Yesterday Today

Rare Portraits 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 he learned the daguerreotype and ambrotype processes in the 1850s. In 1864 he bought the Willoughby Block in Cooperstown and established his own “Photographic Gallery” where he remained until his death in 1893.

Telfer reluctantly joined Smith in 1887; he suspected that photography was a passing fad but Smith assured him that as long as folks continued to have weddings and babies he would never want for work. Telfer continued the business after Smith’s death and for another sixty years beyond. While portraits provided the bulk of their income, both photographers ventured outside the studio to record the world around them using large view cameras and, for the most part, glass plate negatives.

45 Beautiful Vintage Photos of Actress Sondra Locke

Sandra Louise Anderson (née Smith; May 28, 1944 – November 3, 2018), professionally known as Sondra Locke, was an American actress and director. She made her film debut in 1968 in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She went on to star in such hit films as Willard, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Gauntlet, Every Which Way but Loose, Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can and Sudden Impact. She worked often with Clint Eastwood, who was her companion for 14 years. She also directed four films, notably Impulse.

Locke and Eastwood had an often contentious relationship for more than a dozen years, which ended in a bitter palimony suit she filed against him in 1989. They settled after about a year, but she later sued him again in the mid-’90s for what the suit claimed was a sham development and directing deal at Warner Bros that Eastwood had set up. That suit was settled out of court. She then brought a separate lawsuit against Warners, which also was settled out of court.

Her 1997 memoir was titled The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly, riffing on one of Eastwood’s most popular film roles.

Locke died at age 74 on November 3, 2018. She died at her L.A. home, from cardiac arrest related to breast and bone cancer.

80 Amazing Photos of Shanghai, China between 1947 & 1949

Shipping out to China in December 1947 with three ten-year-old German cameras and a plum assignment from LIFE magazine, Jack Birns was fulfilling a boyhood dream. The reality was something else: refugees and prostitutes, soldiers and beggars, street executions and urban protests photographed in difficult and often dangerous circumstances amidst the poverty, corruption, and chaos of an expanding civil war.

By then the ruling Nationalist Party had been battling the Communist threat for more than two decades, and Birns focused his camera on the human drama unfolding as war pressed ever closer to the country’s financial, cultural, and commercial capital. His effort to show China’s misery up close ran afoul of Time-Life publisher Henry R. Luce’s fervent anti-communism, and for half a century many of these historic photographs lay unpublished in Time-Life’s archives.

Seen through the lens of hindsight, Birns’ photographs give us a sense not only of what China was like more than fifty years ago, but also of why the warfare, weariness, and desperation of the time proved such fertile soil for communist revolution.

Today these everyday scenes of ordinary people—pedicab drivers, street vendors, bar girls, police, politicians, prisoners—tell a story of national resilience and dignity in the midst of enveloping poverty, repression, and fear. Birns’s stark black and white photographs capture the dramatic end of an era, but they also look forward, letting us glimpse how Shanghai’s past prefigures the city’s commercial and cultural revival in the 1990s.

Photos by Jack Birns via Time Life

31 Terrifying Photos Showing the Early Days of Dentistry

People calling themselves dentists appeared in the late 1700s, though the profession wouldn’t be licensed for about 100 years. Before dentistry was licensed, doctors addressed tooth health. And before there were doctors, things were pretty dicey.

If you think going to the dentist today is scary, imagine a guy with a bloody apron approaching you with a pair of forceps, a pen knife, and no anesthesia. The early days of dentistry were beleaguered by a lack of knowledge and a belief that before anything could get better, blood had to flow.

These scary photos show how tooth extraction was terrifying from the late 19th century to early years of the 20th century.

40 Stunning Photos of Stevie Nicks on Stage During the 1970s and 1980s

Stephanie “Stevie” Nicks is a singer-songwriter known for her career with Fleetwood Mac which gave the band their only U.S. No.1 hit, Dreams. She changed the fortune of the band for the better after joining in 1974. She created history with her second album with the band, “Rumours” which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and went Diamond in the U.S.

After a very successful stint with the band, she decided to go solo. Her debut album, “Bella Donna” charted at No.1 on the U.S. Billboard and went Multi-Platinum within months of its release. Her second album, “The Wild Heart” also went Multi-Platinum establishing Nicks as a solo artist. She had many friends in the music industry, and she invited them to play music for her albums. Her next album, “Rock a Little” was also a huge hit and went Platinum like its predecessors.

