Written by admin on 22 March 2012
Election night crowd, Wellington, 1931

Image by National Library NZ on The Commons
Photographer: William Hall Raine
Election night crowd, Wellington, 1931
Reference number: 1/2-066547-F
Original negative
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
See a zoomable image on our Timeframes website
Tags: 1931, crowd, Election, Night, Wellington
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Written by admin on 21 March 2012
A theatre café in Auckland, 1913

Image by National Library NZ on The Commons
Messenger Bros, Study your health!!! Our tea rooms are the cosiest in the city, 1913, Printed Ephemera Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library, Reference: Eph-A-CINEMA-1913-01-10
A fine figure in animal skin, a touch of humour and a rather cheeky smile combine to attract the eye to this little advertisement.
The health food bandwagon and the backing of the scientific community is also used to draw the public’s attention to the food on offer at this tea rooms, including icecream, fruit salad, cream, and iced drinks.
Take a closer look
Tags: 1913, Auckland, Café, theatre
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Written by admin on 20 March 2012
The Dramatic Shoe-Black

Image by LSE Library
From ‘Street Life in London’, 1877, by John Thompson and Adolphe Smith.
"Jacobus Parker, Dramatic Reader, Shoe-Black, and Peddler, is represented in the accompanying photograph standing at his accustomed pitch. Although the career of Parker has been clouded, and his life-story is one of struggle and disappointment, yet he has fought the battle bravely, and, as a veteran, is not without his scars. “There is one thing I am proud of,” said Parker, one day; “I am near three-score years and ten, have fought life’s battle and won, and will carry with me to the end its chief prizes-a hale heart and a contented mind.” "Greed of gain, sir, has never been my motto. It is but a poor object to fill up every nook and cranny of a human heart from boyhood to old age, as it does with many." Again, in his own words, “I have always advocated temperance and detested drunkenness. In my youth I never did apply hot and rebellious liquor to my blood, nor did, with unbashful forehead, woo the means of weakness and debility.’ Ah, sir, I have seen wine make woeful wrecks of men and women too, recalling the powerful lines, ‘Oh! thou invisible spirit of drink, if thou hast no other name to go by, let us call thee Devi1.’""
For the full story, and other photographs and commentaries, follow this link and click through to the PDF file at the bottom of the description
archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&i…
Tags: Dramatic, ShoeBlack
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Written by admin on 19 March 2012
London Nomades

Image by LSE Library
From ‘Street Life in London’, 1877, by John Thompson and Adolphe Smith
The class of Nomades with which I propose to deal makes some show of industry. These people attend fairs, markets, and hawk cheap ornaments or useful wares from door to door. At certain seasons this class ‘works’ regular wards, or sections of the city and suburbs. At other seasons its members migrate to the provinces, to engage in harvesting, hop-picking, or to attend fairs, where they figure as owners of ‘Puff and Darts’,'Spin ‘em rounds’, and other games….
The accompanying photograph, taken on a piece of vacant land at Battersea, represents a friendly group gathered around the caravan of William Hampton, a man who enjoys the reputation among his fellows, of being ‘a fair-spoken, honest gentleman’. Nor has subsequent intercourse with the gentleman in question led me to suppose that his character has been unduly overrated….
He honestly owned his restless love of a roving life, and his inability to settle in any fixed spot. He also held that the progress of education was one of the most dangerous symptoms of the times, and spoke in a tone of deep regret of the manner in which decent children were forced now-a-days to go to school. ‘Edication, sir! Why what do I want with edication? Edication to them what has it makes them wusser. They knows tricks what don’t b’long to the nat’ral gent. That’s my ‘pinion. They knows a sight too much, they do! No offence, sir. There’s good gents and kind ‘arted scholards, no doubt. But when a man is bad, and God knows most of us aint wery good, it makes him wuss. Any chaps of my acquaintance what knows how to write and count proper aint much to be trusted at a bargain.’
…The dealer in hawkers’ wares in Kent Street, tells me that when in the country the wanderers ‘live wonderful hard, almost starve, unless food comes cheap. Their women carrying about baskets of cheap and tempting things, get along of the servants at gentry’s houses, and come in for wonderful scraps. But most of them, when they get flush of money, have a regular go, and drink for weeks; then after that they are all for saving…They have suffered severely lately from colds, small pox, and other diseases, but in spite of bad times, they still continue buying cheap, selling dear, and gambling fiercely.’
…Declining an invitation to ‘come and see them at dominoes in a public over the way’, I hastened to note down as fast as possible the information received word for word in the original language in which it was delivered, believing that this unvarnished story would at least be more characteristic and true to life.
For the full story, and other photographs and commentaries, follow this link and click through to the PDF file at the bottom of the description
archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&i…
Tags: London, Nomades
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Written by admin on 19 March 2012
Blizzard, the pup in Antarctica / photograph by Frank Hurley

Image by State Library of New South Wales collection
Format: Silver gelatin negative
Notes: First Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
Frank Hurley visited the Antarctic six times between 1911 and 1932. For more information and pictures, visit Discover Collections: Hurley’s Antarctica on the State Library of NSW’s website: www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/natural_world/anta…
From the collections of the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales www.sl.nsw.gov.au
Information about photographic collections of the State Library of New South Wales: acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/SimpleSearch.aspx
Persistent url: acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=41576
Tags: Antarctica, Blizzard, Frank, Hurley, Photograph
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Written by admin on 18 March 2012
Field kitchen and Tommies resting

