Mabel Love: One of the Great Stage Beauties in Late Victorian and Edwardian Eras

Born 1874 in Folkestone, England, British dancer and stage actress Mabel Love played one of the triplet children in Masks and Faces at London’s Opera Comique in 1887, and the same year, she appeared in the Christmas pantomime at Covent Garden. Still only 14, she enjoyed widespread popularity in George Edwardes’ Burlesque Company at the Gaiety Theatre playing the dancing role of Totchen, the vivandière (camp follower) in Faust Up To Date (1888–89).

Over the following 30 years, Love starred in a series of burlesques, pantomimes and musical comedies. Among her successes were Francoise in La Cigale and Pepita in Ivan Caryll’s Little Christopher Columbus. Later, she appeared at the Folies Bergère in Paris and in Man and Superman on Broadway.

Love retired from the stage in 1918, and in 1926, she opened a school of dancing in London. Her only return to the stage was in 1938, as Mary Goss in Profit and Loss at the Embassy Theatre.

Love died at Weybridge, Surrey, England in 1953 at the age of 78. These beautiful photos captured portraits of Mabel Love in November 1910.

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50 Amazing Portraits of Swedish People Taken by John Alinder From the 1910s to the Early 1930s

The people depicted in John Alinder’s portraits are often looking straight into the camera. As if they can see us. As if their gaze can travel the hundred years or so that lie between their time and ours. As if they were saying, “You are alive now, but we were once alive.”

John Alinder, son of a farmer, was born in 1878 in the village of Sävasta, Altuna parish, in Uppland, a province in eastern central Sweden. Alinder remained in the village all his life. He chose not to take over his parents’ farm and instead became a self-taught photographer and jack of all trades. He was a music lover, holder of the Swedish agency for the British record label and gramophone brand His Master’s Voice. For a time he ran a country shop from his home, and he even operated an illicit bar for a while.

From the 1910s to the 1930s he portrayed the local people, the landscape around them and their way of life. He often photographed them in their homes and gardens, using the technology of the time, glass plates. These he developed in a small darkroom he had built and then made the prints in the sunlight.

The Alinder collection was “discovered” in the 1980s when a curator found over 8,000 glass plates stacked away in a library basement. Children placed on chairs, people perched in trees, laborers, confirmation candidates and old ladies; often depicted against a background of foliage and sprawling greenery penetrated by sunlight. Alinder’s portraiture allows for the magic of chance, both liberating and defining the subjects.

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Beautiful Vintage Photos and Posters of French Entertainer Mistinguett

Mistinguett (born Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois) was a French actress and singer. Bourgeois aspired to be an entertainer at a very young age. She began as a flower seller in a restaurant in her hometown, singing popular ballads while selling blossoms. After taking classes in theatre and singing, she began her career as an entertainer in 1885. One day on the train to Paris for a violin lesson, she met Saint-Marcel, who directed the revue at the Casino de Paris. He engaged her first as a stage-hand, and here she began to pursue her goal to become an entertainer.

Bourgeois made her debut as Mistinguett at the Casino de Paris in 1895 and went on to appear in venues such as the Folies Bergère, Moulin Rouge and Eldorado. Her risqué routines captivated Paris, and she went on to become the most popular French entertainer of her time and the highest-paid female entertainer in the world, even having her legs insured for 500,000 francs in 1919. During a tour of the United States, Mistinguett was asked by Time magazine to explain her popularity. “It is a kind of magnetism.” She replied. “I say 'Come closer' and draw them to me.”

Mistinguett died at the age of 8    2 in Bougival, France. Upon her death, writer Jean Cocteau observed in an obituary: “Her voice, slightly off-key, was that of the Parisian street hawkers—the husky, trailing voice of the Paris people. She was of the animal race that owes nothing to intellectualism. She incarnated herself. She flattered a French patriotism that was not shameful. It is normal now that she should crumble, like the other caryatids of that great and marvelous epoch that was ours.”

Take a look at the great French entertainer through these 21 captivating vintage photographs and posters:

Mistinguett and Max Dearly by Adrien Barrere, ca. 1909

Mistinguett by G.K. Benda, 1913

Mistinguett, 1920

Mistinguett by Leonetto Cappiello, 1920

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Amazing Photos of RMS Aquitania During Her Life

RMS Aquitania was a British ocean liner of the Cunard Line in service from 1914 to 1950. She was designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched on 21 April 1913 and sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 30 May 1914.

RMS Aquitania

Aquitania was the third in Cunard Line’s grand trio of express liners, preceded by RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania, and was the last surviving four-funneled ocean liner. Shortly after Aquitania entered service, World War I broke out, during which she was first converted into an auxiliary cruiser before being used as a troop transport and a hospital ship, notably as part of the Dardanelles Campaign.

