Black and White Photographs of Russia in 1944

Wonderful Color Photographs of Los Angeles in 1952

200 block of South Main St. Los Angeles on Sunday

Looking up Main St. from 2nd St. toward City Hall Los Angeles

100 block of South Main St. on Sunday Los Angeles

Los Angeles City Hall looking down Harlem Place from 2nd St.

Broadway between 2nd & 1st streets Los Angeles-Sunday

Costumed people, ca. 1940

Old Photographs of Britain in the Mid-19th Century

Francis Bedford (1816 - 1894) was a prolific and well-respected photographer of the mid-19th century. He is best known for his numerous topographic and architectural views of Britain.

In 1857 Bedford became a member of the Photographic Society and in 1862 he was invited to accompany the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII (1841 - 1910), as official photographer on a tour of the Middle East. During the 1860s and 1870s Bedford travelled extensively throughout Britain, taking hundreds of views of British scenery. He was assisted by his son, William (1846 - 1893) whose work is almost indistinguishable from that of his father. From the 1870s onwards, William seems to have assumed responsibility for running the family business and many photographs of this later period are more likely to be the work of William rather than that of his father.

Torquay, Babbacombe Bay, from the Inn

Torquay, The Giant Rock at Watcombe

The Queen's Hotel, Aberystwyth

Torquay, Victoria Parade From the Pier

Torquay, St. Luke's Church, From Croft Road

Peak-a-boo bathing girls, Revere Beach, Boston, ca. 1920s

Photographer: Leslie Jones (via)

Vintage Photographs of Street-railroads in Boston, Massachusetts before 1940s

Boston Elevated Railway. Sullivan Square Station. 1901.

Boston Elevated Railway. Equipment. Bunter and car at Charles River Bridge draw. 1912.

Boston Elevated Railway. Equipment. Multiple unit surface car.

Boston Elevated Railroad. Sullivan Square Station. 1913.

Boston Elevated Railway. Equipment. Subway train.

Broadway Advertising, 42nd St., New York City, ca. 1909

Color Photographs of Caribbean in 1968

Physiognomic Portraits of Patients from Surrey County Asylum, ca.1855

Dr. Hugh Welch Diamond was one of the most important figures in early British photography. He made his first photographs in April 1839, just three months after the announcement of photography’s invention. In the 1840s he befriended one of his patients, Frederick Scott Archer and subsequently became one of the first people to use Archer’s collodion process.

In May 1856 Diamond presented a paper to the Society called 'On the Application of Photography to the Physiognomy and Mental Phenomena of Insanity' when he was a physician at the Surrey County Asylum and Secretary to the Photographic Society of London.

Diamond stated that photography was invaluable in the treatment of mental illness. He proposed that by studying the faces of patients, physicians could identify and diagnose mental complaints. These beliefs were rooted in the pseudoscience of physiognomy, where the face was seen as the mirror of the soul. For Diamond, the faces of the patients represented 'types' of mental illness such as melancholia and delusional paranoia.

Dog Riding a Tricycle, ca. 1905

Photographer unknown (via)