Do you like looking at vintage photos?

[Arkansas Granny]

Check out www.shorpy.com. It's an American historical photo archive. The photos have an explanation with them and are posted in random order. Very interesting.

[Aristus]

1. I love looking at vintage photos.

I try to look past the clothes, hats and hairstyles, and just try to see the faces of the people themselves. Try to see them as people instead of old-timey black-and-white images. It's an amazing way to connect with the past.

And with the new, hyper-realistic colorization techniques, it's even easier to view them this way. The colorization also gives the viewer an impression of what life what like back then, with cityscapes and landscapes not muddied or dirtied by black and white color, but brought to vivid life, as if one could just step outside right now and see them.

[yonder]

6. Yes, what you said.

Looking at the old faces while imagining what kind of life those faces might have lead does it for me.

[Ohiogal]

2. Thank you!

I LOVE looking at old photos.

[Love-All]

3. I'll check it out. Thanks OP

[Cirque du So-What]

4. My uncle fought in WW I

When I was a kid, I was watching a documentary on WW I. My uncle said, 'you know, it was actually all in color.' It was a bit of a struggle to wrap my mind around that. I think of him whenever I see B&W movies, newsreels & photographs.

[bronxiteforever]

5. Love these! Thank you.

[safeinOhio]

7. Thank you

for the link

[Niagara]

8. Bookmarking!

So that I can check the photos out later.

[lpbk2713]

9. Yes. It makes me wonder.

When I'm looking at crowds in San Francisco or Boston or Ellis Island I have to wonder if by some chance I might be looking at my grandparents or great grandparents. You just never know.

[Dem2theMax]

10. I have a lot of old photos.

I sort of took over the family genealogy, and a lot of family have sent me photos. Unfortunately, no one wrote on the back of them to let me know who they are. And the people who would know are long since dead.

But I still love looking at them and wondering who they are.

Thank you for posting this! I am going to enjoy it.

[Arkansas Granny]

11. Some, like the small boys working in coal mines, are really heartbreaking.

Others show you a whole different way of life.

[Dem2theMax]

12. I have a lot of ancestors who were very young and worked in the coal mines.

And more than one ancestor who died because of the coal mines.

Weird story that shows how photos can solve mysteries.

One of my ancestors abandoned his wife and two children and disappeared for seven or eight years.
There's a really long story that goes in the middle, and I will skip that.

I had someone helping me do research, and he found the civil war records of this person. Through that, we found out that he had lost three fingers working in the coal mines.

Some years later, a family photo shows up. It was taken in about 1910. And there was a mystery person sitting in the photo. My mom was still alive at the time and she knew everyone but this one person. When we enlarged the photo, Bingo, three missing fingers!

Somehow, one of his sons had taken him back into the family. And there he was, sitting with all of them for the family photo.

Photos are the Holy Grail when it comes to genealogy and me.

[NNadir]

13. I love looking at vintage photos of my wife, when we first were lovers.

She says I'm some kind of pervert, looking at pictures of that young woman, who was, in fact, her.

I just laugh and tell her she's always 21 and will be so until I die.

The way she was beautiful when she was 21 is very different than the way she is beautiful now, with today's beauty deeper and far more profound, far richer, but I have to admit that when first I held her in my arms, it was very powerful, because I really couldn't believe that I was so much in love again and after so much desire and longing, there I was embracing her.

There was a moment, a particular second, that I woke up next to her in a little cabin in a grove of redwoods in Big Sur when she rolled over, half asleep, and kissed me and went back to sleep. I had never seen anyone so beautiful before. That moment suddenly made all of a hitherto miserable life, all the pain, all the disappointment, all the failure, disappear, so that life was very much worth living again.

Whenever things are bad, I think of that moment, and believe I can endure anything with the exception of losing her.

Later in the day, on a hike up to an oak grove, I took a lot of pictures of her, and I look at them all the time, decades later. The pictures bring back the intensity of it all, and yes, an old man, I look at the pictures of that young woman, and whether she knows it or not, there's nothing perverse about it.

No other vintage photos affect me so deeply as those, but they're personal.

[lillypaddle]

15. Lovely testament

to your wife, and your love. Ah, young love ... so intense.

[NNadir]

16. There is definitely great joy in old love as well.

Whenever my wife complains about aging, I remind her what a privilege it is to do so.

As I say often, the alternative to growing old is dying young.

[lillypaddle]

17. Indeed

While young love may be intense, old love is deep and knowing. What the hell, all love is wonderful!

[lillypaddle]

14. So cool

Thanks for posting. Bookmarked.

[BillyBobBrilliant]

18. Oh Hell Yeah!

I took my B.S. in Photography specializing in Black and White Film images. The link you posted is a 'treasure trove' of the type of images that was studied in Photographic History, and Appreciation classes. Bravo,

[smirkymonkey]

19. I love vintage photos!

What a great site! Thanks for posting!

[pengillian101]

20. Thanks!

I haven't visited shorpy's for a very long time. I love the photos, especially the one that looks just like my grandma's backside facing the camera!!

[pansypoo53219]

21. dangerous. i collect B/W photos/photo albums.

[Karadeniz]

22. Thank you!!!❤. I'll be going there..love old photos!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

23. Saved!!

Thanks, I love old pics

[Cheviteau]

24. Shorpy Is A Great Website

I've Had it bookmarked as a favorite for years. You can also purchase photos in many different sizes at reasonable prices. I have eleven photos from Shorpy framed and on my bedroom wall. Well worth the visit to that website.