Jessica Murray

1935 Women’s Dresses and Fashion

1935 Chicago Mail Order Company Catalog, Old Catalog Scans

Step back in time to 1935 and discover the timeless elegance of 1930s women’s fashion! Featuring Old Hollywood-inspired glamour, feminine caped-back dresses, dramatic collars, and the rise of “mannish” two-piece outfits, this era balanced chic sophistication with practical designs. Highlights include nautical-themed styles, crepe fabric dresses, and even a sport dress designed with a “suntan back” for that healthy glow. Explore vintage scans from the 1935 Chicago Mail Order Company Catalog and get inspired by the blend of movie star glamour and everyday practicality that defined the decade!

1930s nun and family photos

Old Photo Scans

Discover a unique collection of 1930s photo scans featuring family moments, children, and Catholic nuns. These images offer a window into Great Depression-era fashion, faith, and middle-class life in the Midwest. Explore how modest clothing, short waved hairstyles, and community resilience defined this pivotal moment in history. Dive into this vintage family album for a glimpse into the past.

How to Measure for a Victorian Pattern – and The back pages of the 1892 Delineator Fashion Magazine

Old Magazine Scans, The Delineator January 1892

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....

St. Louis Fashion Advertisements from 1924

1924 St. Louis Fashion Pageant, Old Magazine Scans

Here’s a captivating look at the August 1924 issue of the St. Louis Fashion Pageant, a local society and fashion magazine that reflected the roaring twenties in all its stylish glory. Featuring advertisements for flapper dresses, children’s shoes, and elegant coats, this issue highlights the city’s role as a hub of fashion and innovation. Many fashion companies were based on Washington Avenue, the heart of St. Louis’ bustling garment district, showcasing trends like beaded dresses, wash frocks, and non-wrinkle neckwear. Explore this unique time capsule filled with illustrations, ads, and photography from a pivotal era in American history!

1930s Wedding Photos, and How to Date old photos by hair style

Old Photo Scans

Take a step back in time with these stunning 1930s wedding photos. Captured by St. Louis photographer J.J. Belka, these portraits reveal timeless elegance during the Great Depression. Learn how hairstyles, like the iconic pin curls, can help date old photos. Discover the fascinating intersection of vintage fashion and history through wedding photography trends of this era.

1950s Wedding Photos: A Glimpse into Post-War Romance and Bridal Fashion

Old Photo Scans

Step back in time with these genuine 1950s wedding photos of Mary and her family. Discover post-war bridal fashion trends, the influence of Christian Dior’s New Look on wedding dresses, and how wedding photography evolved during this romantic era. These authentic vintage photographs, spanning from 1913 to the 1950s, reveal three generations of changing wedding customs, fashion, and American culture.

Snake Oil & Success: The Wild World of 1924 Advertisements

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

Step into the wild world of 1924 advertising, where Americans could purchase brain-hacking courses promising 1,000% salary increases, follow diets based on eye color, learn telepathic mind control, and train for glamorous hotel careers. These extraordinary advertisements from Character Reading magazine reveal how the Roaring Twenties birthed modern self-improvement culture—complete with Pelmanism, iridology, “Pep Cocktails,” and correspondence courses promising to transform desperate strivers into successful elites. Discover how snake oil salesmen, legitimate opportunities, and pseudoscientific schemes competed for consumers’ dollars and dreams in an era before advertising regulation, when anything seemed possible and everyone had a secret to sell.

The 7 Rooms of Your Mind: A Guided Tour of Your Own Head

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

Step inside the mind as 1924 imagined it: a seven-room house where energy, intellect, artistry, and spirituality each occupy their own space. This captivating article from Character Reading magazine reveals how the Roaring Twenties understood personality through the now-debunked science of phrenology—offering a fascinating glimpse into vintage psychology, self-improvement culture, and the American obsession with scientific success.

