Antique Photos of Beautiful Women, and...beautiful bathing suits?

In the photos our (extended) family has inherited, I've run across a few of incredibly beautiful women: beautiful in any century. I would like you to see these.

And I have to show the photo of what was the "latest" in bathing suits.  I can't call them beautiful, or elegant, but maybe...useful?

Thanks for visiting my blog!  Chris

MISSOURI LEAD MINERS; and a Funny Picture

                       (click on the photos to enlarge them)

My husband's  (Craig's) family came from Corry, Missouri: now a tiny spot in the road, but in the late 1800s and early 1900s a booming mining town for small surface lead and silicate mines.  A man could start a mine operation with a pick axe, shovel, windlass, wheelbarrow and rope.  Whole families, kids included, worked with the mines.

    Large lead mining has been and continues to be a major industry in Missouri; generally the mining is in tunnels and large refineries are closely associated. In Corry, the mining was surface or shallow mining, but  smelters were built nearby built to process the lead and silicate. Lead permeates the land--and water there. Craig's grandmother told him the water tasted wonderfully sweet, due to the lead. Of course, the long term effects of the lead and silicate in the water and dust affected everyone. Even now, Missouri's children have the highest blood lead levels in the U.S.   Craig's family in Missouri  had a long, very heavy  history of strokes.  I did some reading on lead exposure; those with long term high levels of lead have a 350% higher rate of strokes than anyone else. Symptoms resembling  alzheimer's was another problem, and his grandmother was diagnosed with severe alzheimer's syndrome.

  I find it hard to imagine the incredibly hard work done by these people. They didn't have tractors,  only mules. They didn't use any protective equipment, not even the hard hats used by the coal miners. Certainly not masks or gloves. The pictures, especially this next one, bring home to me the reality of the life these miners faced. (Besides, some of them were my husband's relatives!):

 Now on to happier (I think!) subject, but not apparently for the mom and kid.  This following picture just tickles my funny bone.

Thanks for visiting my blog!  Chris

The (In)dignity of Age--and a fun photo

When I was a kid, I saw my grandparents as OLD! After all, they had wrinkles and gray hair. As I got older, I began to appreciate my elders'
experience and wisdom--a little! Now that I'm in my 60's, I'm astonished looking back at pictures of them and realizing that I'm now older than they were at the time. Kind of scary.

The  assumptions about the elderly, actually the very definitions,  have changed a lot in the last 50 years. When I was growing up, people were labeled elderly in their 50's, and women were expected to "act their age," i.e. to wear dark frowzy clothes, stay at home more, and gradually lose their  mental facilities (this in spite of the fact that my grandmother was an active tax consultant until into her 90's!) The women were expected to act "grandmotherly"--that is, they should babysit as much as possible, cook for everyone whenever asked, always be cheerful and motherly, always have gifts for the kids, and of course be self sufficient!  Our grandfathers were to be objects of admiration for "how great that they can still hold a job if they want to," (not considering they had to live somehow--there wasn't any social security  then.)

  Nowadays we aren't too surprised to see a  90 year old woman climbing Mount Everest, or 100 year old people still living on their own.  We are sometimes  surprised  that a person in her/his 50's has retired; we ask "don't you get bored?" and often find that person retired from one job just to take on another just to meet expenses; no time or energy for boredom.

In looking at all of the old letters and photos we have from the late 1800s and the early 1900,  I have come to  realize that no one (except for the very well off) stopped  working until he or she literally dropped from exhaustion. The alternative was the almshouse, or poorhouse, established in the 1700s in the States to take care of (or keep from delicate eyes) those sick, aged, mentally ill, physically challenged, or just plain undesirable people for whom there was nowhere else to go. By the early 1900s, the almshouse sheltered mostly the elderly and severely physically, as insane asylums and orphanages were established.

Almshouses, renamed the more socially acceptable "county homes" in the 1900s, existed until social security got fully underway in the 1950's and 1960's.(Social Security was established to get rid of almshouses: by giving the elderly a stipend they would be able to live on their own. Obviously, someone didn't do their math homework!)

  I worked in a county hospital in the early 60's that had some residents in the long-term section who had been there for 30 to 40 years. Some had polio, or rheumatoid arthritis.Some had just gotten older and unable to fully care for themselves. None had family who cared for them and none had any income. There were also quite a few elderly who had been stuck in the long term psych facility, labeled as demented, just for somewhere to put them.

Perhaps this blog is mislabeled: even now, the biggest fight for the elderly and disabled is to keep their dignity and their independence. I for one am terrified of a time when I might have to go to a "nursing home" where, at the best I will no longer have my privacy and independence, and at the worst, will be in the modern but equally undesirable almshouse

 However, I'm including some interesting old pictures of elderly from our antecedents:

 Finally, I have to throw in one fun photo--no dignity involved, although the kid obviously doesn't care:

Thank you for visiting my blog.  Chris

My Favorite Photo; and Wasp Waisted Women

 This first photo is fun. It reminds me of David and Goliath. The child looks so small and demur next to that huge auto!

