In the 1970s, American Luxury Cars Were Bursting With Velour and Velvet
The 1970s were an awkward time for America—in fashion, in hair styles, and yes, even in car interiors. In the 1970s, velour and velvet were popular because it fit into the idea of what was luxurious at the time. Continue reading »
The Albee Rolligon: An Innovative Transport Truck From the 1950s
One of the earliest applications of Albee’s low-pressure tires was this three-roller Dodge Power Wagon. Ground pressure was drastically reduced due to the large ground area in contact with the bags, and the low air pressure (from 2.5 to 6 PSI) in the bags. Continue reading »
The Fascinating Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Portraits Made out Of Fruits, Vegetables and Fish, 1563-1591
“Vertumnus – Rudolf II,” depicts Rudolph II (1552-1612), Holy Roman Emperor from 1576, as Vertumnus, the ancient Roman god of seasons who presided over gardens and orchards. 1590.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books – that is, he painted representations of these objects on the canvas arranged in such a way that the whole collection of objects formed a recognizable likeness of the portrait subject. Continue reading »
Extraordinary Self-Portraits of American Street Photographer Vivian Maier
“She drops her shadow deliberately, usually on desolate backdrops, while she finds her reflection in every reflective surface.” Wrote Luc Sante of Vivian Maier’s self-portraits in the New York Times. Continue reading »
Adhesive Bras: The Stick-On Bra Swimsuit that Was Quite Distinctive in 1949
Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images/Mashable.com
In May 1949, Charles L. Langs announced a daring innovation in beachwear: a pair of bra cups a woman could affix to her breasts with an adhesive. His idea was to use individual strapless cups for each breast, backed with specially developed glue. Continue reading »
Ukraine-Born American Artist Boris Artzybasheff’s Anti-Nazi Illustrations
Boris Artzybasheff (25 May 1899 – 16 July 1965) created many of these abstract anti-Axis illustrations for America’s Wickwire Spencer Steel Company (1901 – 1963) in World War II. Continue reading »
Dayalets’ Hellish Vitamin Mascots Intended to Promote a Healthy Diet From the 1950s
Nothing really prepares you for the Dayalets. As you can gather from the cover, they were vitamins, but they were so much more: they were vitamins suitable for framing. Continue reading »
Once Upon The War: Introducing The Kharkiv School of Photography
Kharkiv School of Photography is an artistic milieu that emerged in the 1970s in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was a school of aesthetic thought which never had any official status, where ‘education’ happened in clubs and coffee shops — not a school to attend classes. Still, the artists created an original visual language that broke free from the dominant Soviet dogma in arts. It defined the discourse for the next generations in Kharkiv and entire Ukraine and evolved into a distinctive aesthetic system, offering a documentary chronicle of over 50 years of its history.
Heavily bombed by the Russian army, several photographers of the group still remain in Kharkiv, as others managed to escape leaving their archives behind. An operation to preserve these documents is ongoing.
Ukraine-Russia/Volleyball, 1992
Viktor & Sergiy Kochetov/Alexandra de Viveiros Gallery
Viktor Kochetov creates work with his son Sergiy. They are well-known for hand-colouring black and white prints in the tradition of luriki — enlarged, retouched and often tinted photographic portraits. Continue reading »
Looney Tunes: The Original Model Sheets
Enjoy a Collection of 50+ Original Model Sheets from the classics Looney Tunes ! Looney Tunes is an American animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. from 1930 to 1969. Continue reading »
Documenting America: Scenes of Early-Century New York City Life in Paintings of John French Sloan
Sunday Women, Drying Their Hair, 1912
John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. Continue reading »
Wake Up Little Susie: Vintage Photos That Show Styles of Teenagers in the 1950s
The term ‘teenager’ was first introduced to the American public in the 1940s as a moniker coined by advertising executives looking to sell their products to a new audience. Continue reading »
“Blow Up to Be the Size You Want!” – Vintage Inflatable Bra Ads From the 1950s and 1960s
What was a woman to do if she wanted to boost her cleavage in the days before Wonderbra was on the market and the more drastic measure of plastic surgery wasn’t so readily available? The answer is by wearing an inflatable bra that the wearer could blow up to the size they desired themselves. Continue reading »
Fascinating Vintage Photographs of Scooter Enthusiasts in Nebraska, 1945
Dmitiri Kessel/LIFE Picture Collection
The Cushman scooter company started in 1903 in Lincoln, Nebraska, by Everett and Clinton Cushman. The company incorporated as Cushman Motor Works in 1913. Cushman began production of their four-stroke Husky engine in 1922. Continue reading »
Beautiful Kodachrome Photos of Life in New York in the Late 1960s
Pace/MacGill Gallery
