40 Amazing Found Photos Show Victorian People in Their Parlors

Interior decoration and interior design of the Victorian era are noted for orderliness and ornamentation. A house from this period was idealistically divided in rooms, with public and private space carefully separated.

The parlor was the most important room in a home and was the showcase for the homeowners where guests were entertained. A bare room was considered to be in poor taste, so every surface was filled with objects that reflected the owner's interests and aspirations.

The dining room was the second-most important room in the house. The sideboard was most often the focal point of the dining room and very ornately decorated.

Here below is an amazing set of found photos that shows people in their parlors from the late Victorian era.

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Fascinating Photos Capture Everyday Life of the U.S Just After the Great Depression by Marion Post

Born 1910 in New Jersey, American photographer Marion Post worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty and deprivation.

Post’s photographs for the FSA often explore the political aspects of poverty and deprivation. They also often find humor in the situations she encountered.

In 1978, Post mounted her first solo exhibition in California, and by the 1980s, the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art began to collect her photographs. The first monograph on Marion Post’s work was published in 1983.

Post was an advocate for women’s rights; in 1986, she said: “Women have come a long way, but not far enough. . . . Speak with your images from your heart and soul” (Women in Photography Conference, Syracuse, N.Y.).

Marion Post’s work is archived at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. She died in 1990 at the age of 80.

These fascinating photos are part of her work that Marion Post captured everyday life of the U.S from 1939 to 1941, just after the Great Depression.

Cooperative gas station at Greenbelt, Maryland, 1938

A FSA (Farm Security Administration) borrower building a new gate for his yard, Prairie Farms, Montgomery, Alabama, 1939

A rainy evening in New York City looking west toward Hudson River from University Place, 1939

Tourist court near Plant City, Florida, 1939

Spectators at the Duke University-North Carolina football game, Durham, North Carolina, 1939

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Man Sitting on a Dead Horse, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, ca. 1880s

A man wearing top hat, sitting on a dead horse in the street. Picture was taken at South Eighth Street and Indiana Avenue in Sheboygan, Wisconsin between 1876 and 1884.

Who is that mysterious, elegant man? And why is he sitting on a dead horse?

“This thing has gotten more mileage than you can shake a stick at,” said Scott Prescher, who has a copy of the dead horse photo in his restaurant in Sheboygan. “It is just a funny picture. He is sitting on there with a top hat like he had somewhere special to go and his horse just croaked in the middle of the road.”

“No one knows who the gentleman is, exactly what year the picture was taken or the circumstances surrounding it,” said Beth Dipple, director of the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, which has had the picture in its collection for at least 20 years.

After writing two stories about the picture, The Sheboygan Press received more than 50 calls and emails about it.

Some of the ideas about what the picture depicts include the thoughtful, it was staged for a political campaign perhaps related to sanitation issues –– to the bizarre –– the horse is being helped to relieve “excess flatulence.”

Dibble said the newspaper published the photo on August 20, 1974, but mainly to focus attention on the nearby buildings. The caption said the man who provided the photo to the newspaper received it from a friend who had no idea about its origin.

Dipple said about all that’s known about the picture is it was taken at South Eighth Street and Indiana Avenue in Sheboygan between 1876 and 1884, based on the presence of a bridge over the Sheboygan River in the background and the absence of the railroad tracks that were installed in 1884.

The city had laws that required people to stay with their dead horses until they were picked up and disposed of, Dipple said.

“Who knows why somebody would take a picture of it?” she said. “People had weird senses of humor then just like they do now.”

Historical Photos of Convair Model 118 ConvAirCar, a Prototype Flying Car of Which Only 2 Were Built in 1947

If you think the other flying cars all look a little too much like airplanes, join the club. Industrial Designer Henry Dreyfuss decided to design an actual flying car in 1947, and the ConvAirCar was the result. This was a re-engined development of the Model 116, designed by Theodore P. Hall.

Convair Model 118 ConvAirCar (1947)

The ConvAirCar debuted in 1947, and offered one hour of flight and a petrol mileage of 45 miles per gallon. The car itself sported a lightweight fiberglass body and could seat four. The wings and engine/propeller snapped onto the top of the car, and when not in use were towed behind the car.

Intended for mainstream consumers, two prototypes were built and flown. The first prototype was lost after a safe, but damaging, low fuel incident. Subsequently, the second prototype was rebuilt from the damaged aircraft and flown. By that time, little enthusiasm remained for the project and the program ended shortly thereafter.

Convair Model 118 ConvAirCar (1947) - 1st Prototype

Convair Model 118 ConvAirCar (1947) - 1st Prototype

Convair Model 118 ConvAirCar (1947) - 1st Prototype

Convair Model 118 ConvAirCar (1947) - 1st Prototype

Convair Model 118 ConvAirCar (1947) - 1st Prototype

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The Last Photographs of a Quagga Mare (an Extinct Subspecies of Zebra Native) at the London Zoo in 1870

The quagga was a subspecies of plains zebra that lived in South Africa until becoming extinct late in the 19th century. It was long thought to be a distinct species, but early genetic studies have supported it being a subspecies of plains zebra. A more recent study suggested that it was merely the southernmost cline or ecotype of the species. The name was derived from its call, which sounded like “kwa-ha-ha”.

The quagga is believed to have been around 257 cm (8 ft 5 in) long and 125–135 cm (4 ft 1 in–4 ft 5 in) tall at the shoulder. It was distinguished from other zebras by its limited pattern of primarily brown and white stripes, mainly on the front part of the body. The rear was brown and without stripes, and therefore more horse-like. The distribution of stripes varied considerably between individuals. Little is known about the quagga’s behavior, but it may have gathered into herds of 30–50. Quaggas were said to be wild and lively, yet were also considered more docile than Burchell’s zebra. They were once found in great numbers in the Karoo of Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State in South Africa.

After the Dutch settlement of South Africa began, the quagga was heavily hunted as it competed with domesticated animals for forage. Some were taken to zoos in Europe, but breeding programs were unsuccessful. The last wild population lived in the Orange Free State, and the quagga was extinct in the wild by 1878. The last captive specimen died in Amsterdam on 12 August 1883. In 1984, the quagga was the first extinct animal to have its DNA analyzed, and the Quagga Project is trying to recreate the phenotype of hair coat pattern and related characteristics by selectively breeding Burchell’s zebras.

The only quagga to have been photographed alive was a mare at the Zoological Society of London’s Zoo in Regent's Park in 1870. Only 23 skins are preserved today.

Quagga mare at London Zoo, 1870, the only specimen photographed alive.

The mare in London Zoo, 1870.

Quagga with keeper in London Zoo, 1864.

Skin in Berlin’s Natural History Museum, which has been sampled for DNA.

One of seven known skeletons, Grant Museum.

Glamorous Photos of Australian Model Cheryl Rixon in the 1970s and ’80s

Born 1954 in Perth, Australian actress and model Cheryl Rixon was twice a finalist in the Annual Miss West Coast bikini beauty pageant, staged in Perth each January in the early 1970s. She later appeared as a game show assistant on local TV.

After appearing in obscure low-budget sex-comedy film Plugg (1975), Rixon came to Melbourne and acted in several television roles for Crawford Productions. She played three different roles during the final episodes of Homicide.

Starting in mid-1975, Rixon also began making appearances in Crawford Production’s sex-comedy soap opera The Box. She subsequently found fame as Penthouse magazine’s December 1977 Pet, and in 1979 she was chosen Penthouse's Pet of the Year in a televised pageant held at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas.

In 1980, Rixon kicked off New York Mayor Ed Koch’s “Festival of Fragrances”. She was again showcased with a ten-page spread in Penthouse in 1980, and posed for Oui magazine in November 1982. During this period, she also appeared in films such as The Eyes of Laura Mars and Used Cars.

Rixon now lives in the US and designs jewelry which she sells under the name of ‘Royal Order’, and married to club owner Art Davis with whom she has two sons.

Take a look at these glamorous photos to see portrait of young Cheryl Rixon in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Supermarkets in the Mid-20th Century Through Fascinating Vintage Photos

In the middle of the century, supermarkets began to dominate the task of supplying food to the nation's consumers and that affected farmers and consumers in both good and bad ways.

Supermarkets had actually begun in the 1930s but the Depression and World War II had slowed their growth somewhat. By the 50s, all of the elements to produce dominance came together.

By the 1950s, supermarket chains brought in about 35 percent of the food-retailing dollar – and food retailing was the America's largest business. By the 1960s, that market share jumped to 70 percent of the food retail business.

Supermarkets were also spending huge sums on advertising. Between 1950 and 1964, advertising for food quadrupled, a much greater increase than any other industry. One advertising practice came in for particular criticism, contests and trading stamp programs. By the end of the decade, those programs were suspended at most chains.

Take a look at these fascinating black and white photos to see what supermarkets looked like in the 1950s and 1960s.

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