Browse Items (993 total)
- Collection: Chester Smolski Photographs
Sort by:
Duluth: Minnesota Point, Lake Superior
An overcast view of Minnesota taken from Minnesota Point, looking north. Minnesota Point, at seven miles long, creates Superior Bay which is a hub of commerce for both Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin.
Duluth: Rail Yards, Port, and Bridges
Rail yard at Rices Point, on the shore of Lake Superior. The yard was owned by Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NP) at the time of this photograph (1964). The Blatnik Bridge, an automobile bridge, was completed in 1961 and carried auto traffic between…
Duluth: Minnesota Point View from Skyline Parkway, Aerial Lift Bridge
Skyline Parkway offers a bird’s eye view of the port city of Duluth. In this photograph, made in 1964, Duluth’s Aerial Life Bridge is visible, a landmark of the city. The construction of the Duluth Ship Canal in the late 19th century made it…
Madison: Student Housing at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Some of the student housing, including sorority and fraternity houses, for the University of Wisconsin are located on the shore of Lake Mendota. This aerial photograph shows the shoreline in 1964.
Madison: Student Housing at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Some of the student housing, including sorority and fraternity houses, for the University of Wisconsin are located on the shore of Lake Mendota. This aerial photograph shows the shoreline in 1964.
Wisconsin: Milwaukee Skyline
Photographed from Milkwakee Bay, this photograph shows the Milwaukee skyline as it was in 1962. Conspicuously absent are the sky scrapers that now dominate the skyline, which would be built in the following decades.
Madison: Vilas Park, Lake Wingra
This aerial photograph shows Vilas Park, located on Lake Wingra in Madison; The land for the park was donated by the family of Henry Vilas, who was a senator in the late 19th century.
El Escorial: Street View
El Escorial is named for deposits found in the area from an old foundry. This photograph shows the narrow steers and stone buildings that are typical of the area. El Escorial is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Madrid.
Eastern Flevoland Map
This map of Eastern Flevoland is from the 1960s and may be used in reference to images from the Smolski collection photographed in 1960.
See Smolski Images: Irrigation of wheat Northeast Polder Netherlands; Netherlands: Sluice Gates on Enclosure Dam…
Netherlands: Northeast Polder
Northeast Polder, a municipality in the Netherlands, is largely made of reclaimed land from Zuiderzee Works, which turned Zuiderzee into a freshwater lake, IJsselmeer, and lowered the water levels allowing for land to be reclaimed. This photograph…
Port of Amsterdam
The Port of Amsterdam, the second largest port in the Netherlands, is located on the banks of the North Sea Canal. Activity in the port dates to the 13th century. This photograph taken from the North Sea Canal shows the Port of Amsterdam in 1969.
Netherlands: Sluice Gates on Enclosure Dam & IJsselmeer
This photograph shows the sluice gates on the Afsluitdijk, a causeway that created the artificial freshwater lake IJsselmeer. The causeway was completed in 1933 and tamed what was once a problematic harbor in regards to flooding and damage to ships.…
Netherlands: Enclosure Dam & IJsselmeer
This photo shows the Afsluitdijk (Engish: Enclosure Dam), a 32 kilometer causeway in the Netherlands. The creation of the Enclosure Dam, completed in 1933, seperated Zuiderzee, a shallow bay, from the North Sea. The result was the creation of…
Madison: State St. from State Capitol
This photograph looks west down State St. in Madison Wisconsin. This photograph shows State St. before, in 1974, it was converted into a pedestrian mall. The street maintains two lane limited access, but is mostly known for it’s small town charm, and…
Madison: Vilas Park
Vilas Park and Henry Vilas Zoo is located on land donated in 1903 by William and Anna Vilas. It was one of the only accredited zoo’s to offer free admission, as stipulated by the Vilas when they donated the land 100 years ago.
