34 Vintage Photos of Women Archers From the Mid-20th Century
32 Glamorous Photos of Wedding Dresses Worn By Famous Beauties in the 1950s
The 1950s was the boom period of dresses and gowns, and wedding dresses in this period were no exception! Tea length wedding gowns and Rockabilly swing dresses, tulle ballgowns, and elegant lace long sleeve dresses are only a few of the 1950s wedding dresses that are popular again today.
Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, or Grace Kelly,… they all had different styles of bridal dresses on their wedding days from the 1950s, and they were really glamorous.
23 Vintage Photos of Singer Wayne Cochran
Blue-eyed soul singer Wayne Cochran was born in 1939 in Thomaston, Georgia. He started his first band in 1955 and was kicked out of high school for refusing to cut his flamboyant pompadour hairstyle.
Cochran recorded his debut single, My Little Girl, for the Scottie label in 1959. He went on to record a slew of singles throughout the 1960s for such labels as Gala (Funny Feeling, Liza Jane), Confederate (Linda Lu), Aire (Cindy Marie), King (Little Orphan Annie) and Mercury (Goin’ Back to Miami, which rates as one of his single most incendiary R&B songs and was later covered by The Blues Brothers).
In the early ’60s he wrote and recorded the morbid teen death item Last Kiss, which became a huge #2 Billboard pop chart hit for J. Frank Wilson & the Cavaliers in 1964. In 1963 he formed his own group called Wayne Cochran and the C.C. Ryders (Cochran’s Circuit Riders). The band amassed an enormous following in the South and Midwest by extensively touring and performing at clubs, lounges and seedy dives all over the region.
Cochran was famous for his massive white pompadour, outrageous outfits and full-throttle, raw-throated hoarse-n’-ragged vocals. The band was the immensely popular house band at the Miami club the Barn. Jackie Gleason in particular was a big fan of Cochran’s music and wrote the liner notes for his 1967 debut album. Cochran and the C.C. Riders appear as themselves in the biker exploitation flick C.C. & Company (1970). Moreover, Wayne not only made guest appearances on such TV programs.
Cochran eventually became a born-again Christian and started his own ministry in 1981. He and the C.C. Riders performed at two reunion shows in 2001: they did a gig on July 26 in Miami, Florida, and did a second reunion show on August 1 in Hollywood, Florida. Wayne lived in Miami, Florida with his wife Monica (who died in February, 2017). Cochran died at age 78 from cancer on November 21, 2017.
24 Amazing Historical Photos of Women and the Airplanes They Flied during the 1930s & 1940s
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women’s Army Service Pilots or Women’s Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots’ organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became trained pilots who tested aircraft, ferried aircraft, and trained other pilots. Their purpose was to free male pilots for combat roles during World War II. Despite various members of the armed forces being involved in the creation of the program, the WASP and its members had no military standing.
WASP was preceded by the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). Both were organized separately in September 1942. They were pioneering organizations of civilian women pilots, who were attached to the United States Army Air Forces to fly military aircraft during World War II. On August 5, 1943, the WFTD and WAFS merged to create the WASP organization.
The WASP arrangement with the US Army Air Forces ended on December 20, 1944. During its period of operation, each member’s service had freed a male pilot for military combat or other duties. They flew over 60 million miles; transported every type of military aircraft; towed targets for live anti-aircraft gun practice; simulated strafing missions and transported cargo. Thirty-eight WASP members lost their lives and one, Gertrude Tompkins, disappeared while on a ferry mission, her fate still unknown. In 1977, for their World War II service, the members were granted veteran status, and in 2009 awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. (Wikipedia)
28 Fabulous Fashion Photographs From Vogue Taken Between the 1940s and 1950s
American photographer Clifford Coffin (1913-1972) is considered by many who knew him as the greatest of Vogue’s “lost” photographers – an artist far ahead of his time.
His innovative and intriguing fashion photographs of the 1940s and 1950s for such renowned magazines as Glamour, Vogue and Jardin des Modes in New York, London and Paris challenged the standards of the day.
Here’s a selection of some of his fabulous fashion shots for Vogue from between the 1940s and 1950s.
Before Facebook: 20 Vintage Photos Showing How We Used to Unfriend People Back Then
Remember when unfriending people was just scratching or tearing out their faces on your photographs… Below is a collection of 20 vintage photos show how we used to “unfriend” people back then.
50 Amazing Photos Show What Texas Looked Like in the Late 19th Century
Texas is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both area (after Alaska) and population (after California). Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast.
Houston is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second most populous in the state and seventh-largest in the U.S. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are, respectively, the fourth- and fifth-largest metropolitan statistical areas in the country. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U.S., and El Paso. Texas is nicknamed the “Lone Star State” for its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the state’s struggle for independence from Mexico. The “Lone Star” can be found on the Texas state flag and on the Texas state seal. The origin of Texas’s name is from the Caddo word táysha’ meaning ‘friends’.
Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U.S. Southern and the Southwestern regions. Although Texas is popularly associated with the U.S. southwestern deserts, less than ten percent of Texas’s land area is desert. Most of the population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests, and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, and finally the desert and mountains of the Big Bend.
The term “six flags over Texas” refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory.[note 1] Spain was the first European country to claim and control the area of Texas. France held a short-lived colony. Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming the Republic of Texas. In 1845, Texas joined the union as the 28th state. The state’s annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U.S. in early 1861, and officially joined the Confederate States of America on March 2 of the same year. After the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation.
Historically, four major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle and bison, cotton, timber, and oil. Before and after the U.S. Civil War, the cattle industry—which Texas came to dominate—was a major economic driver for the state, and created the traditional image of the Texas cowboy. In the later 19th century, cotton and lumber grew to be major industries as the cattle industry became less lucrative. It was ultimately, though, the discovery of major petroleum deposits (Spindletop in particular) that initiated an economic boom which became the driving force behind the economy for much of the 20th century. Texas developed a diversified economy and high tech industry during the mid-20th century. As of 2015, it has the second most Fortune 500 company headquarters (54) in the United States. With a growing base of industry, the state leads in many industries, including tourism, agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace, and biomedical sciences. Texas has led the U.S. in state export revenue since 2002, and has the second-highest gross state product. If Texas were a sovereign state, it would have the 10th-largest economy in the world. (Wikipedia)
The photographs and information related to photos from SMU Libraries Digital Collections provide a unique glimpse into the social and domestic history, architecture, transportation, ranching, agriculture, commerce, material culture, costume, and urban and rural history of Texas in the 1880s and 1890s.
35 Amazing Behind the Scenes Photos From the Making of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a 1991 science fiction action film, the second installment of the Terminator franchise and the sequel to The Terminator (1984). Directed by James Cameron and written by Cameron and William Wisher, Jr., it stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick, and Edward Furlong.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day was released in the United States on July 3, 1991. Its visual effects saw breakthroughs in computer-generated imagery, including the first use of natural human motion for a computer-generated character and the first partially computer-generated main character. It was a critical and commercial success and influenced popular culture, especially the use of visual effects in films.
The film received several accolades, including Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects. The highest-grossing film of 1991 and of Schwarzenegger’s career, Terminator 2 has since been named by several publications such as the American Film Institute as one of the greatest action films, science fiction films, and sequels of all time.
Below is a gallery of 35 behind the scenes photographs from the making of the Terminator 2.
42 Wonderful Color Photos Showing Life in Sweden During the Late 1950s
Björn Allard (1923-2006) was employed as a photographer at the Swedish National Heritage Board in the 1950s and 1960s. He took part in archaeological surveys and excavations to contribute documentary photographs. Since he held an academic degree in Nordic and comparative archeology, he was certainly well suited for the work.
An important part of Björn Allard’s tasks was to document at the Board’s culture-historical surveys and archaeological excavations in northern Sweden, due to the regulations of Swedish lakes and rivers at the expansion of hydropower and the construction of new power plants in the 1950s and 1960s.
Five Swedish provinces will be represented in the album. From north to south: Lapland (Lappland), Ångermanland, Jämtland, Dalecarlia (Dalarna), Östergötland and Västergötland.
The images are taken between 1957 and 1959. They show landscapes, cultural environments in the countryside and archaeologists from the Swedish National Heritage Board at field work. Locals in northern Sweden, at work or at leisure, will appear now and then.
26 Wonderful Photos of Tennis Star Steffi Graf in the Late 1980s and 1990s
Steffi Graf, byname of Stephanie Maria Graf is a German former professional tennis player who dominated women’s tennis in the late 1980s and ’90s.
Graf began playing tennis with the encouragement of her father, who became her coach. At age 13 she became the second youngest player ever to earn an international ranking. In 1987 she won her first Grand Slam event, defeating Czech-born American Martina Navratilova at the French Open. In 1988 she became the third woman to win all four Grand Slam tournaments (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open) in one calendar year, and she won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Seoul—an unprecedented feat that became known as the “Golden Slam.”
Graf was known for her intensity, speed, and powerful forehand, and by the 1990s she had become one of the premier players in the world, winning multiple singles titles in the French Open (1987–88, 1993, 1995–96, 1999), Australian Open (1988–90, 1994), and U.S. Open (1988–89, 1993, 1995–96). Her seven victories at Wimbledon (1988–89, 1991–93, 1995–96) were second in number to only Navratilova’s nine. Soon after losing in the finals at Wimbledon in 1999, Graf, who had been plagued by injuries, retired from the sport.
Graf’s retirement did not remove her from the public spotlight. In 2001 she married fellow tennis great Andre Agassi, and the couple was involved in various charitable causes, including Children for Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization that Graf had founded in 1998 to aid children and families affected by war and other crises. Graf was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004.
