1946
“I work in a photo archive (the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, to be exact), and this is something I came across yesterday. I really wish I knew what the context was, but I’m afraid I don’t. If you zoom in to the expressions on everyone’s faces, it is both disturbing and hilarious.”
Date unknown
A curious photo depicting what appears to be a fare-welling of a friend or relative as he departs for the Rekrutendepot, presumably to collect the rest of his uniform.
(via drakegoodman)
1890
A young boy named Henry Light poses in a dress. The photographer was Christian S. Roshon, he operated a photography business across the state of Pennslyvania. Young boys often wore dresses in the 19th century, but by 1905 it was no longer a major fashion convention. It did not entirely disappear until after World War I. After the War, however, it became the exception rather than the rule. Only infants wore dresses.
(via Rhonda’sThing)
Date unknown
Circassian Beauty
In the 1860s, P.T. Barnum exhibited women whom he claimed were Circassian beauties. They wore a distinctive Afro hair style and were known as “moss haired girls.” Circassian beauties were typically presented as victims of sexual enslavement among the Turks, who had escaped from the harem to achieve freedom in America.
(via WonderfullyStrange)
1945
Russian soldiers sleeping with a puppy in Prague during World War 2.
(via Photo Tractatus)
1892
In May 1892, the French newspaper La Petite Gironde sponsored a unique contest: The first man to travel on stilts the 302 miles from Bordeaux to Bayonne and Biarritz and back would win 1,000 francs.
Sometimes the stilts broke, although they were made of strong ash. The men would then halt for repairs and seize the opportunity of taking a meal–soup and fried eggs, perhaps, with coffee and white wine. … First arrivals at various control-posts were presented with bouquets, laurel wreaths, and more substantial tokens in the shape of free rations and money. Others frankly touted for contributions in the towns, and made a grand thing of it.
Of 69 starters, 32 covered the course in the allotted time of eight and a half days. The prize went to 31-year-old Pierre Deycard, who finished in 4 days 7 hours — after which he was treated to a banquet of 15 courses “and then made to parade the town with a bank note for 1,000 francs pinned on his chest.
(via nerdcore)
Jan. 17, 1956
The original Los Angeles Times caption put it best:
The moment cement workers turned their backs yesterday after laying new sidewalk at 4th St. and Grand Ave., where pigeons are accustomed to feed, the pigeons came back. Here’s pictorial proof that a bunch of angry, parading pigeons can really stay wheels of progress.
(via latimes)
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
