This dramatic image of Niagara Falls shows four men on the near shore, all wearing top-hats, and the Falls in the background. To the left, under the shade of a tree, a group of less-distinct figures — three or four ladies and a fellow in light colored pants, can be seen. By the island in mid-falls there seems to be a tower, and on the far shore you can see a large building, probably a hotel.

The photo is by Platt D Babbitt, a daguerreian and ambrotypist in Niagara Falls NY from about 1853 to 1870. This image is an ambrotype, and dates from about 1855.

This image, a reminder of a shameful period in American history, shows a shop-front owned by a Japanese-American in Los Angeles California. The date is April 1942, just four months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and just before the ethnic Japanese living in America, many of them U.S. citizens, were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. This image shows Asahi Dye Works, with signs in Japanese and English “Dye your faded garments the new shade” with a scrawled message above “CLOSING - We won’t take it to Owens Valley for U” — indeed, the owners probably lost everything they had invested in the business.

This is a public domain photograph because it was taken by an employee of the U.S. Government as part of his job — photographer Clem Albers was working for the War Relocation Administration. Clem was born in Michigan about 1903, but grew up in Berkeley California. Before the war he was a photographer for San Francisco Bulletin, and later, the Chronicle. After the war he went back to the Chronicle where he eventually became their chief photographer. Clem Albers died in San Francisco in October, 1991.

This is the kind of picture you can stare at for hours, and keep finding new things. Well, old things in this case. This is the Bazar de Stamboul, presumably in Instanbul, ca 1880s. It is awash with with lamps, water pipes, textiles, ceramics, jewelry, furnishing, and things that I can’t even guess what they may be. American hearing the term ‘bazar’ usually think of a huge marketplace, but the term is often used to refer to a shop selling used goods … not quite antiques, more of a second-hand shop. Since this photo is over 100 years old it looks like an antique shop to us, but contemporaries would not have viewed it as such.

The photo is by Swedish photographer Guillaume Berggren (1835-1920) who settled in Constantinople in 1866 and opened a studio in the Pera district in the early 1870s. He is best known for his portraits, particularly of the every-day working people of the city in the 1890s, but also made a wide variety of city-scape images, portraits of travelers and dignitaries, monumental buildings and ruins from the surrounding region, construction projects, and other works.

This image shows a well preserved example of late Roman architecture in the ‘colonies’. It is the Kiosk of the Emperor Trajan on the Island of Philae in Egypt. Taken ca 1880s, the building shown was constructed under direction of the emperor Trajan, dating it between 53 and 117 A.D. Certainly not up to the aesthetic qualities of the classic Roman works, it does have some very nice pillars with impressive capitals, but then the effect is ruined at top and bottom by chunky block construction.

The photograph was taken by Antonio Beato. Less famous than his brother Felice, also a photographer, Antonio was an Italian who became a British citizen, and was born ca 1825. He died in Luxor Egypt in 1906. At times he and his brother worked together, and some works are signed with both names — Felice Antonio Beato — which has caused a great deal of confusion. Antonio worked primarily in Egypt 1860-1900, while his brother traveled much more widely.

This is a typical ‘Little Drummer Boy’ photo from the Civil War era. As with most such photos, it depicts a child in a suit made to look like a uniform. This little fellow is holding a drumstick and leaning against a drum that is placed on chair. We can see the ornate floor, dark baseboard and plain wall of the photographers studio for a backdrop.

This image was taken about 1862 by Robert W Addis of Lancaster PA. R W Addis was born ca 1829 in PA, and in 1860 was living in Lancaster PA with his wife and two children, and the artist George M Ottinger.