Madison: Wisconsin Field House and Camp Randall Field
Camp Randall Field was a former Union Army training ground that was donated to the University of Wisconsin in 1893. It was quickly put to use as an athletic field. After numerous problems with the original wooden bleachers, culminating in a collapse…
Madison: Aerial View Looking South from Lake Mendota
This aerial photograph looks south across Madison Wisconsin from above Lake Mendota. The high rise, modernist structures at the left of the image facilitate the Motor Vehicles Division, while the smoke stack and cluster of buildings to the right are…
Wisconsin: Lake Wingra and Lake Monona, Aerial Photograph, Madison
Lake Wingra and Lake Monona are two of the lakes the Yahara River passes through on it’s way to the Rock River. This aerial photograph shows the lakes and surrounding city of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin: Tenney Park & Yahara River in Madison, Aerial Photograph
The Yahara River is a tributary of the Rock River that connects all of the lakes around which Madison was built. This photograph shows a section of the stream that passes Tenney Park, a public park named for the local lawyer, Daniel K. Tenney, who…
Wisconsin: Lake Medota
Lake Mendota is one of the two lakes that creates the isthmus which is home to Madison Wisconsin. This photo, from the summer of 1964, shows a Volkswagen Microbus parked by the shore of the lake, which is a popular destination for water sports and…
University of Wisconsin: Sewell Social Sciences Building, Aerial Photograph of Campus
The University of Wisconsin was founded the same year as the incorporation of Wisconsin as a state in 1848. It is located on Lake Mendota and the body of water seen in this photograph is known as University Bay. The carillon tower, seen in this…
Delaware Memorial Bridge
The Delaware Memorial Bridge was built in two spans. The first, completed in 1951, is on the left in this photograph, is now used to carry New Jersey bound traffic on Interstate Highway 295. Originally it carried traffic in both directions, but…
North Carolina: Tobacco Crop and Barns
Following the Civil War, Tobacco was one of the first industries to flourish in North Carolina, owing mainly to the development of the cigarette. Since the end of the twentieth century, when the dangers of cigarette smoke entered the mainstream…
Skärholmen: Million Programme Housing, Cycle Paths
While the Million Programme, a nation wide effort in the 1960s to create one million new homes in Sweden, has been criticized as creating concrete high-rises that are a blemish on the city’s skyline, many of the home were also small three floored…
Skärholmen: Million Programme Housing
Million Programme style housing in Skärholmen, a suburban district of south-west Stockholm, was built in Sweden during the 1960s as part of a nation wide effort to create one million new homes in a decade. While the project did achieve the goal of…
Brighton: Houses Near Albion hill
This photograph shows houses near Albion Hill in Brighton. The houses were originally made in the early 19th century of substandard material which quickly deteriorated into slums. In the 1930s redevelopment of the area began.
London: Eaton Square
Eaton Square is actually a long narrow square west of Buckingham Palace in Belgravia, a district of Central London. Most of Belgravia was developed, under the supervision of Thomas Cubitt, when George IV commissioned the rebuilding of Buckingham…
Snowshill: Cotswold Stone Houses
Snowshill, pronounced “Snozill”, is a village located on “the edge” of the Cotswolds, a range of hills in England (This England, 148). The area is designated an Area of Natural Beauty (AONB), which is considered to be equivalent to the status of a…
Rouen: Tight Housing
This photograph shows the density and variety of housing in Rouen, a famous and historic city in France. In the medieval period it was one of the largest cities. Today it is is the capital of the Haute-Normadie region and home to many historic sites…
Oberammergau: Houses and Hotel Wolf
Oberammergau is a village in the Bavarian region of Germany. It is famous for it’s Passion Play, and it’s local frescos and woodcarving. This photograph shows a street scene photographed in 1969. The building shown is the Hotel Wolf, a hotel that…
Sarcelles: HLMs (Subsidized Housing in France)
This 1973 photograph shows an habitation à loyer modéré (HLMs, English: ”housing at moderated rents”), which is similar to housing projects in the United States built around the same time. The HLM pictured is in Sarcelles, a French commune…
Moscow: View Across Moskva River
The large building at the right was, at the time of this photograph, the Hotel Bucharest. The original structure, dating to 1898, was designed by local architect Alexander Ivanov. During the 20th century the building changed ownership numerous times…
Stolkholm: Skärholmmen Apartments and Gardens
This photograph shows apartment buildings and urban gardens in Skärholmmen, a suburb in southern Stockholm. The apartments were mostly built in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of the Million Program, a program that attempted to create one…
France: Honfluer
The row houses on the harbor of Honfluer are known for being picturesque and has attracted many artist who have painted this scene, photographed here in 1979. The city today is home to many historic buildings and picturesque views.
