Who Were They?

Lost and forgotten photos from the past

Little shack

Mrs Marvel

3 comments

November 23, 2011

I don’t rightly know what to call this photo. It features a small family standing around an oil barrel or other type of barrel. The man is wearing the wide brimmed hat, while a younger man/teen is to the left wearing a newsboy cap. Standing on the barrel is a young boy around 6 or 7 years old and the man is holding a small child, possibly a boy. The shack in the background looks just like that, a shack. Or even a shed. There do not appear to be any windows. Maybe this is the smokehouse. I would hate to live in there unless the unseen sides of the building are amazingly bright and beautiful! I believe this photo is from the 1930s.

Here, chick, chick, chick

Mrs Marvel

2 comments

November 22, 2011

I love this photo because it is so very mundane and ordinary, but gives us a scene that is uncommon today. Lots of people kept chickens in their yard so they could have fresh eggs and every once in a while a chicken in the pot on the stove. When America became urbanized and zoning regulations did not allow chickens, away they went. It is a nice surprise every once in a while to see or hear a rooster crowing the dawn. This couple has a nice sized flock of chickens and geese, and maybe some ducks? I’m not sure. The yard is big and you can see a small house in the background under a big tree. To the left of the man in overalls you can see what I think is a roost and to the far right you can see a rooster. This could have been taken in California, but it could have been taken anywhere in America in the 1920s-1940s.

Family and old cars

Mrs Marvel

3 comments

November 21, 2011

This family group is posed in front of a house and a variety of cars. Notice how the old man is a bit stooped and wearing a vest, while the young men are casual with their sleeves rolled up to their elbows. The woman at center front is wearing a cloche hat so I’m putting this around 1925. I have no indication of where the photo might have been taken.

The old homestead

Mrs Marvel

2 comments

November 20, 2011

This is a large photograph mounted on black card stock. It shoes a variety of people, presumably a family, posed in front of a farm house. The women’s skirts are late 1890s/early 1900s. I used to live down the street from a house that looks very similar to this one, which makes me wonder. I did buy this photo at an antique shop in the same town, who knows?

A Day At The Beach

Mrs Marvel

12 comments

November 19, 2011

I am a little late to the Sepia Saturday entries this weekend because I’m trying to buy a car, so apologies for my tardy entry! :-) The prompt for this weekend is a lovely vintage advertisement for a Chevrolet coupe of some kind from the front of their 1930s sales catalog. Since the car is shown by a beach scene, I took this route. I have no head for car models so even though I have lots of car photos, who knows if I have a Chevy!

I love these old bathing suits. They are modest but were oh, so revealing for their time. To our “everything goes” beachwear here in California, these seem laughable and unflattering, but to these folks, the bathing suit was likely very freeing. This group of six has only one young man who is practically crowing at his singularity among the women! The bungalows in the background don’t lend much of an idea as to where the photo was taken, whether lake front or ocean front.

Here is another couple under a beach umbrella and posed in front of a boardwalk. One of the buildings in the very background appears to have a thatched roof, so it could be a replica “in the Hawaiian style” or they could be in Hawaii. I don’t know what tourism was like to Hawaii in the first half of the 20th century. At the time, Hawaii was still an independent island kingdom I believe. You can just see that the lady has her hair tied up in a scarf or cap. It might be a bit breezy since the man is holding onto the umbrella.

I hope you enjoyed these glimpses into the history of bathing gear. Click through to Sepia Saturday to see where others have taken the prompt.

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