July 4, 1975
199 years old
The back of this snapshot reads “July 4th, 75, Tamara, 4 1/2.”
Vintage Snapshots
the wondrous world of vernacular photography
Category: Kids
July 1, 2013
Buried at the Beach
Happy, c 1940s (click to enlarge)
May 16, 2013
Prankster
Classic 1950s family, Laura Scudder’s chips, Sun Valley, CA, May, 1957 (click to enlarge)
I’m not sure exactly what the imposing controls were used for (I can’t make out the abbreviation on the back, though the date, city and name of the family — Schepler — are clear). I assume, in any case, that the boy was quite pleased with himself when he saw this.
April 7, 2013
A Blowout
The excitement builds, c 1950s (click to enlarge)
There’s just so much to like here, but my favorite is the boy with the glasses towards the upper left.
December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas from the Pipkins
Christmas card, c 1950s
August 29, 2012
Bottle-Head
Quite a kid (circa 1940s)
Another in the “background” series, I love how this baby’s head seems both to be surrounded by a halo and to have a bottle sticking out of it. This was found in the Bay Area and was likely taken somewhere in San Francisco or the East Bay. I wonder if any trace of the sign remains. There is something appealing about the old signs that were hand-painted on buildings (as this was one was; you can see the lines of the siding running through it), and there are several websites devoted to ones that remain, sometimes called “ghost signs.”
Here is a link to a 2005 New York Times article on them, and some nice examples can be found on this flickr page, titled “Vanishing Beauty.”
Here is a close-up of Coke baby.
Drink Coca-Cola
July 14, 2012
Summertime
…and the livin’ is easy.
Given how hot it has been in a lot of places recently, I thought this was an appropriate shot – and quite beautiful in several respects, including how their front legs match up almost perfectly.
And since we are talking about summertime:
May 14, 2012
Window Onto a New World: The Curved Dash Oldsmobile
What looks to be an early Ford is the object of attention on the street
I found this shot over the weekend, and realized when I looked at it a little more closely at home that it may well depict a version of Henry Ford’s first car, something he completed in 1896 and called – in a nod, I assume, to the fact that it used bicycle components for its seat, tires, chain, etc. – the quadricycle. I have since learned that the car in the photo is a Curved Dash Oldsmobile. Notable for having been the first mass-produced automobile, it was produced from 1901 to 1907, with something over 19,000 being made in total.
Below is a photo of Henry Ford in a similar, earlier automobile, which had a two-stroke engine and could travel at about 20mph.
Henry Ford on his quadricycle; if that is a steering wheel in the reflection at left, his early machine was already old-fashioned at the point this was taken
What I find so great about this photo, however, is not just the car. It is the fact that if you look closely (and I have enlarged the relevant section below) you can see a woman holding a baby up to the window right behind the driver’s head. It would possibly have been one of the first times either had seen an actual automobile. What a different world was coming. One in which, among other things, parking would never be so easy again.
Gazing out at a new world (click to enlarge)
March 31, 2012
In the Background
The girl in the corner, circa 1920s (click to enlarge)
I often find it intriguing when there is a person in the background who is captured (usually) by chance – such as the young girl tucked away near the corner of the house, looking towards the camera (which you can make out more clearly when you enlarge the image).
March 25, 2012
A Bird Named Dicky
Unnamed boy with a bird named Dicky (1918)
A boy, a bird, and an open door – as well as, presumably, a mother overseeing things to the left. Oddly, in the many shots in which he appears in the photo album from which this was taken the youngster is always identified as “Boy,” while the little bird has a name.
Vintage Snapshots 