VintageReveries began in 2011 as my attempt to understand why old dresses, faded photos, and crumbling catalogs move me so deeply.
Here you’ll find my journey as a vintage seller and collector, mixed with deep dives into 1930s and Edwardian fashion, WWI‑era home‑front life, historic St. Louis landmarks, and rescued needlework patterns.
Here I mix citations and catalog scans with memories, styling experiments, and reflections on preservation. This blog is for anyone who wants vintage to feel not just “retro,” but real, intimate, and historically grounded. I’m glad you’ve found this little time capsule
Here are some scans that I made to digitize an old guy’s scrapbook. These are lovely illustrations that capture the energy of the late 1920s. I found the wikipedia article on the history Lasalle fascinating, and a little tragic:
An 87-year-old family mystery, a misidentified woman in a Virginia court case, DNA matches, and an unsent 1939 letter finally helped me break one of my biggest genealogy brick walls. But the real story is about the generations of researchers who preserved just enough evidence for someone else to eventually finish the search.
What did the St. Louis riverfront look like before the Arch was built? These pictures include riverboats on the Mississippi, the St. Louis skyline and riverfront, and laborers taking breaks from working.
Discover vintage 1920s St. Louis fashion advertisements from the legendary 1924 Fashion Pageant featuring Schwarz & Wild and Ely & Walker. Explore rare fabrics like crepe de chine, foulards, and Poiret twills when St. Louis was America’s shoe capital and fashion manufacturing powerhouse. Download the complete 105-page digital program.
Take a fascinating look back at the daring evolution of art and nude photography, as highlighted in a 1953 Cheesecake Pinup Magazine. With insights on Louis Daguerre’s pioneering work from 1839, provocative photos from the 1870s, and Jules Alexander’s surreal modern masterpieces of the 1950s, this post explores how figure photography blended tradition with innovation over the decades. Discover the rich history connecting 19th-century figure studies to mid-20th-century cheesecake art!
Discover a selection of turn-of-the-century photographs from St. Louis studios like When Studio, Crescent Studios, and J. Haas. This collection includes a mysterious unmarked photo, formal headshots of young men, and an intriguing bridal portrait featuring a black wedding dress. Explore the history, fashion, and social customs captured in these historic cabinet cards and vintage portrait styles.
This is an interesting article on how the Motion Picture Production Code affected the evolution of cheesecake pinup, and changed the recipe.
Defining and illustrating various types of necklines. How useful to describing and selling vintage clothing online, as well as when buying it!
This was the most amazing 1950s magazine to photograph! Is this Marilyn Monroe on the cover? I wish I could have bought this vintage pinup magazine for myself! It’s dated 1953.
7 shoe advertisement scans from 1924. Business to business marketing for shoe manufacturers in St. Louis, and old advertisements for shoes!
Whew! Finally done scanning this lengthy Victorian fashion magazine! I broke the spine while scanning it, but atleast now it's all digitally preserved. These last few pages of this magazine include alot of advertisements and illustrations....
Discover the thriving world of 1920s fashion through authentic advertisements from the 1924 St. Louis Fashion Pageant. These vintage ads showcase dress manufacturers, millinery companies, luxury fur dealers, and textile suppliers that operated along Washington Avenue in downtown St. Louis during the height of the Jazz Age. Learn about the businesses, products, and economic forces that shaped American fashion during one of the most iconic decades in style history.
Here are some advertisements for Cream of Wheat, and Mennen’s Toilet Powder baby powder from 1913, as well as the table of contents and cover of The Modern Priscilla July 1913 issue. The Modern Priscilla was a housekeeping and fashion magazine.
I love how these little baby shower cards from the early 1960s have color illustrations inside as well as on the front! Such cute attention to detail! Cutely drawn and printed elephants, cherubs, and butterfly. It looks like from these guests, the...
In 1924, Durant Motors trained its salesmen to do something extraordinary: sell cars based on facial features. Round face? You needed comfort and padded seats. Pear-shaped face with a pointed chin? You craved beauty and luxury (but might not make your payments). This wasn’t one salesman’s quirk—it was official corporate policy, codified in a training manual by character reading expert Edna Purdy Walsh. Step into the strange world where jawlines determined which automobile you’d drive home, and discover how pseudoscience shaped the cutthroat competition of the Roaring Twenties auto industry.
This one page illustrated hat making article instructs the reader on what kinds of crochet stitches and materials to use to make a basic fashionable hat out of raffia. Ads on this page included Instant Postum, C-B Cottons, and Hinds Cream.
I love scanning old family photos, especially when elderly ladies trust me with their treasures and let me share them! This 1912 wedding portrait captures timeless elegance, featuring the bride in a lace-accented gown with a v-shaped neckline, pearls, and a flowing veil. The groom wears a dapper double-breasted suit with a white boutonniere. Shot by J.J. Belka in St. Louis, Missouri, this photo offers a glimpse into Edwardian-era wedding traditions.