The next  photo shows a lady with a naturally small waist. She was a maid and housekeeper at Napa Mental Hospital around 1906, and was a friend of Lena (see the earliest blog posts). 

   
The second photo demonstrates how the corset could artificially produce a tiny waist.

  The corset was worn continuously from the 1600s to the 1960's by most ladies aspiring to women's own dictates regarding  the Well Dressed Lady. If worn correctly, the corset was  supposed to produce a waist the size of which a man could enclose with his two hands.
   Women (generally seamstresses) actually designed and sewed  most of the corsets themselves. The dowagers and mavens of high society enforced the definition of the successful lady in those circles, which included a tightly laced corset. Doctors and other outspoken gentlemen generally decried the use of corsets, but for a misogynist reason: they felt that women would be able to produce fewer children if their "womb was pressed upon." Since churning out babies was considered the female's primary task, and value, one can find a lot of literature objecting to corsets, especially during the Victorian era.

    Those women who succumbed to society's dictates certainly experienced some major physical problems. Fainting and shortness of breath were inevitable, considering how tightly the corsets were laced.  Stomach and bowel problems were constant, given the much diminished internal space allowed for those organs. All this contributed to men's admonishments against corsets, and contrarily  made women who wore them seem more "delicate," which was valued by the male sex as it made them feel more masculine in comparison.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Chris

Fascinating antique children's photos

All of us who have raised kids, or have children as close family members, probably have dozens of pictures of the kids. The photos mean a lot, and we can look at them over and over.  Generally, however, photos of other peoples kids are "nice" and we ooh and aah over them, but we don't find them as compelling as those of our own.

  In Lena's collection of antique and old photos there are quite a number of cute  photos of kids. A few stood out, in that they are interesting to look at all on their own.  Today I'm presenting 4 of these.  For the first I have no date or name but it came with some other photos which  were from the 1870's.

 This photo attracted my attention for the unusual dress and hairdo of the little girl, and the barely posed setting. Plus there's just a look in both of the children's eyes which makes me want to know them more--and to give them a hug.

The next photos is of  a little girl named Katy Pearl: The photo is from the 1890;s. This kid has a mischievous look in her eyes that shows kids from any age can mean BIG TROUBLE! 

The third photos is from a little girl named Zelpha, from about 1895. She was a first cousin of Lena (see early posts)  She, in turn,  looks older than her 6 years of age. She has this worldly, knowing  look about her that I find quite strange.

The final photo is of Leta, Lena's sister.

I love this photo, which is from the about 1899. Her dress is of a style I haven't seen often, and her legs and feet look like those of a small doll! And she is just plain cute!
  Thank you for visiting my blog.  Comments and suggestions are welcome!   Chris

3 Antique Dolls

We recently found a very old picture of a child with a doll. It has a name on the back so we are able to place a  date of  approximately 1868. The picture is wonderful, as  the details are very clear:

I'm hoping to so some research into  children's clothing  and dolls of this period
.
The next photo has been on this blog before; I am posting it this time because it is also quite old, dating from about 1880.It is from a tintype. The doll isn't quite as visible but it is still interesting obviously well loved.  The child is Lena (see early posts).

The next photo we aren't able to identify in any way. It was in with Lena's photos.:

The final photo is of Colon's teddy bear (Colon was Lena's son) dating about 1904:

 I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I do!  Chris

Two Fascinating Photos of the Past

There are a few of the hundreds of antique photos we inherited which just fascinate me. I will be featuring them in some of the coming posts. They are of an extremely mixed bag, but all are without exception good, i.e. eminently viewable, photos; and something about each one pricks my imagination. I find myself going back time after time to look and wonder about the subject/s. 

Today, I'm presenting a photo of some laborers, probably miners:

The second person from the right piques my curiosity the most, but there are so many aspects of this photo that I find interesting; I'll let you decide for yourselves.

The next is Rosa, a friend of Lena.  This is the full photo of the lady featured in the "hats" blog:

I welcome your comments on these photos and I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!  Chris

OLD! Antique Photos

OK, I just downloaded from my husband's tireless efforts at scanning in all the photos--about 200 new photos.  They all came from Lena, but they are so varied and neat that I've decided to make each blog have 2 or 3 really varied photos; for you antique baby fans; auto fans; Victorian hat fans, etc.  Hope you enjoy!  I welcome any suggestions.

Here are a couple of very very old photos; note I have not retouched any photos except for fade correction, if they are really dim.