Yesterday Today

23 Vintage Photos Showing Massachusetts During the Winter of 1940-1941

Massachusetts, officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England region of the United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Maine to the east, Connecticut to the southwest and Rhode Island to the southeast, New Hampshire to the northeast, Vermont to the northwest, and New York to the west. The capital of Massachusetts is Boston, which is also the most populous city in New England. It is home to the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. During the 20th century, Massachusetts’s economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a global leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance, and maritime trade.

Massachusetts was a site of early English colonization: the Plymouth Colony was founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, and in 1630 the Massachusetts Bay Colony, taking its name from the indigenous Massachusett people, established settlements in Boston and Salem. In 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of America’s most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which, during the Industrial Revolution, catalyzed numerous important technological advances, including interchangeable parts. In 1786, Shays’ Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept Britain and the Thirteen Colonies, originated from the pulpit of Northampton preacher Jonathan Edwards. In the late 18th century, Boston became known as the “Cradle of Liberty” for the agitation there that later led to the American Revolution.

The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a powerful scientific, commercial, and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, and transcendentalist movements. In the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legally recognize same-sex marriage as a result of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams and Kennedy families. Harvard University in Cambridge is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, with the largest financial endowment of any university, and Harvard Law School has educated a contemporaneous majority of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Kendall Square in Cambridge has been called “the most innovative square mile on the planet”, in reference to the high concentration of entrepreneurial start-ups and quality of innovation which have emerged in the vicinity of the square since 2010. Both Harvard and MIT, also in Cambridge, are perennially ranked as either the most or among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts residents have been described by the World Population Review as having the highest average IQ of all U.S. states, exceeding 104, and the state’s public-school students place among the top tier in the world in academic performance. The state has been ranked as one of the top states in the United States for citizens to live in, as well as one of the most expensive. (Wikipedia)

**Sylvia Sweets Tea Room, Brockton, ca. 1941**

**Store going out of business. Lowell, Massachusetts Jan 1941**

**Men and a woman reading headlines posted in street-corner window of Brockton Enterprise newspaper office on Christmas Eve, Brockton, Mass. Dec 24 1940**

William Green, Raynham, Massachusetts. He lives on a farm with his mother, who has fifteen cows and ten acres of land. Mr. Green has six children and works as a policeman at nearby Camp Edwards Jan 1941

**Brockton, Mass., Dec. 1940, second-hand plumbing store**

Mr. and Mrs. Ovgen Arakelian, Armenian vegetable farmers in West Andover, Massachusetts. They have an eleven-acre farm and a son works in a blanket factory in Lowell to help support the family Jan 1941

**Street corner, Brockton, Mass. Jan 1941**

**The home of Mr. and Mrs. Ovegen Arakelian, Armenian family in West Andover, Massachusetts Jan 1941**

**Near the waterfront, New Bedford, Massachusetts**

**Madonna in front of church on a street in New Bedford, Massachusetts Jan 1941**

**Children in the tenement district, Brockton, December 1940**

**Employees entering textile mill in New Bedford, Jan 1941**

**Bringing home some salvaged firewood in slum area in New Bedford, Massachusetts Jan 1941**

**Employees leaving Ayer Mills (textile). Lawrence, Jan 1941**

**Textile mill working all night in Lowell, Massachusetts Jan 1941**

**Mrs. Richard Carter, poultry farmer of Middleboro, Massachusetts. She runs the poultry business of one thousand while her husband drives a bulldozer at an Army camp nearby Dec 1940**

**Mr. and Mrs. Melkon Loosigian, Armenians. Run a fourteen-acre vegetable farm. Son works in Arlington mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to help support family. West Andover, Massachusetts Jan 1941**

**New Bedford, Massachusetts. Foggy night October 1940**

**Men going to work at the mill. Lawrence, Massachusetts Jan 1941**

**Children in the tenement district, Brockton, Mass. Dec 1940**

**Skating, vicinity of Brockton, Mass. Jan 1940**

**Commuters, who have just come off the train, waiting for the bus to go home, Lowell, Mass. Jan 1941**

25 Vintage Photos of the Biggest Fast Food Brand in the World Since Established Till the 80s

McDonald’s Corporation is an American multinational fast food corporation, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand, and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1955, Ray Kroc, a businessman, joined the company as a franchise agent and proceeded to purchase the chain from the McDonald brothers. McDonald’s had its previous headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, but moved its global headquarters to Chicago in June 2018.

