Old Photographs

11/03/2026

This beautiful look at Navajo mother and child brings up an important distinction of their traditional culture: Clan identity is inherited from the mother. Children belong to their mother’s clan, and their maternal grandmother’s family traditionally plays a central role in their identity, upbringing, and sense of belonging.

Photo date: 1914, photographer unknown.

This beautiful look at Navajo mother and child brings up an important distinction of their traditional culture: Clan identity is inherited from the mother. Children belong to their mother’s clan, and their maternal grandmother’s family traditionally plays a central role in their identity, upbringing, and sense of belonging.

Photo date: 1914, photographer unknown.
*We never post AI images or content.

11/02/2026

A reply needs to be made to those making heinous accusations about this old photograph on the left that we posted days ago.

The baby is the only one identified, and the accusation is that the other woman wasn't identified in the handwriting because of racism. FALLACY. In many period images, infants and babies who could not take instructions to hold still were held by someone. VERY OFTEN that person was covered with a sheet or cloth as exhibited in the example...but not this woman. No, in fact whoever had the image taken was proud to have her in the image...beaming and smiling. (Also she wasn't a slave as the photograph was taken in Philadelphia in a free state.)

Second point of ignorance....
To claim racism would assume absolute certainty about who wrote the baby's name.. For example it could have been written by the recipient of the photograph who wasn't aware of the woman's name. Many possibilities exist, but those calling foul on racism ignorantly claim that they know it was written by racist parents.

In decades of handling and dealing with old photographs we know that handwriting on images comes from many different sources, and not including identifications for everyone in a photograph has many different reasons. We see all kinds of photographs were one person is identified and others are not. Yet those that are race-obsessed will always boil it down to the only reason their ignorance allows. They call foul to embolden the idea that they are morally superior and that anyone with knowledge or experience to the contrary is not as good a person as they are. How convenient.

People, we are in a time of mass information and mass misinformation. If you don't pause to ask questions and learn something new, you will always be controlled by the people who prey on what you don't know. Racism? This is the OPPOSITE of racism. They wanted her in the photo.

11/01/2026

A little magic from one of our favorite 19th century photographers, Léonard Misonne (1870–1943).

You can sense the story, the sun, and the dialogue.

11/01/2026

On this day in 1930, John Wayne’s first major motion picture hit theaters.

On this day in 1930, 23 year old John Wayne debuted in his first leading role in a major motion picture called The Big Trail. It was an epic production shot partially in Jackson, Wyoming that was only established a year earlier.

It’s a great movie based off of the American classic book by Francis Parkman, but financial success was hampered by the beginning of the Great Depression and the film being shot in 70mm format when very few theaters could plays the reels. Its lackluster success pushed John Wayne back into the work of B level films until his breakout role in John Ford’s Stagecoach in 1939.

10/29/2026

Patrick Stewart 7/13/40-10/28/26
Captain Picard. Thank you for always being you, in every role you played.

10/27/2026

We go to a Paris sidewalk cafe in the 1920s to explore the question: Could you live in the 1920s?

10/27/2026

He lived long, and he prospered. But even more importantly, while he was here he showed us how to live life to the fullest. Rest easy Ensign Chekov, and boldly go.
Walter Koenig 9/14/36-10/25/26

10/26/2026

ON THIS DAY IN 1881...

An unbelievably rare photograph of where the "GUNFIGHT NEAR THE OK CORRAL" unfolded was discovered just a few years ago. On this day in 1881, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday's legend was cemented upon 30 seconds of gunfire while three men lost their lives...and several more were to follow.

This is the only known photograph of the location where the gunfight near the OK Corral happened. you're looking inside the vacant lot out towards the street. The building on the right is CS Fly's boarding house. The Earps and Doc Holliday came around the front, confronted the cowboys and fired upon them from the area indicated by the red arrow. The area in the foreground beyond the donkey is approximately where the cowboys were when it began.

The photograph's background:
Indicated on the back as a photograph from 1885, it was procured by long-time Wyatt Earp historian John Gilchriese from the estate of Dr. George Goodfellow – one of two physicians who attended to the dying and wounded immediately after the gunfight. It was then acquired by Steve and Marge Elliott of Tombstone, Arizona where it was identified as the gunfight location by Gary McLelland using decades of property information, records, and other photographs.