← Travel

Historic Urban Life

Vintage photographs capturing bustling streets, markets, and pedestrians in historical New York and Rotterdam, reflecting urban life from the past.

Vintage photograph. Pedestrians on busy New York City sidewalk
Vintage photograph. Pedestrians on busy New York City sidewalk
203 assets in this story
1899-18852832
International attention to Shanghai grew in the 19th century due to its economic and trade potential at the Yangtze River. During the First Opium War (1839-1842), British forces temporarily held the city. The war ended with the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, opening Shanghai and other ports to international trade. In 1863, the British settlement, located to the south of Suzhou creek (Huangpu district), and the American settlement, to the north of Suzhou creek (Hongkou district), joined in order to form the International Settlement. The French opted out of the Shanghai Municipal Council, and maintained its own French Concession. Citizens of many countries and all continents came to Shanghai to live and work during the ensuing decades; those who stayed for long periods called themselves 'Shanghailanders'. In the 1920s and 30s, some 20,000 so-called White Russians and Russian Jews fled the newly established Soviet Union and took up residence in Shanghai. By 1932, Shanghai had become the world's
6145-46709023
Skiopticon image from the Department of Photography at the Royal Institute of Technology. Use by Professor Helmer Bäckström as lecture material. Bäckström was Sweden's first professor in photography at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm 1948-1958.präster on the way to church fest.
6188-64659519
Poonam Restaurant, Market Road, Pahalgam, Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India, Asia India Copyright: xJagdishxAgarwal/DinodiaxPhotox -