The Finest in Vintage Photography Since 2005
Photographs and occasional ephemera of American life in the 20th century.
A small selection of Ferrotype mini-postcards (they measure 3.5″ x 2 .5″ each) taken by a farming family circa 1910. The Ferrotype process used a single chemical solution to develop the photos but the lack of separate toner and fixer is very evident as almost all of the ferrotypes I’ve seen have faded badly. Of course weirdos like me like stuff like this so here’s 25 of them for your viewing pleasure.
A small selection of photos from a series of negatives and contact prints taken by some young Chicagoans in the late 30s/early 40s. Click here to see them all.
A small, strange set of hand-tinted photos documenting a duck hunt. Click here to see them all.
A few photos taken by a Chicago cabby in the 70s including several great portraits of his fellow drivers. Click here to them all.
In honor of National Poetry Month (and the possibility that we might actually be able to travel this summer) I bring you the travel diary of a young man who took a road trip from Ohio down to the Grand Canyon and then up through California to the Pacific Northwest in the summer of 1928. While there is a fair amount of description, the poetry comes from the long lists of place names he provides- this was pre-interstate so making your way across the country usually meant driving straight through towns rather than bypassing them on via a highway. This will probably be tl:dr for most but for the few who might enjoy such a thing I’ve scanned it in it’s entirety. Click here to see it all!
Clowns– what more needs to be said.
Autumn has arrived and here in Chicago the breeze off of the lake is already turning cooler. So it’s time to get those boats in dry dock but here are a few memories to get you through til next summer.
A series of damaged paper weaving exercises by one Jennie Ford from an early 20th c. album.
I couple of years ago I picked up a cigar box filled photos and ephemera kept by a Korean War era G.I.. The photos were odd- mostly direct negative nude prints. The ephemera was straight up early 50s humorous erotica: Tijuana bibles, a pamphlet about urination, etc… Very tame but definitely not safe for work.
It’s 1933- the Depression grips the country but in the dancehalls south of Boston are filled with music and dancing. Marathon dancing. For your viewing pleasure: a small album documenting some of the dancers who competed in some Massachusetts walkathons in 1933/34. Most interesting (to me anyway) were the handbills that I found tucked inside which I’ve scanned for your viewing pleasure. I’ve amended it with a few other dance marathon photos from my collection. Enjoy.
