Tokyo in 1972 Through Fascinating Photos

Tokyo is the capital of Japan and the most populous city in the world with a population of over 14 million residents as of 2023. The Tokyo metropolitan area, which includes Tokyo and nearby prefectures, is the world’s most-populous metropolitan area with 40.8 million residents as of 2023.

Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, Tokyo is part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan’s largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan’s economic center and the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan.

Beginning in the mid-20th century, Tokyo underwent rapid reconstruction and expansion that contributed to the era’s so-called Japanese economic miracle in which Japan’s economy propelled to the second-largest in the world behind the United States.

Tokyo is recognized as one of the world’s most livable cities. These vintage photos from m20wc51 that captured street scenes of Tokyo in 1972.

Sukiyabashi Park, Ginza, Tokyo, June 1972

Elvis in Tokyo, June 1972

Ginza cicadas, Tokyo, June 1972

Ginza, Tokyo, June 1972

Ginza, Tokyo, June 1972

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A Housewife Poses With $12.50 a Week’s Worth of Groceries in 1947

A 1947 issue of Life magazine, in a package of stories on “High Prices,” profiled Atlanta housewife Ann Cox Williams, who was held up as a superstar saver for feeding her family on just $12.50 a week.

Ann Cox Williams poses with a week’s worth of groceries in 1947. She spent $12.50 a week to buy all her groceries except milk. On this she managed to feed herself, her husband, her four-year-old twins and the family cat. (Robert Wheeler Time & Life Pictures)

The author of the article called Williams “the 1947 heroine of the Battle of the Budget,” saying she: “allows herself $12.50 a week to buy all her groceries except milk. On this she manages to feed herself, her husband, her four-year-old twins and even the family cat.

“The job takes considerable doing. Mrs. Williams is an avid student of grocery ads and shop windows. She limits herself to one shopping expedition a week, at which she weights every penny against the family’s full week appetite. She serves no meat at lunch and limits her evening entrees to such items as meat loaf, hamburgers and chili. Yet she manages to provide two desserts daily and such frills as cookies for a party.”

“If all American housewives had the spunk and ingenuity of the woman on this page – Mrs. Hamilton Williams of Atlanta, Ga. – inflation would be less of a swear word,” said the article, which showed Williams shopping, studying the newspaper and preparing cookies for a PTA party.

30 Amazing Studio Photos of People Wearing the Same Clothes for a Photoshoot From the 19th Century

The early photography studio was much more than a place to have one’s portrait made—it was an entire occasion. Studio proprietors and entrepreneurs deployed a range of strategies to elevate the photograph to the status of fine art.

Coaxing out dignified expressions, arranging backdrops and accessories, managing the distribution of light, and correctly timing an exposure were all skills that made early photography equal parts art and science.

In the early days of the daguerreotype, two main types of practitioners emerged: those who established permanent studios and galleries in city centers, and itinerant photographers who brought the technology to small towns and rural areas. The latter were often portrait painters or miniaturists who adapted their craft to the photographic apparatus, charging as little as 25 cents for a likeness.

By contrast, daguerreotypists who opened permanent establishments billed themselves as professional artists. Studios advertised their services in clever designs printed on the backs of cartes de visite and cabinet cards.

Below is a collection of 30 amazing studio photos of people wearing the same clothes for a photoshoot from the early 19th century:

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40 Amazing Outdoor Photos Show What Life Looked Like in Victorian Era

Most of the earliest photographs were not printed on paper, but on sheets of metal or glass. While the images themselves are beautiful, the photographic processes used to create the images are equally fascinating.

Daguerreotypes are often considered the first practical form of photography. The process was invented by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre in 1839, and the richness and detail of the images surpasses even those of modern photographic techniques.

Ambrotypes are often confused with daguerreotypes Glass plate ambrotype because they are housed in the same type of case. The ambrotypes were placed in ornate box cases to protect the fragile glass plates. This type of photography was very popular and widely available from the 1850s through the 1880s, largely because ambrotypes were cheaper to produce than daguerreotypes. Ambrotypes, like daguerreotypes, could be hand painted with color or gold to make the photo more appealing.

