Vintage | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

Vintage: The Ovitz Family – Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz (1940s)

12 March 2018 0

The Ovitz family originated from Maramureş County, Romania. They were descended from Shimson Eizik Ovitz (1868–1923), a badchen entertainer, itinerant rabbi and himself a dwarf. He fathered ten children in total, seven of them dwarfs (afflicted with pseudoachondroplasia), from two…

Vintage: Portraits of Auschwitz Guards During World War II (1940s)

10 March 2018 0

In January 2017, Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance published a massive online record of the Auschwitz staff. The searchable database of the 8,502 overwhelmingly German personnel was created in part to dispel claims that the camp was staffed by many…

Vintage: 19th Century Sexual Revolution by Sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing

9 March 2018 0

Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s (1840 – 1902) principal work is Psychopathia Sexualis: eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie (Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study), which was first published in 1886 and expanded in subsequent editions. The last edition from the hand of the author (the…

Vintage: Boston Public Schools (late 19th Century)

4 March 2018 0

The Boston Pictorial Archive holds photographs documenting Boston-area adult and evening classes in the 19th century, with the bulk of the material covering the years between 1890 and 1893. These images offer interior views as well as adult students engaged…

Vintage: Trench Rats Killed by Terriers During World War I

22 February 2018 0

The trench soldier of World War I had to cope with millions of rats. The omnipresent rats were attracted by the human waste of war – not simply sewage waste but also the bodies of men long forgotten who had…

Vintage: Daily Life of Ringling Bros. Circus (1910s)

18 February 2018 0

Harry A. Atwell (1879-1957) was an American photographer. He was hired for his first circus assignment in 1910 to travel with the Ringling Bros. Circus. Over the next forty years he documented the roustabouts, big top crowds, sideshow performers and…

Vintage: Portraits of Lillian Gish (1920s)

12 February 2018 0

After 10 years of acting on the stage, she made her film debut opposite Dorothy in Griffith’s short film An Unseen Enemy (1912). At the time established thespians considered “the flickers” a rather base form of entertainment, but she was…

Vintage: Canadian Brides by Yousuf Karsh (1930s)

10 February 2018 0

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.…

Vintage: Everyday Life of Siberia (1900s)

8 February 2018 0

The growing power of Russia in the West began to undermine the Siberian Khanate in the 16th century. First, groups of traders and Cossacks began to enter the area. The Russian Army was directed to establish forts farther and farther…

Vintage: Lewis Cycle and Motor Works Factory in Adelaide (1904-1906)

4 February 2018 0

In 1900, Lewis Cycle Works made the leap from bicycles to motor driven vehicles with the creation of the Lewis motor car. Built in-house, the company soon realized that there would be no profit in hand-built cars, when they could…

Vintage: Everyday Life of Egypt (late 19th Century)

30 January 2018 0

Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty remained nominally an Ottoman province. It was granted the status of an autonomous vassal state or Khedivate in 1867, a status which was to remain in place until 1914. The Suez Canal, built in…

Vintage: Margaret Gorman, The First Miss America (1920s)

27 January 2018 0

Gorman was a junior at Western High School in Washington, D.C. when her photo was entered into a popularity contest at the Washington Herald. She was chosen as “Miss District of Columbia” in 1921 at age 16 on account of…

Vintage: Hoboken, New Jersey (Early XX Century)

23 January 2018 0

Hoboken was originally formed as a township on April 9, 1849, from portions of North Bergen Township. As the town grew in population and employment, many of Hoboken’s residents saw a need to incorporate as a full-fledged city, and in…

Vintage: Swedish churches (19th Century)

18 January 2018 0

This set shows photos of Swedish churches from 1100-1900 AD – a mix of stone and wooden churches, cathedrals and chapels – country churches as well as city churches. We think that these pictures well describe the wide range of…

Vintage: Historical Photos of Harvard University (19th Century)

16 January 2018 0

Established originally by the Massachusetts legislature and soon thereafter named for John Harvard (its first benefactor), Harvard is the United States’ oldest institution of higher learning, and the Harvard Corporation (formally, the President and Fellows of Harvard College) is its…

Vintage: Daguerreotype Portraits of People born in the late 18th Century (1700s)

14 January 2018 0

Photo collection of mid XIX century Victorian Era Daguerreotype Portraits of People born in the late 18th century (1700s). From the collection of Jesse Cress at flickr

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…