Returned to transatlantic passenger service in 1920, she served alongside the Mauretania and the Berengaria. Considered during this period of time as one of the most attractive ships, Aquitania earned the nickname “the Ship Beautiful” from her passengers. She continued in service after the merger of Cunard Line with White Star Line in 1934. The company planned to retire her and replace her with RMS Queen Elizabeth in 1940.

However, the outbreak of World War II allowed the ship to remain in service for ten more years. During the war and until 1947, she served as a troop transport. She was used in particular to take home Canadian soldiers from Europe. After the war, she transported migrants to Canada before the Board of Trade found her unfit for further commercial service.

Aquitania was retired from service in 1949 and was sold for scrapping the following year. Having served as a passenger ship for 36 years, Aquitania ended her career as the longest serving Cunard vessel, a record which stood for six years until overtaken by RMS Scythia’s service record of 37 years.

In 2004, Aquitania’s service record was pushed into third place when Queen Elizabeth 2 became the longest serving Cunard vessel.

A set of amazing photos from Kenneth Allyn Barton that shows beautiful images of RMS Aquitania during her life.

Aquitania at the Clydebank yards of John Brown. Built to maintain a weekly transatlantic schedule with Lusitania and Mauretania, the larger Aquitania was perhaps the most successful of all the great liners, 1913

The passenger liner Aquitania under construction by John Brown & Co Ltd. at Clydebank. A general view along the port side of the ship, 1913

901 feet long, 97 feet wide. Passenger capacity- 610 1st Class, 950 2nd, and 1,998 3rd. The 45,647 ton Aquitania at John Brown & Company shortly before her launch, circa 1913

Cunard's Aquitania on the stocks at John Brown & Company of Clydebank; the same Scottish yard that would later build the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth 2, circa 1913

One of Aquitania's massive funnels is about to be hoisted onboard during the liner's fitting-out, circa 1913

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Vintage Photos of ‘the Worlds of Bertha Shambaugh’ at 219 N Clinton Street, Iowa City

Bertha Maude Horack Shambaugh was born in 1871 to Czech-born immigrants Frank and Katherine Horack. The family moved to Iowa City in 1880, when she was nine. In 1888, at the age of 17, she received a camera, becoming a very competent photographer by combining her technical skill in large-format, dry plate photography with a keen aesthetic sensibility.

Bertha took pride in her photography, as evidenced by her mounting, matting and framing of her images. Her most famous photographs document the daily life in the Amana Colonies, the majority taken in 1890-91.

The following year, Bertha met Benjamin Shambaugh, the first superintendent of the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) and an early champion of the importance of local history, marrying him in 1897. Once married, she didn’t use her camera much, but that doesn’t mean that she didn’t have a hand in the photographs taken of her home. She also played an important role at SHSI, editing manuscripts, designing book covers, and collecting manuscripts and objects for the society.

These vintage photos from The State Historical Society of Iowa that show exterior and interior of Bertha Shambaugh’s house at 219 N Clinton Street, Iowa City in the late 19th and early 20th century.

A view of the Horack family's sitting room, which contains numerous hallmarks of Victorian interior decorating. An easel displays a print of a peasant woman and child, circa 1887-1889

A view of the facade of the Horack home, possibly in early spring or late fall, circa 1887-1889

A view of the Horack family's parlor with wicker chair, circa 1887-1889

Horack house, dining area with a dining table and buffet to the right, circa 1887-1889

A view of the parlor with the Splendid stove to the right and the roll top desk to the left. In the center is an upholstered rocking chair, circa 1888-1889

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Covers of Vogue in the 1910s

Began as a weekly newspaper in 1892, before becoming a monthly magazine years later, Vogue is an American monthly fashion and lifestyle magazine, based in New York City that covers many topics, including fashion, beauty, culture, living, and runway.

The British Vogue, launched in 1916, was the first international edition, while the Italian version Vogue Italia has been called the top fashion magazine in the world. As of today, there are 26 international editions.

Here below is a photo set that shows what Vogue covers looked like from over 100 years ago.

Vogue, November 15, 1910

Cover of Vogue Magazine, November 15, 1911

Cover of Vogue, July 15, 1912

Cover of Vogue, June 1, 1912

Cover of Vogue, The Giving of a Garden Party, August 1, 1912

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Amazing Photographs Capture Street Scenes of Sydney From the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

These amazing photographs were taken by Frederick Danvers Power from between 1898-1926. The photos show street scenes of Sydney, Australia including pedestrians on King Street, George Street, Pitt Street, plus horsedrawn vehicles and activities on York and Castlereagh Streets, including the delivery of ice, bottle and gas cylinders.

