The Montgomery Guard

He is a queer bundle of contradictions at all times. Drunk and foul-mouthed, ready to cut the throat of a defenceless stranger at the toss of a cent, fresh from beating his decent mother black and blue to get money for rum, he will resent as an intolerable insult the imputation that he is “no gentleman.” Fighting his battles with the coward’s weapons, the brass-knuckles and the deadly sand-bag, or with brick-bats from the housetops, he is still in all seriousness a lover of fair play, and as likely as not, when his gang has downed a policeman in a battle that has cost a dozen broken heads, to be found next saving a drowning child or woman at the peril of his own life. It depends on the angle at which he is seen, whether he is a cowardly ruffian, or a possible hero with different training and under different social conditions.
- How the Other Half Lives, Jacob A. Riis

New York City - 1880s - Jacob A. Riis - Preus Museum

familiarity

How long do you have to hang out with the gent with no legs who does tricks on a chair before you cease to notice?

Coney Island, NY

1885, George Bradford Brainerd

from Brooklyn Museum

Bigger Jump

Compare and contrast, class. What one can do, another can, too.

Stand Rock in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

1886, photographer H.H. Bannett

from Camara Democratica

A Jolly Crew

I posted this one for the hats, especially the tam o'shanter twins there on the left. But there's no way they're all gonna fit in that canoe.

Wayzata, MN

1880s

from Hardenbergh.org

Sea Monsters

How much do you suppose sea monster hunters make in today's economy?

1887, illustrator Dan Beard

from Here Be Monsters

Jumping; running straight high jump

I like thinking about her getting all dressed up to go jump over a chair.

1880s, photographer Eadweard J. Muybridge

from George Eastman House

Ella Wesner, male impersonator

More drag kings should wear fezzes, especially if it winds up looking this dapper.

New York City

1880, photographer Napoleon Sarony

from George Eastman House

W. Thelwall Thomas and friends

The Welsh may have some fucked up ideas about spelling, but they sure do know how to wear a hat.

Wales
1882, photographer John Thomas
from Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru

write what you know

Once you know that this is Robert Louis Stevenson, his wife Fanny, and friends, you know why this picture rocks my world.

Butaritari
1889
from the National Library of Scotland

construction of the skeleton

Is there a statue of a man sitting on her arm?

NYC

1883, photographer Albert Fernique

from New York Public Library

Plate 259. Diagrams of internal and external organs of the oyster.

What compels an otherwise sane person to rip these suckers, alive and glistening, from their salty homes and gulp them down raw? That was rhetorical. Pass the cocktail sauce.

Natural History of Useful Aquatic Animals
1880s
from NOAA Photo Library

An Old Daddy in Troy

The two young guys crack me up. They look so pleased with themselves.

From Stuff and Nonsense
1884, illustrated by A.B. Frost
from Tony DiTerlizzi's blog

Horseplay

You just know that doctors and medical students and so on are constantly doing shit with the equipment that they shouldn't. Especially stuff like electroshock machines.

Jackson County, Wisconsin
1880s, photographer Charles Van Schaick
from Wisconson History

Lodge

I've made so many tents and lodges in my life, but the real McCoy always blows me away.

The Dakota
1880s
from Thunder Dreamers

to pay the piper

...'Cross the hills to God knows where
The piper pranced, a leadin'
Each child in Hamlin Town but me,
And I stayed home unheedin'.
My papa says that I was blest
For if that music found me,
I'd be witch-cast like all the rest.
This town grows old around me.
I cannot say I did not hear
That sound so haunting hollow --
I heard, I heard, I heard it clear...
I was afraid to follow.
(Shel Silverstein, "The One Who Stayed")

Illustration from The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Robert Browning
1888, illustrator Kate Greenaway
from Project Gutenburg

Sutro Baths

Sometimes I wish the grand public works would come back into favor.

A visitor to the Baths not only had a choice of 7 different swimming pools—one fresh water and six salt water baths ranging in temperatures—but could visit a museum displaying Sutro's large and varied personal collection of artifacts from his travels, a concert hall, seating for 8,000, and, at one time, an ice skating rink. During high tides, water would flow directly into the pools from the nearby ocean, recycling the 2 million US gallons of water in about an hour. During low tides, a powerful turbine water pump, built inside a cave at sea level, could be switched on from a control room and could fill the tanks at a rate of 6,000 US gallons a minute (380 L/s), recycling all the water in five hours.

San Francisco, California
1880s
from Alamedianinfo.com

Cossacks of Saporog Are Drafting a Manifesto

You Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-fucker of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, Armenian pig, Podolian villain, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our dick. Pig's snout, mare's arse, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw your own mother!

Now that is a fuck you letter.

Paint on Canvas
1880-1891, artist Ilya Repin
from Wikipedia