I would totally hang out with these anonymous 19th century ppl

http://i40.tinypic.com/2dqlx7n.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/kbek1z.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/34oshzn.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/a5992r.jpg

joe neckbeard wtf

I would take him out for a bowl of soup just for the inevitable laffs

http://i44.tinypic.com/2qa8dpx.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/e6rfv4.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/28tgtnb.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/w2iw52.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/18i1li.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/2zfmtfc.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/205sd9e.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/2qlu9mx.jpg

omg, I really was born 150 years too late

http://i42.tinypic.com/ap8f9t.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/344pe7p.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/fnd6qs.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/4fzrdf.jpg

it's kinda disarming to come across smiling, soulful people in these super old photos. the usual thousand-yard stares and blank expressions don't haunt me in the same way, because they give me the (false) comfort that these long-dead people were never really alive, unlike lucky me.

i like how these kinds of pictures make people's eyes look really pretty without even the help of 'shop

I guess longish exposure times (a few seconds then vs. fractions of a second now) will do that. if you were unlucky enough to blink while your photo was taken, sometimes the studio would draw eyes directly onto the photo with ink, sorta like proto-photoshopping. wasn't very pretty though, e.g.:

http://i40.tinypic.com/wccoea.jpg

wkiw 19th c.

where did you find all these awesome haunting dudes

most of 'em are from flickr

some more:

http://i39.tinypic.com/9lg3yo.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/2r2w5kj.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/oaaohl.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/96yzh5.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/bfm33n.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/2n1tcnq.jpg

2:08 pm reminds me of wisconsin death trip (i hate that movie)

first pic is the proto flava flav

this is true

http://i43.tinypic.com/29muphc.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/3580tco.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/9v8goh.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/27yuas5.jpg

wow, this girl lived until 1989; was a Hungarian poet & novelist

three muskateers photo = stone cold all time A+++++

these are all v v pretty

their eyes are pretty b/c they were doped up on opium and belladonna

don't forget morphine!

http://i38.tinypic.com/ric5rl.jpg

<3 this old tintype. the scratches and dings and kitschy cheek coloration only add to its appeal, I think.

http://i34.tinypic.com/2vlmrk0.jpg

wkiw. handsome bloke!

whoa!

i dig some of these dudes but this thread kind of underscores my gratefulness that i don't live in the 19th century

flickr's "19th century post-mortem photography" pool pretty much drove that point home for me. if you were suitably wealthy and your child died (which happened all the time back then), you'd prop its body in a chair or bed, make it look alive, and take a photo of it to preserve its memory. depressing stuff, and it makes me glad to be part of the p2k generation, b'lieve it or not.

Having become obsessed with Alan Moore's "Extraordinary League Of Gentlemen" recently, I fear I might end up turning into some steampunk noob soon.

xp man people fuckin' loved death back then.

tru dat

early 20th century, but always loved this pic I found at an antiques store

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/1904.jpg

xpost

of course a lot of idealistic people today are like, "our great-great-grandparents were so in touch with their mortality back then; it was a normal and healthy part of life, and it's a shame it's become such a taboo these days." but fuck those people, really. if a slight out-of-touchness with death is the price we have to pay for lower infant mortality and better end-of-life care, then I'm all for it.

wow, you actually own that, Edward? nice specs!

http://i56.tinypic.com/2ywhds3.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/2ducxll.jpg

dear lord

apparently someone listed the above photo on ebay for $1000, claiming that the fireman was dead at the time the photo was taken, his body held upright by a stand behind him (i.e. the rectangular thing behind his left leg). it's common on ebay, flickr, and elsewhere for some money/attention seeker to post a really old photo in which the subject is standing in an awkward position with a vacant look on their face & and claim that it's was taken postmortem.

according to smarter people than myself, dead people were only photographed sitting or lying down, and these freaky-looking stands were used to keep living subjects from moving around and blurring shit up because the exposure time was so long back then:

http://i51.tinypic.com/2d82nwk.jpg

conclusion: fireman is one scary motherfucker who maybe has something wrong with his eyes.

http://i51.tinypic.com/2bqohh.jpg

http://i51.tinypic.com/nfi42b.jpg

impossible not to imagine them making little yappy Tuppence lapdog noises as they stretch

http://i54.tinypic.com/2lwma2a.jpg

^ fuckin' magnets, how do they work?

http://i56.tinypic.com/r89hxs.jpg

http://i55.tinypic.com/jfdy5l.jpg

as awesome and liberal as these schoolteachers look, I wouldn't actually hang out with them for fear of getting slapped on the butt with a yardstick every time I ended a sentence with a preposition.

