Inside Stannington Sanatorium, the Very First Purpose-Built Children’s TB Hospital in the UK

Stannington Sanatorium was the first purpose-built children’s tuberculosis sanatorium in the UK which officially opened on October 5, 1907 near to the village of Stannington, Northumberland. The institution was established by a local charity, The Poor Children’s Holiday Association (PCHA), which developed into the modern-day charity Children North East, and also took contributions from local Poor Law Guardians for the upkeep of patients.

Tuberculosis at the beginning of the 20th century was one of the biggest killers in the UK, responsible for more deaths than any other disease. The disease had long been associated with poverty and poor living conditions and by establishing a dedicated institution the PCHA hoped to make a difference to the lives of thousands of disadvantaged children.

When the sanatorium first opened in 1907 it contained only 50 beds but high demand and generous donations soon saw it expand with many new wards and additional facilities added over the coming years. Stannington was the first TB sanatorium to open in the UK that was dedicated purely to the treatment of children. At this time, while national death rates from TB were still fairly high Stannington maintained comparatively low death rates. By 1928 the hospital had the capacity to treat 310 children and this was the maximum capacity the sanatorium was ever to reach.

The sanitorium witnessed a great number of important changes in the treatment of tuberculosis as well as significant social changes. For example, the introduction of Streptomycin in 1947 revolutionized treatment for some. The National Health Service took over the responsibility of the sanatorium in 1948 and it continued its work dedicated to the treatment of tuberculous children up until 1953 whereupon it became a general children’s hospital. With the introduction of effective antibiotic treatments in 1947 and an array of other public health measures, tuberculosis had now begun to steadily decline, however, even after this date it continued to take in tuberculosis patients. It continued its operations as an NHS children’s hospital until 1984 when it was closed completely. Many of the historic medical records were recovered when the hospital closed.

‘Senior girls - surgical cases’ at Stannington Sanatorium, the first British sanatorium for tuberculosis children in Morpeth, Northumberland.

Interior of ward for non-pulmonary boys, Stannington Sanatorium.

Outdoor terrace at Stannington enabling patients to spend maximum time in fresh air environment.

Group of children at Stannington Sanatorium.

An interior view of Stannington Sanatorium, 1926. The young patients can be seen resting in wicker chairs in a sun room. Exposure to sunlight was part of the core treatment for TB patients.

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Greta Looking Not So Promising as a Teenager, Here Are Some Rarely Seen Childhood Photographs of Greta Garbo

On September 18, 1905 a baby girl was born on the Stockholm island of Södermalm. Her parents would give her the name Greta Lovisa Gustafsson. How could anyone know that the young infant would one day become the world’s most famous woman? A woman whom everyone would come to know as Garbo.

Garbo was a shy daydreamer as a child. She disliked school and preferred to play alone. Garbo was a natural leader who became interested in theatre at an early age. She directed her friends in make-believe games and performances, and dreamed of becoming an actress. Later, Garbo would participate in amateur theatre with her friends and frequent the Mosebacke Theatre. At the age of 13, Garbo graduated from school,and, typical of a Swedish working-class girl at that time, she did not attend high school. She later acknowledged a resulting inferiority complex.

Garbo first worked as a soap-lather girl in a barber shop before taking a job in the PUB department store where she ran errands and worked in the millinery department. After modeling hats for the store’s catalogues, Garbo earned a more lucrative job as a fashion model. In 1920, a director of film commercials for the store cast Garbo in roles advertising women’s clothing. Her first commercial premiered on December 12, 1920. In 1922, Garbo caught the attention of director Erik Arthur Petschler, who gave her a part in his short comedy, Peter the Tramp.

From 1922 to 1924, she studied at the Royal Dramatic Theatre’s Acting School in Stockholm. Here she met Sweden’s leading film director, Maurtiz Stiller, who became her mentor: first, he changed her name to “Greta Garbo,” and then, when MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer offered him a contract to come to Hollywood, he brought his protégé along. Garbo and Stiller arrived in New York in 1925 and were introduced to photographer Arnold Genthe. Fascinated by Garbo’s eyes and by “what is behind that extraordinary forehead,” Genthe persuaded her to sit for a photo session that transformed her career. The results of this sitting, soon published in Vanity Fair magazine, convinced MGM that Garbo had a very special quality, and she was quickly signed to a contract.