McDonald’s is the world’s largest restaurant chain by revenue, serving over 69 million customers daily in over 100 countries across 37,855 outlets as of 2018. Although McDonald’s is best known for its hamburgers, cheeseburgers and french fries, they feature chicken products, breakfast items, soft drinks, milkshakes, wraps, and desserts. The company also added salads, fish, smoothies, and fruit in response to changing consumer tastes and a negative backlash because of the unhealthiness of their food. The McDonald’s Corporation revenues come from the rent, royalties, and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as sales in company-operated restaurants. According to two reports published in 2018, McDonald’s is the world’s second-largest private employer with 1.7 million employees (behind Walmart with 2.3 million employees). As of 2020, McDonald’s has the ninth-highest global brand valuation. (Wikipedia)

And here are vintage photos of McDonald’s since it was established till the 1980s.

**On May 15, 1940, McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California**

**First McDonald’s burger stand, San Bernardino, California, 1940**

**McDonald Brother’s store in San Bernadino, California, 1953**

**The first McDonald’s fast food restaurant with its neon arches illuminated at night, Des Plaines, Illinois, 1955**

**Ray Kroc outside the Des Plaines, Illinois restaurant, ca. 1950s**

**Ray Kroc and his McDonald’s beginning, ca. 1950s**

**McDonald’s golden French fries, Caldwell, Idaho, 1980**

**McDonald’s grill crew, Caldwell, Idaho, 1980**

**McDonald’s uniforms in Caldwell, Idaho, 1981**

**New McDonald’s store in Caldwell, Idaho, Sept. 1980**

26 Stunning Photos of Indian Film Actress Madhubala in the Early 1950s

Madhubala (born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi; 14 February 1933 – 23 February 1969) was an Indian actress and producer who worked in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning more than 20 years, she was predominantly active for a decade only but had appeared in over 60 films by the time of her death in 1969.

Born and raised in Delhi, Madhubala relocated to Bombay with her family when she was 8 years old and shortly after appeared in minor roles in a number of films. She soon progressed to leading roles in late 1940s, and earned success with the dramas Neel Kamal (1947) and Amar (1954), the horror film Mahal (1949), and the romantic films Badal (1951) and Tarana (1951). Following a brief setback, Madhubala rose to international prominence with her roles in the comedies Mr. & Mrs. ’55 (1955), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958) and Half Ticket (1962), the crime films Howrah Bridge and Kala Pani (both 1958), and the musical Barsaat Ki Raat (1960).

Madhubala’s portrayal of Anarkali in the historical epic drama Mughal-e-Azam (1960)—the highest-grossing film in India at that point of time—earned her widespread acclaim and a nomination for a Filmfare award in Best Actress category; her performance has since been described by critics as one of the finest in Indian cinematic history. She worked sporadically in film in the 1960s, making her final appearance in the drama Sharabi (1964). Additionally, she produced three films under her production house Madhubala Private Ltd., which was co-founded by her in 1953.

Despite maintaining strong privacy, Madhubala earned significant media coverage for performing actively in charity, and for her relationships with actor Dilip Kumar, which lasted seven years, and with actor-singer Kishore Kumar, whom she eventually married in 1960. Since the beginning of her thirties, she suffered from recurring bouts of breathlessness and hemoptysis caused by a ventricular septal defect, ultimately leading to her premature death in 1969. (Wikipedia)

18 Amazing Black and White Photographs of London in the Early 1950s

Between 1949 and 1953, Robert Frank continually returned to Europe from his new home in New York to take photographs in France, Switzerland, Spain, and Great Britain, photographs that show the development of his uniquely humanist, poetic, and realist eye.

In 1951 and early 1952, Frank visited London-“I liked the light, I liked the fog.”- and set out to photograph the unique atmosphere of the city. He followed British financiers around the City, capturing them in their traditional top hats and long coats, creating images that depict them in a poetic dance with their fog-shrouded environment. He shot pictures of workers, men delivering coal, children playing on the streets, people waiting or relaxing in the parks, and images of poverty.

