think or thwim

The town of Nogales is split down the middle by the US/Mexico border. In these pictures Mexico is on the left, and the US is on the right. In 1898 you could cross anywhere. Now there is a 15 foot high wall and border patrol agents every 50 yards.

You can still see many of the same buildings on the Mexican side, but only a few remain on the American side. Here is each side of the border for comparison:

Somebody should take this picture again in 2108.

This is a closeup of the wall taken from the US side. Cutting torch appears to be a popular way to immigrate to the US. There are patches like these all over the wall.

The 1898 photo is from US National Archives | Photos of the American West: 1861-1912 (#163).

historical photos

During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant to protect it from a Japanese air attack. They covered it with camouflage netting and trompe l’oeil to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.

Before:

After:

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camouflage, historical photos, history, trompe loeil

The Flickr Then and Now pool is a collection of photos comparing a place about 100 years ago to the same place today. I particularly like guil3433’s photos of Montreal. Two are shown here:

The Robert Stanley Bagg mansion, Montreal 1900 and 2003

Southeast corner of St. Denis and Ontario, Montreal 1894 and 2007

After a lot of confusion I finally figured out that there are two similar groups:

• Then and Now
• Now and Then

Some photos show up in both groups. Some don’t.

:: All Things Cool

architecture, historical photos, history, photos

This, I love. Shorpy.com posts a couple of photos per day with short descriptions to show what life was like in America 100 years ago.

Here’s a sample. The site’s namesake, Shorpy Higgenbotham, is front center. Click the photo to see Shorpy’s entries.

The Juniper Gallery will sell you hard copies of photos.

:: Kottke.org

historical photos, history, photoblogs, photos, shorpy