Humans on hot days: Refreshing vintage photographs
On sweltering days, humans are instinctively drawn to water. The mere sight of it evokes a feeling of delight and even joy. The following vintage photos may not bring surcease to those suffering from the current heat wave that is gripping many countries. Nonetheless, they are refreshing to the eyes, if not to the spirit.
Men really know not what good water’s worth;
If you had been in Turkey or in Spain,
Or with a famish’d boat’s-crew had your berth,
Or in the desert heard the camel’s bell,
You’d wish yourself where Truth is—in a well.
— Lord Byron, ‘Don Juan’ (1818–24), Canto II, Stanza 84
Boys following water cart on Cotton Street, Poplar, London (1927)
Photo by Donald Macleish from Wonderful London by St John Adcock, 1927
Courtesy of Simon Knott on Flickr
Hot Weather Scene, N.Y. (1910)
Bain News Service, publisher
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, USA
Boys dipping their heads in fountain, New York City (1908)
Photographer unknown
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, USA
Licking blocks of ice on hot day, 1910
Bain News Service, publisher
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, USA
Hot day—watering horses, Union Square, New York City (1911)
Bain News Service, publisher
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, USA
Children playing in the water, Trafalgar Square, London (1927)
Photo by Donald Macleish from Wonderful London by St John Adcock, 1927
Courtesy of Simon Knott on Flickr
Australian soldiers outside the ANZAC Memorial during a heat wave, Hyde Park, Sydney,
4 January 1946
Photo by the Sun newspaper
Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales
~ Barista Uno