In 1924, American women faced an unprecedented identity crisis. Just four years after winning the right to vote, they were caught between the glamorous “New Woman” ideal and traditional domesticity. A remarkable article from Character Reading magazine offered surprising wisdom: courage isn’t about being fearless everywhere—it’s about finding the role where you truly belong. Explore this timeless message about authenticity, confidence, and the struggle to be yourself in a world demanding you be everything to everyone.
Explore a captivating collection of 1920s Lincoln automobile ads highlighting luxury, craftsmanship, and innovation. Featuring iconic models like the Berline Landaulet, Cabriolet, and 4 Passenger Coupe, these vintage ads capture the elegance and technological spirit of the roaring twenties, solidifying Lincoln’s status as a leader in the era’s luxury automotive market.
These Kodachrome slides from January 1961 tell the story of a road trip through the western USA. From the historic Hermit’s Rest at the Grand Canyon to images of Native American pow-wows and celebrations, they provide a nostalgic glimpse into mid-century travel and culture.
I wish that I could find more audio recordings to go with these 1930s song lyrics, but no luck 🙁 This page of lyrics, in particular, I wonder how the music to them went. How quickly culture is lost!
Chapter III of Our Seven Children brings the Bohnenkamp family story closer to my own line, with brief but meaningful mentions of my grandmother Rosetta Caldwell, Wilbur Bohnenkamp, her sons Carl and Paul, and my father, William Douglas Bohnenkamp. This chapter is packed with Bourbon, Missouri rural history, Boone’s Creek farm life, family tragedies, land records, schools, cemeteries, marriages, and the kind of messy, vivid genealogical detail that makes old family histories so valuable.
Step back in time with this collection of turn-of-the-century photos from St. Louis photographers, including studios like Parsons, When Studios (1893), J. Haas, Theo E. Setzer, and more. These vintage cabinet cards and old photo scans offer a fascinating glimpse into the Victorian and Edwardian eras, capturing the artistry of antique photography and the lives of their subjects. Explore the historical legacy of 19th-century portraiture and the stories these images preserve from a bygone era.
I scanned some new cabinet cards! Here are some pictures of young ladies and children from approximately 1880-1900. These photos are exceptionally clear, and you can make out the texture of the young woman's skirt and hat. In another photo, a young...
Here are the last pages from the old guy's scrapbook of old car ads! These last illustrated automobile ads from the early 1900s include 8 pages of Willys Knight Automobile ads that appear to be from the 1920s, a Stutz automobile ad which...
A 1924 manifesto for introverts: W. Thomas Walsh’s poem about finding adventure in neighbors, not travel. Jazz Age psychology meets modern personality typing.
Here are four more pages scanned from the 25th anniversary program of the St. Louis Municipal Opera (now known as The Muny).
The Zodiac Cocktail Lounge and Bar at the Chase Park Hotel advertised Neil Bondshu and his Society Orchestra, Mary Raye and Naldi, Don Tannen (Russian Comedy Song Star), and “Snow White” Sensational Wizard of Tap with Bobby Swain and his “Note-ables”. Entertainment nightly with Joe Karnes and Betty Barr (satirical songs and piano styling). This was probably my favorite advertisement of these pages, because they really gave me a flavor for the type of WWII nightlife and entertainment available here in St. Louis.
Step back into 1935 with the Chicago Mail Order Company catalog, showcasing timeless men’s and boys’ fashions. From $8.95 tailored suits to 37-cent chambray shirts, fashion during the Great Depression emphasized elegance and practicality. Discover the vintage appeal of fedoras, knickerbockers, and shirts that still inspire today’s styles.
Here are more St. Louis beer and brewery advertisements and the synopsis of The Great Waltz from the 1943 St. Louis Municipal Opera Program.
Advertisers in these pages included: Falstaff Brewing Company, Manhattan Coffee, Efficiency Service Co (employment specialists), Griesedieck Brothers Brewing Company, The Circus Snack Bar at the Forest Park Hotel, and the Gaylord Container Corporation.
Wow. What a cool series of pinup and burlesque star history!
I’m not sure if there’s much of a point to the words in these pages, but the pictures show the history of fashion and burlesque with pictures including
What a cool treasure, to find a fashion book published at the dawn of World War II. It’s been interesting to expand my fashion vocabulary, and to learn so many new things about the history of fashion.
These illustrated fashion advertisements from 1924 are so interesting! These ads seem primarily directed to retailers, rather than the consumer…. I’ve not peeked thru the pages further than I’ve scanned them, and I’ve not researched the Saint Louis Fashion Pageant yet, so maybe it was more of an industry thing like NYC Fashion Week?
These 4 pages of the 1943 St. Louis Municipal Opera Program were a little less blatantly patriotic, but such a preponderance overall of beer advertisements and funeral parlors! In today’s modern theater program, you might find one advertisement for a Mausoleum, but not so many… it reminds me that 1943 was the thick of World War II when peoples’ husbands, sons, fathers and friends were coming home in body bags or not at all.
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