These 34 Vintage Photos From the Late 1930s Will Take You Straight Back in Time
By the late 1930s, life was layered. People were building things — bridges, cities, movies, dreams — while other parts of the world were quietly starting to fall apart. There was glamour, sure, but also dust and heat and waiting. The rhythm of daily life didn’t stop, even as the world edged closer to something no one could quite name yet.
These images don’t explain the decade, but they capture the quiet in-between moments — the kind you only notice when you’re looking back.
1. Judy Garland’s Screen Test for ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1938)
2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. Looking Dapper (1939)
3. The Hoover Dam Under Construction (1935)
4. Little Girl Holding a Penguin’s Flipper at the London Zoo (1937)
5. Worker Standing on the Unfinished Golden Gate Bridge (1935)
6. A Former Slave Holding a Horn That Was Used to Call Slaves in Texas (1939)
7. Hanging Out on Huntington Beach (1937)
8. Sticking Together on a Hot Day (1938)
9. Motorcycle Chariot Racing in Sydney (1936)
10. Queen Elizabeth With Her Corgi (1936)
11. Checking Out NYC at Night From a Girder (1935)
12. Albert Einstein at the Beach (1939)
13. Women With the Ringling Bros Circus (1937)
14. Having a Tea Party With a Lobster and a Hawk (1938)
15. Disney Workers Having a Meeting on How To Animate Water Bubbles in ‘Pinocchio’ (1939)
16. Circus Performer Harriet Hodgini Helping Otto Griebling, a Circus Clown, Apply His Makeup (1935)
17. Mad Magazine Artists Al Jaffee and Will Elder in the Lunchroom at the High School for Music and Arts in New York City (1936)
18. Technician Doing Telephone Switch Maintenance in New York (1938)
19. The Diamond T Doodlebug (1935)
20. Bette Davis at Home (1939)
21. Stylish Woman in Detroit (1938)
22. Rosemary Kennedy Before Her Lobotomy (1939)
23. Robert Wadlow, the Tallest Human Being Ever, Standing Next to His Father (1938)
24. Soba Noodles Deliveryman in Tokyo (1935)
25. Playing in the Snow in December (1938)
26. Sarla Thakral, the First Woman in India To Pilot a Plane (1936)
27. 23-Year-Old Frank Sinatra’s Mug Shot (1938)
28. The USA’s Jesse Owens Breaking the World Record in the 200-Meter Race in the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany (1936)
29. Young JFK Juggling in Germany (1937)
30. Evicted Sharecropper Family in a Temporary Camp in Butler County, Missouri (1939)
31. School Girls Practicing Childcare Using a Doll (1935)
32. Little Girl Using the Telephone in Sweden (1935)
33. Family Standing Outside Their Sod House in Drenthe, the Netherlands (1936)
34. Coal Miner’s Child Using a Hole in the Door To Enter a Bedroom
Looking for similar content?
Discover more moments from the ’30s with 30 Powerful Photos That Show What Life Was Really Like in the 1930s. And be sure to check out 15 Haunting Photos of the 1930s Dust Bowl and 33 Early 1940s Photos That’ll Make You Feel Like You’ve Stepped Back in Time for more glimpses into the era.