

London was the world’s largest city from about 1831 to 1925. London’s overcrowded conditions led to cholera epidemics, claiming 14,000 lives in 1848, and 6,000 in 1866. Rising traffic congestion led to the creation of the world’s first local urban…

Vintage B&W photos of Paris, France (late 19th Century)

26 September 2017 0

After the fall of the Commune, the city was governed under the strict surveillance of the conservative national government. The French government and parliament did not return to the city from Versaillles until 1879, though the Senate returned earlier to…

Historic B&W photos of Copenhagen, Denmark, late 19th Century

31 August 2017 0

In 19th century, Copenhagen experienced a period of intense cultural creativity known as the Danish Golden Age. Painting prospered under C.W. Eckersberg and his students while C.F. Hansen and Gottlieb Bindesbøll brought a Neoclassical look to the city’s architecture. In…

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