Posted on January 27, 2014 Leave a Comment
From today in 1943:
Bomb crater at Njalsgade in Copenhagen after the RAF attack on B&W from the National Museum of Denmark on Flickr.
Posted on January 27, 2014 Leave a Comment
Dated today in 1925:
“Earl Carroll instructing girls in Vanities”
Carroll was a theater manager and producer of “Vanities,” a less classy version of the “Follies.” He later ended up serving time for perjury after he lied about serving alcohol at a party during Prohibition. The party just happened to feature a woman sitting in a bathtub full of champagne.
(Photo via Library of Congress, which says the caption information is unverified)
Posted on January 26, 2014 Leave a Comment
From today in 1939:
“Dimes. Millions of ‘em. Dimes in bags, envelopes, and packages are pouring into the White House these days as part of the president’s March of Dimes, a feature of the President’s Birthday Ball Fund to fight infantile paralisis. Here, Barbara Councilor of the White House mail room, is pouring out and dipping her hands in dimes.”
(Photo by Harris & Ewing via Library of Congress)
Posted on January 24, 2014 Leave a Comment
Dated c1902 January 24:
The future Alice Roosevelt Longworth would have been nearly 18. She moved into the White House in 1901, and as Thomas Mallon writes in The New York Times:
“The new president is said to have remarked to the writer Owen Wister: ‘I can be president of the United States — or — I can attend to Alice. I cannot possibly do both!’ The first daughter chewed gum, smoked in public, carried a snake to parties and ran up debts playing poker and buying clothes.”
The photograph was taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston, who was one of the first prominent female photographers in the U.S.
(Image via Library of Congress)
Posted on January 23, 2014 Leave a Comment
Today in 1939, “Cactus Jack” gets some sweet, sweet citrus:
“National Citrus Week got off to a good start today when beauties from the citrus-growing sates presented Vice President Garner with baskets of the luscious fruit. Left to right: Martha Talley of Texas; Vice President Garner; Mrs. Claude Pepper, wife of the Senator from Florida; and Jill Illingworth of California, 1/23/39”
A couple of months later, John Nance Garner was on the cover of Time. He’s known for saying the vice presidency isn’t “worth a bucket of warm spit” (except that he probably used a stronger word than “spit”).
(Photo by Harris & Ewing via the Library of Congress, which notes the caption information is unverified)
Posted on January 22, 2014 Leave a Comment
From today in 1905 in the New-York Tribune:
“The Making Of Snow Men Threatens To Become A Fine Art”
Image via The Library of Congress on Flickr.
Posted on January 21, 2014 Leave a Comment
Today in 1913:
“The Dutch queen Wilhelmina and princess Juliana as snowmen. The Netherlands, 21 January, 1913.”
(Image from Nationaal Archief on Flickr)
Posted on January 20, 2014 Leave a Comment
Today in 1954:
“Wedding of Gwendoline Morris and William O Jones at Oswestry Parish Church.”
Photograph by Welsh photojournalist Geoff Charles.
(Image via Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales)
Posted on January 19, 2014 Leave a Comment
15-year-old Frank Wiegel was injured on the job 100 years ago today:
“Case of Frank Wiegel, 3916 – # Ave., Brooklyn N.Y., injured after working 18 hours a day. He was injured at 1:55 A.M. January 18, 1914. Age 15 years. Employed by the Henry Bosch Paper Co., makers of wallpaper sample books. On Saturday, or rather Sunday morning at 1:55, Frank must have fallen asleep and in some way he knocked against the controlling pedal, and the next thing he knew his hand was caught in the machine. He sued the Co. for damages and after 2 years’ litigation he received an award of $10,000 – $5,000 for each of 2 fingers which were amputated.”
The photo was taken by Lewis Hine, who quit his job to travel the country, documenting the conditions children were working in at the time.
(Image via Library of Congress)
Posted on January 17, 2014 Leave a Comment
I love this caption from today in 1939:
“A tip to a youngster. Washington, D.C., Jan. 17. Senator Robert Taft from Ohio today asked the advice of old timer Senator Arthur Vandenberg from Michigan upon certain matters. Senator Taft is a newcomer to Congress this year and is following advice given by those who ‘know the ropes,’ 1/17/39”
Of course, Taft (aka “Mr. Republican”) would go on to spend many years in the Senate.
Vandenberg, also a Republican, would go on to give a “speech heard ‘round the world” in 1945 when he gave up isolationism and called for bipartisan foreign policy.
Photo by Harris & Ewing via Library of Congress (which notes that the caption information is “unverified.”) For more on the library’s effort to digitize the Harris & Ewing collection, visit the Picture This blog.
Erica Ryan 