The Shorpy Gallery
 
4000+ fine-art prints suitable for framing. Desk-size to sofa-size and larger, on archival paper or canvas.
 
Join and Share

 
Social Shorpy

To love him is to like him. Our goal: 100k "likes":

 
Syndicate content
Syndicate content
Syndicate content
Daily e-mail updates:

 
 
 
 
Member Photos


Photos submitted by Shorpy members.

 
Colorized Photos


Colorized photos submitted by members.

 
About the Photos

Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Many were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.

 
 
JUMP TO PAGE   100  >  200  >  300  >  400  >  500  >  600
VINTAGRAPH • POSTERS • AMAZING • 1955 CHRYSLER CONVERTIBLE

Immigrant Children Meet Santa

Immigrant Children Meet Santa

Even though my cousin Kathy gave this photo the title "Immigrant children meet Santa for the first time," we were not immigrants, even though it looks like we had just escaped war-torn Warsaw. And we had met Santa many times, despite brother Billy's concerned expression. Taken in 1959 at the Ford Rotunda, Detroit, MI. View full size.

Remembering that day.

It's funny that I remember that day so well. I remember that the LAST place I wanted to be was at the Ford Rotunda Christmas display. I wanted to be home, because the Harlem Globetrotters were going to be on ABC's Wide World of Sports that day, and I wanted to watch. Sadly, we returned home just as the program was ending.

Twilight Zone

Looks like Art Carney's portrayal of Santa in The Night of the Meek from the Zone.

Ford Rotunda in Kodachrome

From my collection of old Kodachrome slides, here is an exterior view and an interior view of the Ford Rotunda. Santa wouldn't be making his 1955 appearance at the Rotunda for another 5 months. The sign in front of the 1956 Ford Fairlane Station Wagon in the interior shot reads, "MICHIGAN leads the nation in the number of state parks and prepared campsites available to the public!"

Bucky Fuller and the Rotunda

Many a home in the tri-county area have photos with Santa at the Rotunda. I never got to see it; it burned down when I was a toddler, although my parents told me it was fantastic. Small consolation to a kid.

 
THE 100-YEAR-OLD PHOTO BLOG
Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.

Syndicate content RSS | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Photo Use | © 2013 Shorpy Inc.