In these photographs he juxtaposed money and work, wealth and poverty, creating a dynamic photographic project that has never been shown before in its entirety.

London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom with a total population of 9,002,488. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains boundaries close to its medieval ones. Since the 19th century, “London” has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London, governed by the Greater London Authority. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries held the national government and parliament.

As one of the world’s global cities, London exerts strong influence on its arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, health care, media, tourism, and communications, and has sometimes been called the capital of the world. Its GDP (€801.66 billion in 2017) makes it the biggest urban economy in Europe, and it is one of the major financial centres in the world. In 2019 it had the second-highest number of ultra high-net-worth individuals in Europe after Paris and the second-highest number of billionaires in Europe after Moscow. As of 2021, London has the most millionaires of any city. With Europe’s largest concentration of higher education institutions, it includes Imperial College London in natural and applied sciences, the London School of Economics in social sciences, and the comprehensive University College London. The city is home to the most 5-star hotels of any city in the world. In 2012, London became the first city to host three Summer Olympic Games.

London’s diverse cultures encompass over 300 languages. The mid-2018 population of Greater London of about 9 million made it Europe’s third-most populous city, accounting for 13.4% of the population of the United Kingdom. Greater London Built-up Area is the fourth-most populous in Europe, after Istanbul, Moscow and Paris, with about 9.8 million inhabitants at the 2011 census. The London metropolitan area is the third-most populous in Europe after Istanbul’s and Moscow’s, with about 14 million inhabitants in 2016, granting London the status of a megacity.

London has four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew Gardens; the combined Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, and St Margaret’s Church; and also the historic settlement in Greenwich, where the Royal Observatory, Greenwich defines the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge and Trafalgar Square. It has numerous museums, galleries, libraries and sporting venues, including the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest rapid transit system in the world. (Wikipedia)

70 Stunning Vintage Photos of Edwardian Actress Lily Elsie From the 1900s and 1910s

Elsie Cotton (née Hodder, 8 April 1886 – 16 December 1962), known professionally as Lily Elsie, was an English actress and singer during the Edwardian era. She was best known for her starring role in the London premiere of Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow.

Beginning as a child star in the 1890s, Elsie built her reputation in several successful Edwardian musical comedies before her great success in The Merry Widow, opening in 1907. Afterwards, she starred in several more successful operettas and musicals, including The Dollar Princess (1909), A Waltz Dream (1911) and The Count of Luxembourg (1911). Admired for her beauty and charm on stage, Elsie became one of the most photographed women of Edwardian times.

Overnight she had the town at her feet. On the stage Elsie seemed mysteriously beautiful with her perfect Grecian profile, enormous blue eyes, and hauntingly sad smile. Tall, cool, and lily-like, she moved with lyrical gestures in a slow-motion grace.

She was a true ‘star’ of Edwardian times, although the word was yet to be used in that context. Magazines produced special supplements about her, adverts featured her picture.

In 1920, Elsie moved with her husband to the Gloucestershire village of Redmarley D’Abitot. She spent ten years away from the stage during this time, enjoying social events and fox hunting. She returned to performing, first touring and then appearing at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre in London in 1927 as Eileen Mayne in The Blue Train, the English language adaptation of Robert Stolz’s German musical comedy Mädi. Her last show before retiring was Ivor Novello’s successful The Truth Game back at Daly’s Theatre in 1928–1929.

Finally, in 1930, Elsie’s unhappy marriage ended in divorce as her health deteriorated further and she became subject to fits of ill temper.[citation needed] She spent much time in nursing homes and Swiss sanatoria. She was diagnosed as having serious psychological ailments and underwent brain surgery that reportedly resulted in an improvement in her health. Her last years were spent at St. Andrew’s Hospital in London.

Elsie died at St. Andrew’s Hospital (demolished in 1973), Cricklewood, London, aged 76, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.

Admired for her beauty and charm on stage, Elsie became one of the most photographed women of Edwardian times. She did however leave us with hundreds of pictures, a few gramophone discs, and two films, to remember her by.