Tod Papageorge was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1940, and began to photograph in 1962 during his last semester at the University of New Hampshire. Little more than a month later, after running across reproductions of two pictures made by Henri Cartier-Bresson, he decided to be a photographer. Continue reading »
In 1908, a Doctor Used X-Rays to Highlight the Damaging Effects of Tight Corsets on a Woman’s Body
Ludovic O’Followell, a French doctor who in 1905 and 1908 published books on the effects of the corset on female health. O’Followell, however, had something that all the previous arguments and illustrations did not: he used a brand new technology to bolster his arguments. Continue reading »
Antonin Personnaz’s Autochrome Dreams Of Early 20th Century France
Between 1907 and 1914, art collector Antonin Personnaz (1854 – 31 December 1936) took autochrome pictures of France’s Oise Valley. His dreamy, impressionist-style photographs call to mind the work of the artists he knew, like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Albert Lebourg and Jean-François Raffaelli, Camille Pissarro and Paul Gachet. Continue reading »
Atmospheric Photographs of France in the 1940s Through a German Soldier’s Lens
In 1940, France was invaded and quickly defeated by Nazi Germany. France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north, an Italian occupation zone in the southeast and an unoccupied territory, the rest of France, which consisted of the southern French metropolitan territory (two-fifths of pre-war metropolitan France) and the French empire, which included the two protectorates of French Tunisia and French Morocco, and French Algeria; the Vichy government, a newly established authoritarian regime collaborating with Germany, ruled the unoccupied territory. Free France, the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle, was set up in London. Continue reading »
The Fascinating World of Japanese Matchboxes – Vintage, Simple, Elegant
A matchbox is not only useful in everyday life, but also a wonderful piece of art. Don’t you believe it? Then you should plunge into the fascinating world of Japanese matchboxes decorated with small but real works of art. Continue reading »
271 Years Before Pantone, an Artist Cataloged Thousands of Color Swatches in a Book From the 17th Century
Before we had Pantone Color Guide, there was no universally recognized system to identify colors. But there were attempts to make it, and probably the most impressive one came from the artist known only as A. Boogert, who back in 1692 created an impressive piece of literature about mixing colors. Continue reading »
The English Dance of Death: Thomas Rowlandson’s Scathing Memento Mori 1814-1816
The Danse Macabre probably arose in early 15th century Europe as a response to the widespread deaths caused by The Black Death plague. The English Dance of Death by Thomas Rowlandson was released in under-subscribed installments between 1814 and 1816. Continue reading »
Collection Of The Creepiest Bible Stories As Vintage Comic Books For Kids
“(Revelations 13:15-18) “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. I was left alone, my mind was blank I needed time to think. To get the memories from my mind. What did I see? Can I believe it?. That what I saw that night was real and not just fantasy?”, said Bruce Dickinson.”
The Brazilian illustrator Butcher Billy likes to keep things simple. Initially he sketches out his ideas on napkins from sleazy bars, then moves over to his Mac to create a clean, clear image. He uses basic colours and strong forms – and a few graphic tricks here and there – for impact. Though he creates his work digitally, he’s absorbed by the typography, imagery and creative concepts of the 70s, 80s and 90s and loves the little imperfections of the pre-web era. He draws on nostalgia throughout his work. Continue reading »
Vintage Photographs of Christine Keeler Posing in a Swimsuit on a Beach in Spain and France, 1963
Christine Keeler taking a holiday in Spain and France shortly before her controversial involvement with war minister John Profumo led to his resignation. Continue reading »
Stunning Vintage Portrait Photography by Clarence Hudson White
The shelter, 1897
Clarence Hudson White (1871–1925) was an American photographer, teacher and a founding member of the Photo-Secession movement. He grew up in small towns in Ohio, where his primary influences were his family and the social life of rural America. After visiting the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, he took up photography. Continue reading »
Vintage Japanese Watercolor Sketches of Toy Designs
The Ningyo-Do Bunko database features thousands of late 19th and early 20th Century watercolor sketches of Japanese toy designs. More can be seen at Japan’s Akita Prefectural Library, which holds a series of six toy design illustration books produced between 1891 and 1913 by Yamada of Kyoto. Continue reading »
Trapped In The 1930s: Artist Draws Popular Characters In Rubber Hose Style
Many of us feel nostalgia for certain things, be it old-school candy, clothing style, TV shows, cartoons, etc. It feels good to relive something that is remembered with a warm feeling once again. Some things, even if not experienced personally, are admired nonetheless and are wished to be brought back so that they can be enjoyed and appreciated by those who didn’t have the chance to do so. And that’s what Kev Craven does! Continue reading »
