Wish You Were Here: Saugatuck Art Colony, 1949

In the depths of winter, I’m yearning for the itching of grass on my bare legs, for that awful predicament of having nothing to do but lounge around in the sun all day until I think to myself: “maybe I could take up painting for the summer”. This photostory I found buried in the LIFE Archives, labelled…

January 17, 2017

Rodeo University, 1947

While most American universities enjoyed a good old intercollegiate football game, at the University of Arizona, rodeo was the sport of choice. And boy, did they make it look cool… In 1947, for the eight annual intercollegiate rodeo, Life photographer Peter Stackpole paid a visit to the cowboy (and cowgirl) university for the event of the year.…

January 3, 2017

Drive-in Church, 1947

I get really excited about anything you can drive through– movie theatres, restaurants, car washes, trees– it just feels very old school Americana, when the country’s love affair with the automobile was in full swing. Today I found these photographs of a drive-in church in St. Petersburg, Florida circa 1947 for a feature in LIFE magazine that never…

March 25, 2016

And then, Man Created the Stick-On Bra

Ah yes, there’s nothing like a good game of tennis while sporting a pair of pointy cotton hats glued to your bosom. I had the pleasure of digging up an actual fashion feature that Life magazine ran in 1949 on the latest brassiere to hit the market, called the Posĕs (pronounced “pose-ease”). Advertised as both bra and bikini, the “discrete”…

March 16, 2016

Colour Photos of the Legendary Parisian Food Market, Les Halles in 1956

It was known as the “Belly of Paris”, as famously christened by the French novelist Émile Zola; Les Halles was the food market of 19th century Paris, the hub of all food distribution in the city and one of the true wonders of working class Paris. These photographs taken by American Life photographer Thomas Mcavoy in 1956 were taken in the…

February 5, 2016

Ladies’ Smoker Night, 1941

I think I need to step up my ladies’ night game– these gals I found filed away in the Life archives are putting us to shame! In June 1941, Life magazine’s photographer Nina Leen attended a women’s “smoker”, the term usually reserved for a men-only social gathering. The concept flabbergasted local menfolk in Milford, Connecticut, who were strictly uninvited. The…

January 22, 2016

California Dreaming on the Last Hippie Houseboats

Hippies and houseboats; they seem to go together almost like wine and cheese. At least, they used to, especially in California in the 1960s when a mix of old beatniks and young hippies formed a community of whimsical water homes in the Bay Area… I found this photostory lurking in the depths of the LIFE archives, titled “Floating-Houses-California”…

January 14, 2016

Online Shopping in the 1950s

Today, shopping while sitting in a comfy chair instead of aimlessly wandering around a store is becoming second nature to a lot of us, but in 1950, yes more than 65 years ago, it was already a hot new concept– albeit a concept the world perhaps just wasn’t ready for… We’re in midcentury Pembroke, Ontario where a local business…

May 4, 2015

Muscle Beach Girl, 1954

She was dubbed the “strongest seventh grader” in the world. In the mid-1950s, April Atkins was a regular at California’s muscle beach and routinely blew spectators away with her unbelievable strength and generally kicking strongmen’s butts. If you’re looking for a little motivation to tone up for summer, these photographs I dug up in the LIFE…

February 6, 2015

Whiskey Flavoured Toothpaste, 1955

By the time Don Poynter was a college student, he had already created his company Poynter International and was spending nearly half his time in Asia manufacturing novelty products. Among his inventions were the first talking toilet seat, the first basketball backboard for a wastebasket, Jayne Mansfield’s official hot water bottle and the world’s smallest…