Vintage Everyday: 6 Racist, Sexist and Dishonest Vintage Advertisements That Seem Shocking Today (March 04, 2018)

These vintage advertisements are from Beyond Belief, a book by art collector and former advertising executive Charles Saatchi, which brings together the most shocking advertising campaigns of the last century. From racism and sexism to dodgy health claims, nothing was out of bounds for the real-life Mad Men.

“In the middle of the last century, marketing men had few qualms about creating brutally offensive advertisements...It proved a grimly amusing task to find so many examples that I could collect together; they provide a clear insight into the world of the ‘Mad Men’ generation and the consumers they were addressing. Although many of the advertisements selected are alarming they present an important portrait of society in the 1940s and ‘50s.” - Charles Saatchi.

Misogynistic, racist, unscientific, dishonest and just plain bizarre, these ads demonstrate how our attitudes towards women, race, tobacco, personal hygiene and drugs have changed over the years. 

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Vintage Everyday: Believe It or Not: Human Zoos Really Existed in the Past, And There Are Pictures to Prove It

 Have you ever heard of a human zoo? A human zoo was a place (and yes, they really existed in the past) where people were kept for display, just like animals are kept in zoos. The displays often emphasized the cultural differences between Europeans of Western civilization and non-European peoples or with other Europeans who practiced a lifestyle deemed more primitive. Some of them placed indigenous populations in a continuum somewhere between the great apes and Europeans.

Human zoos were quite popular, as many of them were found around Europe during the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. However, they weren’t the only continent that liked to expose humans in this way. North America, specifically the U.S, had their fair share of human zoos; however they stepped up their game from the Europeans.

Ethnological expositions are sometimes criticized and ascertained as highly degrading and racist, depending on the show and individuals involved. It was obviously one of the most horrendous things one can imagine, and these pictures of human zoos are bound to terrify you!

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Vintage Everyday: JFK’s Assassination: Who Was the Mysterious Babushka Lady?

The Babushka Lady is an unknown woman present during the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy who might have photographed the events that occurred in Dallas' Dealey Plaza at the time President John F. Kennedy was shot. Her nickname arose from the headscarf she wore, which was similar to scarves worn by elderly Russian women (бабушка – babushka – literally means "grandmother" or "old woman" in Russian).  [...]

Conspiracy theories involving Babushka Lady proliferate, with some theories holding more merit than others. Some say she was a Russian spy, an assassin holding a camera gun, a secret service agent, or a man dressed as an older woman (her wide stance for example, as seen in Muchmore's film, could be viewed as a bit unusual for a woman in the 1960s—especially one dressed in a time-appropriate dress and trench).

Because it had been raining earlier that morning, some women in Dealey Plaza wore scarves on their heads; but, the rain had stopped at 10 a.m., and since the shots weren’t fired until 12:30 p.m., Babushka Lady wasn’t wearing a scarf to shield herself from active rain. Perhaps she was holding binoculars rather than a camera, which would explain why her photographic or video footage has never been found. But because she never came forward to tell law enforcement what she saw (unlike other spectators who witnessed the shots being fired), her identity (and what she may know) remains a mystery.

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Vintage Everyday: Mysterious Forest Swastika in Germany Remained Unnoticed Until 1992

Local foresters said that the trees (which change color in the fall) were planted in contrast to the evergreen forest (which stays green always) in late 1930s. But it was not discovered for such a long period of time because of the ban of private planes in East Germany, in addition to the low flight that would be required to see the symbols. [...]

The larch trees were only visible in the fall, and was reportedly planted for to celebrate Hitler's birthday (though Hitler's birthday is in April). The Swastikas were confirmed to be about 200 by 200 feet. One farmer said that the trees were planted for a few cents per seedling, while others say that the forest swastikas were placed to represent loyalty to the Nazis, in fear of some villages being taken to concentration camps after one of their own was captured.

One of the forests had the year "1933" built into it, as Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Whatever the reason might be for the evil signs that is permanently scarring the land, german officials are seeking for a way to remove the trees again once and for all, so that their shame would not be reminded on its landscapes.

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Vintage Everyday: Fascinating Snapshots That Capture Street Scenes of Germany in the Early 1950s

These fascinating photos from Mark Susina that capture street scenes of Germany from the early 1950s. Cities include Berlin, Frankfurt, Nuremburg.

