40 Amazing Photographs Capture Daily Life in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1941

Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The name “Mar del Plata” is a shortening of “Mar del Rio de la Plata,” and has the meaning of “sea of the Rio de la Plata basin” or “adjoining sea to the (River) Plate region.”

From the 1910s, the residents, mostly new arrived immigrants from Europe, demanded and obtained the control of the Municipality administration. The socialist were the mainstream political force in this period, carrying out social reforms and public investment. The main port was also built and inaugurated in 1916.

The first military coup in Argentina's history took place on September 6, 1930, restoring the conservative hegemony in all levels of Government, including the local one. Although unpopular and fraudulent, this old new order brought some progress and investment to an ailing country in the climax of the Great Depression. Mass tourism began to arrive in this decade, helped by improved roads, but it took off in the 1940s and 1950s, when the development of union-run hotels under the Perón presidency put the city within the reach of Argentina’s middle and working classes.

These amazing photographs below, taken by LIFE photographer Hart Preston (1910–2009), show what life was like in Mar del Plata in the early 1940s.

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Vintage Photos of People Posing With Their Packard Automobiles

Packard was an American luxury automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Detroit-built Packard in 1956, when they built the Packard Predictor, their last concept car.

The company was considered the preeminent luxury car before World War II, and built aircraft engines for the Allied war effort. Owning a Packard was prestigious, and surviving examples are found in museums, car shows and automobile collections.

Packard bought Studebaker in 1953 and formed the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The 1957 and 1958 Packards were actually badge engineered Studebakers, built in South Bend.

Here below is a set of vintage photos from Vintage Cars & People that shows people posing with Packard automobiles from between the 1920s and 1950s.

A company of five posing in a 1925 open-top Packard Eight Phaeton on a gravel road in the countryside, circa 1925

A company of five posing in a 1926 open-top Packard Phaeton on a graveled Alpine road, August 1927

A well-to-do family of three posing with a 1928 Packard Standard Eight Sedan in summertime. The Packard is registered in the administrative region of Düsseldorf, circa 1928

Four stylish individuals posing with a 1928 Packard Sedan in front of a large brick-built house in summertime, circa 1928

Two elegant couples posing with a 1926 Packard Roadster open-topped in a residential street on the outskirts of town, circa 1928

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Pioneering Photos of Suffragettes by Christina Broom

Widely considered to be the UK’s first female press photographer, Christina Broom (1862–1939) began her photographic career in 1903 at the age of 40.

Christina Broom took some of the best photographs of the brave women who campaigned for the vote in London in the years up to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. When Christina worked at ‘Women’s Sunday’ in 1908 she was 46 years old and living at 38 Burnfoot Avenue in Fulham with her husband Albert Edward Broom and their only child, 18-year-old Winifred Margaret, known as Winnie. Due to a sporting injury in 1903, Albert Broom was unable to work, and Christina converted an interest into photography into a business. She borrowed a box camera and taught herself to be a commercial photographer, and came to earn a good living at this happy moment, now known as the “golden age of the postcard.”

In 1908, hundreds of women were frequently and noisily taking to the streets of the capital, claiming public spaces everywhere to demand the vote. Often within easy traveling distance of the Brooms, the Suffragettes and suffragists were irresistible and photogenic subjects. At the ‘Women’s Sunday’ meeting in Hyde Park, Christina Broom, who was less than five feet tall, managed to maneuver a tripod and a heavy half-plate box camera through the packed Hyde Park into a good position within two or three feet of platform 6 – one of 20 – and captured the earnest camaraderie of the speakers and their supporters.

It is not clear why Broom stopped photographing the women’s suffrage movement in the summer of 1913. Perhaps her other work became more popular and made more money. Perhaps the escalating militancy of the WPSU was the reason for the Brooms to end this particular line of work. Between the summers of 1913 and 1914 newspapers rand stories of broken windows, arson attacks on empty houses and churches, railways stations and sporting facilities, and axe attacks on works of art and museum displays. The days of beautifully dressed, photogenic women processing peacefully through the streets of London carrying artistic banners – Broom’s staple – were over.

