Third Anniversary!

Wow... today The Passion of Former Days is three!! I cannot believe how the time has flown, nor how much success this blog has had, nor how wonderful you followers are. This blog has been literally life-changing; that launch day three years ago led me into the field of photographic history and the master's degree I am getting frightfully close to completing. Thanks to this blog I've made cyanotypes and taken photographs with a 1920s Vest Pocket Kodak and handled daguerreotypes from the first couple years of photography's existence.

 In three years we've had over 400 posts and 620,000 page views-- now THAT I cannot believe! It is totally thanks to you all that it's gone the way it has-- thank you!!

Thanks to the aforementioned masters and particularly work on a thesis on the deckle-edge in snapshots, I haven't had enough spare brain energy to think up anything good for the anniversary, though, of course, general good stuff is upcoming. So, today's post is simply a hodgepodge of random photographs from the Flickr Commons (the initial source of inspiration for the blog) that I've always really liked but never had a place for in a formal post.

Once more, thank you all!!

State Library of Queensland

A group of people in party dress posed in a fake boat, Australia, ca. 1940. Source

Nationaal Archief

Mardi Gras costumes, the Netherlands, 1931. Source

George Eastman House

A spirit photograph including a cabinet card, ca. 1865. Source

State Library of New South Wales

A photograph taken by the Australasian Antarctic Exhibition, ca. 1912, exhibited under the title "A dreamy Venice in seal-land." Source

Library of Congress

Model airplanes decorating the train concourses at Chicago's Union Station, 1943. Source

San Diego Air and Space Museum

A snapshot of pilot Ruth Alexander being silly with a friend, ca. 1930. Source

University of Washington Libraries

A party of boys in an ice cave, Washington State, ca. 1935. Source

State Library of New South Wales

Airmen leaving Australia for Canada under the Empire Air Training Scheme, 1941. Source

George Eastman House

An ad for Dodge taken around 1932 by Nikolas Muray. Source

University of Washington Archives

A girl hugging a lamb and a puppy, ca. 1929-1932. Source

State Library of New South Wales

The Royal Agricultural Show, Australia, 1937. Source

New York Public Library

The interior of Penn Station (how could they tear this down??), 1935-1938, by Berenice Abbott. Source

Swedish National Heritage Board

People at Skansen, an open-air museum in Stockholm, ca. 1943. Source