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Vintage Everyday: Amazing Photographs of 1980s New York City Subway Through the Lens of a Teenager

Most of these photographs below were shot in 1982 and 83 by native New Yorker Ken Stein when he was 17 and 18 year old, and was the staff photographer for a weekly community newspaper in The Bronx. Through his work he managed to capture the spirit of a New York quite different than the one we currently know, one with an undertone of danger and edge that has transformed over the past few decades. "The city was different back then," he told Gothamist. "I think it was quieter, the street lights were darker, there was more room to walk and more places to wander—often everything seemed new and the different areas of the city were just that; different."

Ken Stein recently shared some of his old photos of New York City from the 1980s on his Flickr page. "I pulled my slides from 20 years ago out of storage and began scanning them. It's like a portal back to my teenage years when i dreamed of going to art school to become a photojournalist."

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Vintage Everyday: When Photos Looked Like Paintings: 27 Dreamy Landscape Photographs Taken by Leonard Misonne

Belgian photographer Leonard Misonne (1870-1943) trained as an engineer before discovering photography. Raised in Gilly, Belgium, the photographer traveled throughout his homeland and beyond to capture the landscape and people of Europe in the Pictorialist style. Photographs, characterized by soft, painterly scenes, were created through alternative printing processes that utilize materials such as oil and gum bichromate. The Pictorialist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries sought to elevate photography to the level of other fine arts such as painting and sculpture. 

Misonne said, "The sky is the key to the landscape." This philosophy is clear in many of Misonne's images, often filled with billowing clouds, early morning fog, or rays of sunlight. The artist excelled at capturing his subjects in dramatic, directional light, illuminating figures from behind, which resulted in a halo effect. Favoring stormy weather conditions, Misonne often found his subjects navigating the streets under umbrellas or braced against the gusts of a winter blizzard.

Misonne's mastery of the various printing processes that he used is evidenced by the fine balance between what has been photographically captured and what has been manipulated by the artist's hand in each print. To perfect this balance, Misonne created his own process, called mediobrome, combining bromide and oil printing.

The artist's monochromatic prints in both warm and cool tones convey a strong sense of place and time, as well as a sense of nostalgia for his familiar homeland. Whether the subject is a city street or a pastoral landscape, the perfect light carefully captured by Misonne creates a serene and comforting scene reminiscent of a dreamscape.

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Vintage Everyday: Here Are 21 of the Very First Photographs of the World That You May Never See Before

The history of photography has roots in remote antiquity with the discovery of the principle of the camera obscura (a dark room) and the observation that some substances are visibly altered by exposure to light.

As far as is known, nobody thought of bringing these two phenomena together to capture camera images in permanent form until around 1800, when Thomas Wedgwood made the first reliably documented although unsuccessful attempt.

In the mid-1820s, Nicéphore Niépce succeeded, but several days of exposure in the camera were required and the earliest results were very crude. Niépce's associate Louis Daguerre went on to develop the daguerreotype process, the first publicly announced photographic process, which required only minutes of exposure in the camera and produced clear, finely detailed results. It was commercially introduced in 1839, a date generally accepted as the birth year of practical photography.

Here's a gallery of 21 photographic ‘firsts’ from over the past two centuries.

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Vintage Everyday: 36 Fascinating Vintage Photographs Capture Street Scenes of Moscow in the 1920s

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Vintage Everyday: North Sea Flood of 1962: The Biggest Catastrophe Since World War II in Germany

The North Sea flood of 1962 was a natural disaster affecting mainly the coastal regions of Germany and in particular the city of Hamburg in the night from 16 February to 17 February 1962. In total, the homes of about 60,000 people were destroyed, and the death toll amounted to 315 in Hamburg.In addition, three people were killed in the United Kingdom by high winds, which damaged around 175,000 houses in the worst affected city, Sheffield.

The flood was caused by the Vincinette low-pressure system, approaching the German Bight from the southern Polar Sea. A European windstorm with peak wind speeds of 200 km/h pushed water into the German Bight, leading to a water surge the dykes could not withstand. Breaches along the coast and the rivers Elbe and Weser led to widespread flooding of huge areas. In Hamburg, on the river Elbe, but a full 100 km away from the coast, the residential areas of Wilhelmsburg was most affected.

120 square kilometres or a sixth of the city of Hamburg were flooded, destroying 6000 buildings. Streets were unusable and railway operation was suspended, leaving Hamburg unsupplied for an indetermined period of time.

These photos will show you a small part of this terrible disaster.

Vintage Everyday: Berlin Wall in the Cold War: Powerful Pictures From the Birth of a Brutal Divide

In the early 1960s, LIFE magazine's photographers chronicled the construction of the Berlin Wall and, once it was built, its effect on residents living in the newly divided city. The Soviets and East Germans built the Wall, in part, to stop the flight of Eastern Bloc citizens who frequently used Berlin as the point from which they tried to escape to the West.