Image by National Library of Scotland
This photograph illustrates the saying that ‘an army marches on its stomach’. The mobile field kitchen can be seen on the right of the image with its supply wagons. The two horses in the background suggest it was pulled to the spot, rather than driven there by motorised means.
Food was transported to the front line in ‘Dixie’s’ (cooking-pots), via the labyrinth of communication and reserve trenches. The shirt-sleeved soldier standing at the far left is carrying a Dixie. When the general staff proudly boasted that men in the field received two hot meals a day, 200,000 soldiers wrote letters saying that they received no hot meals when serving at the front line – food and drink being cold by the time it reached their mess-tins.
[Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT. Field Kitchen and Tommies resting.']
digital.nls.uk/74548122
Tags: Field, kitchen, Resting, Tommies
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Written by admin on 17 March 2012
Boiling cookers of tea for our wounded just behind the line

Image by National Library of Scotland
The odd contraptions along the front of the picture are for boiling water. Mass production was required to deal with the volume of men. The soldiers dealing with the boilers are wearing ordinary uniforms, but with aprons over the top. The whole station is hidden behind a ditch, along the edge of which there is a collection of trees and weapons. It is thought that this moment was caught by the photographer John Warwick Brooke.
This photograph in conjunction with the caption makes for reassuring propaganda. Although the men are wounded, which is only to be expected, they are being looked after with cosy cups of tea. It is also suggested that if the wounded are drinking tea then their injuries are not so bad. This unfortunately was a far cry from the truth.
[Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN ON THE FRONT IN FRANCE. Boiling cookers of tea for our wounded just behind the line.']
digital.nls.uk/74548322
Tags: behind, Boiling, cookers, just, line, Wounded
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Written by admin on 16 March 2012
Mount Gerizim from Mount Ebal

Image by OSU Special Collections & Archives
Image Title: Mount Gerizim from Mount Ebal
Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "There is a record in the Gospel of John which gives to these twin mountains an interest deeper than any of the Old Testament events, and, for the sake of that story, we look once more at Mount Gerizim from the base of Mount Ebal. Do you see a village yonder, at the foot of Mount Gerizim? That is the modern Askar. the ancient Sychar. Do you perceive beyond it another small enclosure? Within that wall is Jacob’s Well, dug by the ancestor of the Israelite’s thirty-five hundred years ago, and still giving forth its water. Over yonder road, winding around the mountain, walked Jesus and his disciples one morning; and he sat weary beside the well while his disciples came to this village to obtain food for their breakfast. Waiting by the well he met a woman from the neighboring village, bearing her water-jar upon her shoulder; a woman, bright, quick-witted, and of deep, spiritual insight, although her past had been guilty. He saw her traits of mind and heart, and engaged her in conversation, while above them both loomed the summit of Mount Gerizim. That old well is there today, and every traveler receives a drink from its cool depths."
Original Format: Lantern slides
Original Collection: Visual Instruction Department Lantern Slides
Item Number: P217:set 013 022
Restrictions: Permission to use must be obtained from the OSU Archives.
Click here to view The Best of the Archives.
Click here to view Oregon State University’s other digital collections.
We’re happy for you to share this digital image within the spirit of The Commons; however, certain restrictions on high quality reproductions of the original physical version may apply. To read more about what “no known restrictions” means, please visit the OSU Archives website.
Tags: Ebal, from, Gerizim, Mount
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Written by admin on 16 March 2012
“Tickets” the Card-Dealer

Image by LSE Library
From ‘Street Life in London’, 1877, by John Thompson and Adolphe Smith. This chapter tells of the life of a man nicknamed "Tickets":
"About this time "Tickets" made the acquaintance of a Frenchman who possessed considerable skill as a sign-painter; and the two forthwith entered into partnership. The one paints, the other undertook to travel. "Tickets " is the traveller. From morning t ill night he wanders about, looking into the windows of small shops, till he discovers a ticket of dingy appearance, stained in colour, dog’s eared, bent, and altogether disreputable. With eagle eye all these defects are discerned, and "Tickets" enters boldly into the shop, to press on the tradesman the advisability of purchasing a new ticket. He undertakes to supply a precise copy of the old and worn announcement on a better piece of cardboard, freshly painted, or, perhaps, more elaborately ornamented.
[…]
He hopes that the number of his customers will gradually increase, and that he will be able to save on his earnings. Then, like a true Frenchman, he will return to France, and purchase the goodwill of some small shop. In the meanwhile he observes the strictest economy. He never drinks. His bed costs him two shillings a week. His breakfast consists of cocoa and bread , and butter, the former being more nutritious than tea. For dinner he generally consumes a pennyworth of potatoes, with a herring or a haddock and a cup of tea, while his supper consists of bread and cheese to the value of twopence. I t is only on days of exceptional good fortune that he indulges in a little meat."
For the full story, and other photographs and commentaries, follow this link and click through to the PDF file at the bottom of the description
archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&i…
Tags: CardDealer, Tickets
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Written by admin on 15 March 2012
River water having passed through the process, comes out pure into the canvas cistern

Image by National Library of Scotland
Sterilising water stage 2, France, during World War I. This photograph shows the process of water sterilisation. Two hoses appear to be bringing water from a mobile treatment plant behind the lorry. The treated water is run into a large canvas cistern for storage. The cistern has a canvas cover which is rolled back. Two American soldiers are watching the process.
The usual process of sterilising the water consisted of filtering it through sand. It must have been a constant problem to provide clean drinking water for such large armies.
[Original reads: 'OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ON THE BRITISH WESTERN FRONT IN FRANCE. De-poisoning & sterilising water for the troops in France. River water having passed through the process, comes out pure into the canvas cistern.']
digital.nls.uk/74548790
Tags: canvas, cistern, comes, having, into, passed, process, pure, river, through, water
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