Sunday 15 July 2012

Come with me on a journey through time and space

NYC Grand Central Terminal, ca 1935 - 1941
(Source: NYC Municipal Archives)
I'm so inspired by photography. But there's something especially magical about vintage photographs. I have a box full from my nana that I'm planning to digitise for her. I lose hours going through them, poring over the details. You can see some vintage photo's of my beautiful nanas Elsie and Joan, in previous posts here and here.

The New York City Municipal Archives have recently released a huge collection of 870,000 images to the public which offer us a glimpse into life in the city of dreams in the early twentieth century.  I love seeing what life might have been like, extraordinary landmarks and the most ordinary of daily activities lit with the warmth of nostalgia.

The images below were sourced from The Atlantic, you can see the rest of their collection here. I had a hard time choosing which pictures to post. Once immersed, you could resurface from this collection and realise the moon has risen many times over.  You have been warned ;-)

6th and 40th Street, 18 May 1940
Look closely, the newspaper headline reads "Nazi army now 75 miles from Paris"
(Source: NYC Municipal Archives)
Original City Hall station, 1904
(Source: NYC Municipal Archives)
Bleeker Street, August 1937
(Source: NYC Municipal Archives)
Boys playing stick ball, 1916-1920
(Source: NYC Municipal Archives)
Times Square, January 1938
(Source: NYC Municipal Archives)
Traffic jam in Manhattan, 29 January 1923
(Source: NYC Municipal Archives)
Trolley car driver, 25th September 1924
(Source: NYC Municipal Archives)
View from NY Tower Bridge, 22nd December 1936
(Source: NYC Municipal Archives)
And, since we're in flashback mode, I was delighted to discover some online archives of my home. I mentioned you could get lost in all this vintage photography right?

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney has published a number of amazing interactive collections online. Many images have been determined by the Museum to have  ‘no known Copyright’ and are being made available for public download through the Commons on Flickr.

Two children on a pony riding to school
Riding a pony to school.  LOVE that the girl is in charge!
(source)
King & George St., Sydney
King & George Street, Sydney
(Source)
Middle Harbour Bridge, North Sydney
Middle Harbour Bridge
(Source)
Bondi Bay, Sydney
(Source)
Queen Victoria Markets, now Queen Victoria Building
(source)
Manly Beach, Sydney
(Source)
Sydney Observatory
(Source)
So gorgeous! If you're not suffering from vintage photo fatigue by now, The Tyrrell Collection is another stunning record of country and city life in Australia during the late 1800's and early 1900's.

Belinda x

* Post title, a quote from The Mighty Boosh.

2 comments:

  1. i am a wee bit obsessed over these too. all the people back then always looked so pulled together with their clothing, it amazes me.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment, so nice to hear from you. Belinda x

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