Vintage B&W Photos

[EndtheMadnessNow]

Photos are all from Shorpy historical archives. Links will take you to the detailed full size images.

Powder Monkey: 1865

Circa 1864-65. "Powder monkey by gun of U.S.S. New Hampshire, Federal depot ship off Charleston, South Carolina." https://www.shorpy.com/node/9012


A Short Fuse: 1906

"Independence Day, 1906. F.A. Loumis, copyright claimant. Little boy holding three large firecrackers and flag." Let's be careful out there! https://www.shorpy.com/node/19814


Carnival Ride From Hell: 1911

January 1911. South Pittston, Pennsylvania. "A view of the Pennsylvania Breaker. 'Breaker boys' remove rocks and other debris from the coal by hand as it passes beneath them. The dust is so dense at times as to obscure the view and penetrates the utmost recesses of the boys' lungs."
https://www.shorpy.com/node/32

Boys 12 years of age may be legally employed in the mines of West Virginia, by day or by night, and for as many hours as the employers care to make them toil or their bodies will stand the strain. Where the disregard of child life is such that this may be done openly and with legal sanction, it is easy to believe what miners have again and again told me — that there are hundreds of little boys of 9 and 10 years of age employed in the coal mines of this state.
-- John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children (New York: Macmillan, 1906)
https://www.shorpy.com/node/32

Haunting 1000 yard stare: 1911

1911. "The girl works all day in a cannery." Location unspecified but possibly Mississippi.  https://www.shorpy.com/node/845

Tobacco Tim: 1917

August 6, 1917. "10 year old picker on Gildersleeve Tobacco Farm. Gildersleeve, Connecticut." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine for the National Child Labor Committee.  https://www.shorpy.com/node/26232

Junior Marines: 1919

Washington, D.C., 1919. "Junior Marines, 'clean-up' squad." https://www.shorpy.com/node/7026


Common Core: 1922

Washington, D.C., circa 1922. "Miss Tomlin's School, interior." Our third visit to the premises of this educational establishment, run by Miss Queenie Ada-Maye Tomlin. https://www.shorpy.com/node/19018


Well Hello, Sailor: 1922

Washington, D.C., 1922. "Children at water fountain." Make mine a double, and get the little lady a drink. https://www.shorpy.com/node/18535


Our Little Secret: 1924

https://www.shorpy.com/node/17135


Lessons Learned: 1935

1935. "School in Red House, West Virginia."  https://www.shorpy.com/node/20742


Gov't Measurements: 1937

July 23, 1937. "To enable fathers and mothers to order clothes with the confidence that a size 8 or 10 is all it's supposed to be in length and breadth, the Bureau of Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture, is leading a project in which colleges and universities will cooperate to discover the clothing dimensions needed by today's children. Special attention is being paid to racial characteristics, as the experts believe that race and neighborhood have something to do with a youngster's size. Dr. Eleanor Hunt, associate anthropometrist, Bureau of Home Economics, is shown training one of the first classes on scientific measurement of the human body." The boy has the number 8 stamped on his hand, assuming his age.


Hovel-Ready: 1937

May 1937. "Children of migrant cotton field workers from Sweetwater, Oklahoma. Eight children in the family. Note the housing. Near Casa Grande project, Arizona." Medium format acetate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration.  https://www.shorpy.com/node/25385


Green Acres: 1937

July 1937. "White sharecropper family, formerly workers in the Gastonia textile mills. When the mills closed down seven years ago, they came to this farm near Hartwell, Georgia." https://www.shorpy.com/node/22782


Baby Carrot: 1937

March 1937. "Children of migratory carrot pullers, Mexicans. Imperial Valley, California." https://www.shorpy.com/node/22366


Shirley Temple: 1938

June 24, 1938. "Shirley sees her old friend the president. Shirley Temple leaving the White House today after a very important conference with the President. Shirley told Mr. Roosevelt about losing a tooth last night, and he told her about Sistie and Buzzie losing their teeth. Shirley expects to be in Washington a week checking on the affairs of state with different government officials." https://www.shorpy.com/node/16979


Nouvelle Cuisine: 1938

September 1938. "Mrs. Betty Zimmerman and child in kitchen of new home at Greenbelt, Maryland."  https://www.shorpy.com/node/25191


Foxes in the Henhouse: 1938

September 1938. "Children buying groceries in co-op store. Greenbelt, Maryland." https://www.shorpy.com/node/24488


Water Boys: 1939

July 1939. "Children of May Avenue camp pumping water from thirty-foot well which supplies about a dozen families. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma." https://www.shorpy.com/node/25323


Greendale Girls: 1939

September 1939. "Children who live at Greendale, Wisconsin, a model community planned by the Suburban Division of the U.S. Resettlement Administration." https://www.shorpy.com/node/25102


Melon Munchkins: 1939

July 1939. Person County, North Carolina. "Millworker's house six miles north of Roxboro." https://www.shorpy.com/node/23570


Comic Con: 1939

April 1939. San Augustine, Texas. "Grade-school boys making books of comic strips." The comic: "The Circus and Sue," by Claire S. Moe. https://www.shorpy.com/node/23191


The Peanut Gallery: 1939

June 1939. "Sons of day laborers in tent camp near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. Some of their fathers were agricultural workers and some were dispossessed tenant farmers now on Works Progress Administration. The WPA work is holding many of these former tenant farmers in their communities, but they are all potential migrants. None of these children had ever attended school." https://www.shorpy.com/node/23212


Textbook Example: 1940

May 1940. Southington, Connecticut. "Schoolgirl studying." https://www.shorpy.com/node/21408


Waiting: 1940

England, 1940-41. "Battle of Britain. Children in an English bomb shelter."
https://www.shorpy.com/node/3572


Tater Tots: 1940

October 1940. "Mr. Lawrence J. Brown, Aroostook potato farmer, operates a small seed foundation unit in Eagle Lake, Maine. His three sons and one hired man do all the work. The little boy on the left picked fourteen barrels of potatoes before lunch." Medium format acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. https://www.shorpy.com/node/26346


The Cherry Pickers: 1940

July 1940. "Migrant fruit worker and sons living in rear of truck during cherry picking season. Berrien County, Michigan."  https://www.shorpy.com/node/25687


Family Newspaper: 1940

November 1940. Aberdeen, South Dakota. "L.M. Schulstad, traveling salesman for hardware company, at home with his family." https://www.shorpy.com/node/25276


Red Ryder: 1940

December 1940. Corpus Christi, Texas. "Small boy, son of carpenter from Hobbs, New Mexico, reading funny papers in corner of room in tourist court. Lack of adequate closet space is evident." https://www.shorpy.com/node/23813


Class of 1940

August 1940. "Overcrowded conditions and poor equipment in rural mountain school in Breathitt County, Kentucky. The school year begins in July and ends in January as most of the children have no shoes and insufficient clothing to walk the long distances over bad roads and up creek beds." https://www.shorpy.com/node/24937


All Tucked In: 1941

March 1941. "Mother and children from North Carolina farm. They came to Norfolk, Virginia, so husband and older sons could get employment in defense industries." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. https://www.shorpy.com/node/26068


Little Kittens: 1941

March 1941. "Girls at trailer camp for defense workers. Ocean View, Virginia, outskirts of Norfolk." https://www.shorpy.com/node/26035


Gifted Children: 1941

December 1941. "Christmas in the home of a government executive in Virginia." Photo by John Collier taken in the home of his brother, Department of Agriculture official Charles Wood Collier. The boys are Charles's sons Lionel (Leo) and Charles Rawson Collier. https://www.shorpy.com/node/20465


Our Treasures: 1941

July 4, 1941. Vale, Oregon. "One of the floats in the Fourth of July parade." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration.  https://www.shorpy.com/node/25742


Little Boy Blue: 1941

August 1941. "Son of Mr. Nichols, defense worker from Cass City, Michigan, now living in a trailer at Edgewater Park near Ypsilanti. Mr. Nichols works in the Ford bomber plant."  https://www.shorpy.com/node/25484


Baby Madonna: 1941

July 1941. "Children of FSA borrower. Mille Lacs County, Minnesota."
https://www.shorpy.com/node/25418

Taught Napping: 1941

October 1941. "White Plains, Greene County, Georgia. Rest period in school."
https://www.shorpy.com/node/24349


Modern Family: 1941

October 1941. "Mrs. Melvin Rivers, some of her children and her father-in-law in their new relocation corporation farm to which they have moved just recently, near Orwell, New York." https://www.shorpy.com/node/24297


Good Humor Boys: 1941

March 1941. "The Good Humor man comes to trailer camp on Saturday afternoon. These children are sons of torpedo plant workers in Alexandria, Virginia." https://www.shorpy.com/node/23711


Fresh Direct: 1942

October 1942. "I'll carry mine. -- Delivery vans, 1942 style, line up outside a Greenbelt, Maryland, grocery store awaiting customers. Tire scarcity and gasoline rationing have placed such service at a premium, and these youngsters who are using their express wagons to carry home Mrs. America's purchases are doing their country a real service." Medium format nitrate negative by Ann Rosener for the Office of War Information.  https://www.shorpy.com/node/25976


Air Raid Rules: 1942

What to Do — What Not to Do
This war is not like any other. It may reach your street -- your home -- at any moment. You may be fighting in this war tomorrow, or next week, or next month. Your government asks of you one simple thing, but one very important thing ... Learn and remember what to do if enemy planes and bombs come.

