Old Photo of the Day

The history of our world through photography.

Friday, July 16, 2010

New Old Photos


I found some old negatives from 1997.. the images were taken at Pooches Pub in Rochester NY

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

School's Open!

Miner Normal School - 1st grade, Washington, DC
 Teacher, Ada Hand,
Children brushing their teeth

Monday, September 1, 2008

New York Labor Day Parade, carriage carrying chorus girls union members



Image from glass negative from the George Grantham Bain Collection .

George Grantham Bain (1865-1944) was a New York photographer. Born in Chicago January 7, 1865 to George and Clara Mather Bain, he grew up in St. Louis. Graduated 1890 from St. Louis University with a law degree. Originally working for United Press, he founded the first news photography service Bain News Service in 1898. His news photo service, including portraits and worldwide news events, had special emphasis on life in New York City. The Bain News Service accumulated photographs of world-wide coverage which were distributed to various newspapers and was enhanced by receiving local pictures from its photo service subscribers as part of their reimbursement. The range of subjects includes: celebrities, parades, sports events, immigration, political events, aviation, World War I, and the Mexican Revolution. Most of his photographs date from the 1900s to the mid-1920s, but scattered images can be found as early as the 1860s and as late as the 1930s. A collection of his photographs resides at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Women's Auxilliary Typographical Union, Labor Day Parade 1909


Labor Day parade, New York
September 6, 1909

Woman on float of the Women's Auxilliary Typographical Union.



May 1, 1909 Labor Day Parade: Abolish Slavery

May 1, 1909 Labor Day parade
New York City
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September. The holiday originated in 1882 as the Central Labor Union (of New York City) sought to create "a day off for the working citizens".
Congress made Labor Day a federal holiday in 1894.[1] All fifty states have made Labor Day a state holiday.
Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer.
Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in the United States since the 1880s. The form for the celebration of Labor Day was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday—a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations," followed by a festival for the workers and their families. This became the pattern for Labor Day celebrations. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civil significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement
Wikipedia

Friday, August 29, 2008

Walt Whitman, 1887


Walt Whitman, 1887
Platinum print by George Cox

Walter Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poetessayistjournalist, and humanist. He was a part of the transition between Transcendentalism and Realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.  His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.
Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War in addition to publishing his poetry. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans (1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey where his health further declined. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle