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Favorite '30s and '40s photos?

Swing Girl

New in Town
Messages
45
Location
Washington State, USA
I love searching the internet for beautiful 1930s and '40s photos to use as desktop backgrounds, fashion inspiration, or just to gaze at... do you have any favorite old photographs you've found?

If I think about this too hard I'll never make up my mind, so I'm going to go with my instinct and say this one of Central Park in New York City in 1942. I love that no one is posing for it. It seems to capture everyday life really well. I also love the little boy on his roller skates (-:

central-park-pictures-1940s%2B%25285%2529.jpg
 

Swing Girl

New in Town
Messages
45
Location
Washington State, USA
if you are on Facebook there are some great photo groups you might enjoy. search for:
-America in the 1940s
-The 1940s Hub
-1940s America
-America in the 40s

all great photos being posted there!
Thanks for sharing! I don't have a Facebook account myself, but these sound like cool groups.

Here are the links to a couple more online '40s photo collections I've found, if anyone is interested:

If you like old cars, this one is great: https://vintagenewsdaily.com/49-sna...g-ladies-posing-with-their-cars-in-the-1940s/

Being members of the Fedora Lounge, these photos probably won't "make you see the 1940s differently," but they're still fun: https://inktank.fi/cool-1940s/
 

Edward Reed

A-List Customer
Messages
494
Location
Aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress
Thanks for sharing! I don't have a Facebook account myself, but these sound like cool groups.

Here are the links to a couple more online '40s photo collections I've found, if anyone is interested:

If you like old cars, this one is great: https://vintagenewsdaily.com/49-sna...g-ladies-posing-with-their-cars-in-the-1940s/

Being members of the Fedora Lounge, these photos probably won't "make you see the 1940s differently," but they're still fun: https://inktank.fi/cool-1940s/
these are great! thanks!
 
Messages
17,190
Location
New York City
I love searching the internet for beautiful 1930s and '40s photos to use as desktop backgrounds, fashion inspiration, or just to gaze at... do you have any favorite old photographs you've found?

If I think about this too hard I'll never make up my mind, so I'm going to go with my instinct and say this one of Central Park in New York City in 1942. I love that no one is posing for it. It seems to capture everyday life really well. I also love the little boy on his roller skates (-:

central-park-pictures-1940s%2B%25285%2529.jpg

No surprise, but that bridge - Bow Bridge - is still there and it's been beautiful restored.

https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/bow-bridge
central_park_photography_tour_new_york-3.jpg
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,715
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
5588-1024x791.jpg
Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 1937

gettyimages-97344020-1024x1024.jpg
"Ya gonna buy t'at papeh, a' jus' readit? T'is ain'no liberry!" Brooklyn, USA, 1935.

massman.jpg
The Massman family of Washington DC eat supper, 1943.

historic-thanksgiving-41467.jpg

What an actual Thanksgiving turkey looked like in the mid-1940s. Norman Rockwell, please note.

nynyma_rec0040_3_00151_0011.jpg

In the shadow of the Fulton Street L, 1939.

service-pnp-cph-3c20000-3c24000-3c24500-3c24545v.jpg

"Barbara Hutton's got the dough, par-ley vous! And where she gets it we all know, par-ley vous! We slave at Woolworth's Five and Dime, the pay we get is sure a crime! Hinkey dinkey par-ley vous!"
 

Swing Girl

New in Town
Messages
45
Location
Washington State, USA
I'm not kidding when I say there is so much cool history - architecture, statues, stories - to Central Park (which is huge) that you could easily spend a few full days just in Central Park.
This is the article where I found the picture of Bow Bridge in the '40s. It has lots of other pictures of Central Park in the 1940s... it would be interesting to compare it to Central Park today. I bet a lot of it's still the same. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/central-park-pictures-1940s/
 
Messages
17,190
Location
New York City
This is the article where I found the picture of Bow Bridge in the '40s. It has lots of other pictures of Central Park in the 1940s... it would be interesting to compare it to Central Park today. I bet a lot of it's still the same. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/central-park-pictures-1940s/

Yes, much of CP is the same or very recognizable. I could place and have been to everyone of the picture in the link from the '40s save a few that I just wasn't sure about. In the '80s, when I came to NYC out of college, the park was in disrepair as it had been neglected for several decades. You could still see its grandeur, but it was in bad shape.

Then, in the '90s into the '00s, it was restored, repaired and updated all with great respect for its history. Now it is a gem. For Fedora Lounge people and fans of history in general, there's just an amazing time travel feel to it all as, as you noted, you can literal walk around and see exact places that are almost unchanged from fifty and even a hundred-plus years ago.
 

Swing Girl

New in Town
Messages
45
Location
Washington State, USA
Yes, much of CP is the same or very recognizable. I could place and have been to everyone of the picture in the link from the '40s save a few that I just wasn't sure about. In the '80s, when I came to NYC out of college, the park was in disrepair as it had been neglected for several decades. You could still see its grandeur, but it was in bad shape.

Then, in the '90s into the '00s, it was restored, repaired and updated all with great respect for its history. Now it is a gem. For Fedora Lounge people and fans of history in general, there's just an amazing time travel feel to it all as, as you noted, you can literal walk around and see exact places that are almost unchanged from fifty and even a hundred-plus years ago.
I didn't know it used to be in bad shape. I'm glad they got it fixed up.
 

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