Can the world ever forget Vikki Dougan, the model who was once known as “The Back” of Hollywood? Vikki was a provocateur who turned heads during her prime, and many decades later, people who saw her in her acts and people who only heard about her still talk about the influence the model wielded through her famous backless dress. Vikki Dougan was born Edith Tooker in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, and was soon sent by her mother to live in boarding school in upstate New York....

Mining coal has always been a dangerous and challenging occupation, requiring workers to dig deep underground, often in cramped and dangerous conditions. In this article, we present a collection of vintage photos that offer a glimpse into the daily struggles and hardships of coal miners in the early to the mid-20th century. These photographs capture miners at work, as they use pickaxes, shovels, and other tools to extract coal from deep within the earth....

Littlefeather represented Marlon Brando at the 45th Academy Awards in 1973, where she—on Brando’s behalf—declined the Best Actor award that he won for his performance in The Godfather . The favorite to win, Brando boycotted the ceremony as a protest against Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans and to draw attention to the standoff at Wounded Knee. During her speech, the audience’s response to Brando’s boycotting was divided between booing and applause....

Lord Walter Rothschild with his team of carriage-pulling zebras. Rothschild (1868 – 1937) of the global Rothschild banking family, owned his own zoo. There has always been great interest in domesticating and training zebras as riding and harnessing animals. In the 1760s, French naturalist Buffon believed that zebras could replace horses and there were rumors in Paris that the Dutch had already trained a team of zebras to pull a cart....

Here’s a weird relic from the past: a 1979 calendar dedicated to cocaine. Yes, you read it correctly, to cocaine. While the substance was illegal, it wasn’t considered all that bad (and it was normal to advertise cocaine gadgets in magazines). Each month’s photo shows the coca plant at a different stage of its transition to cocaine powder, from its source in the Andes to its destination as a Christmas gift, and of course, users enjoying it....

Acoustic location was used from mid-WW1 to the early years of WW2 for the passive detection of aircraft by picking up the noise of the engines. Passive acoustic location involves the detection of sound or vibration created by the object being detected, which is then analyzed to determine the location of the object in question. Horns give both acoustic gain and directionality; the increased inter-horn spacing compared with human ears increases the observer’s ability to localize the direction of a sound....

The name Titanic derives from the Titans of Greek mythology. Built in Belfast, Ireland, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, RMS Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners—the first was RMS Olympic and the third was HMHS Britannic. Britannic was originally to be called Gigantic and was to be over 1,000 feet (300 m) long. They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line’s fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912....

Boeing B-17F radar bombing through clouds: Bremen, Germany, November 13, 1943. The B-17s (Boeing Flying Fortress) are members of the 384th Bombardment Group (“Triangle P”). Considering the date, on missions like this, the B-17s would normally be assisted by an aircraft with a nose-mounted version of the British H2S or H2X radar, capable of seeing through thick clouds to the ground and producing a reasonable image of the target city....

Smith was a Chippewa Indian who lived in the Cass Lake, Minnesota area and is reputed to have died at the age of 138. He was known as “The Old Indian” to the white people. The Minneapolis Morning Tribune obituary says Ga-Be-Nah-Gewn-Wonce (variously known as Kay-bah-nung-we-way , Sloughing Flesh, Wrinkled Meat or plain old — well, really old — John Smith) was reputed to be 138 years old when he died....

A hired reader reads to cigar makers hard at work in a Cuban cigar factory, ca. 1900-1910. The practice of reading aloud while others listen intently as they engage in manual labor has a long and distinguished tradition throughout the Caribbean in the practice of cigar manufacture. Because the job of rolling cigar after cigar could become monotonous, the workers wanted something to occupy and stimulate the mind. Thus arose the tradition of lectors , who sat perched on an elevated platform in the cigar factory, reading to the workers....

At Citrus High School in California, honor student Judy Fay worked on the blackboard during an English class. By the 1970s teenage pregnancies were recognized as a problem worldwide. The continuing apprehension about teenage pregnancy was based on the profound impact that teenage pregnancy could have on the lives of the girls and their children. Demographic studies reported that in developed countries such as the United States, teenage pregnancy results in lower educational attainment, increased rates of poverty, and worse “life outcomes” for children of teenage mothers compared to children of young adult women....

German soldiers strip boots and other equipment from dead American soldiers, 1944 These American soldiers probably got ambushed by German machine guns when they were attempting a routine street crossing at the wrong time. They’re at a crossroads, a good spot to ambush an advancing army. This photo is taken during the early hours of the Battle of the Bulge, 1944. Pen marks indicate things Army censors redacted after the film was captured....

Rasputin, Hermogen and Iliodor next to each other in 1906. Within a few years the three men became bitter enemies. Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian peasant, mystical faith healer, and trusted friend of the family of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. He became an influential figure in Saint Petersburg, especially after August 1915, when Nicholas took command of the army fighting in World War I. Hermogenes was a prominent Russian Orthodox religious figure and a monarchist with extreme right ideas, supporting the Union of the Russian People and Black Hundreds....

These photographs were taken in 1988 by Bruno Barbie and Carl De Keyser and show the everyday life in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. By the end of the decade, the Soviet Union was a country descending into chaos, torn apart by natural and industrial catastrophes, political and economic crises. Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika and glasnost (English: restructuring and openness) failed to reach Ukraine as early as other Soviet republics because of Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, a conservative communist appointed by Brezhnev and the First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party, who resigned from his post in 1989....

The story of the Monuments Men is one of the most inspiring tales of heroism and sacrifice in the history of art preservation. These brave men and women risked their lives to save countless priceless artworks from the clutches of the Nazis during World War II. With their unwavering dedication to the cause, they left an indelible mark on the world of art and culture, ensuring that future generations would have access to the masterpieces of the past....

The 1989 Pink Floyd concert in Venice on a floating stage next to San Marco’s Square gathered over 200,000 fans in the crowd and unintentionally resulted in the mayor and the entire city council resigning in the aftermath of their performance. The city authorities had arranged for a free concert to take place in Venice’s historic Piazza San Marco which would be shown on television in more than 12 countries....

Bison were hunted for their skins, with the rest of the animal left behind to decay on the ground. Bison were hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century and were reduced to a few hundred by the mid-1880s. They were hunted for their skins, with the rest of the animals left behind to decay on the ground. Hides were prepared and shipped to the East and Europe (mainly Germany) for processing into leather....

Yeltsin family, 1939. Boris together with his little brother. The young Boris Yeltsin almost drowned in the baptismal font while being christened by a drunk priest. Boris Yeltsin, who became president of Russia in 1991, was one of the most complex political leaders of his time. A longtime Communist Party leader, he was an important leader in the reform (social improvement) movements of the late 1980s and 1990s. Yeltsin was perceived at varying times as a folk hero, as a symbol of Russia’s struggle to establish a democracy, and as a dictatorial figure....

Soviet-era phenotype chart used by police to identify ethnicity. This card was used by police in the Soviet Union to identify different nationalities by facial phenotypes. Originally it was developed by a group of Soviet criminologists based on various mugshot collections. The exact date is unknown, however, based on few Soviet sources, these typical faces sketches were made in 1960-1965. In the nomenclature of the USSR, people weren’t classified based on their race or ethnicity....

When drafted to serve in the Vietnam War, an American GI took a unique approach to his off-duty days in the country. Private 1st Class Lance V. Nix transformed his time into captivating the local’s daily life with his trusty camera. Through his lens, Nix captured a different side of the war experience, away from the dreary combat operations in muddy fields and dense jungles that typically define that era....