Tintypes used the same wet collodion process ambrotypes did, but the process was applying thin sheets of iron coated in black or dark brown paint instead of glass. The process was developed in 1856 and was extremely popular in the United States as tintypes were cheap, thin, and more durable than ambrotypes or daguerrotypes. Some tintypes were placed in decorative box cases, but the majority were placed in paper frames or left loose, which made the photos easy to send in the mail. Tintypes were especially popular among Civil War soldiers and their families. Many photographers set up shop in military camps.

Paper photography ultimately triumphed over metal and glass techniques, largely because they were easier to use and cheaper to produce. Photo paper coated with albumen, collodion, or gelatin allowed for increasing detail to be captured in a shorter amount of time.

Take a look at these amazing outdoor photos to see what life looked like in Victorian era.

Portrait of a family, circa late 1850s

Daguerreotype of an outdoor group, circa 1850s

Portrait of a couple outside their house, circa 1950s

Ambrotype of a group assembled in front of a house with a stone slab in the foreground, circa 1857

Mother and children outside home, circa 1858

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30 Amazing Thanksgiving Menus of US Hotels From the Late 19th Century

These days, the typical American Thanksgiving menu is pretty standardized: turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pie. Back in the late 19th century, when the holiday’s status as a national observance was still relatively new, those dishes were already being consumed but holiday menus of the time could show a little variety. For example, on Nov. 30, 1899, at the Plaza Hotel, you could get turkey stuffed with chestnuts for $0.75—or sweetbreads, cooked “Parisienne” style, for a dollar.

That Plaza menu is just one of many historical bills of fare that have been digitized by the New York Public Library’s “What’s on the Menu?” project. The Library has 45,000 menus dating as far back as the 1840s. Below is a selection of 30 amazing vintage Thanksgiving menus from the late 19th century (click on each image to view it larger):

Hotel Duquesne, 1889

Hotel Normandie, 1889

Murray Hill Hotel, 1891

Occidental Hotel, 1891

The Portland, 1891

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Europe in the Late 1950s Through Wonderful Color Photos

The Fifties have a particular place in our collective imagination: the decade of elegance and sophistication, of the economic boom, of “the Golden Age” of radio, of the birth of rock and roll, of the beginnings of television, and the dawn of commercial air travel.

However, these iconic characteristics of the Fifties represent only one side of the decade, inspired by the bright and optimistic eagerness for change that spread all over Europe after the Second World War ended. The Cold War, the fear of a nuclear conflict, the authoritarian regimes in Spain and Portugal, a divided Germany, and a controlling conservative society were also part of European citizens’ everyday life.

These wonderful photos were taken by huebner family photos that show street scenes of Europe countries such as West Germany, Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium, England, Scotland in 1958.

Belgium. British pavilion at Expo 58, the World's Fair in Brussels, August 1958

Belgium. Outside the Czechoslovak pavilion at Expo 58, the World's Fair in Brussels, August 1958

Belgium.Japanese pavilion at Expo 58, the World's Fair in Brussels, August 1958

Czechoslovakia. A Velorex three-wheeled car parked somewhere in southern Moravia, July 1958

Czechoslovakia. Column of the Holy Trinity (completed 1754), Olomouc, July 1958

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30 Vintage Found Photos That Show People at Beaches in the 1980s

No smartphones or iPads, people went to the beach in the 1980s to truly relax, entertain and mingle with the sand and sea.

Families and friends sat around chatting, adults read books, lied in the sun, played volleyball and walked on the beach with their kids. Children were running around having fun, playing in the sand with each other, etc.

These vintage photos were found by Mark Susina that show what people did at beaches in the 1980s.

