Historical Photographic Archives of Children

(Last Updated On June 4, 2022)

In Christian’s research, he is always looking for archival images of children and so comes across some good collections that should be shared.  The first image is from an unknown photographer.  The photo gives the impression of a poor girl in a dilapidated neighborhood but anyone with a knowledge of history knows the girl is sitting among the rubble of World War II.

(ARtist Unknown) - London (1940)

(Artist Unknown) – London (1940)

Vintage Children: And The Stories That Go With Them is an excellent site that has both documentary photographs and artistic portraiture from about the US Civil War up to the Great Depression.  The thing about this site is that each image comes with a little background information.  One of the interesting stories here is about discovering the identity of one of the most popular postcard models, Grete Reinwald.  I never had the time to get the whole backstory, so I never got around to sharing it with the readers.  If you are a purveyor of vintage postcards, you have almost certain seen this little German girl.
Postcard Featuring Grete Reinwald (c1905)

Postcard Featuring Grete Reinwald (c1905)

Another site called Vintage Images has almost 1500 images of children appearing on postcards, both photographs and illustrations.  Some of the artists are slated to be covered on Pigtails.

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