30 Rare Photos Capture Street Scenes of Amsterdam in the 1930s

Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands. It is colloquially referred to as the “Venice of the North”, attributed by the large number of canals which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Amsterdam in the 1930s

Amsterdam is well known for its nightlife and festival activity; with several of its nightclubs (Melkweg, Paradiso) among the world’s most famous. Primarily known for its artistic heritage, elaborate canal system and narrow houses with gabled façades; well-preserved legacies of the city’s 17th-century Golden Age. Cycling is also key to the city’s character, and there are numerous bike paths.

The Port of Amsterdam is the fifth largest in Europe. The KLM hub and Amsterdam’s main airport, Schiphol, is the Netherlands’ busiest airport as well as the third busiest in Europe and 11th busiest airport in the world. The Dutch capital is considered one of the most multicultural cities in the world, with at least 177 nationalities represented.

These rare vintage photos show what street scenes of Amsterdam looked like in the 1930s.

Rapenburg, Amsterdam, 1930

Amsterdam, 1931

1924 Mercedes police car, Amsterdam, 1932

Amsterdam, 1932

Amsterdam, 1932

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Some Snapshots of Amsterdam’s Red Light District in the 1990s

Amsterdam is as synonymous with tulips and cycling as it is smoking weed and sex workers advertising their services under glowing red lights.

At first glance, it may seem like the Red Light District in Amsterdam hasn’t changed much over the last few decades. Sex workers still offer their services to passers-by, and you can still find seedy bars and dealers on most corners. Yet, the area has undergone some significant changes over the past few years. The city’s efforts to “clean up” the Red Light District have led to the closure of a number of coffeeshops and prostitution windows, while the deluge of tourists strolling around the neighborhood has modified the true essence of the district.

Photographer Huub Prickaerts lived in the Red Light District in the 1990s and photographed the sex workers, cleaners, johns, criminals, neighbors, tourists, and addicts who made up the neighborhood. Because the Red Light District generally doesn’t take kindly to photographers, Prickaerts would shoot from the hip while innocently looking the other way. That technique might be questionable, but his photos are spot on.

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Photographs of Excited Dutch Boys Hanging on a Moving Train After the Liberation, 1945

In 1945, photographer Menno Huizinga took these photos of excited Dutch boys hanging on the door of a moving train after the Liberation from German occupation. Their faces are contorted into a mad sort of joy. The photographs could have been taken on the Liberation Day on May 5 1945, according to Flashbak.

Fast forward to 1945, the Allied forces are advancing through Europe and the Nazi regime is all but defeated. Canadian, British, Polish, American, Belgian, Dutch and Czech forces entered the Netherlands from the East, at the beginning of May, and liberated the eastern and northern provinces. Other parts of the country, especially the South East, were liberated by the British Second Army, consisting of British, Polish, American and French airborne troops.

The Netherlands was officially liberated on May 5, 1945, hence marking Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag) in the Netherlands. The Canadian General, Charles Foulkes, and the German Commander-in-Chief, Johannes Balskowitz, formalized Germany’s surrender at the Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen. This liberated certain areas of the Netherlands, like the West, that were still occupied by German soldiers. Two days later, on May 7, 1945, the German Instrument of Surrender was signed, signifying the unconditional surrender of all German soldiers.

Menno Huizinga (1907–1947) was a Dutch professional photographer and a member of the Hidden Camera. For the first time, his photographs have been released into the public domain. Huizinga, his Leica hidden in a cheese box, documented the violence of World War II as it came to The Hague. Subjects include bombardments, evacuations, scenes depicting hunger and other subjects. Huizinga’s war negatives were transferred during his lifetime to the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) in Amsterdam. His other work is in the custody of the Nederlands Fotomuseum.

Life of the Netherlands in the 1970s Through Amazing Black and White Photos

The 60s and 70s marked a period of great cultural and social change throughout the world, including the Netherlands.

Netherlands in the 1970s

Younger generation became engaged in things like rock and roll, sexual exploration, drugs, idealism, and informal clothes. They wanted to distinguish themselves from the past generation as much as possible. And they were successful.

As of result of this youth movement, religion began to fade into the background of Dutch society. Neighborhoods, cities, and countries became more secular, and religion was discussed less and less public – a practice that is still widely in affect to this day.

These amazing black and white photos were taken by Erik van Straten that show street scenes of the Netherlands, mostly Amsterdam in the 1970s.

