Pictures of regular people doing stuff in the past
July 25, 2017 5:02 AM Subscribe
I found the Vintage Kuala Lumpur tumblr from a link on this week's MetaTalk cocktail hour and really enjoyed looking through all the pictures - now I'm looking for more archives of historical photos, ideally featuring regular people doing regular stuff.
I don't mind at all where the pictures come from - specific place/specific timeframe-focused archive sites would both be good.
Bonus points if they're non-western/non-anglosphere. 20th century pre-1990s is a particularly interesting era for me, anywhere in the world.
I'm more interested in shots of regular people than I am in posed/celebrity/marketing/event-type stuff from history, but wouldn't mind archives with a blend of types of image.
I've already seen most of the Retronaut collections (these seem to be on Mashable now?) - I'm slightly more interested in sites dedicated to archiving specific types of pictures than I am in smaller one-off collections, but I will take fascinating small collections as well if you know of good ones.
I don't mind at all where the pictures come from - specific place/specific timeframe-focused archive sites would both be good.
Bonus points if they're non-western/non-anglosphere. 20th century pre-1990s is a particularly interesting era for me, anywhere in the world.
I'm more interested in shots of regular people than I am in posed/celebrity/marketing/event-type stuff from history, but wouldn't mind archives with a blend of types of image.
I've already seen most of the Retronaut collections (these seem to be on Mashable now?) - I'm slightly more interested in sites dedicated to archiving specific types of pictures than I am in smaller one-off collections, but I will take fascinating small collections as well if you know of good ones.
George Plunkett's Photographs of old Norwich - not all with people. At least one with a Dalek.
posted by sagwalla at 5:29 AM on July 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by sagwalla at 5:29 AM on July 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
Humphrey Spender's photographs of 1930s Bolton, which were part of the Mass-Observation project.
posted by misteraitch at 5:35 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by misteraitch at 5:35 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky's pioneering color photography of the early 20th century Russian Empire c. 1910 is amazing (examples: Jewish Children with their Teacher in Samarkand, Nomadic Kyrgyz family, and Young Russian peasant women). The Library of Congress has an impressive collection of his photos online, many of which feature regular people.
posted by RichardP at 5:37 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by RichardP at 5:37 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Hiroshima and Japan in the 1970s.
(Global Voices is good for this kind of thing...)
posted by plep at 7:13 AM on July 25, 2017
(Global Voices is good for this kind of thing...)
posted by plep at 7:13 AM on July 25, 2017
Dhaka, 50 years ago.
Old photographs from Latin America.
Global Voices: Old photographs search.
posted by plep at 7:17 AM on July 25, 2017
Old photographs from Latin America.
Global Voices: Old photographs search.
posted by plep at 7:17 AM on July 25, 2017
You'll love The Way We Were. "What was normal everyday life like for people living 50, 100, or more years ago? Featuring old photos, vintage video, scanned documents, articles, and personal anecdotes that offer a glimpse into the past. This subreddit is focused on content at least 40 years old."
posted by scratch at 7:35 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by scratch at 7:35 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Big Happy Fun House (which IIRC is run by a MeFite, although I don't remember his username), is full of found photos of people doing regular things.
Shorpy is another good site for this.
posted by MexicanYenta at 9:30 AM on July 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
Shorpy is another good site for this.
posted by MexicanYenta at 9:30 AM on July 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
In addition to the other blogs mentioned above, there is also Vintage Everyday, and Messy Nessy Chic sometimes posts stuff like this.
About 10-15 years ago, back in the heyday of Flickr, there were entire groups dedicated to sharing their vintage ephemeral photograhy collections.
posted by Brittanie at 2:07 PM on July 25, 2017
About 10-15 years ago, back in the heyday of Flickr, there were entire groups dedicated to sharing their vintage ephemeral photograhy collections.
posted by Brittanie at 2:07 PM on July 25, 2017
« Older My iMac starts up super slow and is generally... | Cross-platform highlights/annotations in PDF files Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by pompomtom at 5:17 AM on July 25, 2017 [1 favorite]