Take a look back at the Suffragettes from across Britain through these pictures taken by Christina Broom:

Women’s Social and Political Union Exhibition stand, probably at Claxton Hall during the Women’s Parliament, February 1908

Suffragettes in Hyde Park on Women’s Sunday, June 1908

Suffragette Charlotte (Charlie) Marsh at Hyde Park rally, 1908

Nurses and midwives from the Pageant of Women’s Trades and Professions marching to the Albert Hall, April 1909

Mounted suffragettes taking part in a procession to promote the Women’s Exhibition, May 1909

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20 Vintage Snaps of People Wearing Spooky for New Orleans’ Mardi Gras in 1903

These photos of costumed revelers are from the Telling-Grandon scrapbook/diary, found at the Louisiana Digital Library. It contains photographs and ephemera collected by an Evanston, Illinois group during a visit by train to the New Orleans Carnival of 1903.

While the scrapbook has no single author, several of the entries are signed by individuals within the group. Two of the more prominent among these were an Irving Telling and Willie Grandon; thus the title of the collection, Telling-Grandon.

The holiday of Mardi Gras is celebrated in all of Louisiana, including the city of New Orleans. Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Usually there is one major parade each day (weather permitting); many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the Mardi Gras season. In the final week, many events occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities, including parades and balls (some of them masquerade balls).

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Fascinating Vintage Snaps of Rome in 1956

These amazing snaps were captured by Allan Hailstone on a trip to Rome as a schoolboy with his father and a friend in August 1956. They had been inspired to go after seeing the 1954 movie Three Coins in the Fountain.

“Before the advent of cheap airfares and mass tourism, it was easy in 1956 to see all of the sights in Rome without any waiting time.” Hailstone told MailOnline Travel. “Things were much more leisurely than now when you will be among crowds of visitors.”

Take a look back at the Eternal City in 1956 through these 26 beautiful vintage black-and-white pictures. For more fascinating photographs, visit Hailstone's brilliant Flickr site.

Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps

St. Peter's, Vatican City

Via Veneto

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33 Fascinating Photos Capture Everyday Life of Managua in 1985

Managua is the capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and the center of an eponymous department. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Managua and inside the Managua Department, it has an estimated population of 1,055,247 in 2020 within the city’s administrative limits and a population of 1,401,687 in the metropolitan area, which additionally includes the municipalities of Ciudad Sandino, El Crucero, Nindirí, Ticuantepe and Tipitapa.

The city was declared the national capital in 1852. Previously, the capital alternated between the cities of León and Granada. The 1972 Nicaragua earthquake and years of civil war in the 1980s severely disrupted and stunted Managua’s growth.

These fascinating photos were taken by American photographer Janet Delaney that documented everyday life of Managua in 1985.

Angela, Doña Mercedes' daughter, sits with her two children holding the FSLN flag, Managua, Nicaragua, 1985

Angela's daughter Anna polishes shoes with black paint while her mother and grandmother talk, Managua, Nicaragua, 1985

Angela and friend pour Coca-Cola, Managua, Nicaragua, 1985

A previously-banned portrait of Augusto Sandino hangs in the living room of the Montano home, Managua, Nicaragua, 1985

Barbershop at the Mercado Oriental, Managua, Nicaragua, 1985

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Studio Portraits of American Indians by Alexander Gardner From the 1860s

Alexander Gardner (1821–1882) was a photographer best known for his portraits of President Abraham Lincoln, his American Civil War photographs, and his photographs of American Indian delegations.

Gardner emigrated from Scotland to the United States in 1856 and worked at the New York City studio of Mathew Brady, coming into contact with numerous politicians and military figures. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Brady photographed the conflicts, sending his team of photographers, including Gardner, into the field. Alexander Gardner left Brady’s studio in 1862 to open his own in Washington, D.C.; at this same time, he also became employed by General McClellan as official photographer of the Union Army’s U.S. Topographical Engineer Corps.