However, the stress of working so hard had a toll on her mental and physical well-being, and she developed a drug addiction problem. The talented singer struggled hard to overcome her substance abuse and was eventually successful in leaving this troubled part of her life behind. A highly prolific performer, she is credited to have produced more than forty Top 50 hits with a sales figure exceeding 140 million albums.

Below is a collection of 40 vintage photographs capture Stevie Nicks while performing on stage in the 1970s and 1980s.

22 Amazing Photos of Soviet Withdrawal From Afghanistan in 1989

The final and complete withdrawal of Soviet combatant forces from Afghanistan began on 15 May 1988 and ended on 15 February 1989 under the leadership of Colonel-General Boris Gromov.

Planning for the withdrawal of the Soviet Union (USSR) from the Afghanistan War began soon after Mikhail Gorbachev became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of Gorbachev, the Soviet Union attempted to consolidate the PDPA’s hold over power in the country, first in a genuine effort to stabilize the country, and then as a measure to save face while withdrawing troops. During this period, the military and intelligence organizations of the USSR worked with the government of Mohammad Najibullah to improve relations between the government in Kabul and the leaders of rebel factions.

The diplomatic relationship between the USSR and the United States improved at the same time as it became clear to the Soviet Union that this policy of consolidating power around Najibullah’s government in Kabul would not produce sufficient results to maintain the power of the PDPA in the long run.

The Geneva Accords, signed by representatives of the USSR, the USA, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of Afghanistan (thus renamed in 1987) on 14 April 1988, provided a framework for the departure of Soviet forces, and established a multilateral understanding between the signatories regarding the future of international involvement in Afghanistan. The military withdrawal commenced soon after, with all Soviet forces leaving Afghanistan by 15 February 1989.

25 Amazing American-Made Station Wagons From the 1960s

**1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser (1969)**

**1962 Chrysler Newport Town & Country**

32 Vintage Photos of Mini Skirts From the Original ‘Star Trek’ Series, 1966

In the early 1960s the average stewardess uniform was a tailored suit with a nod toward military styling, but by mid-decade the uniforms were becoming increasingly fashionable, with “wild” colors and shorter skirts. Some details such as the front skirt flap and the outline of Yeoman Janice Rand’s checkerboard hairstyle appeared in LIFE magazine just before William “Bill” Ware Theiss, a gay costume designer at the beginning of his career, began designing his costumes.

The miniskirt portion of the costume was a brand new trend at the time. Some stories about the first miniskirts place them mere months before Theiss’s design. The idea for their use on Star Trek is usually attributed to Grace Lee Whitney, the actress who portrayed Yeoman Rand, who suggested short skirts after being told to present an “undercurrent of suppressed sexuality” between herself and Captain Kirk, but sex appeal certainly played a role either way since the studio had asked for sexier costumes after those velour tunics (and black pants for men and women) in the pilot episodes. Theiss obliged, especially when designing for guest actresses, originating the “Theiss Titillation Theory” that sex appeal lies not in the amount of skin shown, but rather in the relative likelihood of a costume falling off. Many of his costumes appear precarious indeed, but it must be said that women’s Starfleet uniforms look quite secure in comparison.

For feminist critics, miniskirts are a consistent focal point and often assumed to be a sexist symbol, particularly since women were “forced” to wear them as part of their uniforms. However, when the costumes were designed and originally worn, perceptions were very different. Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura (the most visible woman on the show and a groundbreaking character for racial integration), discussed the issue in her autobiography:
“In later years, especially as the women’s movement took hold in the seventies, people began to ask me about my costume. Some thought it “demeaning” for a woman in the command crew to be dressed so sexily. It always surprised me because I never saw it that way. After all, the show was created in the age of the miniskirt, and the crew women’s uniforms were very comfortable. Contrary to what many may think today, no one really saw it as demeaning back then. In fact, the miniskirt was a symbol of sexual liberation. More to the point, though, in the twenty-third century, you are respected for your abilities regardless of what you do or do not wear.”

40 Vintage Photographs of U.S. Soldiers in Vietnam

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand, and other anti-communist allies. The war, considered a Cold War-era proxy war by some, lasted 19 years, with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973, and included the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, which ended with all three countries becoming communist in 1975.