10 Old Photographs

“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”

- Karl Lagerfeld

Byter Terry sent me an email with a collection of old photographs, mostly about events and people in America but all fascinating in some way: to show what once was but is no longer; to show how far we have come; to show horror, discrimination and intolerance, the march of time, humour, history and the just plain weird. These days every person carries a camera via mobile phones and we have the power to disseminate photographs immediately when they are taken, but it was not always so. I will post Terry’s emailed pics in a number of parts, Part 1 today. Some have been the subject of previous Bytes posts.

Thanks, Tezza.

The inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1861

Hippo cart in 1924. The hippo belonged to a circus and apparently enjoyed pulling the cart as a trick.

Charlie Chaplin in 1916 at the age of 27

Suntan vending machine, 1949

Annie Edison Taylor (1838-1921), the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She did it in 1901 because she needed money, and after doing it said she wouldn't recommend it to anyone!

Only known authenticated photo of Billy the Kid, c 1879

Sharing bananas with a goat during the Battle of Saipan, c 1944

Jesse James, approximately 16 years old

Advertisement for Atabrine, an anti-malaria drug. Sign was put up at the 363rd station hospital in Papua, New Guinea during WWII

How could parents ensure that their children were getting sunlight and fresh air when living in apartment buildings? The baby cage, ca. 1937