Lang Syne

Remember those old National Geographic magazines I bought a few months ago? I meant to show off a bit of what was inside them, but don't think I ever did. So here's a quick look at what the cutting edge was like, 90 years ago.

National Geographic was just starting to get some colored pictures. I think they're supposed to be color photographs, but they look more like someone painted over a black and white photo.

There was an article in one of them on Holland, which I was excited about because my mother's Dutch.  Only think - everyone's wearing the traditional costume in these pictures, and the wooden shoes!

And there were at least 3 pictures with someone knitting. Apparently it's in the genes.

The articles had a few prime notions too. It's a little odd to think of a large, scientific-type magazine like this one apparently thinking it completely the norm to use concepts like Manifest Destiny (which was sort of a White supremacy, we-were-born-to-rule idea; think British India or the Boer War), referring to 'the ladies' or 'the weaker sex', describing a South American as 'a Peon type', or having one of the authors casually mentioning how he let his pre-teen son loose in the jungle to shoot at birds for amusement.

And just to show how much else has changed...imagine buying a house for this price.

You'd maybe have a car in the drive that looked like this:

And you would still have to dip your steel-nib pen in the inkwell to write your letters and do your accounting.