Y Bwthyn Bach: Queen Elizabeth II’s Childhood Playhouse in Windsor Great Park, England

Queen Elizabeth II’s childhood playhouse in Windsor Great Park is one of the most charming and intimate artifacts of the royal family’s early life, a tiny pastel cottage known as Y Bwthyn Bach, or “The Little House.”

The playhouse was built in 1932 as a sixth-birthday present for Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II). The idea came from the people of Wales, who wanted to offer a unique and heartfelt gift to the young princess.

Designed by architect Edmund Willmott, it is a two-thirds scale, thatched cottage built in the style of a traditional Welsh cottage. It was built using materials left over from the redevelopment of Llandough Hospital. It is 24 feet (7.3 meters) long, 8 feet deep (2.4 meters), with a ceiling height of only 5 feet (1.5 meters).

The most remarkable thing about Y Bwthyn Bach is that it was a fully functional home, just scaled down for a child. It features four main rooms: a living room, a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. It was equipped with the modern conveniences of the time, including hot and cold running water, electricity, a working gas cooker, a small fridge, and even a heated towel rail. The furniture and fittings, such as a tiny telephone, miniature Beatrix Potter books, and a blue and gold china set, were all made to scale.

Both Elizabeth and her younger sister Princess Margaret adored the cottage. They played house, cleaned it themselves, arranged the furniture, and even answered letters delivered to the tiny mailbox. Family visitors often recalled that Elizabeth loved tidying and organizing the cottage, treating it like her own little kingdom; Margaret preferred the dramatic play—songs, dances, and imaginary adventures. The playhouse became a small oasis of normal childhood within the formality of royal life.

Over the decades, the cottage weathered the elements. During Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, it was restored several times, including a major renovation in 2012 for her Diamond Jubilee.

Today, Y Bwthyn Bach still sits within the private grounds of Windsor Great Park, near the Royal Lodge. It is not open to the public, but remains in use by royal children, continuing the charming tradition begun in the 1930s.

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Inga Lindgren: An Iconic Scandinavian Face

Inga Lindgren was a prominent Swedish fashion model who defined a certain sophisticated, clean aesthetic in the post-war era. Rising to fame in the late 1940s and ’50s, she quickly became a favorite subject for renowned photographers like Richard Avedon and Irving Penn.

Lindgren was frequently featured in major international fashion magazines, including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, where she embodied the transition from the formality of the 1940s to the lighter, more modern silhouettes of the New Look by Christian Dior. She was celebrated not only for her classic Scandinavian features, characterized by high cheekbones and an elegant composure, but also for her versatility and professional grace.

Lindgren’s image became synonymous with chic European style, making her an enduring icon of the golden age of high fashion modeling. Take a look at these vintage photos to see fashion portraits of Inga Lindgren in the 1940s.

Inga Lindgren in pale pink fleecy coat of Stroock wool by Brittany, photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Harper's Bazaar, January 1946

Inga Lindgren in a fine-ribbed corduroy suit with a short jacket, balloon sleeves and snug cuffs, the skirt has well-placed pleats, by Ceil Chapman, photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Harper's Bazaar, October 1946

Inga Lindgren in sheath of gun-metal paillettes and gun-metal gloves cuffed with feathers by Traina-Norell, Kodachrome by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Harper's Bazaar, November 1946

Inga Lindgren in a cobalt faille gown, festooned from hip to hip, the bodice folded to a point and held by a thin strap by Charles James, photo by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Harper's Bazaar, October 1946

Inga Lindgren in beautifully cut gray flannel dress, gold threads lining the neck and sleeves by Jo Copeland, small gold braid hat by Chanda, jewelry by Verdura, photo by Richard Avedon, Harper's Bazaar, October 1946

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Stunning Portraits of Sixteen-Year-Old Clara Bow Taken by Nickolas Muray, 1921

Clara Bow’s first portraits, made by Nickolas Muray just after winning the Fame and Fortune Contest of 1921 in the Motion Picture Classic magazine. The photographs made directly from negative by Muray’s widow after his death.

