The Shorpy Website

A vintage photography website named Shorpy caught my eye. What a great collection of photographs!  Some are user-submitted, in case anyone out there has an old box of vintage gems which they would like to share.  The reason the site grabbed my attention was because of a photo from the industrial heyday of Pittsburgh, PA. It is a dark and haunting image that is truly captivating.

Looking at old photographs reminds us that the comforts and leisure we now have were not always available, and in fact, it was only a very short time ago that folks were literally living in tents.  Our great towns and communities had their start as tiny hubs of trade or transport – no one knew which way the tides of fortune would turn.

We must remember that we have arrived where we are not only because of the efforts of those before us, but also because we are constantly in motion.  We were not always a nation of 180 million people with a high GDP and educational opportunities, new cars, cable TV, climate control, etc.  For goodness’ sake,  ten years ago, there were no iPhones. But now, it is difficult to imagine walking through a crowded area without seeing one (or a hundred).

And so, Shorpys – reminding me that we are traveling along a prism of development and growth.  I look around my home and can’t help but think, what of all this will be unusable and quaint in 40 years because the technologies of our humanity have passed it by?