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Harry Gardiner: The First Human Fly

One of the strangest phenomenons of the twentieth century began as skyscrapers first began to tower over cityscapes across the country. During that era between 1905 to 1929, the first daring adventurers known as human flies began to pop up around the country to scale building with their bare hands (usually to promote various businesses). A few wore special suction gloves to help with their ascent, but many of the better known building climbers used only strong fingers, and their feet to hold grips on the building.

Fame of course was always a strong lure for the human flies. It could also be somewhat lucrative, as business would pay to see their wares advertised to the sometimes large audiences below. The climbers would advertise banks, movies, and life insurance companies (always a favorite).

Far and away the best known human fly was Harry Gardiner. Gardiner climbed his first building in 1905, and ended up having topped over 700 by the time he ended his unusual career. By midway through the second decade of the twentieth century, he was famous, and even ascended buildings during the height of his fame to sell war bonds.

Gardiner would often draw thousands to observe his ascents. In December of 1916, over 30,000 people gathered to watch him climb the Omaha World Herald building, 30,000 more came to thrill over his climb in Terre Haute Indiana, and 22,000 watched him climb to the top of a building in Denver. However, the highlight of his career was in Detroit in September of 1916 when Gardiner drew over 150,000 citizens to watch his successful ascent of the 14 story Majestic Building.

Gardiner was still performing as a steeplejack as late as 1926, whereupon he suddenly disappeared. It is said that a man matching his description was found beaten and deceased in Paris France at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in 1933. But it’s unknown whether it was actually Gardiner, or just an unlucky tourist.

Harry Gardiner hanging from the 24th story of the Hotel McAlpin in New York City, 1910.

Human Fly crawls up walls of Camden NJ Courthouse, February 10, 1915.

On June 9, 1916, Harry Gardiner, called the “Human Fly,” thrilled crowds as he climbed up the Omaha World-Herald building at 15th and Farnam Streets. While the 30,000 to 35,000 people gathered in the streets to watch gasped and shivered, the newspaper story said, Gardiner was unfazed.

Harry Gardner climbing the Lawrence Building in Boston, 1918. He was climbing the building to raise funds for the Red Cross Fund. Gardner can be seen on the side of the building making his way upwards.

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Scary Cosmetic Rubber Masks From the 1910s

Vulcanized rubber masks were the most common ‘cosmetic’ mask in the 1910s. They were considered to be ‘quite effective’ in deep cleansing and purification of the skin, thus preventing blackheads, wrinkles, seborrhea, congestion, and all the usual skin eruptions. These images are to be found in Hygiene of the Face & Cosmetic Guide from 1917.

Masks. These are applications of mixtures, compositions or tissues which prevent the contact of the air with the skin. They act in two ways:

1. By facilitating the penetration and absorption by the glands and superficial strata of the skin of certain compounds: these are cosmetical or medicated masks. 

 

2. By quickening the functions and circulation of the glands, thus aiding to throw off substances which obstruct the skin and the epidermis: these are rubber masks.

Cosmetical Masks. These are what might commonly be called cataplasms. They act by their heat and humidity. They take the place of compresses which are covered with water proof tissues. They are analogous with plasters.

They were frequently used in olden times under the name of husband’s masks, because they were put on when retiring and only the husband had the pleasure o seeing them. The “husband mask” of Poppea, one of the most celebrated, was made of rye boiled with oil, so as to make a thick paste, and removed in the morning by bathing the face in milk.

Masklike applications have been made also on different parts of the flesh of animals, particularly of veal. Now-a-days, rubber masks are principally used.

Rubber Masks. These masks have many different effects, and as it can be seen by the pictures, their forms are numerous.

It has already been mentioned that their essential quality is to quicken the functions of different constituents of the skin, and on this account they are, along with spraying, one of the best means of cleansing and giving tone to the skin, and thus preventing wrinkles, congestion, dryness, blackheads, greasy seborrhoea and all general eruptions. But it must not be forgotten that, associated with their use, there must be other treatment. because otherwise they soften the skin and make it flabby. 

The intermittent application of rubber masks, the massage and sprays, combined and alternated, appear to be the three most effective means for improving and preserving the condition of the face.

Every time the mask is taken off, it should he washed with hot, then with cold boric acid water, and placed to dry, well protected from any dust.

Mask for chin and neck.

Ideal partial mask. 

Butterfly mask for nose.

Mask for the whole chin.

Mask for neck, chin and ears.

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