The Passion of Former Days: 2013

30 December, 2013

Skiing in Norway

Photographs of people skiing in Norway in the 1910s and 1920s, taken by Kristian Berge, the same amateur photographer whose landscape photographs were featured in this post.

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

Skiers ready to set out, ca. 1918-1920. Source

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

Skiers taking a rest, 1924. Source

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

A cross-country ski race, 1924. Source

Christmas Seals of Former Days

You probably know the Christmas seals the Lung Association puts out every year as a fundraiser-- I seem to recall a time when they mailed them to you before asking you to pay, but now apparently you have to order them. They've been putting them out since 1907, and you can see a nifty gallery of seals since 1920 on their site. However, if you have ever experienced them live, you'll know they don't come one by one, as shown in the gallery--they come in massive sheets, usually in different designs, sometimes with designs spanning several seals. Also, they weren't just made in the United States-- different countries had their own designs.

Luckily, I have a nice little collection of these, coming from my late grandmother. It is in no way complete, but it's fun to see the vintage sheets and international seals--and lots of great graphic design!

personal collection

1937

personal collection

1944

personal collection

1945

Stereographs of Christmas

Stereographs were the mass entertainment of their day, so it is little surprise that, like mass entertainment today, they hopped on the Christmas bandwagon this time of year (though their Santa was a bit thinner than ours!).

New York Public Library

H. Spears Christmas tree with toys, 1873. Source

New York Public Library

Toys set up in a Christmas-decorated room. Source

Library of Congress

"Something for all, I have something for all." c. 1897. Source

The First Batch of Christmas Postcards

It's been about a year now since the start of my addiction to the holiday postcard collection of the New York Public Library. It began with a heap of Christmas postcards, followed by postcards for most major holidays this year. Now we're back to Christmas--fortunately the Christmas category has over 700 postcards! Here's a sampling to start the season.

New York Public Library

Written on verso: "Dear Cousin / Isn't this an appropriate message for the times-- [illegible] for you from Lizzie / I am trusting that two little girls won't scrap in taking their pick." Source

New York Public Library

No date on postmark. Source

New York Public Library

Written on verso: "Dear Laura, the hat pin and cushion are for you the brush and comb handkerchief and hair ribbon for Anna. Please give Abram the tie and Charlie the suspenders. Wish you all a Happy Xmas. Your loving sister Lotty. Source

Snowmen of Former Days

Whatever time period they live in, people are pretty predictable. Whenever it snows, the first thing they do is have a snowball fight. The second thing is make a snowman.

Today, over a century of those snowmen!

State Library and Archives Florida

Students at Florida State University, Tallahassee, pose around their snowman, 1958. Source

Library of Congress

Snowman stereo, ca. 1888. Source

National Library of Wales

A snowman in 1853 (salt paper print). Source

"Outside" in the "Snow"

Having your photograph taken in a nineteenth century studio didn't necessarily mean you had to look like you were standing in a studio (at least, with a bit of imagination). Usually this was accomplished by backdrops, sometimes with the addition of props. Sometimes a bit of dress-up, too.

For a while Montreal photographer William Notman (whose photographs of people "tobogganing" we've already seen) went one further. Notman was well-known for his composite photographs, where the figures from hundreds of individual photographs were carefully cut out and pasted onto a painted backdrop to create a group picture, which was then re-photographed to create the final product. However, the composite model wasn't restricted to group. A figure or two from a studio portrait could also be cut out, and pasted onto the backdrop the sitter desired.

In very snowy Montreal, apparently a very snowy backdrop was popular. Sitters dressed up in their winter clothes, sometimes even with skates, snowshoes, or curling stones. Fake snow for clothing was also an option.

Musee McCord Museum

Messrs Crake, 1876. Source

Musee McCord Museum

Mrs. Davidson, 1876. Source

Musee McCord Museum

J. Wilson, 1876. Source

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Happy belated Thanksgiving to the American folks! To go with those leftovers, how about a few early 20th century Thanksgiving postcards from the New York Public Library?

New York Public Library

Postmarked 1909. Source

New York Public Library

Postmarked 1915. Source

New York Public Library

Written: "Why is it I never hear from you?" Postmarked 1909. Source

Strange Photos from the LIFE Archives

In all the poking through the online archives of LIFE magazine that I've done for this blog, I sometimes come across photos that are just plain weird. Sometimes they make more sense with the caption; sometimes they make less.

