70 color pictures from slides of America dating 1939 to 1943 in the archive of the Denver Post. Some RR pictures but if you are modeling in that era there are some good shots of buildings back then.
http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.asp
Also
A photographic journey through American Cities, pre-1950. 77 b/w pictures 1864 to 1950
Great photos. Thanks for posting.
For those modeling this era note the following: 1) the stores were covered with signs & advertising 2) Most stores had false fronts 3) Things were dirty. Some of those stores would be condemned in our time 4) Industries were much dirtier as there was no EPA. Your, The Ferroequinologist
Another thing to note that I remember from the late 40s- Early 50s. Streets were crowded with people on foot. Men wore hats. People going out often dressed up with their best, even if just window shopping. No cussing and swearing on the streets or on the movie screens. Men wore suits and women wore dresses to Church. Kids were also dressed up. The streets in the business district in my home town started emptying in the early 60s. They look pretty dead now.
I also remember the stink from horse droppings, the air pollution from many homes being heated by coal and even wood, also used for cooking, the flies from open garbage on the streets and the aformentioned horse droppings. Even remember steam locos both yard switching and main line freight. And getting cinders in the eyes watching them. And I remember how the quality of the air in a part of town cleared up and the red oxide coloring on the buildings in that area got washed away after the local Steel Mill switched from the Open Hearth process to the BOP, and closed the coke ovens.
I remember walking a few blocks with my Radio Flyer and my dad to help haul blocks of ice home for the ice box, almost weekly in the hottest part of summer.
On a slightly more positive side, I remember bottles of milk that had to be shaken to mix the cream with the milk, farmers driving through neighborhoods with fresh produce and even live chickens, ducks, and an occasional special order goose. The local bakery doing the same with fresh hot baked goods.
And the milk man walking from his horse-drawn enclosed, automotive rubber-tired cart, getting full bottles of milk from the cart and collecting the empties, while the horse slowly kept moving, keeping a pace with the milk man’s up-to-the-house-back-to-the cart pace until he got to the corner where he would stop moving and wait for the milk man.