With the crude bulwark in place, the ideological divide between Eastern and Western superpowers grew sharper, more frightening and (seemingly) more intractable. Here, LIFE offers powerful pictures of the construction and earliest days of the Wall—photos that offer a glimpse into an era that today feels at once profoundly alien, and disturbingly familiar.

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Vintage Everyday: Story Behind the Iconic Photograph "Raising a Flag over the Reichstag" in 1945

The photograph was reprinted in thousands of publications and came to be regarded around the world as one of the most significant and recognizable images of World War II. Owing to the secrecy of Soviet media, the identities of the men in the picture were often disputed, as was that of the photographer, Yevgeny Khaldei, who was identified only after the fall of the Soviet Union. It became a symbol of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

When Khaldei arrived in Berlin, he considered a number of settings for the photo, including the Brandenburg Gate and Tempelhof Airport, but he decided on the Reichstag, even though Soviet soldiers had already succeeded in raising a flag over this building a few days earlier. [...]

Back in Moscow, Soviet censors who examined the photo noticed that one of the soldiers had a wristwatch on each arm, indicating he had been looting. They did not want to impose that image on their country. They asked Khaldei to remove one of the watches. Khaldei not only did so, but also darkened the smoke in the background. The resulting picture was published soon after in the magazine Ogonjok. It became the version that achieved worldwide fame.

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Vintage Everyday: Humorous Photography by René Maltête – 40 Amazing and Perfectly Timed Photos Capture Street Scenes of France During the 1950s and 1960s

René Maltête (1930–2000) was a French photographer. He was inspired by playful and candid photography. He always found the way to be funny and whimsical with his art. He was interested in capturing French life and all of its characteristics.

Most of his photographs were taken on streets, capturing everyday life of French people. From sunbathing on the beach, to casual walking down the streets. But in all those everyday moments René managed to create clever images with a lot of humor. He used surroundings perfectly and told a little story on each and every of his photographs. He wasn’t afraid to touch all parts of society he lived and created like a free man. Most of his images are black and white but with his genius he painted so many minds throughout his life.

René's pictures are based on incongruity and surprise: humor is always present, but more than just a picture, there is often a philosophical dimension. You can enjoy some of his amazing work here bellow.

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Vintage Everyday: 30 Amazing Photos of Militia Women during Spanish Civil War in the 1930s

The Spanish Civil War, widely known in Spain simply as The Civil War or The War, took place from 1936 to 1939. The Republicans, who were loyal to the democratic, left-leaning and relatively urban Second Spanish Republic, in an alliance of convenience with the Anarchists, fought against the Nationalists, a Falangist, Carlist, and largely aristocratic conservative group led by General Francisco Franco.

Although the war is often portrayed as a struggle between democracy and fascism, some historians consider it more accurately described as a struggle between leftist revolution and rightist counter-revolution. Ultimately, the Nationalists won, and Franco then ruled Spain for the next 36 years, from April 1939 until his death in November 1975.

A photo collection shows the strength of Republican militia women during Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939.

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Vintage Everyday: Inside the Everleigh Club, the Most Famous and Luxurious House of Prostitution in American History

Step into the perfumed parlors of the Everleigh Club, the most famous brothel in American history–and the catalyst for a culture war that rocked the nation. Operating in Chicago’s notorious Levee district at the dawn of the last century, the Club’s proprietors, two aristocratic sisters named Minna and Ada Everleigh, welcomed moguls and actors, senators and athletes, foreign dignitaries and literary icons, into their stately double mansion, where thirty stunning Everleigh “butterflies” awaited their arrival. [...]

The prices of services provided by the Everleigh Club were extremely inflated by the standards of the day, though these high prices were easily paid by wealthy patrons with an excess of funds. Typically, a patron would initially pay a $10 entrance fee. Patrons could also treat themselves to a variety of amenities that the club offers some of which include: a $12 bottle of wine, a $50 dinner, $25 for supper, or $50 to spend an evening with one of the "Everleigh butterflies." Regardless of what the patron chose to purchase, a minimum of $50 had to be spent by each patron in each visit or they risked having their admission permanently revoked. But patrons had no difficulty reaching the minimum spending. In fact, often clients would spend on an average of $200 to $1,000 a visit.

High costs resulted in high returns for the employees and owners of the Everleigh Club. The Everleigh Sisters netted an average income of an astonishing $15,000 a week compared to the average working wage of only $6 a week. Once the Everleigh sisters retired they had amassed a net profit of $1 million which was equivalent to $20.5 million today.