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32 Amazing Vintage Photos of Egyptians From the 1870s

These early photographs were taken by Émile Béchard in Cairo, Egypt during the 1870s. Portraits include ‘types’ such as shopkeepers, street merchants and dancers.

Béchard was active in Cairo from 1869 until 1880 where he specialized in photographing Egyptian subjects in an orientalist style. The name H. Bechard appears scratched into the negatives of a number of large format prints produced in Egypt in the 1870s.

Émile Béchard operated a studio during the same period in the Esbekiah Gardens in Cairo along with Hippolyte Delie and who won a gold medal at the International Exhibition of 1878 in Paris. It is believed that Delie was an alternate name used by Emile’s brother Hippolyte.

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28 Wonderful Color Photos Captured Everyday Life of Busan in the Early 1950s

Busan is South Korea’s second most populous city after Seoul. It is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, with its port being South Korea’s busiest and the sixth-busiest in the world. The surrounding “Southeastern Maritime Industrial Region” (including Ulsan, South Gyeongsang, Daegu, and some of North Gyeongsang and South Jeolla) is South Korea’s largest industrial area.

Busan is divided into 15 major administrative districts and a single county. The most densely built-up areas of the city are situated in a number of narrow valleys between the Nakdong and the Suyeong Rivers, with mountains separating most of the districts. The Nakdong River is Korea’s longest river and Busan’s Haeundae Beach is also the country’s largest.

These wonderful color photos from m20wc51 that captured everyday life of Busan around 1951.

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Amazing Portrait of a Delivery Man for the Home Ice Company in Houston, Texas, 1928

In 1928, a figure known as the Ice Man could be seen delivering a 25-pound ice block in Houston, Texas. This snapshot reflects a time when the ice trade was a highly profitable industry, primarily during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ice was harvested from natural sources such as ponds and streams and then transported via railroads or ships to various destinations worldwide. An intricate network of ice wagons was responsible for the final distribution of this valuable commodity.

The roots of this industry can be traced back to 1806 when Frederic Tudor, also known as the Ice King, initiated the ice trade in New England by shipping ice to his affluent clientele in the Caribbean. Over the years, his enterprise expanded to encompass regions like Cuba and the southern United States. Eventually, ice was being shipped to destinations as far-flung as India, Australia, China, and South America.

At the zenith of the ice trade, this sector in the United States employed a staggering 90,000 individuals and relied on the labor of 25,000 horses. The demand for ice experienced a notable upswing during World War I. However, once the war concluded, the ice trade saw a precipitous decline due to the advent of refrigeration cooling systems. By the 1930s, modern refrigerators began to gain prevalence in households, and by the 1950s, they had become nearly ubiquitous in both the United States and Europe. This technological advancement rendered the ice trade largely obsolete.

30 Found Photos That Show Styles For Women in the 1920s

The post-WWI era of the 1920s was a time of prosperity and new opportunities. The economy was booming and the middle class was enjoying a higher standard of living. American women earned the right to vote, which gave many young women a new sense of empowerment.

The Volstead Act, which prohibited alcohol, led to illegal saloons called speakeasies that gave people the opportunity to indulge in jazz and liquor. The decade earned two monikers: “The Jazz Age” and the “Roaring Twenties.”

Flapper fashion took on a “boyish” look and corsets were replaced by “step-ins” to flatten the chest to mirror men’s style. Women’s restrictive clothing was loosened and lightened to make movement easier. Skirts rose to knee length and waistlines relaxed and often fell to the hips.

These vintage photos were found by snelson951 that show what women looked like in the 1920s.

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Louise Brooks Relaxing at Home in Her Garden, ca. 1925

Louise Brooks at home, enjoying the California sun in and around her yard, circa 1925. Brooks was also pictured with her younger sister June.

Louise Brooks (November 14, 1906 – August 8, 1985) was an American film actress and dancer during the 1920s and 1930s. She is regarded today as an icon of the flapper culture, in part due to the bob hairstyle that she helped popularize during the prime of her career.