What Your Handwriting Reveals: A 1920s Graphology Workshop on T-Bars and Loops

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

Step into a 1920s graphology workshop where your fountain pen strokes reveal hidden truths. Handwriting expert Hall Cameron’s 1924 analysis decoded personality through T-bars (the “barometer of courage”), the letter F (business mogul or missionary?), and disconnected script (surprise—you’re psychic!). Explore how Jazz Age Americans used handwriting analysis to understand themselves in an era of rapid social change, and discover what your own handwriting might reveal according to vintage personality science.

The 1924 Sales Manual: Selling Cars by Face ShapeThe 1924 Sales Manual That Matched Cars to Face Shapes: A Bizarre Chapter in Automotive HistoryThe 1924 Sales Manual: Selling Cars by Face Shape

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

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.

Do You Have the “Mental-Motive” Temperament of a High-Powered Attorney?

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

Before the LSAT and law school rankings, there was phrenology. This remarkable 1924 article from Character Reading Magazine reveals how career counselors determined legal aptitude by examining skull shape and facial bone structure. Real estate lawyers needed prominent “Locality” organs to avoid getting lost, criminal attorneys required heightened “Secretiveness,” and trial lawyers needed “Combativeness” bumps behind their ears. Explore this fascinating glimpse into Jazz Age vocational guidance, when your professional destiny was literally written on your face—and discover what the “Mental-Motive” temperament supposedly revealed about high-powered attorneys of the Roaring Twenties.

Introducing the Founders Pass: My Digital Archive, Unlocked

Editorial

I’m opening up my private scan vault. The new Founders Pass gives you 90 days of access to my growing digital archive: high-res PDFs and zipped image files from rare, useful public-domain publications—including the 1924 St. Louis Fashion Pageant, Character Reading magazines, and a 1916 book of birds. I’m building this as a living collection (not a one-off product drop), and I’m donating 5% of membership revenue to the Internet Archive to support preservation work.

1920s Baby Readings: Determining a Career Before They Can Walk

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

In 1924, anxious parents didn’t just worry about milestones—they sent baby photographs to Character Reading magazine to discover if their infant was destined to become a banker, surgeon, or concert pianist. Explore the fascinating world of 1920s baby character analysis, where phrenology met parental ambition and editors confidently predicted careers based on skull shapes and facial features. From “Baby Dan the banker in the bud” to dietary prescriptions for chemical deficiencies diagnosed from photos, these vintage readings reveal the hopes, anxieties, and pseudoscientific beliefs of Jazz Age parenting. A charming and slightly unsettling glimpse into how every generation tries to unlock their children’s futures.

The “You and I” Faculty: Why Some Men Are Different When You Get Them Alone

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

In December 1924, Character Reading Magazine explored a fascinating concept called “Conjugality”—the brain faculty that supposedly explained why certain men seemed dull at parties but transformed into attentive, passionate companions in private. Rooted in phrenology, this “You and I” faculty offered Jazz Age women a seemingly scientific way to understand selective love, marital compatibility, and the distinction between romantic passion and parental devotion. While the skull-reading science has been thoroughly debunked, the behavioral observations reveal timeless insights about introversion, attachment styles, and the search for lasting love. Explore this captivating glimpse into 1920s relationship psychology and self-improvement culture.

Why Some People Love Storms and Mountains: The “Sublimity” Bump

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

Ever wondered why some people love thunderstorms while others prefer sunny days? In 1924, character readers believed it was all about “Sublimity”—a brain center that governed our love of majesty, grandeur, and the sublime. Explore this fascinating vintage personality theory featuring silent film star Alice Joyce, complete with practical lifestyle predictions and the pseudoscience that captivated Jazz Age America.

Is Your “Personality House” Crumbling? A 1924 Structural Engineer’s Guide to Character

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

What if your personality were a house—would it pass inspection? In December 1924, psychologist Honore Wright asked this revolutionary question in Character Reading Magazine, creating a metaphor that brilliantly merged America’s construction boom with emerging psychology. Walk through “Personality Town” and discover whether your foundation is crumbling, your lights are flickering, or your heating system needs repair. From calcium-rich diets for building “structural bones” to the wild world of 1920s advertisements promising everything from telepathic powers to “iriological diets” based on eye color, this deep dive reveals how the Roaring Twenties shaped modern self-improvement culture—and why these century-old insights remain surprisingly relevant today.

