The 1950s – A Great Time to Live in America

A family and friends somewhere in the United States are seen enjoying some watermelon. Life in America during the 1950s is most often remembered as a period of incredible optimism and stability, influenced by postwar recovery and prosperity. After the hardships brought on by the Great Depression and World War II, many American families finallyContinue reading “The 1950s – A Great Time to Live in America”

The Building of the Kansas Pacific Railway

Image: Engineer camp at the Zuni Pass, in the Sierra Madre, N.M., 975 miles west of Missouri River. The Kansas Pacific Railway and the Struggle to Become a Transcontinental Line In the decade after the American Civil War, few ambitions loomed larger in the imagination of railroad promoters than the dream of a second transcontinentalContinue reading “The Building of the Kansas Pacific Railway”

22 Amazing Vintage Photographs That Capture Everyday Life in the 1940s by Weegee

Weegee, born Usher Fellig on June 12, 1899 in the town of Lemburg (now in Ukraine), first worked as a photographer at age fourteen, three years after his family immigrated to the United States, where his first name was changed to the more American-sounding Arthur. Self-taught, he held many other photography-related jobs before gaining regularContinue reading “22 Amazing Vintage Photographs That Capture Everyday Life in the 1940s by Weegee”