A Collection of 12 Amazing Photos of Lincoln-Zephyr Hot Rod

The marque Lincoln-Zephyr was used by Lincoln for their lower-priced line of mid-size luxury cards in 1936–1940. The Lincoln-Zephyr was extensively utilized by mid-century hot rod enthusiasts who lived in an era when used Lincoln-Zephyrs were affordable cars that didn’t break the bank. The Lincoln-Zephyr was also ideal for many kinds of modifications aimed to increase drag race speed.

Today, Lincoln-Zephyr cars are rare and pricey, and quite a few of the cars on our roads that look like Lincoln-Zephyrs or modified Lincoln-Zephyrs are actually lower-priced replicas rather than the real deal.

Designed by Eugene Turenne Gregorie, the Lincoln-Zephyr was hailed as an extremely modern car when it was first unveiled in November 1935. The overall exterior was streamlined to decrease air resistance. The windscreen was low raked, the fenders were integrated, and the front was inspired by the prow of a ship rather than the front of traditional 1930s cars. By using a compact vale-in-block flathead engine, the designers could give the Lincoln-Zephyr a low hood. The streamlined design was the inspiration for the name Zephyr. In Greek mythology, Zephyrus is the god of the west wind.

Gregorie in part based his design on Briggs Dream Car, a rear-engined concept car developed for the Ford Motor Company by John Tjaarda (Joop Tjaarda van Sterkenburg) for the Century of Progress Exhibition 1933–1934.

Back in the 1935, cars with a low coefficient of drag were still rare, and Chrysler Airflow (launched in 1934) had been a market failure. So, by lauching the Lincoln-Zephyr – a car with an even lower coefficient of drag than the Chrysler Airflow – Ford was going out on a limb. This gamble, however, proved to be a success. During the first year, 80% of Lincoln’s total sales consisted of Lincoln-Zephyr cars.

Consumer interest in the Lincoln-Zephyr was so huge that from the 1941 model year, all Lincolns were Zephyr-based. This is why the marque Lincoln-Zephyr was eventually discontinued. There was no longer any point in distinguishing the Zephyr from other Lincoln-cars. When the United States entered World War II, resources were diverted to the war effort and the production of all U.S. cars, including the Lincoln’s, were halted. The last pre-war Lincoln-Zephyr was produced in February 1942. When production was restarted again after the war, the name of the Lincoln-Zephyr was changed to simply Lincoln.

39 Beautiful Photos of Joan Crawford in Her Last Silent Film ‘Our Modern Maidens’ in 1929

Our Modern Maidens is a 1929 American silent drama film directed by Jack Conway. Starring Joan Crawford in her last silent film role, the film also stars Rod La Rocque, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Anita Page.

Our Modern Maidens has no audible dialog, but features a synchronized soundtrack and sound effects. According to MGM records the film earned $675,000 in the US and Canada and $182,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $248,000.

Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, c. 1904–1908 – May 10, 1977) was an American actress. Starting as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford began a campaign of self-publicity and became nationally known as a flapper by the end of the 1920s. In the 1930s, Crawford’s fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These “rags-to-riches” stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood’s most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money and by the end of the 1930s she was labeled “box office poison”.

After an absence of nearly two years from the screen, Crawford staged a comeback by starring in Mildred Pierce (1945), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 1955, she became involved with the Pepsi-Cola Company, through her marriage to company president Alfred Steele. After his death in 1959, Crawford was elected to fill his vacancy on the board of directors but was forcibly retired in 1973. She continued acting in film and television regularly through the 1960s, when her performances became fewer; after the release of the horror film Trog in 1970, Crawford retired from the screen. Following a public appearance in 1974, after which unflattering photographs were published, Crawford withdrew from public life. She became more and more reclusive until her death in 1977.

Crawford married four times. Her first three marriages ended in divorce; the last ended with the death of husband Al Steele. She adopted five children, one of whom was reclaimed by his birth mother. Crawford’s relationships with her two older children, Christina and Christopher, were acrimonious. Crawford disinherited the two and, after Crawford’s death, Christina wrote a “tell-all” memoir called Mommie Dearest. (Wikipedia)

These beautiful photos that show portrait of Joan Crawford in her last silent film Our Modern Maidens in 1929.