French Riviera: House on the Moyenne Corniche
The Moyenne Corniche connects Mento to Nice and runs through the Côte d’Azur (English: French Riviera) and is named such because it is the middle cliff road between a higher and lower road. The French Riviera has long been the vacation land and…
"Spain - Village in North. Stones - little wood Bilbao area"
This photograph shows the village of Urbina. The road is A-4016, which runs through the center of the small village. It is about 20 miles south of Bilbao, capital of the province of Biscany.
Zaragoza: Narrow Street Scene
Zaragoza is an old city whose collective architecture is a pastiche of Roman ruins, Islamic palaces, cathedrals and pst-modern architecture. This photograph shows narrow streets and historic buildings typical to Zaragoza (Saragossa in English). The…
Rio de Janeiro: Contrasting Architecture
This photograph shows contrasting styles of architecture in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Here we see a row of 19th century buildings on Rua Acre with the modernist twenty two story building, The Night, at the end of the street. The older buildings are…
Bellinzona Street Scene Switzerland
Bellinzona is a city in Switzerland famous for it’s three castles. It’s location at the foot of the Alps made it a strategic point for fortification since the Roman Empire. This photograph shows a street scene in Bellinzona during the late 1960s.
Turku: Housing Built in Russian Style
This photograph shows the density of residential housing in Turku, a city on the southwest coast of Finland. Smolski notes that the houses are built in a style similar to that of Russian housing. This photograph was made in 1974.
Providence: Buddy Cianci's House (1976)
This photograph shows the residence of former Providence Mayor, “Buddy” Cianci. The house is located on the east side of Providence, the most affluent neighborhood of the city, notable for it’s high property values and low unemployment. This…
Dunster: The Yarn Market
Dunster has been recognized as one of England’s best preserved medieval villages. The city developed a market for woolen and clothing production as early as the 13th century. The Yarn Market, the octagonal building at the right of the frame, was…
Dornhausen: City Beautification [Germany]
Dornhausen is a municipality in Bovaria, Germany. This 1969 photograph shows the church on main road 13. This small village had a population of 232 in a 2010 census.
Notable in this 1969 photograph are the flower beds lining the road, which were…
Saint Petersburg: Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood
Following the assassination of Alexander the II in 1881, his heir, Alexander III, commissioned the building of this cathedral to memorialize his father. The design, carried out by Alfred Parland, draws heavily from St. Basil in Moscow. Following the…
Kharkiv: Annunciation Cathedral
The Annunciation Cathedral is a Neo-Byzantine building in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was designed at the end of the Byzantine Revival by Mikhail Lovtsov, an architect local to Kharkiv. Completed in 1901, it’s 80-meter bell tower made it one of the tallest…
Moscow: State Historical Museum
The State Historical Museum is located at the end of Red Square in Moscow. It was designed by Sherwood and Semyonov (Berton, 177) at the end of the nineteenth century. It’s facade employs a psuedo-Russian style which arbitrarily incorporates designs…
Saint Petersburg: Cathedral of Saint Isaac of Dalmatia
While multiple versions of St. Isaac Cathedral had been attempted in the 18th century none had been completed to specification. At the beginning of the 19th century Alexander I commissioned this final, and much more grand vision of the Saint Isaac's…
Moscow: Kotel’nicheskaia Embankment Building [Russia]
The high rise building pictured is the Kotel’nicheskaia Embankment Building (alternate spelling Kotenicheskaya), a high rise apartment building in Moscow. It was built as part of the vysotki (tall building) project which added seven high rise…
Ivan the Great Bell Tower: Moscow, Russia
The taller building in the foreground, and located right behind the Cathedral of the Annunciation, is the Ivan The Great Bell Tower. The Bell-Tower was built in 1505-1508 by Italian architect Bon Fryazin. A century later another arcade for bells was…
Moscow - St. Basils Cathedral
Saint Basils cathedral was commissioned in 1555 by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of Kazan form the Tartars in 1552. The cathedral’s official name is the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin, which also represents the date that…