Children's Tea Parties

Kids have been enjoying miniature tea parties with their friends and dolls for a long time!

Library of Congress

Girls having a tea party with their dolls, ca. 1900. Source

State Library of Queensland

A little girl pouring tea for her doll, 1918, Queensland, Australia. Source

UA Archives - Upper Arlington Public Library 

Two girls and two boys have tea on a front lawn, 1918. Source

On the Playground

Kids (and some adults!) on a variety of old playgrounds. 

Oregon State University

Teenage girls on a playground, ca. 1945. Source

University of Washington Libraries

A playground in Seattle, ca. 1910. Source

Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest

A packed playground in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1946. Source

Kids Playing in the Leaves

Happy start of fall! A set from LIFE photographer Allan Grant, 1953:

Allan Grant, LIFE © Time Inc.

Source

Allan Grant, LIFE © Time Inc.

Source

Allan Grant, LIFE © Time Inc.

Source

Mother's Day

Photographs of mothers and children. Happy Mother's Day!

Anonymous photographs from the LIFE archives, ca. 1895-ca. 1955

LIFE archives © Time Inc.

Source

LIFE archives © Time Inc.

Source

LIFE archives © Time Inc.

Source

Daguerreotype Babies

From the first generation of babies to be captured by photograph!

 Average exposure time for a portraits in a well-lit studio during the Daguerrian era (1839-1860) was about 2-5 seconds, during which the sitter couldn't move or the picture would blur. Not bad for an adult sitter, but pretty well impossible for the little ones, let alone getting a pose, gaze, and preventing crying at parental separation. So just about every photograph from the time (well, most of the 19th century!) has a baby on a mother's lap. Sometimes she's a part of the picture and sometimes she's cropped out, or obscured, or even disguised as furniture!

George Eastman House

By Southworth and Hawes, Boston, ca. 1850. Source

Library of Congress

ca. 1855. Source

George Eastman House

By Southworth and Hawes, Boston, ca. 1850. Source

Daguerreotype Children II

All right, well, that "I'm back" was rather preliminary. :) I'll work on getting back on track, but meanwhile let's just assume this blog will a bit sporradic for a while. 

Today, another set of children of the 1850s! How incredible is it that we can look into the faces of children from the 1850s?  

Many of these are the work of the incomparable daguerreotype team Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes.

George Eastman House

An unidentified child by Southworth and Hawes, c. 1850. Source

Library of Congress

A child holding a black rag doll, c. 1852. Source

George Eastman House

An unidentified girl by Southworth and Hawes, c. 1850. Source

Growing Up

A photo series of babies at various phases of development, by Nina Leen, 1942. 

A one month baby, able to yawn as well as smile and sneeze. Source

A three-month-old baby, able to lift its head and look around. Source

A four-month-old discovering his hands. Source

Father's Day

Photos of dads and their kids, of course!

Nina Leen, LIFE © Time Inc.

A father playing with his child, undated. Source

Library of Congress

Karl Franz Josef (last Emperor of Austria-Hungary) with his son, 1913. Source

Ed Clark, LIFE © Time Inc.

A dad builds Lincoln Logs with his kids, Denver, 1953. Source

Mother's Day

We had a lovely set of mother and child photographs for UK Mother's Day; today, another set today, for mothers everywhere else.

Happy Mother's Day!

Photographs from the LIFE archive, uncaptioned and undated. 

LIFE archives © Time Inc.

Source

LIFE archives © Time Inc.

Source

LIFE archives © Time Inc.

Source

Children's Zoo

My childhood petting zoos never involved petting lion cubs and sharing playgrounds with baby goats! Photos from the San Diego children's zoo, 1959 (SD), and Brookfield children's zoo, 1953 (B).

Allan Grant, LIFE © Time Inc.

A little girl meet a 2 month old camel named Barmey (SD). Source

Allan Grant, LIFE © Time Inc.

Petting lion cubs (SD). Source

Howard Sochurek, LIFE © Time Inc.

Getting to know a baby elephant. (B). Source

Animal Therapy

Photos of children and animals at a hospital in Michigan that encourages therapy through animals. So wonderful, anything that can put a smile on the face of a kid in hospital is more than worthwhile!

1956, by Francis Miller for LIFE.

A nurse brings a puppy to a child. Source

A nurse helps a child cuddle a duckling in a towel. Source

Nurses help the kids bathe a baby pig. Source

A little girl looks at a pool of ducklings while receiving tests. Source

A little boy cuddles a hamster. Source

A boy feeds a-- er, coati. I'm not sure why they have one of those, but, well! The caption says 'ferret-- it's not.  Source

A group of kids watch the coati climb a high-wire. Source

A little girl pushes a rabbit in a stroller while another carries a puppy. Source

A boy in body braces feeds a baby pig. Source

A nurse holds a rabbit for a teenage girl undergoing a test. Source

Children with kittens. Source

A little girl shines a flashlight on the turtle at her beside. Source

Kids watching and feeding a pool of ducklings. Source

I think the fuzzy thing is the coati again. Source

A girl cuddles a puppy. Source

A little girl is held up to pet and feed a kitten. Source

Children on the Home Front

Photographs of children at home in England during World War One. From the Imperial War Museum.

Girl guides play a game with the children of soldiers. Source

Children feed chickens. Source

Boys draw a plant in a class at school. Source

A girl feeding ducks. Source

Children make clothing at school. Source

A girl feed Neddy the donkey. Source

Cuddles for Neddy. Source

Boy Scouts working on vegetable allotments. Source

A boy milks a cow. Source

Boy Scouts give out chocolate and cigarettes to departing American soldiers. Source

A Girl Guide participates in an exercise in flag communications. Source

A young child looks at a photograph of a soldier at an exhibition of war photography in London. Source

Belgian boys being educated in Oxford by Belgian teachers. Source

A girl drives cows into a farmyard for milking. Source

Children feeding chickens. Source

A little girl feeds rabbits (who seem close to escaping!). Source

Children pay their weekly contributions to the War Savings Association. Source

Girls posing with the cabbages they've grown for school. Source

Students at an exhibition of Australian war photographs in Leeds. Source

Girls stoke a fire in an allotment on the school grounds. Source

Girls tend to a vegetable garden. Source

Boys climb on captured German artillery pieces on display in London. Source

Girls work on an allotment at school. Source

Girls harvest marrows from the school vegetable garden. Source

Little girls run and play. Source