25 Amazing Photos of U.S. Post Office Buildings From the Early 1900s

The architecture of the United States demonstrates a broad variety of architectural styles and built forms over the country’s history of over two centuries of independence and former Spanish and British rule.

Post office buildings of the United States in the early 1900s

Architecture in the United States has been shaped by many internal and external factors and regional distinctions. As a whole it represents a rich eclectic and innovative tradition.

As these pictures of post office buildings from Click Americana show, a lot of architecture from around 1900 was built on a grand scale. Take a look back to the United States Postal Service’s glory days at the turn of the 20th century when the post office buildings were stunning, stately and stylish, and a pride of every city’s downtown.

Post office, Boston, Massachusetts, 1900

The New Post Office, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1901

Baltimore, Maryland post office, 1903

St Paul, Minnesota old post office, 1905

Buffalo, New York post office, circa 1900-06

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40 Stunning Real Photo Postcards Captured Street Scenes at Night in the 1960s

Production of postcards blossomed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As an easy and quick way for individuals to communicate, they became extremely popular.

A real photo postcard (RPPC) is a continuous-tone photographic image printed on postcard stock. The term recognizes a distinction between the real photo process and the lithographic or offset printing processes employed in the manufacture of most postcard images.

Real photo postcards may or may not have a white border, or a divided back, or other features of postcards, depending on the paper the photographer used.

The last and current postcard era, which began about 1939, is the “chrome” era, a shortened version of Photochrom. However these types of cards did not begin to dominate until about 1950 (partially due to war shortages during WWII). The images on these cards are generally based on colored photographs, and are readily identified by the glossy appearance given by the paper’s coating. These still photographs made the invisible visible, the unnoticed noticed, the complex simple and the simple complex. The power of the still photograph forms symbolic structures and make the image a reality.

Here, below is a gallery of 40 stunning real photo postcards captured street scenes at night in the 1960s:

Hamilton St., Regina Saskatchewan

Fairbanks, Alaska

Central Ave., Albaquerque NM

Variety Park, Hereford TX

Dundas St., London ON

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Wonderful Vintage Kodachrome Photos of London in the 1950s

These beautiful vintage Kodachrome pictures of Britain’s capital city were taken by an unknown American tourist. “I’ve found that Americans tend to take pics of ‘mundane’ things that us Brits would take for granted and never photograph, like the sandwiches!” Glen Fairweather, the collector, expressed. “So you often end up with some unusual subjects showing regular everyday life.”

More fascinating photographs of London at the time could be found at Glen’s amazing Flickr site.

Oxford Circus.

Buckingham Palace Road.

Art sale.

St Paul's Cathedral.

The 'Happy Wanderers'.

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The Silent Era Madcap: 40 Beautiful Photos of Mabel Normand in the 1910s and ’20s

Born 1892 in New Brighton, Staten Island, New York, American silent-film actress, screenwriter, director, and producer Mabel Normand was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in his Keystone Studios films, and at the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s had her own movie studio and production company.

Onscreen, Normand appeared in 12 successful films with Charlie Chaplin and 17 with Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, sometimes writing and directing (or co-writing/directing) movies featuring Chaplin as her leading man.

In the 1920s, Normand’s name was linked with scandal, including the 1922 murder of William Desmond Taylor and the 1924 shooting of Courtland S. Dines, who was shot by Normand’s chauffeur using her pistol. She was exonerated in the first crime, and disregarded from the second, but her film career declined.

In addition, Normand suffered a recurrence of tuberculosis in 1923, which led to a decline in her health, her retirement from films in 1926, and her death in 1930 at age 37. For her contributions to motion pictures, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard.

Take a look at these beautiful photos to see portrait of Mabel Normand in the 1910s and 1920s.

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Here’s a Victorian Mourning Ring With Glass Eye of the Deceased From the 19th Century

This Victorian mourning ring from the late 19th century was made from the deceased person’s glass eye.

According to Dr Lindsey Fitzharris, the first in-socket artificial eyes made in the 15th century were gold with colored enamel. In the latter part of the 16th century, the Venetian glass artisans discovered a formula that could be tolerated inside the eye socket. These early glass eyes were crude, uncomfortable to wear, and very fragile. Even so, the Venetian method was considered the finest in the world.

In the mid-19th century, glass artisans in Thuringia, a region in eastern Germany, developed a superior glass formula for the making of artificial eyes. Glass eye making was introduced in the United States in the mid-1800s by immigrant German ocularists. In the 1940s, glass was replaced by plastics, which were more comfortable for the wearer and lasted longer.

