Debutantes – Politics of Beauty
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Just look at these luscious Viennese debutantes. Every one of them is beautiful. For that to happen is in itself a rare feat. But imagine what the photographer had to…
Your Smiling Face – The Rucker Archive
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Your Smiling Face…Is that Henrick Ibsen lurking in the background of this carte-de-visite photograph? Did he set up this scene in Silkeborg, Denmark? If he did, I’m sure the dialogue…
Look At Adolph Hitler
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We should always be willing to look at things as they are including Adolph Hitler. Our visions of the past are all guided by our ability to really face whatever…
Fishing Party from The Rucker Archive
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These guys are going to have fun fishing. And – they have everything they could possibly need for their expedition. Showing it all off before the goods ever get used,…
Long Ago In Detroit – The Brown Family from The Rucker Archive
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When I first purchased a photo album from the 1880s, I did not know that the African-American members of that family were named Brown. But I did know that they…
Frontier of Lithograph Promotion from The Rucker Archive
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This is one of my favorite kind of lithographic promotion products – a tobacco crate label. Hordes of examples by the Hoen Litho Company of Richmond, turned up years ago…
Speed Skating
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I love photos of athletic events forgotten in time including speed skating. Those games and the photos they generated can be as appealing and handsome as any from big-time sports…
Slavery Exposed! repost of Abolitionists Trade Cards Set
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Slavery exposed in this abolitionists trade cards set out of New Zealand is being re-posted in light of the recent film “Twelve Years a Slave”. We lived in Saratoga Springs…
Check Out The Sylphs
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Recently I was able to select some photographs from a large collection of visual marvels including two Sylphs. I never had a photo of Sylph before; I never new of…
Selling Santa
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Poor old Santa Claus is nothing but a tool for merchants. This appears to have been true all the way back to his earliest days in the mid-19th Century. Originally,…
McLouglin Company Santa Clauses
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McLouglin Company of New York City produced Santa Clauses in continuous and varied forms, almost all appealing to the reader, child or parent. But once in a while the artist, or…
Ajax Defying The Lightning – Advertising Trade Card
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I’m confused by this trade card of Ajax defying the lightning. Those who saw it when it was issued, sometime in the 1880s, could likely have been confused, as well. …
Thanksgiving – It’s All About The Turkey
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Bringing home the Thanksgiving turkey is a tradition from hundreds of Novembers past. Though we may come up with substitutes for the Thanksgiving meal, or even design vegan menus for…
Sweatshop Safety & Factory Disasters – From Today’s Headlines
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Can’t we improve sweatshop safety and avoid factory disasters? Do we humans ever learn? We have factory disasters today just as we had factory disasters in the Victorian era. In…
When Floods Arrive
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Floods . . . It is an awful event when it will not stop raining. It’s worse when you live downhill from the water in the flood plain. And sometimes…
Pictorial Daily
