Kansas City, Missouri, circa 1908. “Grand Avenue north from Twelfth.” 8×10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.
San Francisco, 1919. “Hudson Biddle & Smart touring limousine at Palace of Fine Arts.” Home, Fido! 5×7 glass negative by Christopher Helin.
Lansburgh Girls Win Style Prize
Five Models Gain Cup at Tidal Bathing Beach Costume Show.
With five models displaying the most modern bathing costumes, Lansburgh & Brother won the prize cup at the first annual style show, held yesterday afternoon at the Tidal bathing beach. The models who represented Lansburgh’s — all local girls — were Mary Lee, Iola Swinnerton, Thelma Spencer, Hattie Spencer and Julia Cunningham. The suits which they wore were special importations, brought to Washington for exhibition at this show …
— Washington Post, 6/26/1921
Washington, D.C., 1921. “Bathing Beach costume contest.” At left we have Iola Swinnerton, First Lady of Shorpy in perpetuum; the others are plebeian ciphers spared total invisibility only by the grace of her luminous beauty.
Washington, D.C., 1924. “Charlie Becker, midget trainer with Singer’s Midgets, walked the smallest elephant of his troupe to Merchant’s Bank, and made a deposit for Keith’s Theatre. The elephant delivered the money satchel directly to the receiving teller.” This was of course a less enlightened era, decades before the advent of cage-free tellers and free-range banking.
November 1942. Washington, D.C. “Young huckster in the Southwest section.” Photo by Gordon Parks for the Office of War Information.
November 1942. Lititz, Pennsylvania. “Scrap collection drive. Each household placed its contribution on the sidewalk. It was then picked up by local trucks whose owners had volunteered their services for civilian defense. The scrap outside a plumber’s house consists of pipes.” (Kids not included.) Medium format negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information.
March 30, 1948. “Helena Rubinstein, salon at 655 Fifth Avenue, New York. Hair styling room.” 5×7 acetate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner
