Timeless: Photos from Yesteryear 3

These photos are are from Shorpy.com a great resource for old photos and one of my guilty pleasures.



Three views of Lewis Payne (a.k.a. Lewis Powell) in April 1865, three months before his execution by hanging, wearing the same sweater. Hanged as one of the Lincoln assassination conspirators. The photograph probably taken aboard the ironclad USS Montauk or Saugus.Photographs (wet collodion, glass plate) by Alexander Gardner.

 

He looks so relaxed. It's difficult to believe he was facing death and seemed so nonchalant in these photos.


1910 Irving Underhill photo of the 22-story Flatiron (Fuller) Building at 175 Fifth Avenue, one of the earliest (1902) buildings in New York to attain such heights.   An iconic building but I had no idea it was one of the earliest to be so tall.


  "Washington Monument as it stood for 25 years," 1860. Glass-plate (wet collodion) photograph by Mathew Brady.   It's not so impressive in this state. And to think it was like this for a quarter century, surrounded by shacks and fields.


 

Celebration on Wall Street upon the news of Germany's surrender in World War I. November 1918. Photograph by W.L. Drummond.

  What a celebration. If you look closely, in the top right by the flags, there's a man standing outside the window on the building.


July 1863. Dead Confederate sharpshooter at the foot of Round Top. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Photograph by Alexander Gardner.   Creepy and sad. Dead but preserved in this photo, possibly for all time.


"'Safety first' is the motto of Miss Mary Jayne of Keith's circuit. Mary Jayne, seated in rocking chair with pistol strapped to her knee, claiming exemption from concealed weapon regulation by saying her thirty-two isn't a concealed weapon in these days of knee-length skirts." National Photo Company Collection, February 14, 1922. The Keith Circuit was a chain of vaudeville theaters that eventually transitioned to motion pictures.   This is one awesome photo. I wonder if she ever used the gun.


  "The Burning of the Call." The San Francisco Call newspaper building in flames after the April 18, 1906 earthquake. Pillsbury Picture Co.   What a photo!


View of ruined buildings through porch of the Circular Church at 150 Meeting Street, Charleston, South Carolina. April 1865. Wet collodion glass plate, half of stereograph pair. Photographer unknown. While much of the damage shown here is from shelling by the Federal Navy, the Circular Church itself was heavily damaged by fire in 1861.   If there had been no place or date attached I would have guessed this was shot during WWII. I can't imagine such destruction could have been wrought by civil war cannons.

15-year-old sweeper in the spinning and spooling room of Berkshire Cotton Mills. Adams, Massachusetts. July 10, 1916. Photo by Lewis Hine.   This is my favourite of this group. Look at his bare feet! Many children worked from a young age in cotton mills before the advent of child labour laws.


P-51 Mustangs of the 332nd Fighter Group (Tuskegee Airmen). Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945. Photograph by Toni Frissell.   I love that this was shot from the ground looking up at the plane's bellies.