The past is not only made of kings, generals, and celebrated inventions. It is also made of laundry drying beside a poor farmhouse, children at work, families on the road, tradesmen in small shops, and people moving through the rituals of shopping, travel, worship, leisure, and survival. This section focuses on the texture of everyday history. Photographs of labour and domestic life are especially powerful because they let us see gestures, tools, clothing, posture, and setting. They remind us that every historical era was lived minute by minute by real people solving practical problems, making a living, caring for families, and adapting to change.
A Poor Family During the Great Depression Poor Farm Family During the Great Depression This photograph shows what it meant to be poor in rural America during the Great Depression. This house, little better with a shack, with sagging roof…
Road Construction Photograph of Chinese women breaking rock by hand to make gravel for road construction. They are sitting barefoot in the hot sun, earning pennies a day. Here in this moment in time it may seem that nothing changes. Clang…
The Beginning of Better Things? – Certainly Not for the Buffalo Okay, I couldn’t come up with a catchy title for this picture but it pretty much sums it up: two men sit in front of a squalid sod house while in front of them is a pile of…
wpsso pinterest pin it image added on 2021-05-18T05:38:34+00:00 .wpsso-pinterest-pin-it-image Suffragette Parade, 1913 It is hard to imagine that not that long ago, women did not have the right to vote in the United States. Although giving…
chillabour A little girl works at a knitting mill at the Louden Hosiery Mills in Loudon, Tennesseem 1910. She is so young and small that she has to stand on a stool in order to reach her machine, yet she is doing the same work as the…
christmas shopping Throngs of Christmas shoppers fill the street on Washington Street, Boston, 1919. There must have been some really excellent sales judging from the number of people; the sidewalks are so crowded that the shoppers are…
British troops celebrate Christmas Day in the Somme, 1916 Photograph of British soldiers celebrating Christmas. They are obviously cold and still in danger, even during this moment of relative happiness. They are all wearing helmets in…
Road Construction Photograph of Chinese women breaking rock by hand to make gravel for road construction. They are sitting barefoot in the hot sun, earning pennies a day. Here in this moment in time it may seem that nothing changes. Clang…
blocks of ice Two happy girls are delivering large blocks of ice. What better way to keep cool in than with these giant blocks of ice, delivered by two smiling girls. It is 1918 and since you don’t have a refrigerator, you will need to…
New Immigrants New Immigrants The early 1900s saw a wave of immigration to America from Europe, particularly Italy, Poland, the Balkans and Ireland. The majority of these immigrants passed through Ellis Island and then set about to carve…
chillabour A little girl works at a knitting mill at the Louden Hosiery Mills in Loudon, Tennesseem 1910. She is so young and small that she has to stand on a stool in order to reach her machine, yet she is doing the same work as the…
pioneer home 1890 Oregon Territory This is a photograph of a pioneer homestead in the Oregon Territory, taken around 1890. The west had not yet been tamed, and American settlers faced hostile Indians and outlaws. Here we can get a glimpse…
American Indian This photograph of a Native American man standing next to his teepee was taken around 1890, somewhere in the Indian Territory. The Indian Territory was land set aside by the American government as a place to deport American…
cucumberman Just in time for this 1887’s growing season, we present to you a Fine New Sort of Nichol’s Green Cucumber. It is found exclusively in Rice’s Box of Choice Vegetables! This new and very handsome variety is worthy of the first…