Hippie Life: 27 Vintage Photos Showing American Youth’s Lifestyle in the 1970s

A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in UK English, is a member of the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The word hippie came from hipster and was used to describe beatniks who moved into New York City’s Greenwich Village, San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, and Chicago’s Old Town community. The term hippie was used in print by San Francisco writer Michael Fallon, helping popularize use of the term in the media, although the tag was seen elsewhere earlier.

The origins of the terms hip and hep are uncertain. By the 1940s, both had become part of African American jive slang and meant “sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date”. The Beats adopted the term hip, and early hippies inherited the language and countercultural values of the Beat Generation. Hippies created their own communities, listened to psychedelic music, embraced the sexual revolution, and many used drugs such as marijuana and LSD to explore altered states of consciousness.

In 1967, the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, and Monterey Pop Festival popularized hippie culture, leading to the Summer of Love on the West Coast of the United States, and the 1969 Woodstock Festival on the East Coast. Hippies in Mexico, known as jipitecas, formed La Onda and gathered at Avándaro, while in New Zealand, nomadic housetruckers practiced alternative lifestyles and promoted sustainable energy at Nambassa. In the United Kingdom in 1970, many gathered at the gigantic third Isle of Wight Festival with a crowd of around 400,000 people. In later years, mobile “peace convoys” of New Age travellers made summer pilgrimages to free music festivals at Stonehenge and elsewhere. In Australia, hippies gathered at Nimbin for the 1973 Aquarius Festival and the annual Cannabis Law Reform Rally or MardiGrass. “Piedra Roja Festival”, a major hippie event in Chile, was held in 1970. Hippie and psychedelic culture influenced 1960s and early 1970s youth culture in Iron Curtain countries in Eastern Europe (see Mánička).

Hippie fashion and values had a major effect on culture, influencing popular music, television, film, literature, and the arts. Since the 1960s, mainstream society has assimilated many aspects of hippie culture. The religious and cultural diversity the hippies espoused has gained widespread acceptance, and their pop versions of Eastern philosophy and Asian spiritual concepts have reached a larger group.

The vast majority of people who had participated in the golden age of the hippie movement were those born during the 1940s as well as the early 1950s. These included the oldest of the Baby Boomers as well as the youngest of the Silent Generation; the latter who were the actual leaders of the movement as well as the pioneers of Rock music. (Wikipedia)

44 Vintage Photos of 1940s Hairstyles

In the 1940s, women were encouraged to use their hair to ‘fix’ any flaws in their face.

If she had perfect, shiny hair with a good color, she should use it to frame her face. If she had a full face, she should use a 1940s hairstyle that piled hair on top of her head to distract from it. If a thin face was her problem, her hairstyle should be down and over her ears to make it look wider.

All of these suggestions contributed to a variety to hairstyles in the 1940s.

34 Wonderful Photos Showing Gibraltar in 1960

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 6.7 km2 (2.6 sq mi) and is bordered to the north by Spain. The landscape is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar, at the foot of which is a densely populated town area, home to over 32,000 people, primarily Gibraltarians.

In 1704, Anglo-Dutch forces captured Gibraltar from Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession. The territory was ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It became an important base for the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars and World War II, as it controlled the narrow entrance and exit to the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, which is only 14.3 km (8.9 mi) wide. This choke point remains strategically important, with half the world’s seaborne trade passing through it. Gibraltar’s economy is based largely on tourism, online gambling, financial services, and bunkering.

The sovereignty of Gibraltar is a point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations, as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians overwhelmingly rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in a 1967 referendum, and for shared sovereignty in a 2002 referendum. Nevertheless, Gibraltar maintains close economic and cultural links with Spain, with many Gibraltarians speaking Spanish as well as a local dialect known as Llanito.

On 31 January 2020, the UK and Gibraltar left the European Union. In December 2020, the UK and Spain agreed in principle to a basis on which the UK and the EU might negotiate terms for Gibraltar to participate in aspects of the Schengen Agreement. (Wikipedia)