Studio Postcard of Unknown Woman : The only clue to the identity of this woman is a dedication on the reverse, "From Mary". The uniform she is wearing suggests that she was a munitions worker in World War I - one of the almost 1,000,000 women who went into the factories of Britain to make … Continue reading Mary The Munitionette
Category: Pictures From Nowhere
The Last Afternoon At Sea
Over the last couple of months I have been slowly scanning my way through a 1925 photograph album I bought on a second hand stall. Entitled "Cruise To The Northern Capitals of Europe on the SS City of Nagpur, July-August 1925", the album contains over 50 sepia photographs our unknown photographer took on a cruise … Continue reading The Last Afternoon At Sea
Instantaneous Sadness
There is a sadness about this woman of two centuries ago. It is as though the instantaneous camera of Mr. William Colton Pearson has captured her in a moment of doubt: not quite knowing what awaits in the new century that lies just around the next bend of Manchester Road.
They Sailed Away
I can't decide whether this couple posed for this photograph or whether they were actually asleep and a companion got his or her smartphone out and took a quick picture that would make a fine profile picture on Facetwit or the like. But this was the 1930s and it would take a year and a … Continue reading They Sailed Away
Art Finished In Penmaenmawr
This delightful print, which I suspect dates back to the 1870s, came into my hands for a few pence via an eBay job lot of old photographs. It is the work of Blas Rangel, an early studio photographer who was born in Singapore in 1840 and was active in several towns in Britain in the … Continue reading Art Finished In Penmaenmawr
Tantobie Footballers
Footballers in those days were a different breed: thick shirts, thick woollen socks and thick heads that could withstand a laced-up leather ball. Tantobie were a village team with quite a reputation: the great Billy Smith (1895-1951) grew up in the same Durham pit village.
Pin And Chain
Photographs only came along only once in a while. This was the age before smart phone selfies, an age when a portrait was an event. An event to get out your Sunday best and put on your best pin and watch chain.
Pigeons In Ruperra
This is an intriguing little photograph (just six by four centimetres) from a tiny album of photographs I bought on what we in Yorkshire call t'internet. All the photographs date from 1931 and 1932 and were taken in and around Ruperra Castle in Wales. At the time, the castle was owned by Evan Morgan, 4th … Continue reading Pigeons In Ruperra
Faces From Nowhere
This isn't really a "Picture from Nowhere" because I know it is a photograph of children at South Crosland Junior School in Huddersfield and, I would guess, it was taken in the nineteen forties or early fifties. They are, however, faces from nowhere - young faces that went somewhere in life.
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