January 22, 1926. Washington, D.C. “Arcade Hockey Club.” And if roller hockey isn’t your cup of tea, we also have Billiards Dancing Bowling.
Washington, D.C., circa 1919. “Sennett girls.” Producer Mack Sennett’s comedy reels featured a bevy of “bathing beauties,” among them Marvel Rea, seen here in the harlequin costume. National Photo Company.
1962, Seattle, Washington, USA – A little girl listens in on The Hearing Exhibition at the Seattle World’s Fair.
Space Pilots. Minneapolis, Minnesota: A small boy’s dream of piloting a rocket ship through outer space came as nearly true as modern science could make it for plastic-helmeted Johnny Bower (left), and Neil Smith, both seven years old. The youngsters got their big break when Minneapolis-Honeywell’s Aeronautical company invited them, among other young sons of technical employees to visit the plant and see what their dads were doing. “Pilots” Bower and Smith are manipulating special computing equipment developed to duplicate characteristics of supersonic craft and the flight conditions they might be expected to encounter.
Host Bud Collyer brings laughter and smiles to the faces of panelists Polly Bergen, Ralph Bellamy and Kitty Carlisle while Hy Gardner remains only mildly amused.
Nazis burn the library of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, 1933. In doing so countless texts and documentation of early 20th century LGBTQ* history disappears. Remember, it’s never “just some books.”
Nun using card catalogue in the New York Public Library, 1944. Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Washington, D.C., 1920. "Bill Dudack, Georgetown University basketball." National Photo Company Collection glass negative.
November 1935. Prince George's County, Maryland. "CCC boys at work." Another one of those Civilian Conservation Corps projects that involved lots of photogenic exertion. 35mm negative by Carl Mydans for the FSA.
Washington, D.C., 1915. "Dog show." The happy couple, looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative.
I’m feeling pretty psyched for Natalie Randolph! She just got a job as the Football Coach at Coolidge High School in D.C. at the age of 29! Prior to this was a popular teacher in the science (yeay!) department at the school. Only “a handful of women” have ever held the title nationally, and Randolph makes it clear that this? Is about football.
I think it’s pretty awesome that Secret uses their new commercial, “Let Her Jump,” to bring up this issue of sex discrimination in the Olympics. The video uses
film footage from the 1924 Olympics (the scenes of which are stunningly beautiful) to illustrate how archaic the decision of the ruling committee is to ban women ski jumpers in the 2010 games is, and ending with the message that after nearly 100 years of a men-only policy on ski jumping in the Olympics it’s time for change. It’s one thing to have men’s and women’s teams to allow for differences in their physiques, but to not have a team for women to compete altogether? It’s 2010 and we are better than that. (This history of discrimination against women athletes is not lost in the past, either. According to Wikipedia, women were prevented from jumping in the Nordic World Ski Championships until the 2009 games.)
The juxtaposition of the past and the present in this is so great – it’s such an effective way to communicate the absurdity of this situation. Lindsey Van and all of her teammates who are fighting to end the sex ban on ALL Olympic sports are amazing women doing great work. The world is watching.
