French people staring and waving at the French Army’s remaining troops leaving metropolitan France at Marseilles harbor, 1940. Frenchman crying as the flags of fallen France were marched through the streets of Marseilles on their way to Africa. The man’s face conveys a sense of grief so profound as to transcend our expectations. The photo is nicknamed “ The weeping Frenchman ” and by some other sources as “ The Crying Frenchman “....
The term “burlesque” means a literary, dramatic, or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. It’s a form of theatrical entertainment featuring parodic humor, usually consisting of comic skits and sometimes a chorus line or striptease. Burlesque originated in nineteenth-century music hall entertainments and vaudeville. In the early twentieth century, it emerged as a popular blend of satire, performance art, and adult entertainment....
When societies industrialize, food systems expand and specialize to meet the new waves of customers. These amazing old photographs show Japan’s demae , or delivery men, who braved the crowded streets balancing towers of dozens of piping hot meals on their shoulders to feed the hungry masses. The delivery of food called demae was originally a service for wealthy daimyō (feudal lords) in the 1700s. The wealthy daimyo would send servants to let shopkeepers know that they wanted food delivered to their homes....
Carnage: Amid the appalling devastation and bodies of dead soldiers, a crucifix stands tall – miraculously preserved from the shell fire. The powerful image was captured after a bloody skirmish in 1917. Hidden for 100 years, the astonishing photos by a 16-year-old soldier show how his brothers-in-arms would forever be haunted by the specter of defeat. These photos were taken by Walter Kleinfeldt who joined a German gun crew in 1915 and fought at the Somme aged just 16....
Women and men work amid rows of artillery shells at the National Filling Factory in Chilwell. 1917. During World War One, large numbers of women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example in munitions factories. The high demand for weapons resulted in the munitions factories becoming the largest single employer of women during 1918....
On March 27, 1964, at 5:36 PM, a megathrust earthquake occurred in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska. The epicenter was about 10 km east of the mouth of College Fiord, approximately 90 km west of Valdez and 120 km east of Anchorage. Lasting four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, the magnitude 9.2 earthquake remains the most powerful earthquake recorded in North American history, and the second most powerful earthquake recorded in world history....
Spurred by the instant nationwide success of blended cigarette brands such as Camel, Lucky Strike and Chesterfield cigarette companies spend millions on advertising and promotion to encourage smoking. Tobacco marketers featured healthy, vigorous, fun-loving people in their ads. Often these were celebrity figures from sports and entertainment fields, other times they featured actors portraying physicians, dentists, or scientists . Some ads tapped into concerns about weight gain; some portrayed the middle-class comforts of home, holiday, recreation, or family pets....
The crowded ship bringing American troops back home. This is troopship Queen Elisabeth. Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary were used as troop transports during the Second World War. Their high speeds allowed them to outrun hazards, principally German U-boats, usually allowing them to travel without a convoy. Her carrying capacity was over 15,000 troops and over 900 crew. During her war service as a troopship, Queen Elizabeth carried more than 750,000 troops, and she also sailed some 500,000 miles (800,000 km)....
“This Is A Group Of Bulgarian Peasants Taking A Sun Bath: Sun baths are about all the Balkan people are able to take these days, when a soap shortage is a notable feature of the general economic chaos in the region.” In 1920, the southeastern part of Europe was a miserable place. The endless wars, beginning with the First Balkan War in 1912, continuing with World War I in 1914-1918, and other ethnic conflicts, had disrupted countless lives....
Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Buzz Aldrin poses with the US flag planted on the Sea of Tranquility. If you look closely, you can see Aldrin’s face through his helmet visor. At 10:39 pm on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar module’s ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation....
The 1960s automobiles belonged to a distinct decade of automobile history with the advent of economy, muscle and pony cars. The 1960s saw the American automobile industry consolidating into the Big Three: General Motors, FordChrysler, and American Motors. 1963 Ford Fairlane Squire Wagon. These firms not only dominated the domestic market with the sales of the 1960s cars but the global market as well. In 1960 American companies built 93 percent of the autos sold in the United States and 48 percent of the world....
This unique photo collection features a stunning array of vintage cameras, some of which were ingeniously concealed in everyday objects. From a camera hidden in a matchbox to one camouflaged as a pocket watch for covert operations, these devices show the ingenious designs of yesteryear, some dating back to the 1880s. Some of these special cameras were made to look like a book, a packet of cigarettes, binoculars, radio player and even a handgun....
De Beer mine workers are X-rayed at the end of every shift before leaving the diamond mines, Kimberley, South Africa, October 1954. South African mineworkers being x-rayed before leaving the diamond mines. A trained radiologist like the one in the picture can easily identify even the smallest diamond, which a would-be thief might attempt to smuggle out of the mine in his stomach. Each day at the end of the shift, the miners would have to go through the x-ray machine for inspection....
The original “Mercury Seven” astronauts, L. Gordon Cooper, M. Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Virgil I. Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald K. Slayton wear clothing fashioned from parachutes during desert survival training at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada. 1960. All NASA astronaut groups were given a series of survival courses to prepare them for expected landings in remote, inhospitable areas. The objective of preparing the crews this way was to give them confidence and the ability to deal with an emergency or off-nominal landing situation....
Eero Saarinen’s outlandish air terminal for TWA at New York’s JFK International Airport was sculpted as an abstract symbol of flight. Unlike most air terminals, which seemed intent on depressing passengers, Saarinen’s not only raised the spirits but also showed that concrete structures could be truly delightful. Saarinen himself described this intriguing building as one “in which the architecture itself would express the drama and excitement of travel…shapes deliberately chosen in order to emphasize an upward-soaring quality of line....
Double-decker bus tilt testing. April, 1933. London. For those who have visited London and wondered how they know their double-decker buses won’t fall over, this is apparently how they find out. Per police regulation, employees of the London General Omnibus Company put their 60-person bus to a “tilt test”. The test was considered passed if the double-decker buses would tilt 28 degrees without tipping. There are sandbags in the upper deck to simulate 60 passengers....
These images were taken in German-occupied Paris by André Zucca for the German propaganda magazine Signal using rare Agfacolor film supplied by the Wehrmacht. The shots depict fashionable young women and commuters mixed with German soldiers on the bustling Paris streets. The famous roads of the French capital are adorned with symbols of the German regime but Parisians appear jubilant. André Zucca was born in 1897 in Paris, the son of an Italian dressmaker....
During the 19th century, New York City solidified its position as America’s largest and most dynamic city, growing into a bustling metropolis that attracted influential figures and ambitious entrepreneurs. Notable personalities such as Washington Irving, Phineas T. Barnum, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and John Jacob Astor rose to prominence in this thriving hub of culture and commerce. Regardless Its progress, the city faced significant challenges, including the infamous Five Points slum and the violent 1863 Draft Riots....
A man walking in winter in the ruins of the synagogue on Wolborska street (destroyed by Germans in 1939). 1940. The Lodz ghetto became the second largest ghetto created by the Nazis after their invasion of Poland – the largest was the Warsaw Ghetto. The ghetto was only originally intended to be a temporary feature in Lodz but the sheer number of people involved meant that it became a permanent feature of Lodz until August 1944 when those who remained were transported to Auschwitz/Birkenau....
Journeying through history often feels distant when peering at faded black and white photographs that seem to belong to another world. The mind craves color, yearning for a connection that black and white imagery struggles to provide. Adding color to photos used to be really hard before computers came along. People had to paint colors onto the photos, which took a lot of care and time. Coney Island, New York, 1905....
