Sold for $2,877.77 on eBay.
A new book shows the terrible price paid by the labourers who serviced machines, pushed coal carts and turned the wheels that drove the Industrial Revolution.
Pierre Bouillon, The Child and Fortune, early 19th century
A batch of interesting photos from almost 200 years ago.
These are the bizarre photographs from a 19th century freak show where members of the public in the US would pay to witness people with physical deformities.
The woman was old and ragged and gray, and bent with the chill of the winter's day. The street was wet of recent snow and the woman's feet w...
In these bizarre photos, the mothers have been basically erased.
It's true that a father and daughter have a very special relationship...a time of learning how to be loved by a real man or learning not to trust one.
John Thomson (1837-1921) was a pioneering Scottish photographer who, after traveling through various parts of Asia, settled in Hong Kong in 1868 and operated a studio there for the next four years. Using Hong Kong as his base, he traveled extensively throughout China and was the first known photographer to document the people and landscapes of China for publication in the western market. Returning to England, he published a four volume book entitled "Illustrations of China and its People" in London, 1873-1874. Upon returning home, his work among the street people of London cemented his reputation, and is regarded as a classic instance of social documentary which laid the foundations for photojournalism. He went on to become a portrait photographer of High Society in Mayfair, gaining the Royal Warrant in 1881. In recognition of his work, one of the peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro was named "Point Thomson" on his death in 1921. Some of Thomson's work may be seen at the Royal Geographical Society's headquarters in London. Pepohoan of Formosa, by John Thomson c.1874 Chinese Woman of the Labouring Class, by John Thomson c.1874 Chinese Man of the Labouring Class, by John Thomson c.1874 Island Temple On The River Min, by John Thomson 1870/1871 Lung-hwa-ta, or Pagoda of the Dragon’s Glory, in Shanghai, by John Thomson c.1874 Fukien Temple, by John Thomson c.1874 The Ming Tombs, Nanking, by John Thomson c.1874 Tartar (Manchu) Artillery-men, by John Thomson c.1874 Nankow Pass, China, by John Thomson c.1874 Thomson's travels in China were often perilous, as he visited remote, almost unpopulated regions far inland. Most of the people he encountered had never seen a Westerner or camera before. His expeditions were also especially challenging because he had to transport his bulky wooden camera, many large, fragile glass plates, and potentially explosive chemicals. He photographed in a wide variety of conditions and often had to improvise because chemicals were difficult to acquire. His subject matter varied enormously: from humble beggars and street people to Mandarins, Princes and senior government officials; from remote monasteries to Imperial Palaces; from simple rural villages to magnificent landscapes. The Abbot and Monks of Kushan Monastery, by John Thomson c.1874 Workers on the Silent Highway; The Crawlers; Cast Iron Billy, by John Thomson 1876-1877 Thomson, King Mongkut of Siam Then and now - contemporary views of John Thomson's Chinese photographs Sheying: Shades of China 1850-1900. (Contemporaries of John Thomson) Photography came to China at the start of the 1860s, introduced by foreigners but enthusiastically embraced by natives. In the decades leading up to the twentieth century, every incarnation of the new technology managed to replicate itself in the Chinese popular consciousness: formal landscapes, official portraiture, personal documentation, and architectural and street scenes. These extraordinarily rare images are the meat of Sheying: Shades of China 1850-1900. The black-and-white photos, a mixture of work by transplanted Europeans and fledgling Chinese photographers, have the painterly shades and delicate composition of Europe’s ongoing pictorialism movement. But the pictures are unmistakably Chinese in subject matter. In a cramped Cantonese street, stall banners blot out the sky. Two prisoners pose stoically in cangues. There are countless images of harbors, filled with the bobbing handmade boats that powered the national economy. For all the influence the relatively established European photographers held, China proved itself to be an inimitable sitter. The collection provides a fascinating look at an empire before industrialization.
First Nations (Sarcee?) mother and child circa late 1800's / early 1900's. Photo of a photo. Taken at the Whyte Museum of the Rockies, in Banff, Alberta.
