On the Telephone

Photos from the days when people actually used telephones to talk!

Nina Leen, LIFE © Time Inc.

A woman on the phone at work, US, 1947. Source

William C. Shrout, LIFE © Time Inc.

Chief of the Air Corps Henry H. Arnold on the phone at his desk in the War Office, 1940. Source

Martha Holmes, LIFE © Time Inc.

Children phoning "Santa Claus" at Schwartz's toy store, 1947. Source

On the Newsstands

Simply, photographs of newsstands in former days!

(I like to play "spot the LIFE magazine" for those from 1936 onwards).

Note for those interested: All but two of the Library of Congress ones are FSA/OWI photographs--apparently it was a popular theme.

Dmitri Kessel, LIFE © Time Inc.

A man at a newsstand in Athens, Greece, 1948. Source

Mark Kauffman, LIFE © Time Inc.

A newsstand in Shanghai, 1947. Source

Dmitri Kessel, LIFE © Time Inc.

Another Greek newsstand, 1948. Source

At The Typewriter

The long ago days of the typewriter...

From various institutions (but mostly LIFE). 

Carl Mydans, LIFE © Time Inc.

TIME correspondent Melville Jacoby at a candelit typewriter reporting on WWII. Probably Australia, 1942. Source

Lisa Larsen, LIFE © Time Inc.

A secretary at her typewriter, NYC, 1954. Source

Michael Rougier, LIFE © Time Inc.

Playwright Paddy Chayefsky with his typewriter at a garment factory (for some reason not given), 1954. Source

Reading the Papers

All kinds of papers, all kinds of time periods, all kinds of places.

A sheep ranch overseer reading a paper, Australia, 1915. Source

Women reading a paper in the Congressional Library's Reading Room, Washington, DC, 1941. Source

Senator Robert F. Wagner reading a paper, US, 1939. Source

A Writer Writes

People writing!

Painter Maurice Utrillo writing, 1949. Source

Playwright Thornton Wilder writing near Saratoga Springs, New York, 1956. Source

Old Sikh men writing at a desk, India, 1946. Source

A nun writing in her room, 1948. Source

George Bernard Shaw writing in a notebook, 1914. Source

Author Mary McCarthy at her typewriter, 1944. Source

Renowned harpsichordist Wanda Landowska writes a letter, 1949. Source

Vladimir Nabokov writing in his car, Ithaca, New York, 1958. Source

Brazilian poet Rosalina Coelho writing with her lipstick, Brazil, 1943. Source

A little boy writing about the things he likes to do, 1948. Source

Queen Victoria, of course. 1892. Source

A woman writing in her notebook, 1940. Source

Art critic Bernard Berenson, Florence, Italy, 1948. Source

Actress Millie Perkins writing in her hotel room, NYC, 1959. Source

An American soldier writing a letter, Marshall Island, 1944. Source

Arthur Conan Doyle writing, 1912. Source

Marilyn Monroe writing at home in Hollywood, 1953. Source

Historian and newspaperman Douglas Southall Freeman writing copy in his office, Richmond, Virginia, 1940. Source

Charles Dickens writing, 1855. Source

An inmate at San Quentin prison sits alone in the mess hall writing a letter, 1947. Source

An American soldier writing a letter home, Korea, 1951. Source

Artist Augustus John writing at his desk, 1946. Source

A student writing a story for the Yale university paper, facing a wall covered with front pages of papers past, 1942. Source