Do You Have the “Author’s Forehead”? A Phrenology Check for Writers

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

In 1924, aspiring writers didn’t need talent or practice—just the right bumps on their forehead. This vintage guide from Character Reading magazine claimed phrenology could unlock your hidden literary genius by measuring your skull’s “seven rooms.” Featuring analyses of Charlie Chaplin and bestselling novelist Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, this peculiar slice of Jazz Age pseudoscience reveals how desperately people sought shortcuts to creative success. Could your forehead bumps predict bestseller status? Discover what the phrenologists believed in this fascinating dive into 1920s self-improvement culture.

Don’t Fear Wrinkles! A 1924 Guide to Reading Your Face Lines

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

In December 1924, Character Reading magazine published a revolutionary article that challenged the beauty industry’s anti-wrinkle hysteria. Writer Edna Purdy Walsh argued that facial lines weren’t signs of aging—they were biographical maps revealing your thoughts, character, and life experiences. Discover how this Jazz Age perspective on “good wrinkles” versus “bad wrinkles” offered women permission to age with dignity, what different facial lines meant according to 1920s physiognomy, and why this nearly century-old message about embracing your face’s story resonates more powerfully than ever in our filter-obsessed modern world.

Mother or Actress? The 1924 Struggle for Identity

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

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.

Square Jaws vs. Smiling Faces: The 1924 Sales Manual

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

Before “closing techniques” and “sales funnels,” there was geometry. In 1924, aspiring salesmen were advised to check their facial lines, measure their skulls, and project the right “feeling tones.” This article from Character Reading magazine reveals how phrenology, racial pseudoscience, and surprisingly modern psychology collided in Jazz Age business culture—when your head shape could make or break your career.

The “Oxygen Man”: The 1924 Blueprint for a Millionaire

1924-1925 Character Reading Magazine, Old Magazine Scans

In 1924, the most successful man in any boardroom wasn’t the quiet genius—he was the “Oxygen Man.” Discover how Roaring Twenties America used pseudoscientific personality theory to define the ultimate business “go-getter,” and why being called a “Babbitt” was the highest compliment of the Jazz Age.

« Older Entries

Jessica Murray

1935 Women’s Dresses and Fashion

1930s nun and family photos

How to Measure for a Victorian Pattern – and The back pages of the 1892 Delineator Fashion Magazine

St. Louis Fashion Advertisements from 1924

1930s Wedding Photos, and How to Date old photos by hair style

1950s Wedding Photos: A Glimpse into Post-War Romance and Bridal Fashion

Snake Oil & Success: The Wild World of 1924 Advertisements

The 7 Rooms of Your Mind: A Guided Tour of Your Own Head

What Your Handwriting Reveals: A 1920s Graphology Workshop on T-Bars and Loops

The 1924 Sales Manual: Selling Cars by Face ShapeThe 1924 Sales Manual That Matched Cars to Face Shapes: A Bizarre Chapter in Automotive HistoryThe 1924 Sales Manual: Selling Cars by Face Shape

Do You Have the “Mental-Motive” Temperament of a High-Powered Attorney?

Introducing the Founders Pass: My Digital Archive, Unlocked

1920s Baby Readings: Determining a Career Before They Can Walk

The “You and I” Faculty: Why Some Men Are Different When You Get Them Alone

Why Some People Love Storms and Mountains: The “Sublimity” Bump

Is Your “Personality House” Crumbling? A 1924 Structural Engineer’s Guide to Character

Do You Have the “Author’s Forehead”? A Phrenology Check for Writers

Don’t Fear Wrinkles! A 1924 Guide to Reading Your Face Lines

Mother or Actress? The 1924 Struggle for Identity

Square Jaws vs. Smiling Faces: The 1924 Sales Manual

The “Oxygen Man”: The 1924 Blueprint for a Millionaire

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