Her Fame and Fortune Contest victory was Clara’s chance of a lifetime, and she could not renounce it despite her mother’s damnations. Meanwhile the Brewster organization whisked her to the Greenwich Village studio of Nickolas Muray for a portrait to replace the cheap photos she had submitted. Muray shot Clara in two standard ingenue “attitudes”: playful, with her thumb hooked jauntily beneath the rim of her red tam, and pensive, gazing off camera with an arm draped modestly over her breasts.

Dissatisfied, Muray ordered an additional setup. This time his subject stared directly into the camera, her hair swept across her forehead, her lips locked together, her face half-shadowed, and her eyes haunted. Here was the real Clara, and though she had never looked as lovely, the image is harrowing. It was hardly what the Brewster organization wanted, so the January, 1922 issue of Motion Picture Classic featured the photo of Clara and her tam. The article announcing her victory was entitled “A Dream Come True.”

“I hadn’t dressed up because I had nothing to dress up in,” she described the audition in the Photoplay article. “I had never had a manicure nor a pair of chiffon stockings in my life. I had never even been close to the scent of such perfumes as filled that room. I wore the one and only thing I owned. A little plain wool dress, a sweater, and a woolly red tam. I hadn’t thought much of that angle. I had only looked at my face, and that was disappointment enough.”

Bow won the contest, but the bit part in a movie that was the prize was cut out of the final version. “Things weren’t breaking for me at all,” she told Photoplay. “Winning the contest hadn’t seemed to mean a thing. I wore myself out trying to find work, going from studio to studio, from agency to agency, applying for every possible part. But there was always something. I was too young, or too little, or too fat. Usually, I was too fat. When I told them that I’d won this contest, they only laughed. They said the woods were full of girls who’d won some bum beauty contest and they were mostly dumb or they wouldn’t have been in any beauty contest in the first place. Which I guess maybe was right.”

Bow broke through in the film Down to the Sea in Ships released in 1922 which garnered positive reviews for her despite her tenth-billed appearance. After a handful more supporting roles, she moved to Hollywood and signed a contract with Preferred Pictures, which was run by B.P. Schulberg. She was paid $200 a week and put to work at once, sometimes working on several films at once, sometimes loaned out to other studios, making 31 movies in less than three years.

Hans Holbein the Younger: One of the Greatest Portraitists of the Northern Renaissance

Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497–1543) was a German painter and printmaker who worked primarily in England and is regarded as one of the greatest portraitists of the Northern Renaissance. While he initially received training in Augsburg and Basel, his career reached its pinnacle in London, where he served as the King’s Painter to Henry VIII.

Holbein’s style is characterized by its extraordinary realism, precise detail, and a meticulous, almost photographic rendering of fabric, jewelry, and facial features. His most famous works include the portraits of Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, and his striking depiction of the statesman Thomas Cromwell. His art transcended mere likeness, he often incorporated symbols and objects (anamorphosis or memento mori) into his compositions, as seen famously in The Ambassadors (1533), adding layers of intellectual depth to his masterful technique.

Holbein’s portraits remain our most vivid visual link to the powerful figures of the Tudor court.

Adam and Eve, 1517

Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, circa 1517

The Last Supper, 1524-25

Touch Me Not, 1524

Venus and Amor, 1524-25

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Curious Chicagoans Pack the Cook County Morgue to View the Body of Slain Fugitive John Dillinger on July 22, 1934

John Dillinger, one of the most notorious bank robbers in American history, was gunned down by FBI agents on July 22, 1934, outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago. Dillinger had become Public Enemy No. 1, the face of crime during the Great Depression, and a symbol of both rebellion and menace. His death sparked a frenzy among the public, turning the end of his life into a bizarre spectacle.

