June 30, 2011

Musical Trio

I'm willing to bet that within hours of the first tennis racket being invented, someone used it as a fake guitar/mandolin/lute/whatever. You know you did it. I sure did.

Dublin, Ireland
1920s

June 29, 2011

Glider

I do not even begin to understand what is going on here, but I can't stop trying to figure it out.

June 28, 2011

Plenty to Go Around

The kid checking out the tusks will always have a very different image of a walrus than the boy on its back.

Sunderland Museum, Tyne And Wear, England
1913

Relaxing on the Beach

This photo makes me uncomfortable in so many ways. Aside from the obvious, the only sunblock around in 1950 was sticky, red, and seldom used, and (as a fellow redhead) I can feel her skin sizzling. Get under an umbrella, girl! Somewhere, this woman is sitting around telling her grandkids, "I used to have the best skin, and now look at it." That being said, I think my favorite part of this picture is that no one is watching her contort herself. Was this the acrobats' day out?

Rockaway Beach, New York
1950

Un Quartier Embrouillé

If Da Vinci were the norm and artists took to the skies, practicality would not always come first.

The Life Electric
1890, illustrator Albert Robida

June 25, 2011

The Windy City

When I look at this photo, I hear a fierce whirring sound.

Chicago World's Fair
1893

June 23, 2011

A Salty Dog

Clearly an old hand doing a little exploring.

1961

June 21, 2011

SYL

I would hang this on a wall as a poster. What do you think they were playing, there at the country store?

Barre Mills, WI

Citizenship

I'm a camper. I like to camp. Although, I don't mind a bed, either. That being said, I think this photo sort of sums up group camping in an amazing way. 

St. James, NY
early 1970s

Escape

Escape, no doubt. But the out-for-a-sunny-hike kind or the getting-away-from kind?

Erdington, Birmingham
1947 or 48

June 19, 2011

Space Ring

I don't know quite what's going on here, but it makes me happy to look at it.

Russian Space Magazine for Children
1964

June 7, 2011

Three People on a Stile

This is the strangest photo. Does that woman on the left appear to have been dropped in suddenly from above just now?

Black River Falls, Wisconsin
1899, photographer Charles Van Schaick

one way to tell her

If I ever found myself in the position of running a gay bar, I would call it Open Secrets.

Philadelphia Gay Pride
1972, photographer Kay Tobin Lahusen
from NYPL

June 4, 2011

flip turned upside down

Hippie college at its finest. I hear they do a lot of drugs down that way. (I kid, I kid.)

(I don't really kid.)

New College, Sarasota, Florida
1970s

To The Moon

This has got to be a joke, right? Except that neither of them look like they're joking. She looks concerned (although not concerned enough for a barefoot woman with a jet strapped to her chest) and he looks nefarious and ready to light the sonuvagun up. Movie? Crazies? Just for fun?

Santa Monica, California
1935

Enlisting in the Marines

Complete body confidence. "Go ahead," he's saying. "Peek."

San Francisco, California
1941

Face protection from snowstorms

Or so they say, but I suspect they are actually an attempt to blend in with the alien invaders from the Bird Planet.

Montreal, Canada
1939

June 3, 2011

all in a line

What was the rest of this kid's life like? It's always funny to think about how normal anything can seem when that's what you are used to.

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