a guide to heritage clothing, canvas bags, steel bicycles, and Japanese web shops
Browsing the Minnesota Historical Society flickr stream, I found this fantastic denim chore coat from the 1960s. Metadata from the site identifies the jacket as belonging to Selmer Sauglow, a Norwegian farmer. While I’m a little denim jaded these days, I love the patchwork of this chore jacket which was created by Anna Sauglow, Selmer’s sister. Featured on …
It was great to see this article in the New York Times about the emerging trend of tailored, masculine clothing for women. I’ve been championing the production of heritage style menswear sized for women since the earliest days of the Archival blog. Of course, Japan, per usual, is ahead of the curve in this area. …
With the advent of Fall, I’m happily adding archival layers to my wardrobe, but I’m also looking back with nostalgia on the warmer, sun weary days of August. Boston Public Library posted photos of city dwellers from the 1930s napping in public parks – a communal practice that has sadly disappeared in the last seven …
I’ve been shopping from Cornell library’s Human Ecology Historical Photograph collection for new utensil sets. I love the elegant presentation and the grouping of tools by function. Each photograph reminds me of the first frame of an Eadweard Muybridge motion study. I’m waiting for a pair of hands to enter the frame and activate each …
Check out the Documerica – Dave Falconer set on the National Archives flickr photostream. Falconer photographed the impact of the 1970s energy crisis on communities in Washington and Oregon state. It’s hard to imagine a time when business dimmed neon lights during the day or school children rode bikes to field trips because there was …
The fellow above is wearing a fine Guernsey. Posted from the male and female sets with kind permission from the Tyne and Wear Archives. If you, like me, hadn’t heard of Tyne and Wear, it’s the unusual name of a county way up in northeastern England.
As documented, Archival loves kerchiefs. My preference is for discharge printed, polkadot models from Japan and the UK. To diversify my collection, I’m going to shop for a few vintage kerchiefs from Cornell University’s Political Americana Collection. When knotted, the rhetorical content reverts back to pleasing patterns and scrambled text. Cleveland-Thurman Handkerchief Benjamin Harrison Handkerchief, …
If you’re jaded by the modern Tour de France, stage your own race using these vintage TDF miniatures (via spokesniffer). No carbon fiber. No doping scandals. No helmets!
“Chippers.” Women war workers of Marinship Corp, 1942 The U.S. National Archives just released these terrific photos of female war workers from WW II. The images are part of NARA’s Women in WW II series. Original captions are included below. U.S. Army nurses, newly arrived, line the rail of their vessel as it pulls into …
Auzoux model of horse, life size. Specimen no. 2635 Cantering up to the summit of Whites Hill, Brisbane Ward says good by [i.e., goodbye] to Gen. Grant Two young ladies admire a horse at the racetrack Dobbs & Edwards Good friends Skijoring A shearer Barnum Bailey Show Horse powered wheat thresher Sheila Byrne on Harvey …