Utrecht, 1971

Amsterdam, 1973

Amsterdam. Slotervaart, 1973

Netherlands, 1973

Utrecht, 1973

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18th Century Prosthetic Nose Made by a Man Who Had Lost His Nasal Cartilage

The 28-year old man did not only lose his nose, but also most of the cartilage of the nasal cavity and a large part of the palate. The mouth and nose together formed a gruesome hole. The poor man had a trick to bring his tongue out through his nasal cavity. After designing a prosthesis for himself of a artificial nose and palate, he learned again to speak and was enabled to eat and drink.

According to the Museum Vrolik, the cause of his facial trauma is unknown. Syphilis can cause, among other things, the loss of one’s nose. Though at a stage that severe, the brain is often also damaged to an extend that it’s unlikely that the man was able to function. Tuberculosis is another candidate, or an unfortunate accident.

This prosthetic shows how a young man tried to cope with his impairment. Mind you, this is the 1700s, well before World War I, when the production of prosthetics really kicked off – with soldiers coming back from the trenches with all sorts of parts missing. This patient had to be creative and try to conjure up some solution to make his life less miserable.⁣

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(Photos by Frank Wiersema, via the Museum Vrolik)

Historic Photo of the Van Halen Family on a Boat on Their Way to America, 1962

This truly historic photo was taken on the very boat that carried the Van Halen family to America in 1962. It was a nine-day boat ride, and to help pay their fare, Jan, Edward, and Alex provided the ships musical entertainment.

(Left to right: Alex, Jan, Eugenia and Edward)

According to Van Halen News Desk, while living in Holland, Jan and Eugenia Van Halen received letters from relatives describing the wonders of California. Despite Jan’s achievements in his musical career, the family was convinced Jan could find even greater success in America.

So, on March 9, 1962, the Van Halen family departed Holland by steamship. In their possession were a few suitcases, 75 Dutch guilders (the equivalent of about 15 American dollars) and a piano. It was a nine-day boat ride, and to help pay their fare, Jan, Edward, and Alex provided the ship’s musical entertainment. From New York the family took a four day trip by train to California.

In an interview with the Rolling Stone in 1995, Eddie recalled: “My dad played on the boat, and Alex and I did our little piano thing as a sideshow. Dad would pass the hat, and we’d make another $20. We moved to the U.S. when I was 8, and my dad ended up having to walk, like, six miles from Pasadena [Calif.], where we lived, to the Arcadia Methodist Hospital to wash dishes because he couldn’t make it playing music. He had, like, four jobs, and he would gig on weekends playing proms and bar mitzvahs, anything he could get. When we got here, his first thing was to find us a great piano teacher. And he found this Russian guy named Stasskalvitis. We were being trained to be classical pianists, little Vladimir Horowitzes. I actually won first place three years in a row at Long Beach City College.”

Jan and Eugenia risked everything by taking their two beautiful boys and immigrating to America. Once they settled in California, they continued to inspire his boys to become musicians.

Here’s the ship’s manifest showing the Dutch immigrants on the ship. The Van Halen family is listed on lines 11 through 14:

40 Wonderful Color Photographs Capture Everyday Life in Europe After World War II

In the Spring of 1947 This Week assigned David “Chim” Seymour to photograph Europe during the second anniversary of the end of World War II. His route followed the same taken by the Western Allies during their drive toward Germany, from Normandy to Berlin.

Though the guns had long gone silent, the scars of war were still visible everywhere: damaged buildings, destroyed fortifications, and discarded tanks and airplanes. Civilians, many of which wore clothing left by the US Army, were still cleaning up and adapting to life in peace-time. It was during this trip that Seymour became concerned with children in post-war Europe, predating the series of stories he shot for UNICEF in 1948.

Though Chim’s black and white images from the story have been published many times since 1947, most of these color images have never been seen before.

David Szymin was born in 1911 in Warsaw into a family of publishers that produced works in Yiddish and Hebrew. His family moved to Russia at the outbreak of the First World War, returning to Warsaw in 1919.

After studying printing in Leipzig and chemistry and physics at the Sorbonne in the 1930s, Szymin stayed on in Paris. David Rappaport, a family friend who owned the pioneering picture agency Rap, lent him a camera. One of Szymin’s first stories, about night workers, was influenced by Brassaï’s Paris de Nuit (1932). Szymin - or ‘Chim’ - began working as a freelance photographer. From 1934, his picture stories appeared regularly in Paris-Soir and Regards. Through Maria Eisner and the new Alliance agency, Chim met Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa.

