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Category / People / Icons / Muses

Lost Cowboys of the Congo

We’ve met the dapper dandies of the Congo, but today let’s discover yet another subculture from the same corner of Africa, forgotten in the folds of time. In the 1950s, when the Congo still belonged to the Belgium colonialists and the capital of Kinshasa was known as Léopoldville, it was a difficult place to be a kid to say the…

The Brothel Boss Lady who Helped Build Seattle

Like many West Coast settlements, Seattle is a city built on sin. As a logging town and port city their main industry might have been lumber, but the businesses that kept them competitive were the ones that could keep the sailors and other labourers entertained. Madame Lou Graham was a businesswoman through and through, and while…

The Forgotten 1950s Girl Gang

You might have heard of the Teddy Boys, a 1950s rebel youth subculture in Britain characterized by an unlikely style of dress inspired by Edwardian dandies fused with American rock’n roll. They formed gangs from East London to North Kensington and became high profile rebels in the media. But an important sub-subculture of the Teddy…

Preserved Moments of Historical Sass (Vol. 9)

sassy: adjective \ˈsa-sē\ impudent, lively, spirited, vigorous, distinctively smart and stylish, showing no respect for people in authority, saucy, pert, confident, chic. I haven’t done one from this series in a while, so this is long overdue. And it’s all thanks to an archive I stumbled upon through Flickr called SimpleInsomnia– a true treasure trove of vintage found photos with…

Meet the Woman Behind New York’s 1800s School For Crooks

Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum, better known as the “Queen of Fences” was a homely Prussian immigrant running a dry goods store with her husband and four children. She was also one of the biggest crime bosses the city of New York had ever seen. Marm came to New York in 1827, a poor immigrant peddling bits of silk…

Inside Ernest Hemingway’s Private Photo Album & Scrapbook

If I’m ever asked to choose a character from the past to have a dinner with, my answer is always going to be Papa Hemingway. Not just because I’d want to talk endlessly with him about his Paris years, but also because for me (and surely I’m not alone), Ernest Hemingway is simply the paradigm of…

Is this the Real-Life Tintin?

Do you know many fifteen year olds who would circumnavigate the globe in 44 days, dressed as dapperly as a the Prince of Wales? Probably not, because, well … kids these days. In 1928, to mark the centennial of the author Jules Verne, the Danish newspaper Politiken held a competition challenging teenage boys to travel the globe unaccompanied in under…

The Girl with the Impossible Waist

If you look up “hourglass figure” in the dictionary, Betty Brosmer’s picture should probably be next to it (if you Google it, she’s right there next to Kim Kardashian). Meet the highest paid pin-up girl of the 1950s, considered by many as the first true supermodel, Betty appeared in thousands of magazine including LIFE, Time, Fortune,…

Inside the Mansfield Mansion

It just doesn’t get much more kitsch (or pink) than screen siren Jayne Mansfield’s Sunset Boulevard home circa 1960. Floor to ceiling shag carpets, heart-shaped swimming pool, fireplaces and bathtubs, gold-plated fixtures a plenty, and of course, pink f**king everything. Photographed by LIFE photographer Allan Grant in 1960, the mid 20th century sex symbol shows…

The Photographer Re-inventing American Retro

Every once in a while, a photographer comes along and just blows you away. Today, Ryan Schude is that guy. The fascinating scenes, the colours, the cars, the people, the places– there’s just so much to soak in, but I’m going to let the pictures do all the talking. All I can say is that his…

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