The fashionable folks over at Hint magazine recently compiled some amazingly awesome images of 19th century men dressed in drag. Now, we're not 100
Early photographs of the architecture and culture of Peking in the 1870s
In an earlier post, I suggested ways to determine the gender of children in nineteenth-century photos by examining the hair style. Another useful indicator of gender is clothing.* Almost all of the examples shown below are of boys, because it's very common for boys to be misidentified as girls, and quite rare for girls to be misidentified as boys. 1. TROUSERS Throughout the nineteenth century, no matter how fancy the outfit or how long the hair, if a child is wearing trousers of any kind, it's a boy. Girls were never seen in pants or trousers, whether long pants, below-knee pants, knee pants, or above-knee pants. The girliest-looking child, if wearing pants, is a boy. 2. BOW AT NECK If the child has a bow at the neck of any size, it's likely to be a boy. 3. COLLAR If the child has a big fancy ruffled cloth collar, usually with cuffs and a bow at the neck as well, it's almost certain to be a boy. Girls wore fancy collars too, but girls' collars are generally in the "Bertha" style (large round lace or crocheted collars). Boys occasionally wore this style of collar too, but it was mostly a girls' style. These are girls. 4. SAILOR SUIT In mid-century, when European royalty began dressing the royal children in little military uniforms of the realm, sailor suits (or dresses with rows of braid or other sailor styling) became very popular for both boys and girls. Girls wore the middy top with a skirt, and so did many little boys. (Boy, boy; boy, girl) 5. LORD FAUNTLEROY SUIT In the mid-1880s, mothers began to dress their boys in the style of Little Lord Fauntleroy, a character in a children’s book. A Fauntleroy suit consisted of a jacket and skirt (or short pants) made of a luxurious fabric like velvet, worn with a full white blouse with enormous, elaborate, ruffled or lacy collar and cuffs. Girls did not wear this style. 6. DRESS All babies wore similar dresses, and it's really hard to determine gender if the child doesn't have enough hair to be styled. Sometimes it's best to go with body language. I think this child is a boy, but maybe it's a girl. Dresses for children up to age five or so were pretty much unisex. This is a little boy from the 1860s named Eugene. Hair style is a better indicator for young children than dress style. These are all boys. And these are all boys, too. Some boys as old as ten or eleven wore dresses. 7. SUIT WITH JACKET If the child is wearing a suit, i.e., matching jacket and skirt or pants, it's probably going to be a boy. A girl would generally wear a dress rather than a suit. 8. JEWELRY The presence of jewelry won't usually help you decide whether a child is male or female. These children are all boys. The first boy is in playclothes, and his beads may be wooden beads he has strung on a shoelace, but the other boys are dressed in their best clothes. The boy on the right is wearing stud earrings, and the twin boys below are wearing small hoop earrings. (It was thought that pierced-ear earrings would improve a child's eyesight. This old wives' tale is also why pirates wore gold hoops in their ears.) If you have a photograph for which you still can't decide gender after considering hair style and clothing, you may need to factor in the props, if any, and the pose. I'll address those elements next time. ________________ * I've developed these guidelines (and I've seen exceptions to almost all of them) from studying thousands of early photographs of children. If you think I'm off base, please let me know! To see Wow! Boy in a Dress, Part I, click here. Click here for more on Pat Street and other guest bloggers.
Fashion, street, and documentary photos from the past that capture the essence of life and humanity in all its highs and lows.
History of Pilgrim State Hospital with photographic documentation and urban exploration accounts by Tom Kirsch.
The book, Street Life in London, shows how ordinary Londoners lived towards the end of the 19th century. Compiled by Scottish photograph pioneer John Thomson and radical journalist Adolphe Smith
It was illegal to even have sex with other races in some states until the 60s.
Street children in Victorian times were found in abundance living in alleys or side streets. Many were orphans but others were from neglectful, alcoholic families where abuse was the norm.
