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An Old-Time Speaker
I spend a lot of time looking at old photographs, often when I’m having trouble writing, when I’m tired or don’t know what else to do. Historians struggle with the relative invisibility of the topics...
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War Dead
On April 6, 1899, Washington DC photographer E. B. Thompson rode out to the cemetery at Arlington, where the remains of several hundred officers and soldiers were about to be buried. The men had died...
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Lorimer
William Lorimer (1861-1934), was a rare bird indeed: a Chicago political boss who was Republican. By the time he paused to have this photograph taken, he’d risen to a seat in US Senate, but under...
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A Glimpse of Another Christmas
E.B. Thompson was a successful photographer active in Washington DC in the early decades of the 20th century. Thompson, who was probably born around the time of the Civil War, gained prominence around...
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Bringers of Cheer
US postal carriers circa 1910, with the holiday mail. Then, as now, they hold it all together. Image from this source.Filed under: Reading old photographs Tagged: 1910s, Christmas, gifts, holidays,...
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Society
Among the hundreds of historical photographs I’ve looked at this week, this one stands out, jarring my sensibilities, its everydayness so strikingly at odds with ours. Whereas many historical...
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They Partied On
On the evening of March 4, 1901, men and women in formal dress began drifting in to the Pension Building to attend the inaugural ball for William McKinley, who had been sworn in to his second term as...
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An early aerial view of the University of Chicago
George R Lawrence was a pioneer whose specialty was panoramic aerial photography. A native of northern Illinois, he invented the means to take high-quality “bird’s eye” views using a camera hoisted...
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The Only Time President Roosevelt Ever Consented to Pose Before a Kodak
President Theodore Roosevelt, holding his top hat in one hand and flanked by two officers and an unidentified man, looks down at the photographer from the back of a railroad car. The year is 1903....
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Two Gilded Age gentlemen
Two men in high silk hats breathe the style of the times. The year is 1889. They are old enough to remember the century’s watershed event, the Civil War, which is long in the past, it being more than...
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