Still only twenty, Garbo had a bit more baby fat than fit the MGM mold, teeth that needed straightening, and a mop of hair that was entirely too frizzy. The studio glamour doctors went to work, and her metamorphosis yielded results. In 1926 Garbo made an auspicious Hollywood debut in The Torrent, and the next year played opposite John Gilbert—then one of the screen’s most popular leading men—in what became a tremendous box-office hit, Flesh and the Devil. Their chemistry sizzled both on and off the set, and they would be paired in several other films, including Love (1927), A Woman of Affairs (1928), and Queen Christina (1933).

As the Los Angeles Times noted at the time, Garbo represented an “utterly different type” of movie star. Earlier stars such as Mary Pickford or Lillian Gish conveyed innocence; Colleen Moore and Gloria Swanson were prototypic Jazz Age flappers; Clara Bow had “It.” But all seemed dull and dated when the screen filled with Garbo’s lambent aloofness and sophistication. Her evanescent movie image was enhanced by the art of still photography, particularly the 4,000 photographs taken between 1929 and 1941 by MGM’s chief photographer, Clarence Sinclair Bull.

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Portraits of Highland Park High School Teenage Girls, 1947

Highland Park High School is a public, co-educational high school located immediately north of downtown Dallas in University Park, Dallas County, Texas. It is a part of the Highland Park Independent School District, which serves residents who are predominantly college-educated professionals and business leaders in the Dallas community. It serves: all of the city of University Park, most of the town of Highland Park, and portions of Dallas.

The first building was the yellow brick schoolhouse of the Armstrong School which opened on October 12, 1915. The Armstrong School only served children through ninth grade. In 1922, the high school moved to its own separate building on Normandy Avenue following HPISD’s purchase of 11 lots in 1920. The tenth grade was added in the fall of 1922, and the eleventh grade a year later.

In 1924, 34 students became the first graduating class of the Highland Park Independent School District when they participated in the first-ever high school graduation ceremony of HPISD on June 2, 1924 (at that time, only eleven years of school were required prior to college admittance; it was not until 1937 that the twelfth grade was added).

These black and white photos were taken by LIFE photographer Cornell Capa in 1947. They show beautiful teenage girls’ styles of Highland Park High School from between the mid to the late of 1940s.

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30 Amazing Snapshots Capture Street Life in New York City From the Mid-1930s to the End of the 1940s

In the late 1930s, photographer Helen Levitt rode the New York City subway system, first as an apprentice to photographer Walker Evans, then snapping photos of aloof passengers wearing fur coats, flat-brim hats, and antique brooches.

Yet for the majority of Levitt’s illustrious career (lasting until the 1990s), she ventured out of the underground to document life on Manhattan streets. She captured authentic moments — children playing on the sidewalk or dressing up for Halloween, a group of women gossiping — in neighborhoods including Harlem, the Lower East Side, and the Garment District.

Levitt spoke about her early pictures shot on the streets in the 1930s: “It was a good neighborhood for taking pictures in those days, because that was before television. There was a lot happening. And the older people would be sitting out on the stoops because of the heat. Those neighborhoods were very active.”

The New York Times, in 2009, described her as: “a major photographer of the 20th century who caught fleeting moments of surpassing lyricism, mystery and quiet drama on the streets of her native New York”.

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Life of the Working Class in Manchester in the 1960s and 1970s

Manchester went through enormous and difficult changes in the sixties and seventies. After WWII cities such as Manchester lost power over local gas and electrical supply – thus much of their income. The city also had to struggle with high unemployment rates, as heavy industry, cotton processing and trading all suffered a severe downturn. Between 1961 and 1983, Manchester lost 150,000 jobs in manufacturing. During the 1970s, the City Council lost most of its remaining vital responsibilities. The city’s population also suffered a decline during that time. In 1961, Manchester’s population was 662,000, and by 1971 it was 544,000.

These photographs, taken by Shirley Baker, showed people's lives in a rapidly changing area around them. “There was so much destruction: a street would be half pulled down and the remnants set on fire while people were still living in the area. As soon as any houses were cleared, children would move in and break all the windows, starting the demolition process themselves.” Baker told the Guardian. “There was no health and safety in those days; they could do as they liked. I never posed my pictures. I shot scenes as I found them.

“People were turfed out of their homes. Some squatted in old buildings, trying to hang on to the life they knew. They didn’t have much and things were decided for them. A lot of people had dropped through the net and didn’t even know they were entitled to benefits. Some needed help but no one had even heard of a psychiatrist.” Recalled the photographer. “I would go out on to the streets capturing this upheaval, photographing people I came across… around every corner there was someone different. It became an obsession.”