Francis Miller, LIFE © Time Inc.

A man carrying a giant pickle to the top of a radio tower. Of course. 1949. Source

Wallace Kirkland, LIFE © Time Inc.

The winners of a Chiropractic Beauty Contest, with their winning x-rays, 1956. Source

Peter Stackpole, LIFE © Time Inc.

A raven smoking a pipe, 1939. Source

La Fête de la Sainte-Catherine

St. Catherine is, among other things, the patron saint of unmarried women. On St. Catherine's Day (25th November, ie, today) it was traditional in France for unmarried women to pray to her for a husband, and, especially if they were over 25, to send each other cards on the day. The colourful 1920s postcards I collect and feature in my other blog, Mille Baisers, were popular for this in the 20s and 30s, especially as they typically feature single women looking fabulous or women looking fabulous with the attention of an adoring man. Today, a selection from my collection! The verso of each card are included.

personal collection

Backdrops of the Civil War

Another journey into the backdrops used by photographer's studios, this time in a certain context. During the American Civil War, ambrotype and tintype portraits of soldiers were made in great numbers by photographers who set up temporary studios at military camps (this blog has featured quite a few). While the majority of photographers just went with the plain canvas backdrop, painted backdrops were also in common use. Backdrops depicting camp scenes--usually with a prominent American flag-- were popular, along with a variety of landscapes, from the realistic to the somewhat fanciful. It is very interesting to see the kinds of scenes these young men wanted to be placed in (or the photographer though they might want to be placed it, at least).

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a landscape backdrop. Source

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a checkered terrace backdrop. Source

Library of Congress

A Union soldier with a military camp backdrop. Source

Early 20th Century Views of Norway

Beautiful photographs of Norway taken in the 1910s and 1920s by the very talented amateur photographer Kristian Berge, an engineer in his day job. More of his work can be seen here.

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

The Oppstrynsvatnet lake, 1922. Source

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

Ålesund harbour, 1922. Source

Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane

Utvær, 1913. Source

Autochromes of Nature

The autochrome-- the first commercially available colour process (1907-1932)-- and nature met wonderfully. The autochrome required long exposure times, 30 seconds to a minute, so a naturally static view was helpful. Moreover, if you now have a way to take pictures in colour, well, what better to use that on than the capture of bright flowers and the fresh green of leaves? Nature scenes are among the most popular of amateur autochromes at all levels, and it's easy to see why.

George Eastman House

Roses in a vase, ca. 1915. Source

George Eastman House

Scene with water and trees, ca. 1910. Source

George Eastman House

The Matterhorn, Switzerland, ca. 1915. Source

The Photographer's Cat

Gjon Mili is one of my favourite photographers, and I've shared photographs of his on many occasions (A general selection, stroboscopic photographs, filming of West Side Story, and 1940s nightlife in Paris). He did a lot of shooting in his own studio where he could control the lighting, of which he was a master.

Also at his studio was his gorgeous black cat, Blackie. Blackie, it seems, never hesitated to make friends with Mili's sitters, and Mili in turn didn't hesitate to use Blackie in his shots. He also used Blackie as a sitter himself, resulting in the kind of gorgeously lit black-on-black shots only Mili could create.

Blackie and nightclub entertainer Maune de Revel, 1946. Source

Blackie joining a model in a bridal fashion shoot, 1945. Source

Blackie sitting on a piano as opera star Jennie Tourel plays and sings, 1952. Source

A Taste of Lobster

The people working at the Nova Scotia Archives are wonderful-- not only do they have in their collection a scrapbook of labels from canned lobsters (1880-1938), they recognized the quirky, colourful appeal of these labels, digitized them, and shared them on the Flickr Commons. You are awesome, folks of the Nova Scotia Archives.

As, I would say, are these lobster labels:

Nova Scotia Archives

Source

Nova Scotia Archives

Source

Nova Scotia Archives

Source

Shore Leave in Central Park

A couple of young sailors making the most of their time on leave-- with girls, of course. New York City, 1943, shot by Peter Stackpole for LIFE (though apparently unpublished).