Curious photos from a Beautiful Legs Contest from 1949. The pictures raise lots of questions in my mind – aside from why you’d want to enter a ‘beautiful legs contest’ in the first place.
Miss Lovely Legs 1949
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5 Strikingly Modern Victorian Photo Portraits
These beautiful Victorian portraits are a type of early photograph called daguerreotypes. Invented by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre in the 1830s the photographic image is imprinted onto a silvered copper plate, making each portrait unique.
How The World Looked When Airships Filled The Sky
The airship industry effectively died with the Hindenburg disaster of 1937, but for 80 or so years previously the dream of lighter-than-air travel had gradually been becoming a reality. The sight of airships were becoming less of a novelty and were seen in the sky’s across Europe and North America. In truth though, by the(…)
Back When Everybody Smoked…
More and more smokers are becoming social pariahs. They have to stand on the street in the rain outside restaurants, bars, pubs and even their own cars (if their kids are inside). And while I don’t mind this, being a non-smoker, it does strike me as strange that in years gone by smoking was seen(…)
The Can Can Dancers at the Moulin Rouge 1950s
The can-can dancers of the Moulin Rouge in Paris, probably taken some time in the 1950s judging by the hair and make-up styles. Those flying leaps into the splits look really painful! The backstage photos showing them warming up before a performance are really interesting too, they were all so bendy!
London in 1941
London was a very different city in 1941. Alongside the landmarks we all recognize there were clear signs of the Blitz and the toll that war was taking on the city. From schools, to Trafalgar Square to bomb shelters and shop fronts, these photos give you an insight into the way London had to change(…)
Photos from a Victorian Mental Asylum
During the 1850s British physician Dr. Hugh Welch Diamond took a series of haunting photographs of mentally ill patients under his care. He was one of the pioneers of early photography, starting in 1839 shortly after the medium was invented, and was one of the founding members of the Photographic Society. Diamond (pictured below) had(…)
Vintage Yearbook Photos: Class of 1941
Vintage high school photos taken in 1942 at McGuffey High School in Miami. Aren’t these great? I love the different hairstyles, some are so fancy. I wonder whether they wore their hair like this every day or whether it was a special effort on photo day? Can you tell from the photos who the different(…)
Moving 1940s Photo Portraits by Costică Acsinte
I came across this amazing collection of photographs on Flickr yesterday and was totally captivated by them. The photographer was Costică Acsinte, a Polish Romanian war photographer during WW1 and afterwards. These photos all seem to have been taken around 1940 and are a real mixture: some are of military personnel, some are posed photo(…)
Snow Glorious Snow!
So, it’s Boxing Day and I’m sitting here (eating chocolates) waiting for it to snow. Apparently we are due to get snow tonight, but I fully expect to wake up in the morning and see cold grey drizzle rather than a beautiful white blanket covering everything. We didn’t have any snow last winter at all,(…)
10 Astonishing Vintage Inventions
10 wierd, wonderful (and sometimes terrifying) vintage inventions which have been lost in the mists of time… My favourite is the collapsable bridge invented by Mr Deth.
10 Vintage Clowns Guaranteed to give you Nightmares
Did you think clowns couldn’t get more disturbing than ‘Cho-Cho the health clown‘ who terrified young children into good dental hygiene habits in the 1920s? Well it turns out they can be a darn site scarier. I don’t think any of these clowns were intended to terrify but they’ll certainly haunt my dreams. Wish I’d(…)
WW1 In Photos: 10 Stark Reminders
Today is the 100th anniversary of the day Britain declared war on Germany at the start of World War 1. As it is mostly out of living memory now, the First World War has a tendency to seem a very distant conflict, but when you look at some of the photographs taken at the time(…)
Any Helpful Photographers Out There?
I hope so! I’ve got a pretty limited knowledge of photography but I really want to be able to improve my photos. I have a Canon EOS 60D, which I’ve had endless issues with – not least because you have no control over the focus point in all of their ‘automatic’ modes – it always(…)
23 Impossibly Stylish 1930s Photos
If you were of the right class and in the right circumstances the 1930s was an incredibly stylish place to be. Even if you weren’t one of the privileged few the fashions helped you be stylish anyway. A few of these photos are of Hollywood stars or models, but the majority of them of the(…)
15 Moving Photos of the Titanic
We all know the story of the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic. At least I assume we do, I can’t imagine there’s anyone out there who doesn’t know the story, but just in case here’s a brief recap of the tragic tale with a few facts you might not know. The RMS Titanic was(…)
Ghost Stations and Gas Lighting: A Brief History of London Underground
Oops, I’m slightly late to the party (the best people always are)! London Underground turned 150 last year. Admittedly this passed me by at the time, my excuse being that I haven’t lived in London for 10 years now. Having said that I’ve kept a real fascination for the history of the Tube. When I(…)
Santa Likes the Ladies…
Christmas is hurtling towards us now. How many sleeps left? I think it’s 4 but I’m writing this before I’ve had my 2nd cup of coffee of the morning and I might be wrong. I should have asked my 7-year-old, he would have answered without hesitation! I thought I’d get in the festive spirit and(…)
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