Favorite '30s and '40s photos?

Edward Reed said:

Great thread start! how about this....

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Swing Girl said:

Cool photo! I love the car in the background. What is she holding? Is that a fish?

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Edward Reed said:

if you are on Facebook there are some great photo groups you might enjoy. search for:
-America in the 1940s
-The 1940s Hub
-1940s America
-America in the 40s

all great photos being posted there!

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Swing Girl said:

Thanks for sharing! I don't have a Facebook account myself, but these sound like cool groups.

Here are the links to a couple more online '40s photo collections I've found, if anyone is interested:

If you like old cars, this one is great: https://vintagenewsdaily.com/49-sna...g-ladies-posing-with-their-cars-in-the-1940s/

Being members of the Fedora Lounge, these photos probably won't "make you see the 1940s differently," but they're still fun: https://inktank.fi/cool-1940s/

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Swing Girl said:

I love searching the internet for beautiful 1930s and '40s photos to use as desktop backgrounds, fashion inspiration, or just to gaze at... do you have any favorite old photographs you've found?

If I think about this too hard I'll never make up my mind, so I'm going to go with my instinct and say this one of Central Park in New York City in 1942. I love that no one is posing for it. It seems to capture everyday life really well. I also love the little boy on his roller skates (-:

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LizzieMaine said:

View attachment 332749 Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 1937

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LizzieMaine said:

Just remember, she's old enough to be your mother.

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Fading Fast said:

No surprise, but that bridge - Bow Bridge - is still there and it's been beautiful restored.

https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/bow-bridge
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Swing Girl said:

That's so cool! If I ever visit New York, I'd like to see it.

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Fading Fast said:

I'm not kidding when I say there is so much cool history - architecture, statues, stories - to Central Park (which is huge) that you could easily spend a few full days just in Central Park.

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Swing Girl said:

This is the article where I found the picture of Bow Bridge in the '40s. It has lots of other pictures of Central Park in the 1940s... it would be interesting to compare it to Central Park today. I bet a lot of it's still the same. https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/central-park-pictures-1940s/

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Fading Fast said:

Yes, much of CP is the same or very recognizable. I could place and have been to everyone of the picture in the link from the '40s save a few that I just wasn't sure about. In the '80s, when I came to NYC out of college, the park was in disrepair as it had been neglected for several decades. You could still see its grandeur, but it was in bad shape.

Then, in the '90s into the '00s, it was restored, repaired and updated all with great respect for its history. Now it is a gem. For Fedora Lounge people and fans of history in general, there's just an amazing time travel feel to it all as, as you noted, you can literal walk around and see exact places that are almost unchanged from fifty and even a hundred-plus years ago.

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