Shards of history: interesting and rare retro photographs of 20th century Europe (23 photos)

I present to you a selection of colorized photographs that were taken at the beginning and middle of the 20th century and are an excellent illustration of the life of European countries at that time.





Wales, 1965.

Photo by the famous American photographer Bruce Davidson. In the 1960s, he visited Britain at the invitation of Queen magazine. The essence of his trip was to show the real life of ordinary people on the island.

A photograph depicting a boy pushing a stroller in a mining village, symbolizing peace and silence among noise and dirt.



Photographer: Bruce Davidson

Rain in Monte Carlo. Monaco, 1955.

Interesting fact: Germany used Monaco during World War II to obtain foreign currency, which was a necessary component for ambitious military projects and war-related activities.





Photographer: Bert Hardy

Offices of the central social institution in Prague, 1937.

The photo shows the Prague Central Social Institute and its unique electric lift tables.

The institute housed the largest vertical document repository in the world. And the desktops of the archive staff were elevators that could rise, fall, move left and right and stop in front of the desired file cabinet.

After the introduction of the innovative system, the number of service employees was reduced from 400 people to 20.



Haymaking Italy, 1959.

Convenient, you always have your own hayloft with you. In general, it’s surprising, usually dragging huge loads is more typical for the tribal peoples of African countries.



Sliding on ice blocks. Paris, Place de la Concorde, 1938.



Girls in Amsterdam, 1960s.

Fashion in the 60s and 70s was more diverse than ever before. During this period, the main thing that was required of a person was to look unique.



Author: Ed van der Elsken

New Autobahn. Germany, 1930s.

The idea of creating a network of high-speed highways connecting the entire country initially arose in the 1920s, but it began to be implemented only in the 1930s.



Old Teutonic castle in Kwidzyn, Poland, 1960.



Father walks with his daughter. Amsterdam, 1968.



Miners, Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 1950s.



Plein air in Paris, 1950.

Plein air is a technique for creating fully finished paintings outdoors in natural light.



Photographer: Tore Johnson

Basket maker. Czech Republic, 1968.



Photographer: Ladislav Havlik

French women walk through the streets of Paris. France, 1960.



Father with child. Norway, 1940.



Lovers in Paris during a flood, 1978.



Photographer: Patrick Zachmann

Girls from Burma drink tea. England, 1935⁠⁠

The girls were brought to the city as part of the Bertram Mills Circus to amuse the local audience.



Children playing in the poor residential area of the Gorbals, Glasgow. Scotland, June 1966.

When imagination is developed, the old bucket turns into a sea vessel.



A boy sells lemonade. Berlin, 1931.



Spring in the Netherlands, early 1950s.



Photographer: Kees Scherer

A swing outside a factory in Leeds. England, 1955.

Childhood in an industrial city.



The boy is carrying two bottles of wine. Rue Mouffetard, Paris, 1954.

This is the work of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. He is one of the most famous photographers in history. His contribution to photojournalism and the development of photography as an art is enormous.



Drying spaghetti. Italy, 1929.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, pasta production was more complex than now; spaghetti was cut by hand and dried right on the street