Wonderful Color Photos of Daily Life in Florida in the 1940s

Joseph Janney Steinmetz was an American commercial photographer whose images appeared in publications including the Saturday Evening Post, Life, Look, Time, Holiday, Collier's, and Town & Country. He documented scenes of American life including the wealthy and middle-class Americans, including Floridians.

After moving to Sarasota, Florida in 1941, Steinmetz's work appeared in numerous nationally distributed magazines. He fell in love with the circus which wintered there and photographed the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus for 20 years. For one of his most memorable assignments, Steinmetz traveled with the circus and produced iconic images of the performers' life on the road including the famous clown Emmett Kelly. He also worked on various assignments from the Florida Development Commission which sent him around the state to make photos promoting tourism. Later he collaborated with his wife Lois, and the couple became noted photo journalists specializing in destination coverage of Florida and the Caribbean.

Members of the Three-Quarter Century Softball Club: St. Petersburg, Florida, ca. 1947.

St. Augustine Cathedral, ca. 1945.

Sponge diver John Gonatos: Tarpon Springs, Florida, ca. 1945.

Handing out copies of The Evening Independent: St. Petersburg, Florida, March 19, 1947.

Ringling Circus clowns: Sarasota, Florida, March 21, 1947.

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Rare Portrait of a Druid Family, UK, ca. 1890s

In simple terms the Druids were the priests of the Celtic tribes in Britain. But to state that fact does not convey the breadth of their influence in Celtic society. The Druids were a sort of super-class of priests, political advisors, teachers, healers, and arbitrators among the Celtic tribes.

(via unexpectedtales)

They had their own universities, where traditional knowledge was passed on by rote (i.e. memorized). Druids had the right to speak ahead of the king in council, and may in some situations have held more authority than the king. They acted as ambassadors in time of war, they composed verse and upheld the law. They were a sort of glue holding together Celtic culture.

We know that the Druids used both animal and human sacrifice, and that many of their observances centered on oak groves and water. The Isle of Anglesey, in present-day Wales, was a centre of Druidic practice.

The Druids as we know them today exist largely in the words of the Romans. The trouble with the reports of the Romans is that they were a mix of reportage and political propaganda. It was politically expedient for the Celtic peoples to be colored as barbarians and the Romans as a great civilizing force.

Certainly the Romans seem to been genuinely horrified by the instances of human sacrifice among the Druids. In 61 AD the Romans exterminated the Druids of Anglesey, effectively destroying druidism as a religious force until a form of druidism was revived in the 19th century.

32 Vintage Photographs of Women at Work in the United Kingdom in World War II

With thousands of men away serving in the armed forces, British women took on a variety of jobs during the Second World War. They also played a vital role on the home front, running households and fighting a daily battle of rationing, recycling, reusing, and cultivating food in allotments and gardens.

From 1941, women were called up for war work, in roles such as as mechanics, engineers, munitions workers, air raid wardens, bus and fire engine drivers.

At first, only single women, aged 20-30 were called up, but by mid-1943, almost 90 per cent of single women and 80 per cent of married women were working in factories, on the land or in the armed forces.

There were over 640,000 women in the armed forces, including The Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS), the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), plus many more who flew unarmed aircraft, drove ambulances, served as nurses and worked behind enemy lines in the European resistance in the Special Operations Executive.

In cities, the Women’s Voluntary Service prided itself on doing ‘whatever was needed’, including famously providing support (and much needed tea and refreshments) to victims of the Blitz and those sheltering in Underground stations.

In the Special Operations Executive (SOE), Churchill recruited around 60 women “to set Europe ablaze”. They were deployed behind enemy lines, usually by parachute or fishing boats, to help form a ‘secret army’ of resistance fighters preparing the way for the Allied invasion.

Below is a collection of some of historic photographs of British women at work during World War II.

Eleanor Roosevelt talking with woman machinist during her goodwill tour of Great Britain, 1942.

A Merlin Is Made- the production of Merlin engines at a Rolls Royce factory, 1942.

Rachel Bingham scrubs the floor of the WVS canteen on her return to the Canteen Service depot, somewhere in London in 1941.

Women of the American Ambulance Great Britain wash an ambulance car of the surgical unit to pass the time between call-outs at their depot, somewhere in London, 1944.

A woman of the American Ambulance Great Britain receives a telephone call requesting their attendance at an incident, 1944.

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Beautiful Vintage Photos of Women in Bathing Suits in Florida From Between the 1940s and 1950s

1940s bathing suits, like many other clothing items, was also losing its modesty. The ’40s was the era when the midriff was born, and it was shown in swimsuits as well as playsuits. 1940s swimsuits were tight, unlike the suits of previous eras.

Ladies of the 1950s sure knew how to make an entrance to the beach or at a tiki poolside party. 1950s swimsuit choices grow every year blending vintage style and modern trends together. Some 50s bathing suits are close reproductions while others take the modesty of retro swimwear and combined it with new prints.

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Some Vintage Pictures From ‘Halloween’ (1978)

Halloween is a 1978 American independent slasher horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with producer Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut. The film was the first installment in what became the Halloween franchise.

The plot is set in the fictional Midwestern town of Haddonfield, Illinois. On Halloween night in 1963, a six-year-old Michael Myers murders his older sister by stabbing her with a kitchen knife. Fifteen years later, he escapes from a psychiatric hospital, returns home, and stalks teenager Laurie Strode and her friends. Michael's psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis suspects Michael's intentions, and follows him to Haddonfield to try to prevent him from killing.

Here’s a small collection of pictures from Halloween (1978).

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37 Beautiful Vintage Shots From 1927 Silent Movie ‘Fashions for Women’

A collection of beautiful fashion photos from classic silent movie Fashions for Women (1927) directed by Dorothy Arzner, featuring Esther Ralston, Raymond Hatton, Einar Hanson, Edward Martindel, Yvonne Howell, and more...

Dorothy Arzner was one of the very few women who established a name for herself as a director in the film industry of the 1920s and 1930s. Despite the extreme sexism prevalent in Hollywood, Arzner was able to establish what remains to this day the largest body of work by a woman director within the studio system.

After threatening to leave Paramount for rival studio Columbia Pictures if not offered a chance to direct, Arzner was granted her opportunity to make her first film, Fashions for Women (1927), a lighthearted romp that earned praise from critics and became a box office success.

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16 Interesting Vintage Photos of Hollywood Actresses Posing in Halloween Costumes From the 1930s

Halloween provides a chance for celebrities to put on their costumes, and once in a while, those getups are actually the guises of other well-known stars.

Anne Gwynne & Peggy Moran, c.1939

Betty Grable, c.1932

Betty Grable, c.1932

Dorothy Dix, c.1930s

June Collyer, c.1930

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