Take a look back at the life on the streets of the working class in Manchester in the 1960s and 1970s through 19 vintage photographs taken by Shirley Baker:

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35 Adorable Vintage Photos of Children Posing With Their Beloved Animals

Pets are part of many children’s lives. Parental involvement, open discussion, and planning are necessary to help make pet ownership a positive experience for everyone. A child who learns to care for an animal, and treat it kindly and patiently, may get invaluable training in learning to treat people the same way. Careless treatment of animals is unhealthy for both the pet and the child involved.

Children raised with pets show many benefits. Developing positive feelings about pets can contribute to a child's self-esteem and self-confidence. Positive relationships with pets can aid in the development of trusting relationships with others. A good relationship with a pet can also help in developing non-verbal communication, compassion, and empathy.

These vintage photos from Steve Given captured lovely moments of children posing with their beloved animals.

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32 Lovely Portrait Photos of Japanese Children From Between the 1930s and ’50s

These vintage photos were found by Vintage Japan-esque that show lovely portraits of Japanese children, possibly from between the 1930s and 1950s.

Portraits of Japanese children from between the 1930s and 1950s

Photographs are from a large wooden box that appears to have belonged to a Japanese portrait photographer in Japan. One box of film included showed an expiration date of 1951.

A girl in braids, a dress, and flats holding Chitose Ame Shichi-Go-San candy

A Japanese boy and Japanese girl in traditional happi coats (he is wearing a headband as well)

A Japanese boy in a suit with hat and a girl in kimono with hair bow

A Japanese boy in a suit with traditional Shichi-Go-San (seven-five-three) candy

A Japanese boy in a traditional happi coat, a headband, and bells

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32 Daguerreotypes of Mothers Posing With Their Children From the Mid-19th Century

A daguerreotype is a single reversed image, made as a direct positive onto a silvered copper plate. Its reflective surface is an easy way to tell the difference between a daguerreotype and an early photograph taken using a different technique. The image is made of a combination of silver and mercury, resting on that plate. It is extremely vulnerable to damage, and can easily be brushed off, even after being ‘fixed’. Because they were so fragile, they were usually protected with a cover-glass and held in small leather-bound cases as treasured objects, in many ways similar to miniature painted portraits.

Nowadays we often refer to any old-looking, sepia-tinted photograph as a ‘daguerreotype’. But the word daguerreotype in fact refers to a specific photographic process, invented by the flamboyant Parisian inventor and entrepreneur Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851).

Daguerre was the first person to publicly announce a successful method of capturing images. His invention was an immediate hit, and France was soon gripped by ‘daguerreotypomania’. Daguerre released his formula and anyone was free to use it without paying a license fee – except in Britain, where he had secured a patent.

Here below is a set of early daguerreotypes that shows portraits of mothers with their little children from between the 1840s and 1860s.

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Rare Snaps of Robert De Niro as a Kid as You’ve Never Seen Before

Robert De Niro, like so many of the characters he’s played, has been a fascinating figure through his career. A two-time Oscar winner, De Niro first made his mark in the 1970s, as an actor of astonishing devotion to the craft. He has since gone on to become a legendary figure, someone who represents the high watermark of American acting.

Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. was born in the Manhattan borough of New York City on August 17, 1943, the only child of painters Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro Sr. His father was of Irish and Italian descent, while his mother had Dutch, English, French, and German ancestry. His parents, who had met at the painting classes of Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts, separated when he was two years old after his father announced that he was gay. He was raised by his mother in the Greenwich Village and Little Italy neighborhoods of Manhattan. His father lived nearby, and remained close with De Niro during his childhood.

Robert De Niro with his parents in the 1940s.

A bright and energetic child, De Niro was incredibly fond of attending movies with his father when they spent time together. He was especially taken with films starring Swedish actress Greta Garbo. De Niro’s mother worked part-time as a typist and copyeditor for Maria Picator’s Dramatic Workshop, and as part of her compensation, De Niro was allowed to take children's acting classes for free.

At the age of 10, De Niro made his stage debut as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. Soon after, he was accepted at New York’s prestigious High School of Music and Art, an institution specializing in visual and performance arts. However, feeling overwhelmed and unprepared for the intense and competitive atmosphere, he dropped out to attend public school after only a few days.

Not long after beginning courses at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village, De Niro proved to be uninterested in school altogether and, as a teenager, joined a rather tame Italian street gang that gave him the nickname “Bobby Milk,” in reference to his pale complexion. While De Niro was by all accounts only a very modest troublemaker, the gang provided him with experience to skillfully portray Italian mobsters as an actor.

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