Stunning Fashion Photography by Richard Rutledge in the 1950s

In the years following World War II, Condé Nast had a grand photography studio in the Graybar Building in midtown Manhattan. It was stocked with the latest equipment, and a stable of photographers and assistants cranking out fashion spreads, portraits, and product still lifes. One of those studio photographers, Richard Rutledge, is relatively unknown to us today, but for a 15-year period following the war he was one of the most frequently published photographers in Vogue, Glamour, and House & Garden.

Fashion photography by Richard Rutledge in the 1950s

Rutledge, who died in Paris one week prior to his 62nd birthday, in the autumn of 1985, might have been called a ‘utility player’ had he been a baseball player instead of a photographer. He was comfortable shooting in black and white or color; in the studio or outdoors; with SLR or 8×10 plate; fashion, portraits, travel, still life—it was all the same to him. In his own words, he found darkroom work ‘a chore’, what he liked best were the results.

While Rutledge’s black-and-white work is accomplished, his color work stands above. The color films used during Rutledge’s day have an incredible depth that, when combined with his skillful compositions, produce shockingly modern results. He preferred animated and natural expressions on models, and often used playful banter to coax the person from behind the model’s façade. He also seems to have had a fondness for red; the color is incorporated into nearly every shot.

These stunning color photos are part of his work that Richard Rutledge took portraits of classic beauties in the 1950s.

Dovima wearing a brown flannel suit with a red velvet collar, matching felt hat with grosgrain band of red and blue silk twill scarf, 1951

Model wearing a brown and white window pane plaid flannel shirt and a brown wool twill skirt, 1951

Evelyn Tripp wearing a necklace of reversed seed-cowl pearls, 1952

Model is wearing a sheer pink shirtwaist blouse and a bell-shaped skirt by Nelly de Grab, 1952

Model is wearing a slim tweed coat, a matching skirt with a single walking pleat, and wool jersey blouse with neckline tie, matching gloves and raspberry cloche hat, 1952

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Charlie Chaplin Once Entered a Chaplin Look-Alike Contest and Lost

According to legend, somewhere between 1915 and 1921, Charlie Chaplin decided to enter a Chaplin look-alike contest, and lost. This is a myth that has been around for a long time, but there is no direct record of it happening, and all of the claims are anecdotal. Charlie himself never admitted this, and his son didn’t mention it in the book he wrote about his father.

Charlie Chaplin Look-Alike Contest, November 5, 1921. (Photo by by J. W. Sandison)

A short article called “How Charlie Chaplin Failed,” appearing in The Straits Times of Singapore in August of 1920, read like this:

Lord Desborough, presiding at a dinner of the Anglo-Saxon club told a story which will have an enduring life. It comes from Miss Mary Pickford who told it to Lady Desborough, “Charlie Chaplin was one day at a fair in the United States, where a principal attraction was a competition as to who could best imitate the Charlie Chaplin walk. The real Charlie Chaplin thought there might be a chance for him so he entered for the performance, minus his celebrated moustache and his boots. He was a frightful failure and came in twentieth.”

A similar story appeared in New Zealand’s Poverty Bay Herald, also in 1920:

Mary Pickford confided a new Charlie Chaplin story to Lady Desborough during her week-end visit, and Lord Desborough retailed it with much gusto to guests at the Anglo-Saxon Club dinner. Charlie Chaplin, so the story went, was one day at a fair in the United States where the principal attraction was a competition as to who could best inmate the “Charlie. Chaplin walk.” Thinking there might be a chance, the real “Charlie” entered the contest, but was handicapped by the absence of his celebrated moustache and boots. He was a most frightful failure (said Mary as quoted ay Lord Desborough) and only came in twentieth! 

Another story in the Australian newspaper, the Albany Advertiser, in March, 1921:

A competition in Charlie Chaplin impersonations was held in California recently. There was something like 40 competitors, and Charlie Chaplin, as a joke, entered the contest under an assumed name. He impersonated his well known film self. But he did not win; he was 27th in the competition.

These examples are all of 1920s gossip columns, simple retellings of a story that was spreading virally at the time. Did Chaplin come in 20th place? 27th place? Did he enter a contest at all? It’s fun to imagine that he did. But, a century later, many consider the story the stuff of urban legend.

(via Stack Exchange)