The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 6, 1865. The Amendment prohibited “slavery [and] involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime.” Slavery wasContinue reading “Unbelievable American Slave Sale and Auction Ads From the 19th Century”
Category Archives: people
Amazing Photos From Swissair Reveal What It Was Really Like to Fly in the 1960s
Swiss airline Swissair has published photos from its archives ’60s. Passengers in those days we flew like kings: enjoying personal space, gobbling up delicious food, sipping cocktails under a cigarette right in the chair. It looked like “the Golden era of passenger aviation.”
The Last Jew of Vinnitsa, 1942
“The Last Jew of Vinnitsa” is an iconic photograph picturing the imminent execution of a Jewish man in the vicinity of the Ukrainian town of Vinnytsia during a massacre perpetrated by Nazi SS and Ukrainian militia. The photograph was found from the personal album of an Einsatzgruppen soldier (from Nazi death squad). It is namedContinue reading “The Last Jew of Vinnitsa, 1942”
How To Take a Steam Bath, And Other Victorian Visual Health Guides
This French edition of Friedrich Eduard Bilz’s 1888 naturopathic medicine guide Das Neue Naturheilverfahren (The New Natural Healing) is charmingly illustrated in the familiar style of early twentieth-century medical art. It offers visual directions to various methods of curing disease, from steam baths to massage to swimming and is one of the best of itsContinue reading “How To Take a Steam Bath, And Other Victorian Visual Health Guides”
Meet Ralph C. Lincoln From Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 11th Generation Lincoln, 3rd Cousin of Abraham Lincoln
Ralph C. Lincoln, the assistant manager at Vitamin World in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, looks strikingly similar to a very famous American – the 16th U.S. President – Abraham Lincoln. Many people have told him “you look just like Abe.” He smiles and replies, “Which one? There are several Abrahams in the family.” Meet Ralph C. LincolnContinue reading “Meet Ralph C. Lincoln From Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 11th Generation Lincoln, 3rd Cousin of Abraham Lincoln”
Dolls and Masks: The Wildly Strange Family Album Photos of Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who was born in Normal, Illinois, in 1925 and died of cancer in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1972, worked his entire adult life as an optician, making lenses for glasses. Though he took and developed thousands of pictures, only a sampling of his work has been published. By vocation an optician, byContinue reading “Dolls and Masks: The Wildly Strange Family Album Photos of Ralph Eugene Meatyard”
Rare Portrait Photos From the Smith and Telfer Studio in Cooperstown, New York, 1865-1885
Washington G. Smith (1828-1893) and Arthur J. Telfer (1859-1954) spent almost one hundred years photographing people, events, and scenes in and around Cooperstown. At the time of his gift Telfer was 93 years old and was widely thought to be the oldest working photographer in the United States. Washington Smith worked with partners while heContinue reading “Rare Portrait Photos From the Smith and Telfer Studio in Cooperstown, New York, 1865-1885”
Vintage Photos Showing How Vietnamese People Celebrated Lunar New Year in Hanoi in the 1920s
Nearly one hundred years ago, Tet Holiday or Vietnamese Lunar New Year evoked the same excitement and expectations it does today; except, things were very different. Vietnamese people celebrate the Lunar New Year annually, which is based on a lunisolar calendar (calculating both the motions of Earth around the Sun and of the Moon aroundContinue reading “Vintage Photos Showing How Vietnamese People Celebrated Lunar New Year in Hanoi in the 1920s”
Beautiful Vintage Photos That Show Life in Southern Australia in the 1940s.
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign transcontinental country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7,617,930 square kilometres (2,941,300 sq mi), Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world’s sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest,Continue reading “Beautiful Vintage Photos That Show Life in Southern Australia in the 1940s.”
Believe It or Not: Human Zoos Really Existed in the Past, And There Are Pictures to Prove It
Have you ever heard of a human zoo? A human zoo was a place (and yes, they really existed in the past) where people were kept for display, just like animals are kept in zoos. The displays often emphasized the cultural differences between Europeans of Western civilization and non-European peoples or with other Europeans whoContinue reading “Believe It or Not: Human Zoos Really Existed in the Past, And There Are Pictures to Prove It”
