A Time Machine

Wouldn't it be weird to think of your vacation photos being on display in a museum someday? When Charles Cushman died he left his collection of snapshots (taken between 1938-1969) to his alma mater, Indiana University. Taken with almost eerily vibrant Kodachrome film, the images (thousands of them!) are like a time machine in pictures.

{5th Ave from 49th St., 1950}

{Clinton St. near the East River, 1941}

I loved looking at the New York ones and seeing how much has changed while a lot of things stayed the same. He also took really interesting candid shots of people.

{Children of the Mill, Johnston, PA, 1940}

{Regent St., London, 1961}

{230 W. 23rd St., Chicago, IL, 1949}

And he was so well-traveled! You can browse the photo archives by location to see what I mean.

{New Orleans, 1951}

{Excelsior Hotel, Beirut, 1965}

As you can see, I'm mildly obsessed with this catalogue of photos. It's like stumbling across a really cool photo album in your grandma's attic. And it's so interesting to think that someone could use the (billions of) digital photos we take today as insight into what our generation was like. What would they see in your photos?

Thanks to Tracey for sending me the article on Cushman's New York photos. You can browse them by location, year, and subject here.