This is very cool, jon, thanks. Where do you think this was taken? It looks like Mars or Jupiter or somewhere. Just toodling along in my rocket car between the walls of methane ice. . .

Old photos make me really sad. I once came across a box of old snapshots in a flea market and wondered why they were unwanted, and why someone would think that a stranger would want to buy their family photos.

In the same flea market there was also a framed picture for sale, a wedding party from the early 80s (judging from the fashions) and it was strange. One of the guests had had his face cut out and another face stuck on it, and there was another weird mutiliation that I can't really describe, the picture was just ... creepy. I went back to the flea market 6 months later and it had gone. The owner said someone had bought it.

Some of these are great. The subject of the third photo down on this page is stunningly beautiful. She's so purty I think I have a crush on this unknown woman from the 30s(whose name may be Susie). Imagine how frustrating that is!

Awwwwwwww shucks!

Bookmarked!

These pictures have made me feel incredibly sad.

I'm sorry, jan.

bighappyfunhouse is another great site for old photos, if you really don't want to get anything done today.

I once came across a box of old snapshots in a flea market and wondered why they were unwanted, and why someone would think that a stranger would want to buy their family photos.

It's likely that the person at the flea market just bought a bunch of unknown boxes at an estate sale, and ended up with photos of people they don't know.

I understand the motivation behind buying those photos, though. When I was a kid, I found a box of letters written by a distant relative to another distant relative during the US civil war. The author of the letters was just an infantry grunt in the Union, the letters were difficult to read (they had very different handwriting styles back then), and the subject matter never really strayed from complaints about the weather or homesickness. But getting an intimate view of someone else's life like that was amazing. Strange old family photos are just like that; you get to see how they lived, and imagine what they were talking about when the shutter snapped.

They're also priceless when viewed from a hundred years away. This was once a family photo, tucked away in someone's dresser, but now it shows what life was like in my old neighbourhood.

That's why these photos make me happy and sad at the same time.

jon, no need to apologise. They are fascinating. But I knew I shouldn't have started looking at them.

Old photos always make me feel sad because I never had anything remotely resembling a normal family life when I was a kid. I know that a picture doesn't tell the whole story, but when I see pictures of people doing normal, everyday family things, I feel sad for how much I missed out on growing up.

Not just old photos either. I cried for ages over mike9322's picture of Hunter with her chocolate Easter bunny, she looked soooo happy in that picture that it slaughtered me.

This one makes me smile. Nothin' like a nap with the pooch.

Hey, I know those guys! They did a slideshow at GB's anniversary party last year. Lots of fun.

Great find jon.

Obligatory bunny.

Oh jon, these are fabulous!! Thank you!

Wow. I don't know if I'm more viscerally affected by the dead/sick/old people shots, or the frankly sexy shots. I keep thinking how most everyone pictured is dead, and it's jarring to see the ones that are so full of life. Thanks for the link.

Terrific site, hon... I love old photos, too. Sometimes I have my students (and me) write in response to them.

My 90-year-old adopted mom has bins of old photos. She's in the house alone now, since my father died in '98, and she describes looking through them late at night. It's sad, thinking of her alone there, looking at old photographs, many of the people having died a long time ago, her parents, her brothers, my father's parents and brothers; her whole past there in those bins. She looked like a movie star, with wavy dark hair and slim-fit skirts from the thirties, one foot on the baseboard of a roadster.

I really should go through them with her, just to know who everyone is. I suppose my brothers know more than I do, but even with them, a lot is lost.

(Not to make everyone sadder or anything.)

Did anyone else thing Mr. Bennet, and his daughters when they saw this one? Ok, maybe there's one too many, but it could be Charlotte Lucas, tagging along.

I totally dig this. It makes me feel expansive, and connected to everywhere, all at once.

Great site, Jon.