July 1942. "West Danville, Vermont. Guy Davenport, 11, and Maynard Clark, 14, reading the air raid instructions posted in Gilbert S. Hastings' post office and general store." Photo by Fritz Henle, Office of War Information.
https://www.shorpy.com/node/18175


An Early Start: 1942

February 1942. Harlingen, Texas. "Farm Security Administration camp. Morning routine at nursery school."  https://www.shorpy.com/node/24154


Frozen: 1943

February 1943. Washington, D.C. "Preparation for point rationing. While Mother keeps handy her War Ration Book Two, daughter examines the frozen foods which require removal of point stamps." 4x5 acetate negative by Alfred Palmer, Office of War Information. https://www.shorpy.com/node/25903


Rational Thoughts: 1942

Washington, D.C., circa 1942. "Food rationing stamps. Demonstration of point rationing plan in schools." https://www.shorpy.com/node/22378


Patriotic Gesture: 1942

September 1942. Rochester, New York. "Earl Babcock's school day begins with the salute to the flag." A few interpretations verging on Jazz Hands. 3 months after this photo was taken they were keeping their hand over their heart instead.  https://www.shorpy.com/node/21623


I Feel Fine: 1944

June 1944. "Brooklyn, New York. Home nursing class held at the community house of the Church of the Good Shepherd." Also: The "Basic Seven" food groups. (poster on wall) https://www.shorpy.com/node/17974


Lil Champ: 1947

June 1947. "Bodybuilder Gene Jantzen with wife Pat and 11-month-old son Kent." Photo by Stanley Kubrick for the Look magazine assignment "Strong Man's Family." Look Photograph Collection, Library of Congress. https://www.shorpy.com/node/22034


Fireside Lad: 1950

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1950. https://www.shorpy.com/node/21976


Back to School: 1950

Palatine, Illinois, circa 1950. "Schoolchildren at Hirsch's." https://www.shorpy.com/node/21365

The Few, the Proud: 1951

Columbus, Georgia, 1951. "Future Marines of America -- Juniors."
https://www.shorpy.com/node/26660


Where the Boys Are: 1953

From the News Photo Archive comes this circa 1953 tableau of chlorinated Baby Boomers. No horseplay, running or girls allowed! Not one fat kid in the bunch. https://www.shorpy.com/node/26614


Grounded: 1953 - Duck And Cover Generation

April 9, 1953. Oak Ridge, Tennessee. "Civil Defense air raid drill, Highland View School." Photo by Ed Westcott for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
https://www.shorpy.com/node/26334


A Fresh Batch: 1955

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1955, and our second visit with the Fabulous Baker Sisters. For Boomers of a certain age, this kitchen will likely spark a bonfire of memories. https://www.shorpy.com/node/20455


Pillsbury Doughgirls: 1955

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1955.  https://www.shorpy.com/node/20447


Space-Boy: 1957

"In 1957 I was chosen to be a model for the Oklahoma Semi-Centennial publicity photos. I was 5 and had to wear a fishbowl for a space helmet."
https://www.shorpy.com/node/3998


Young Guns: 1959

From Columbus, Georgia, or vicinity circa 1959 comes this uncaptioned shot of a guy and his guns, all ready for a well-regulated sleepover. https://www.shorpy.com/node/23277  (see comments at link)


Higher Fi: 1960

Chicago circa 1960. "Educational tapes." Specifically the "Electronic Educator" tape cartridge system, sharing space with a Fisher Stereophonic Master Audio Control, Sherwood tuner and RCA Victor Deluxe color TV, as well as drawer-mounted reel-to-reel and turntable. https://www.shorpy.com/node/20039


Uncle Jack: 1961

August 1961. Summer in Hyannis Port: "President John F. Kennedy driving a golf cart full of Kennedy [Shriver, Smith, Lawford] family children." Check out those abs on that boy!
https://www.shorpy.com/node/15772

Space Cowboy: 1963

June 13, 1963. "Nonchalantly slurping his Earth-made ice cream cone, 5-year-old David Rowan appears awed with the eerie surroundings before him. The youngster was visiting the moon-like landscape of the space research laboratories at Republic Aviation in Farmingdale, Long Island, N.Y." https://www.shorpy.com/node/24844

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Wonderful examples of the lifestyle we can expect under the new normal and the great reset.

Thanks.

[BIAD]

A brilliant thread and a display on how lucky we are these days.
Thanks, EndTheMadnessNow.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

A brilliant thread and a display on how lucky we are these days.
Thanks, EndTheMadnessNow.

I hope that we learn that we are one step ahead of moving backwards.

We got where we are with a a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Our children are about to lose everything because we have taught them how to shed tears, we have not taught them responsibility, and they don't seem to have any idea about ambition and working for what they want.