Favorite '30s and '40s photos?

[Swing Girl]

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 (-:

 

[Edward Reed]

Great thread start! how about this....

 

[Edward Reed]

Did she fall asleep listening to Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" or "Slumber Song"?

 

[Swing Girl]

Great thread start! how about this....

View attachment 332683

Cool photo! I love the car in the background. What is she holding? Is that a fish?

 

[Edward Reed]

Cool photo! I love the car in the background. What is she holding? Is that a fish?

yes! she seems to be proud of her catch for the day!

 

[Edward Reed]

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!

 

[Swing Girl]

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]

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!

 

[Fading Fast]

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 (-:

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

https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/bow-bridge

 

[LizzieMaine]

Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 1937

"Ya gonna buy t'at papeh, a' jus' readit? T'is ain'no liberry!" Brooklyn, USA, 1935.

The Massman family of Washington DC eat supper, 1943.

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

In the shadow of the Fulton Street L, 1939.

"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!"

 

[Harp]

View attachment 332749 Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 1937

I like the gal at the end.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Just remember, she's old enough to be your mother.

 

[Harp]

Just remember, she's old enough to be your mother.

In my reckless wayward youth I found Benjamin Franklin's comment quite insightful, to wit: 'older women
are most appreciative'.

 

[Fading Fast]

Last time we were there was in the early '00s, but Old Orchard Beach was a fun time-warp throwback to a seaside boardwalk.

@LizzieMaine Do you happen to know if it's still pretty much like that?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was the last time I was down there. You go thru Old Orchard on the train on the way back from Boston, and it's still lit up bright at 11 at night, and you can tell there's still lots of fun to be had.

 

[Swing Girl]

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

https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/bow-bridge
View attachment 332711

That's so cool! If I ever visit New York, I'd like to see it.

 

[Fading Fast]

That's so cool! If I ever visit New York, I'd like to see it.

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.

 

[Swing Girl]

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/

 

[Fading Fast]

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]

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.