Geisha playing traditional instruments.

From left to right: samisen, yokin, kokyu (labeled kokin on photograph)

The yokin seems to be a simplified koto.

Photograph ca. 1900.

Image from Wolfgang Wiggers, via Wikimedia Commons.

Wallonian Costumery

Traditional Wallonian festival costume from the late 1800s. Photograph taken in Brussels, Belgium.

via

Seven Ladies at the Potomac Tidal Basin Beach, 1920

“Bare legs and scanty one piece bathing suits were very much in evidence at the opening of Washingtons municipal bathing beach today. Officials have agreed to disregard as precedents the prohibitory orders issued at Coney Island and Atlantic City.”

US Library of Congress Digital Archives. National Photo Company Collection.

cabbagingcove:

Thoroughbred “Parole”

Parole was an American-born thoroughbred, foaled in 1873, with 138 starts, 59 wins, 28 places, and 17 shows (wins = 1st place, places = 2nd place, and shows = 3rd place). He earned $82,816 in his racing career, which is over $2,000,000 in today’s dollars. His stud fees after retirement brought in significant income to his owners, as well. His offspring were not as profitable as him.

Album of celebrated American and English running horses. 1888.

(via stupidreblog)

The 2013 Kentucky Derby will have one of the first black jockeys on a possible winner in decades - there have been black jockeys on horses with poor odds over the years, but they’re incredibly uncommon compared to the first decades of the Derbies.

cabbagingcove:

Thoroughbred horse “Exile” with jockey

The Forgotten Athletes

One of the most overlooked aspects in the history of horse racing is the legacy of the African-American jockeys.

As thoroughbred horse racing first boomed in the Southern United States, slaves were the ones who cared for, lived with, and trained most of the horses. They were natural selections to be the ones who ran the horses in the races.

The Smithsonian magazine article linked above is a good overview of the position of non-whites on the track - even in the biggest races, like the Kentucky Derby, race was irrelevant. Only the colors of their silks (representing their stable) mattered. In fact, in the first Kentucky Derby (in 1875), thirteen of the fifteen jockeys were African-American, representing stables from both the North and the South.

Since the 1910s, however, African-American jockeys have been extremely scarce. Due to increasing racism and discrimination, many of the best jockeys of the late-19th century left for Europe, and both jockeyed and trained some of the best European (especially French) racing horses in history.

About the Horse

Exile was a thoroughbred born in the United States, with an English sire and French dam. He raced predominantly in the Northeast, and won the Twin City Handicap two years in a row. Most of his purses were for placing or showing, however. The Kentucky Derby winner for 1909, Wintergreen, was sired by Exile.

Source: Album of Celebrated American and English Racing Horses. Kinney Bros. Tobacco Company, 1888.

(via stupidreblog)

“Don’t be afraid”

A man coaxes his partner out of her bathing machine into the water.

Postcard ca. 1910.

Via Wikimedia Commons.

Moorish women preparing couscous, in Luce Ben Aben, Algiers, Algeria.

Printed by Detroit Printing Co., 1899.

US Library of Congress Digital Archives. Photochrom collection.

“Girls on the Wing”

Ladies with military men during WWII, ca. 1943-1944, on the wing of a Boeing XB-15.

Image via Retronaut