After the war, Gardner photographed many notables including President Lincoln, the Lincoln conspirators, and Indian delegations visiting Washington. In 1867, Gardner joined the survey team for what became the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The railroad was promoting plans for an extension of its route from Kansas to the Pacific Ocean. This proposed route, from Kansas through the mountains of Colorado and deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and California, would serve to placate the Indians and provide access to the markets of the California. Gardner photographed the path of the proposed extension, emphasizing the ease of future railroad construction and the potential for economic development while including studies of the Indians in the region and settlements along the way. Gardner’s photographs represent the earliest systematic series of the Great Plains.

The survey photographs taken during treaty negotiations between the Plains Indians and the Indian Peace Commission at Fort Laramie, Wyoming in 1868. Gardner photographed many of the Sioux chiefs from the northern plains tribes including Crow, Arapaho, Oglala, Minneconjous, Brule and Cheyenne.

Although treaties between the U.S. government and the various Indian tribes were not unusual in the mid-1800s, the 1868 treaty was notable because it was the first time the U.S. government denounced the existence of individual Indian tribes and maintained that Indians would be treated as U.S. citizens, subject to the laws of the nation.

Portrait of Tcha-Wan-Na-Ga-He (Buffalo Chief) in Native Dress wearing fur and feather headdress and peace medal, holding pipe-tomahawk.

Portrait of Nag-A-Rash or British, Head Chief of Iowas, with Peace Medal.

Portrait of Mah-Hee (Knife), Third Chief of Iowas, with Peace Medal.

Portrait (Front) of Mah-Hee (Knife), Third Chief of Iowas, holding bow and arrows.

Portrait of Ka-Ke-Ga-Sha (Yellowish Red Chief) Or Pi-Sing (Game)

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Early Portrait Photos of Victorian People Posing With Their Pets

Victorians kept pets for a variety of reasons. Pedigree dogs conveyed class and status, cats caught mice, and rabbits could be eaten when times were hard. But evidence from interviews, diaries, photographs and the numerous newly created pet cemeteries suggests that, above all, emotional attachment was a crucial part of the relationship between most Victorians and their pets.

Dogs, for example, were held to have virtuous characteristics that echoed the values of the Victorian human world – they were seen as steadfast, loyal and courageous.

Here below is a set of lovely photos that shows portraits of Victorian people posing with their pets in the mid-19th century.

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’80s New York Street Portrait Photography by Steven Siegel

Compared to the 1970s, the 1980s were a time of restrained optimism in New York. The boom on Wall Street was fueling the speculative real estate market, and unemployment numbers dropped noticeably. Koch successfully balanced the city's budget ahead of schedule, allowing the city to re-enter the bond market and raise cash, effectively ending the city's financial crisis by 1981.

However, the city’s reputation for crime and disorder was still very much a part of New Yorkers' daily lives. The illegal drug trade flourished, causing the murder rate to soar, and dividing the city into areas ruled by different drug lords. It became known as the crack epidemic.

The New York City Subway fell victim to a crime epidemic that saw more crimes being committed on the subway each year than in any other subway system around the world.

Homelessness became a serious problem during the 1980s. The city outlawed discrimination against gay and lesbian people in such matters as employment and housing in 1986.

These fascinating photos were captured by Steven Siegel that show street portraits of New Yorkers in the 1980s.

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23 Amazing Vintage Photographs Capture Chicago Night Clubs’ Scene From the Mid-1970s

Between 1975 and 1977, sometimes five nights a week, photographer Michael Abramson traveled from his northern Chicago suburb to the South Side, rambling from nighttime hotspots like Perv’s House and the Five Fingers Social Club to the High Chaparral and the New Jazz Showcase Lounge. Shooting upwards of half a dozen rolls of film a night, he captured the energy and emotion of little life dramas unfolding around him through telling, but unsentimentalized gestures and gazes.

“You’re there to have fun… to forget whatever troubles or successes you might have,” he told LENS blog in 2009. “When you’re looking through the lens, you have a reason to wander all over the place.”

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