It's always delightful to come across photographs of nineteenth-century people having fun. We're so used to the image of the stern, still Victorians that as soon as you see them relaxed and smiling, they almost stop seeming like Victorians. Suddenly they look like they could be people we know, just in costume, and the gap between 2014 and 1894 seems suddenly a lot less.
These stereographs, from the Atlantic City beach in the 1890s, have quite a bit of that wonderful "just people in costume" feel.
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| New York Public Library |
1894. Source
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| New York Public Library |
1890. Source
The crowd shots are especially good when you use the NYPL's zoom-in feature:
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| New York Public Library |
1891. Source
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| New York Public Library |
1902. Source
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| New York Public Library |
With the caption "Say that again and I'll dip you in." 1897. Source
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| New York Public Library |
1895. Source
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| New York Public Library |
1897. Source
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| Library of Congress |
1903. Source
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| New York Public Library |
Don't you love the floppy hats everyone's wearing? 1905. Source
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| New York Public Library |
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| New York Public Library |
1901. Source
(detail)
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