http://i55.tinypic.com/91fcb9.jpg

http://i52.tinypic.com/hvrtdz.jpg

Frances Benjamin Johnston herself

http://i56.tinypic.com/2rykrqs.jpg

another shot of the photographer (in pants! and comedy mustache! with a penny-farthing!)

http://i55.tinypic.com/33jgyvm.jpg

"Zylpha" by Eva Gamble Walborn

http://i53.tinypic.com/jh4pw6.jpg

Eva Gamble Walborn, photographer

http://img602.imageshack.us/img602/2254/d2043.jpg

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1045/d2044.jpg

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/3359/d2045.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/8wl9tz.jpg

http://i54.tinypic.com/4jkgeg.jpg

feel like I could see that woman on the bus today

neatly parted, naturally straight hair ending in big shoulder-length curls is a bad look on anyone from any era. would not bus.

it's in the face

It's not worse than "Why the long face?" chinbeard, next to her.

yeah, aside from the weird curls, she looks like an earnest, drug-free (ha!) college student from the 1960s or '70s. course if you see her on the bus, that means she is a ZOMBIE and is not to be trusted.

they won't want to hang out w/ u if y'all keep making fun of their look

;_;

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/4866/phineasgagegagemillerph.jpg

I doubt he'd want to hang out with me, because I'd be constantly hounding him with questions like, "Phineas, could you tell me the story of the rod that went through your skull," and "Phineas, could you show me the rod that went through your skull?" and "Phineas, can I throw that rod @ u face and see if it flies through the hole in your skull?"

it's funny that photographs of him only just surfaced in the past year or two.

wondering if I should put in "ws of shame"

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lctk24B2601qarjnpo1_500.jpg

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbf29ub0wf1qb7dheo1_500.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/2u9h20i.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ld5cvnLUNv1qzdzano1_500.jpg

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lcwlaf7XKZ1qzdzano1_500.jpg

ooh where did that one come from

turnofthecentury.tumblr.com/

I used to wonder why antique women's bicycles had low, curved crossbars. obviously tho they were designed so that you could sit athwart them w/o the bar getting in the way of your full-length skirt. fuck riding a bike with a skirt on, even moreso considering that they didn't have chain guards back then.

English actor John Martin Harvey (not actually anonymous, but who gives a etc.):

http://i56.tinypic.com/21l8up0.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/1603brl.jpg

http://i56.tinypic.com/2dv20j5.jpg

arent most of the ppl in these pics like 19thc hipsters tho

wow, i finally looked back at the turnofthecentury tumblr and found out that one with the corpse is a vaudeville interpretation of "death and the lady" (english folk song)
i could not love that image any more than i do because i love it so much

I love how she can faint without spilling her drink

the whole set is awesome -- the one where death is peeking through the curtains while she entertains the gentleman caller~ whoa

http://historicalziegfeld.multiply.com/photos/album/500/Death_and_the_Lady_

those are great!

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldav16FEPZ1qa7jxxo1_500.jpg

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ldheywnGuS1qzjmo0o1_500.jpg

I'm genuinely scared of this 1876 baseball team, THE RESOLUTES
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vassararchive/5204248753/

wait
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/5204248753_04c548babd.jpg

dammit
well anyway, it's the scariest college women's baseball team of all time
you will have to visit the vassar flickr archives for more :(

when you do, you will not be disappointed, i promise

http://i39.tinypic.com/9lg3yo.jpg

is this prince eddy

the baseball girls just look like world-weary mill workers, except for the one with the striped tie and dark circles around her eyes, who reminds me of

http://i54.tinypic.com/65ydlv.jpg.

apparently the team dissolved a year after that photo was taken because baseball had long been considered unladylike (unlike, for instance, croquet).

I'm not sure who that gentleman is, TamTam. probably the duke or earl of something.

Yeah that one with the black circles is pretty creepy. The Vassar flickr page has photos of the 1896 and 1900 women's basketball teams too, but the 1900 team is about half the size of the 1896 team. I wonder what happened during those 4 yrs?

McKinley happened, that's what.

when did women athletes generally start wearing pants? I'm guessing late 1910s or early 1920s, but I really don't know for sure.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Smith-College-Class-1902-basketball-team.jpg

Smith College team of 1902 looking pretty chill in their bloomers and skirts

i totally dig their pointy shoes

they look a lot happier than the vassar ladies

aw man they look so happy and now they're dead