From 1936 to 1938 Chim photographed the Spanish Civil War, and after it was over he went to Mexico on an assignment with a group of Spanish Republican émigrés. On the outbreak of the Second World War he moved to New York, where he adopted the name David Seymour. Both his parents were killed by the Nazis. Seymour served in the US Army (1942-45), winning a medal for his work in intelligence.

In 1947, along with Cartier-Bresson, Capa, George Rodger, and William Vandivert, he founded Magnum Photos. The following year he was commissioned by UNICEF to photograph Europe’s children in need. He went on to photograph major stories across Europe, Hollywood stars on European locations, and the emergence of the State of Israel. After Robert Capa’s death he became the new president of Magnum. He held this post until November 10, 1956, when, traveling near the Suez Canal to cover a prisoner exchange, he was killed by Egyptian machine-gun fire.

FRANCE. Montebourg. 1947. WWI Memorial.

FRANCE. Montebourg. 1947.

FRANCE. Near Reims. 1947. A crashed US bomber in a farmer’s field.

FRANCE. Normandy. 1947. Omaha Beach.

FRANCE. Normandy. 1947. Omaha Beach.

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Vintage Photos of Dutch Housewives Using Their Stoves in the 1930s

In the early 1930s, gas range manufacturers found a way to hide the gas manifold behind the sheet metal body, and cookers on spindly cabriole legs quickly assumed a new marketing persona as the chest of drawers range. Covers that pulled down over the burner left the appliance hardly recognizable as a stove, according to ads.

In the tight times of the Depression, some manufacturers suggested their ranges might even double as tables. Drawer-type handles and decorative legs continued the notion that ranges were furniture—even down to paint finishes that aped materials like marble or wood.

By the end of the decade, the built-in look had arrived, and gas and electric ranges alike suddenly stopped trying to masquerade as freestanding cabinets. The winds of streamline design were blowing through the kitchen, so ranges grew dashboard-like backs that hugged the wall and square-cut corners that fit flush with countertops at either side. Legs became greatly reduced or disappeared altogether.

Inspired by the new aerodynamic contours of planes, cars, and trains, designers were adding airfoil curves and chrome speed lines to the most stationary of kitchen appliances. The trend continued through the 1940s and into the post-war years, when ranges became blessed with as many timers, automatic controls, and gadgets as the new automobile-driven economy could connive—a fitting domestic food preparation station for the atomic-era lifestyle to come.

These vintage photos from Jo Hedwig Teeuwisse that show Dutch housewives using their stoves in the 1930s.

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22 Fascinating Studio Portraits of Dutch Brides in the 1970s

The 1970s wedding dress continued where the 1960s finished; with long, floaty gowns and wide romantic sleeves. The mood of the day was bohemian influenced by musicians such as Stevie Nicks and festivals such as Woodstock. Often, we think of this style as 1970s but it had in fact been popular since the late ’60s.

These fascinating studio portraits show what Dutch brides looked like in the 1970s.

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30 Fascinating Color Photos Capture Street Scenes of Europe in 1960

The 1960s sees the emergence of ‘youth culture’, with groups such as The Beatles attracting huge crowds of teenage fans wherever they appear, helping to stimulate a cultural revolution and widening the generation gap.

It is a good period for the economy, helped by the fact that EU countries stop charging custom duties when they trade with each other. They also agree joint control over food production, so that everybody now has enough to eat - and soon there is even surplus agricultural produce.

These fascinating color photos were taken by dianp that show street scenes of Germany, Holland, and Italy in 1960.

Germany. Hamburg street scenes

Germany. Hamburg street scenes

Germany. Hamburg street scenes

Germany. Hamburg street scenes

Germany. Hamburg street scenes

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Death, Blood, and Mayhem: A Collection of 48 Scary Vintage Dutch Workplace Safety Posters

These posters, which represent over 50 years of finger-wagging, are mostly terrifying, but each is also pretty gorgeous in its own way — much better than the inspirational or warning posters floating around offices today.

The posters were created by some very talented Dutch artists, spanning from the 1920s to the 1960s, and were quite beautiful and creative ways to remind workers of the dangers of the jobsite and shop.

Now, just check out some amazing vintage safety posters after the jump:

1925-1926, illus. Willem Papenhuyzen

1925-1949, poster by Evert Möllenkamp

1925-1949, poster by W. J. v.d. Werf

1925, poster by Jacob Jansma

1925, poster by Jacob Jansma

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