Following on from the very popular post 1940s London in stunning high resolution colour, here are three more images taken less than a year later. All three were taken by Ed Kotun.

Click through to see the photographs in high resolution.
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Thank you to Ed Kotun.

McIntosh County, Oklahoma 1939/1940 (Russell Lee, Library of Congress)

These pictures are taken from the Charles W. Cushman collection. Click any picture to open the gallery and click the top right icon to see the full size [...]]]>

These pictures are taken from the Charles W. Cushman collection. Click any picture to open the gallery and click the top right icon to see the full size images.

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Thank you to John Pollock and Citynoise.

Lillian Yonally (above) was a WASP – a Women Airforce Service Pilot. During WWII, the 1,100 WASPs flew military aircraft on training [...]]]>

Lillian Yonally (above) was a WASP – a Women Airforce Service Pilot. During WWII, the 1,100 WASPs flew military aircraft on training flights in the USA to train volunteer male pilots for combat missions.

Lillian, who was 17 when war broke out, trained at the Sweetwater Army Field in Texas flying B25 bombers. She served in the seventh class of the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) in which women pilots lead training exercises for male pilots including aircraft tracking both during the night and at high altitude, along with acting as targets for combat training.

The WFTD women flew over the Mojave Desert towing large, colored nylon sleeves 30 feet behind them that were designed to catch bullets fired by trainees. By the time the WASPS were disbanded, on Wednesday December 20th 1944, 38 women had been killed. The WASPS were not recognised as war veterans until 1977.

Above: Lillian with a model of a B25 bomber

This week the WASPS were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony on Capitol Hill.

“We broke the glass ceiling. We were the pioneers. We were what opened it for women to fly.”

Above: Sweetwater Airfield, Texas, 1942 (Lillian Yonally)

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Thank you to John Pollock.

These four wonderful photographs of the iconic Carnaby Street, London were taken by Arby Reed in 1968. The girl looking into the gleaming Roller [...]]]>

These four wonderful photographs of the iconic Carnaby Street, London were taken by Arby Reed in 1968. The girl looking into the gleaming Roller shows us that this was before Carnaby Street was pedestrianised.

The pictures are all very high resolution, so click through to see the detail.

The picture above shows the junction of Carnaby Street and Ganton Street, and one of the two shops of Lord John on Carnaby Street.

The last photograph shows Carnaby Street where it meets Great Marlborough Street. You might notice the blue sign for Galt Toys, the crates of glass milk bottles, and the Lord John shop beneath the Union Flag. The cafe on the left is the Bonbonniere cafe. In 1991 I worked in Liberty (the black and white building) and the Bonbonniere was still there.

Now it has gone.
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Thank you to Martin Devlin.

Four wonderful images from New York City – all in the 1940s.

Four wonderful images from New York City – all in the 1940s.

The first two are from 1944, the image of the woman and children crossing the street is from 1941, and the final image, of the Statue of Liberty, is from an unknown point in the 1940s.

Because the quality of these images is so high it is very strange to realise how just much time has passed since they were taken. For example, assuming the young woman crossing the road is 20, this year she would be celebrating her 90th birthday…

All pictures from amateur archivisist Actionlog aka Ryan Khatam.