The Passion of Former Days: snow

Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts

10 February, 2015

The Joy of Snow Shovelling

It might not be fun, but at least the misery has been shared over the centuries....

Boston Public Library

Shovelling snow, Boston, 1917-1934. Source

Boston Public Library

More snow shovelling in Boston, 1936. Source

National Library of Ireland

Shovelling snow into the Liffey, Dublin, 1936. Source

Australian Soldiers Playing in the Snow

Though it certainly does snow in Australia, and the country even has ski hills, the majority of Australians don't grow up with snow. Particularly in the days before long-distance travel was commonplace, a lot of Australians never even saw snow. So when Australian soldiers were posted abroad to places like Northern Europe, Canada, and Korea, they tended to have an awful lot of fun with it.

Snowball-armed soldiers and their prizewinning kangaroo snowman at a Convalescent Camp in England, 1917. Source

Australian soldiers having a snowball fight at a camp in southern England, 1916. Source

Nurses and convalescent Australian soldiers have a snowball fight at a hospital in southern England, WWI. Source

Adventures in Wintersport

The end of another Winter Olympics! I really love the Winter Olympics-- for a lot of reasons (one of the big ones being I'm Canadian and we're good at them, haha), but most relevantly because they get us to watch and actually care about the kinds of winter sports most people never even think about otherwise. This blog has already covered such standard sports as skiing, skating, and hockey, so this post is dedicated to those 'weird' ones (plus a few classics I couldn't resist... plus a few winter sports just too weird for the Olympics!).

We'll start with one of the odder (and one of my favourites): aerials! I have no idea when aerials became a 'proper' sport, but these fellows were certainly doing an early version of it in the 1950s!

J. R. Eyerman, LIFE © Time Inc.

Idaho, US, 1952. Source

J. R. Eyerman, LIFE © Time Inc.

Skier Jack Reddish, Idaho, 1952. Source

J. R. Eyerman, LIFE © Time Inc.

Skier Stein Eriksen, no date. Source

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

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

"Tobogganing"

This isn't perhaps the most suitable post for early June, but I just came across these and they are far too wonderful to wait until it snows again.

So it's the 1860s and you live in Quebec, and since you live in Quebec you really love to toboggan. You love it so much that you really want your picture taken while doing it. However, it's the 1860s and cameras are far too slow to capture motion, as well as very cumbersome to take outdoors, especially when it's minus three hundred degrees. What do you do?

The answer, of course, is obvious. You go to the photographer William Notman in Montreal, who provides the fake slope, fake snow, and fake sleds in his studio. All you have to do is dress up in your toboggan clothes and maybe pretend to crash now and again.

Dates range from 1866-1892, with a particular surge in 1869-70. All by William Notman or his studio.

Musee McCord Museum

Source

Musee McCord Museum

Source

Musee McCord Museum

Source

Sledding

Though it's officially been spring for a few days now, the weather in some places (such as where I live) hasn't necessarily caught up. So for those of us who verge on insanity every time they see it snowing-- again!--, a set of pictures to remind us that it can in fact be fun. And for those lucky folks who do have spring--well, they're good fun pictures anyway!

University of Washington Libraries

Obviously this is staged, and I have my suspicions it may in fact be a studio shot altogether (that mountain looks suspiciously painterly...). I love it either way. 1920s, Washington (State). Source

Peter Stackpole, LIFE

Kids sledding in Central Park, NYC, 1954. Source

Library of Congress

People sledding in Central Park again, ca. 1910 this time. Source

World War One in the Snow

As if the trenches of World War One weren't bad enough the rest of the year, there was winter to contend with. Soldiers were constantly out in the snow, ice, and generally damp conditions, with little to no extra clothing. Very few British soldiers were even allocated gloves. Though official World War One photographs such as these were generally intended to present the front in the best possible light, there really isn't any way to gloss over this kind of cold misery.

From the National Library of Scotland.

National Library of Scotland

Soldiers in a trench "where bombs take the place of snowballs", as the original caption puts it. Source

National Library of Scotland

Soldiers crossing an icy ditch on the way to the trenches. Source

National Library of Scotland

A working party spattered with snow. Source

Land of Ice

Photographs from Greenland, 1936.

From the LIFE photo archives (photographer unidentified).

A Greenlander in a kayak beside an iceberg. Source

A view of ships in the village harbour. Source

A fisherman cleaning and deboning fish. Source

In Antarctica

We've seen the fantastic colour photographs of Shackleton's Endurance in Antarctica, 1915, but they only skim the surface of photographer Frank Hurley's work in Antarctica. Between 1911 and 1932 he visited the continent six times, accumulating stunning captures of landscapes, people, animals, and expeditions. Today, a selection.

From various Australian institutions on the Flickr Commons (for specifics, see links).