This series of historical photographs is certainly exceptional. From a slave auction place, circa 1870 to a snapshot of New York in 1887 looking more like modern day Mumbai with telephone wires strung from every pole. I am curious about the slave auction place being dated as 1870 because slavery was abolished at the end of the American Civil War in 1865 unless this is a remnant of that event. Another of the insightful pictures of a bygone era, is a photograph of an opium den in America as it is evocative of the opium scourge in China itself during this era.
Main picture: An opium den in San Francisco, 1900
A horse-drawn fire engine of Engine No. 39 leaving Fire Headquarters at 157 East 67th Street for the last time after being replaced with a motorized fire engine, New York City, February 19, 1912
A life guard and a doctor attempt to save a swimmers life on Coney Island Beach, 1940. The woman in the centre chose the worst moment for a smile
Alice Huyler Ramsey (November 11, 1886 – September 10, 1983), the first woman to drive across the United States from coast to coast, 1909. Only 152 miles out of the total 3600-mile trip were made on paved road
Arnold Schwarzenegger on his first time in New York, 1968
Barack Obama posing with a group of friends that called themselves the Choom Gang, Hawaii, c. 1979. Choom was slang for smoking marijuana
Burnt District Coffee House in Chicago after the Fire, 1871. Chicago entrepreneurs quickly reacted to establish or reestablish businesses in the fire district
Children-play-a-game-on-the-Xerox-Alto-one-of-the-first-personal-computers-with-a-graphic-user-interface-1973.-Its-monitor-was-switchable-between-portrait-and-landscape-mode
Chinatown Squad of the San Francisco Police Department posing with sledge hammers and axes in front of August Pistolesi’s grocery store at 752 Washington Street, 1895
Coney Island, NY, 1940
Couple-and-friend-being-abused-in-a-restaurant-for-the-latter-being-black-USA-1963
Drive-In-restaurant-on-West-Sunset-Boulevard-Los-Angeles1932
Elvis Presley joins the Army, 1958
Hanging of a stagecoach robber in Texas, circa 1890-1900
In 1967, challenging the all-male tradition of the Boston Marathon, Kathrine Switzer, at the time a headstrong 20-year-old junior at Syracuse University, entered the race.
John Travolta takes Princess Diana for a dance in the White House, 1985
La Plaza, as seen from the Pico House. Pueblo Los Angeles, c. 1869
Lawn mowers of the White House grounds, 1918
Log motor home by Wade, 1922
Interior of a log motor home by Wade
Minoru Yamasaki (right) posing with a model of the World Trade Center he designed, 1964
Motorcycle chariots, 1920s
Neighbors of Japanese origin were already unwanted in some neighbourhoods in 1923
New York City sidewalks filled with trash during the 1968 strike of sanitation workers
North American native Chilocco Indian Agricultural School basketball team in 1909. Originally, the swastika is a sign of good fortune
North American native switchboard operator, 1925
Portrait of hockey goalie Terry Sawchuk before face masks became standard in 1966
President Carter with engineers and solar panels newly installed on the White House, 1979. President Reagan had them removed in 1986, to be reinstalled by President Obama in 2010
Robin Williams joins the stunning women of the Denver Broncos’ Pony Express as pro football’s first male cheerleader and prances before 70,000 cheering fans in Denver’s Mile High Stadium
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan posing with clay soldiers at the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, 1984
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev eating a hot dog in Des Moines, Iowa, on which he commented “It’s excellent… we make good sausages but yours are better”, 1959
Statue of Liberty as seen from Jersey City, 1963
Telephone wires in New York, 1887
Three friends take a joyride on their ‘new’ vehicle, Ohio, c. 1924
US President Richard Nixon jumps down from the trunk of a limousine which carried him and Pakistani President Yahya Khan in a motorcade to Government House after Nixon’s arrival in Lahore on August 1, 1969
Wood-plank prison in Wyoming, 1893
Workers lay bricks to pave 28th Street in Manhattan, 1930