Illustrating History

A friend shared a link to a photo resource, and I had to pass it on. Photogrammar is a very nifty collection, curated by Yale University, of photos taken between 1935 to 1945. Whether you are a historian, writer, or photographer, there is something here for you.

I was playing with the map, which enables me to click on a county (colored ones have photos linked, colorless have none) and see what some of my past and present home-places looked like back then. The area around Dayton was strongly linked to the war effort in 1942, illustrated here. Women have, contrary to popular urban legend, not always been homebodies, as you can see below.

Near Hillsborough, New Hampshire, these young women are working as lumberjacks clearing up wood from the 1938 hurricane.

Scenes from a distant past, some of them seem, with artifacts we have all but forgotten.

A wooden Indian in front of a Manchester, NH store in the 1930s

Other scenes look as though they could have been taken today, and perhaps I will try to find this local-to-me farm and record it again.

A Farm somewhere near Dayton

And other photos, like this one taken in Greenfield, Massachusetts, convince me that times may change, but people all over have always enjoyed a good laugh and kitschy decor.

Pumpkin people out for a drive...