Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas in the United States were also affected by formal and informal policies of segregation, but many states outside the South had adopted laws, beginning in the late nineteenth century, that variously banned discrimination in public accommodationsContinue reading “20 Disturbing Pictures That Show What Life in the U.S Looked Like Under Jim Crow Laws”
Tag Archives: 1940s
“Queen of The Amazons” – 19 Fabulous Photos of the 6’4″ Tall Burlesque Queen Lois DeFee in the 1930s and 1940s
Born 1918 in a small town in Texas, Lois DeFee lost her parents early and was raised in Texas by an aunt (her father’s sister) and uncle. It was not a happy situation, and Lois began trying to run away at the age of four. At the age of 13 Lois ran away from herContinue reading ““Queen of The Amazons” – 19 Fabulous Photos of the 6’4″ Tall Burlesque Queen Lois DeFee in the 1930s and 1940s”
The Katyn Massacre: When The Soviets Murdered 22,000 Polish Men — Then Blamed The Nazis
The Katyn massacre[a] was a series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military officers and intelligentsia carried out by the Soviet Union, specifically the NKVD (“People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs”, the Soviet secret police) in April and May 1940. Though the killings also occurred in the Kalinin and Kharkiv prisons and elsewhere, the massacreContinue reading “The Katyn Massacre: When The Soviets Murdered 22,000 Polish Men — Then Blamed The Nazis”
The Ovitz Family: Extraordinary Story and Amazing Vintage Photos of the Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz
They were known as the Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz and subjected to sick genetic experiments by Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. But, miraculously, all seven members of the Jewish Ovitz family survived their horrifying ordeal at Hitler’s infamous death camp. The Ovitz family was a family of Romanian Jewish actors/traveling musicians who survived imprisonment at theContinue reading “The Ovitz Family: Extraordinary Story and Amazing Vintage Photos of the Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz”
41 Amazing Photos Showing Life in New York in the Late 1940s
Homer Page (1918-1985) was an American documentary photographer whose most famous photographs were taken in New York City in 1949-1950, after he received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. Page studied art and social psychology at the University of California, graduating in 1940. He worked in the shipyards in the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Area duringContinue reading “41 Amazing Photos Showing Life in New York in the Late 1940s”
Rare Photographs Capture the Moment Some of the Nazis’ Most Notorious Murderers Were Brought to Justice, 1945
These rare photos show some of the world’s most infamous monsters just moments after their reign of terror came to an end. The pictures, which form part of a stunning group of previously unseen snaps documenting the Second World War, were found in an old suitcase belonging to a former Spitfire pilot. Nazi killers FranzContinue reading “Rare Photographs Capture the Moment Some of the Nazis’ Most Notorious Murderers Were Brought to Justice, 1945”
31 Photos Of Life Inside Ravensbrück, The Nazis’ Only All-Female Concentration Camp
In 1938, Heinrich Himmler ordered the construction of Ravensbrück, a concentration camp exclusively for women. Around an hour north of Berlin, Ravensbrück also served as a training camp for female Nazi overseers, many of whom would go on to be chief wardresses at other concentration camps. From 1939 to 1945, over 100,000 women from 20Continue reading “31 Photos Of Life Inside Ravensbrück, The Nazis’ Only All-Female Concentration Camp”
17 Vintage Photographs of The Arrival of World War II Refugees in Oswego, New York in 1944
Before war came, they had not necessarily had much in common. Eva Bass, pictured in the photo below, was a nightclub singer; Julius Hirschler, who appears in the seventh photo, was a banker. The 981 other people with whom they traveled had lives of their own, too. By August of 1944, however, they all sharedContinue reading “17 Vintage Photographs of The Arrival of World War II Refugees in Oswego, New York in 1944”
Attendants Packing Up Some of the 3000 Human Skulls to Be Transferred to the Natural History Museum in London, 1948
Attendants from the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons packing up some of the 3,000 human skulls stored in a shed in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, before their transfer to the Natural History Museum on July 1, 1948. The skulls include those of Chinese pirates, Eskimos and Maoris. The nucleus of human skullsContinue reading “Attendants Packing Up Some of the 3000 Human Skulls to Be Transferred to the Natural History Museum in London, 1948”
This 1940s ‘Slenderizing’ Equipment Promised to Reduce Hips, Buttocks and Thighs
In November 1940, LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt went to New York City and captured model Pat Ogden testing out the trendiest fitness fad of the decade – the Slenderizing Salon. Using metal rollers to massage women’s “problem areas,” the Slenderizing Salon claimed to help women lose weight without exercise by stimulating muscle contractions. (Photos byContinue reading “This 1940s ‘Slenderizing’ Equipment Promised to Reduce Hips, Buttocks and Thighs”
