Vintage photos of America. Lots of cars...

Thanks for the link!! That is some great stuff, I love history. To see everyday America back in the 50's is some neat stuff.

 

Man. Really makes you wonder what happened to all that tin. Amazing.

 

Cool avatar

 

Great thread.

I love how ordinary the shots are, sure there are some recognizable landmarks, but for the most part, these are just random shot, that could have been taken on any street in the respective cities.

It makes me think about how important it is to preserve/remember just the ordinary aspects of life.

 

I have tryed to jump into the pictures several times and go back into time. I have not succeded. Guess i just have to stay in this present period of madness. Was hoping to get a job at the corner Texaco and make a decent living. Oh well, we can always dream!

 

Is that a 58 Pontiac and (I think) a 55 Chevy "gasser" (no front bumper, haha!) staging for a run there on the center left of this pic?
This has been a fun thread. I love old pics full of old cars, especially from the 50s.

 

I could easily identify the first two shots of Juárez as the buildings are still there and look about the same, save for the paint.

I have a bunch of shots of downtown Dallas from 1950 that my grandfather took. All on slides...

 

Cool color Pic's....
But all the people looked kinda skinny....like they needed some junk.... food.

 

Thanks for sharing those pics. They're amazing. Very calming. Makes life look simpler. I'm 25 so any pics before 1980 seem like ancient history, but these pics make it look like 60 years wasn't that long ago.

ps. according to that website of 14,000 some pics, he went to 47 different states, and besides obviously not going to alaska nor hawaii, which state did he skip? F'ing MINNESOTA!! What a bastard.

 

This is truely a great post! Thankyou to all who took the time & effort!!!!....... Hemi35

 

The Gasser... I think that you guys might be right. Here is the blown up view.

 

Actually it is color slides. Very expensive, and mostly used by professionals in that era. Later on the E-6 process came out, and that is still used today on Ektachrome and Fuji slide film (transparencies).

Most magazines had a requirement for Transparencies in submissions for publication, as it doesn't have as much range as regular film, and the colors are more vibrant.

Then again, many photographers didn't like transparency film because of the look. Most gallery high-end stuff would never be transparencies, but black and white or color print film on fancy paper.

Ansel Adams for example, used techniques to optimize the range of print film, and would probably only use Kodachrome if he was given lots of money, and free trip to Miami

 

Very cool, thanks.

 

Looks like he had this Ford before he got the Lincoln, it shows up in some of the pics, this ones from Miami, 1939



Is this now the Wells Fargo on S. Congress? Looks familiar...

 

I noticed the same thing right away on that 55 in St. Louis.

I was on a website last night looking at sites on vintage neon and stumbled on urban renewal sites...some showed before and after photos...it was ashame to see the faceless, plain, and no character"
architecture in the "now" photos. I have around 2000 photos of this kind of stuff if anyone is interested...most found on the web, and a few hundred taken by me on my old road travels.

Thanks for posting this stuff.

 

I would have to say we're all interested. Or at least I definitely am.

-Dave

 

being able to search this photo archive is one of the coolest things i've seen in a long time-- photography related. thanks much for sharing. i'll have hours of time enjoying this.

-scott noteboom

 

The guy sitting closest to the camera looks like the gangster in the Bugs Bunny cartoons with that tall fedora.......(in my best James Cagney voice)...." yeah, you're gonna do it my way rabbitt, see........yeah".....

 

Looks like a Panhard next to the curb ..as in Panhard Rod...Behind a Peugeot 403.


Looks like he bought a new car in the same colour as the faithfull Lincoln.
And what on earth is a Commer van doing in California?? The Mk2 Jag I can understand...

 

These two are in some kind of hurry!!!

 

Chicago 1958...yeah i got Star fires! how many you want??

 

I've been there! I think thats the road going into Sequoia National Park in California

 

Thanks Ryan and SanDiegoJoe.
I work at an architect/engineering firm where we do a lot of historic preservation work. As an example, we are the architect for the Balboa Theater restoration in San Diego. I posted the link in the office and everybody was thrilled. Literally. And it brought all the closet car nuts out from hiding under their architecture veneer. And they were surprised that a hot rod website would find these interesting.

Thanks also for the link to the whole collection. Photography is one of my "other" hobbies, and I love looking at old photos. It gives me a sense of balance in my life and enlarges my historic perspective for my history-loving mind.

 

Thats "Balanced Rock" inside Garden of the Gods Park

 

Wow. Whomever took those had an interesing and well traveled life. And a good eye.

 

Someone was comparing the pics from then to how the actual street looks today and noted how much "cleaner" and more upkept buildings and streets are today. I can vouch for that. I have some color pics of my area back in the 50's and things sure were dirty.

That being said I would take the 50's lifestyle and culture over todays any day of the week.

 

Hey Look!! It's an Old Navy Store Truck!!!

Linden, Alabama Jail House Dec. 7, 1951

 

I dug the architectural styles of the various older buildings as much as the cars. When I'm in a major city, I'll often go to the poorer neighborhoods looking for unique buildings such as were shown here. Just as one example, I love driving through north Philadelphia on Market St. toward downtown. Even though many are abandoned, there are some gorgeous brownstones and such to be seen.

Thanks for sharing..

Jan

 

Speaking of old photos, a friend of mine tipped me off to a website with tons of old photos. The site is called square america and there is an entire section of automotive photos. It's worth taking a look at if you have time to kill.

http://squareamerica.com/r1.htm