One of the terraces of Hotel Splendid (I believe), in the spa town of Châtel-Guyon, France, ca. 1900 – ca. 1910, via Vladimir Tkalčić on flickr (used under CC license).
The writing across the postcard says “Il y a une vingtaine d’années” — “Twenty years ago.” On the back is an undated note addressed to someone in Zagreb. The affixed stamp was issued in 1927.
Probably near Lexington, Virginia, date unknown, by Michael Miley Studio, via Library of Virginia Commons on flickr (both photos).
I think this was a 50th wedding anniversary celebration, and the couple were posing with their eleven children.
Michael Miley was a popular commercial photographer in Lexington, Virginia, who patented a color process in 1902 and may have produced the first color photographic print in the U.S. He died in 1918, so these photos must have been taken by his son Henry or another younger associate.
The Library of Virginia recently discovered 58 previously unidentified images by the Studio and hopes that someone will be able to help it identify some of the subjects in the pictures.
La rue des Ursins à l’angle de la rue des Chantres, Paris (IVe arr.), France, July 1914, by Stéphane Passet, via Archives of the Planet Collection – Albert Kahn Museum /Département des Hauts-de-Seine.
Was this photo taken at the current corner of rue des Ursins and rue des Chantres in Paris? You can see the location here. I can’t decide.
The autochrome above is one of about seventy-two thousand that were commissioned and then archived by Albert Kahn, a wealthy French banker, between 1909 and 1931. Kahn sent thirteen photographers and filmmakers to fifty countries “to fix, once and for all, aspects, practices, and modes of human activity whose fatal disappearance is no longer ‘a matter of time.’”* The resulting collection is called Archives de la Planète and now resides in its own museum at Kahn’s old suburban estate at Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris. Since June 2016, the archive has also been available for viewing online here.
*words of Albert Kahn, 1912. Also, the above photo (A 13 657) is © Collection Archives de la Planète – Musée Albert-Kahn and used under its terms, here.
Five adults and two children at wooden tables beneath the large trees of Pressler’s Beer Garden, Austin, Texas, between 1890 and 1910, by Samuel B. Hill, via Austin Public Library and The Portal to Texas History (University of North Texas Libraries).
Pressler’s (originally a brewery) was located at 1327 West 6th Street for more than 30 years, closing in 1910. Its grounds featured a concert hall and dance pavilion, “ornamental shrubbery, arbors, and a fountain. . . . a boating ramp, a shooting club, and an alligator pond.” Pressler’s also hosted the German-American Austin Garten Association one Sunday every month.
The city had at least five biergartens at the time of the photo above. “Austin’s beer gardens of the 19th century were tightly woven into the fabric of local social life,” according to an interesting article in The Austin Chronicle, “Gardens of Eden.” “They were convivial places, patronized by both men and women, their families, and children.” They were particularly loved for their musical performances.
Today, only Scholz Garten remains — the oldest operating business in Texas.
“Sunday Afternoon on Kolín Island,” Czech Republic, 1922, by Joseph Sudek, via Museum of Photographic Arts Commons on flickr.
enclos*ure 