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Vintage Everyday: 30 Incredible Photos Capture Everyday Life of Germany in the Early 1880s

Carl Curman (1833 – 1913) was a Swedish physician and a scientist - as well as a prominent amateur photographer. He did a lot of travelling abroad in Europe, mainly to study health resorts, but also to study art and architecture.

These photos from Swedish National Heritage Board were taken in Germany in the early 1880s when he traveled there.

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Vintage Everyday: 25 Impressive Black and White Photos That Capture Everyday Life in Portugal During the Late 1960s and Early '70s

Neal Slavin is a world-class photographer and film director. His well- known photographic books include PORTUGAL with an Afterword by Mary McCarthy, WHEN TWO OR MORE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER and BRITONS.

He has photographed for most of the major magazines around the world including The New York Times Magazine, The London Sunday Times Magazine, Esquire, Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, Oprah Magazine, Rolling Stone, Life, Geo, and New York Magazine to name just a few.

Slavin’s work encompasses a professional career of over 40 years, during which he has photographed a myriad of subjects including such celebrities as Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Barbra Streisand and Phil Collins, among others. He has also pursued his own art which has led to the publication of the three aforementioned books.

These 25 impressive black and white photographs play with shadows and contrast of Portugal taken by Slavin during the late 1960s and early '70s.

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Vintage Everyday: Before Hillary Clinton, There Was Victoria Woodhull: The Strange Tale of the First Woman To Run For U.S President in 1872

Woodhull was a provocative personality. She was a feminist, supporter of the suffrage movement and labour rights and a proponent of "free love." She often spoke about sex on the lecture circuit, saying, among other things, that women should have the right to escape bad marriages and control their own bodies. Even more shocking to Victorian sensibilities, she espoused free love. “I want the love of you all, promiscuously,” she once declared. “It makes no difference who or what you are, old or young, black or white, pagan, Jew, or Christian, I want to love you all and be loved by you all, and I mean to have your love.” Woodhull practiced what she preached, at one point living with her ex-husband, her husband and her lover in the same apartment. Yet she also knew when to hold back her amorous affections. “Let women issue a declaration of independence sexually, and absolutely refuse to cohabit with men until they are acknowledged as equals in everything, and the victory would be won in a single week,” she wrote. [...]

Early in 1871, she was invited to address the House of Representatives judiciary committee. She gave a convincing presentation that the recently adopted 14th and 15th Amendments to protect the civil and suffrage rights of African-Americans could be extended so women could be granted the right to vote. Though that was not to happen for close to 50 years, she attracted sufficient attention from the newly formed National Woman Suffrage Association. A year-and-half later at the NWSA’s convention in New York, the delegates formed the Equal Rights Party and selected Woodhull as their presidential candidate. [...]

Like Clinton, Woodhull was insulted by her enemies in the press as a "witch" and portrayed in political cartoons as "Mrs. Satan." In 1872, she was 34 and hence one year shy of the 35-year-old constitutional age requirement to be U.S. president. The Equal Rights Party had selected as her running mate Frederick Douglass, the former slave and abolitionist, except it had not bothered to ask him first. He ignored Woodhull and the party and campaigned for the Republican incumbent (and eventual winner), Ulysses S. Grant. And even if she had not been locked up on election day, she could not have voted for herself and neither could the women who supported her.

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Vintage Everyday: Rarely-Seen Colorized Photos of Everyday Life in Qing Dynasty-Republic of China in the mid-late 19th Century

The Qing dynasty , officially the Great Qing, also called the Empire of the Great Qing, or the Manchu dynasty, was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the territorial base for the modern Chinese state.

Here are some colorized photos that show everyday life of the Quing dynasty in the mid-late 19 century.

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Vintage Everyday: 40 Breathtaking Black and White Photographs Capture Everyday Life in Palermo, Sicily in the 1950s and 1960s

Enzo Sellerio was born in Palermo, Sicily, in 1924. He studies law but in the meantime he discovers photography. He wins his first prize in 1952. He is considered one of the major photographers of the “Neorealismo”, an Italian artistic movement, which envisages a realistic approach in cinema, photography and literature.

In his photos he succeeds in capturing, thanks to a great technical quality and to an extraordinary sensibility, the soul of his homeland, Sicily, and of its people.

Among the street scenes, townscapes and landscapes, people working and at play, the ebb and flow of Sicilian life, the viewer of these photographs begins to recognise a master whose sense of composition has been influenced by the great European painters whose work he knows so well, by Breughel, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Millet.

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