After news broke of his shooting, curious onlookers rushed to the crime scene. Some reportedly dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, believing it held some sort of power or souvenir value. The fascination did not end there. Thousands descended upon the Cook County morgue to view his body. The morgue, overwhelmed by crowds, allowed people to file past Dillinger’s corpse for one final glimpse of the man who had eluded capture for months and embarrassed law enforcement with his bold prison escapes and daring heists.

People posed for photos, laughed, and treated the event like a social gathering. This scene of morbid tourism highlighted the strange celebrity status Dillinger had achieved. To some, he was a criminal menace. To others, he was a folk hero who robbed banks during an era of economic despair.

Dillinger’s death marked a turning point for the FBI. It gave the agency national credibility and helped solidify J. Edgar Hoover’s legacy. But the reaction of the public served as a chilling reminder of how infamy, even when born from violence, can captivate the American imagination.

A throng of people wait in line to view the body of slain gunman John Dillinger at the undertakers rooms in Mooresville, Indiana, in July 1934.

Betty and Rosella Nelson, along with a crowd of people, view the body of John Dillinger, 32, while in bathing suits at the Cook County morgue in Chicago. In the days after Dillinger was killed on July 22, 1934, massive crowds lined up outside the morgue to get a glimpse of the notorious public enemy.

Betty and Rosella Nelson, sisters and entertainers in Chicago, view the body of the notorious criminal John Dillinger in the morgue.

Coroner Frank J. Walsh stands next to the body of John Dillinger as a long line of people pass by on the other side of the glass panel to get a look at the famous criminal on July 23, 1934, at the Cook County Morgue.

Dillinger’s corpse at the morgue attracted crowds of onlookers in the days following his death. The photo, which shows sheet draped over Dillinger’s arm set in with rigor mortis, led to sensational interpretations by the public.

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50 Gorgeous Photos of a Young and Beautiful Dorothy Lamour in the 1930s

Born in New Orleans, Dorothy Lamour (December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) started her career by entering beauty pageants to support herself after leaving school in her teens. She was crowned “Miss New Orleans” in 1931. Lamour used her pageant prize money to move to Chicago and then New York, singing with the Herbie Kay Orchestra (whom she briefly married in 1935) in nightclubs and on popular NBC radio shows like the Rudy Vallée program.

Her radio work and sultry singing voice brought her to the attention of Hollywood studios, and she signed a contract with Paramount Pictures in 1936. Her breakthrough role came the same year in The Jungle Princess (1936), where she played a jungle native named Ulah and wore her signature sarong, designed by Edith Head. This role cemented her image as an exotic beauty and the “Sarong Queen,” a look that became iconic and a favorite pin-up for troops during World War II.

Throughout the rest of the decade, she starred in several more adventure films and musicals, including The Hurricane (1937) and Her Jungle Love (1938). By the end of the 1930s, she was a major star, ready for her next big phase.

Here, below is a gallery of 50 gorgeous photos of a young and beautiful Dorothy Lamour in the 1930s:

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The Smiling Star: 30 Vintage Portraits of Liselotte Pulver in the 1950s and ’60s

Liselotte Pulver is one of the most beloved and instantly recognizable Swiss-German actresses of the mid-20th century. Born in 1929, she became famous across Europe for her infectious laughter and radiant, often mischievous smile, which earned her the nickname “Lilo.”

Pulver rose to prominence in the 1950s and ’60s, starring in numerous German-language hits like Ich denke oft an Piroschka (1955), a classic that cemented her image as a charming, vivacious young woman. Her career was not limited to Europe, she also successfully crossed over into international cinema, starring opposite Hollywood giants such as James Cagney in the Billy Wilder comedy One, Two, Three (1961). In this film, her iconic, uninhibited dance on a desk remains one of her most memorable and definitive screen moments, perfectly embodying her spirited personality.

Pulver’s combination of talent, glamour, and distinctive cheerfulness made her a major cinematic figure whose influence spanned decades. Take a look at these vintage photos to see portraits of young Liselotte Pulver in the 1950s and 1960s.

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