Website Wednesday

I enjoy watching public domain movies on the Internet from the 1930's. Not for their artistic merit but for their freeze-frame of life back then. They cannot be a revisionist’s portrait of the past.

That’s what makes this website so important:

http://www.old-picture.com/

which is, as it says, a collection of old pictures.

(Note: This web site is picture intensive so I don’t think it will work well on a dial-up connection.)

Click around and you'll find pictures such as: An ambulance cart from 1862 with wounded and possibly dead men lying on the ground, “speaking” to you from two centuries ago; a 1856 portrait of Alfred Francis Russell who moved to Liberia and became its President in 1883; Bedouin shepherds of Syria in a picture taken before 1900; a native American child standing before a tepee from 1910; and a scenic color picture of Sarajevo with the caption “This color photochrome print was taken between 1890 and 1900 in Bosnia, Austro-Hungary.”

Take a look at Dogs Motoring from 1910. The dog looks modern, but check out the driver’s attire.

Each picture has a caption and most pictures are dated.

Dig further, and you'll find: http://old-photos.blogspot.com/ which is the blog of the man who owns the above website. On his blog, he posts the picture of the day with interesting comments. The blog has an archive of daily pictures going back through 2007.

So go and take a trip into history. You won’t be disappointed.