Where to find vintage photos
 

Greetings,

I am interested in purchasing some photos of vintage players. I particularly love the photos of Charles Conlon - anything from 1900-1950 is ideal.

I am not looking at the photo as a collectible. So I don't want to pay for an original Conlon. I am happy with something printed recently as long as the subject appeals and it is a quality photo.

I would love to find an archive of hi res public images that would allow printing of an 8x10. Anyone know of such a thing from Library of Congress e.g. Any public domain images available? Or anyone know of a good source for purchasing photos from this era?

I can't seem to find theconloncollection any longer - the website seems down. Anyone know anything about it?

Any help you can provide would be most appreciated!

Eric

Eric,
What part of the country do you live?

I am in NJ, 20 miles west of NYC. Thanks!

NY area, I cannot help to much more then the Library of Congress. The Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland has the Louis VanOeyen collection. You may want to call some of the historical societies in NY, they may be able to help, I am sure there are locations there with collections from noted sports photographers.
Getty has a huge collection, and you can go thru them online and order some prints.
Is this for some sort of a project?

Associated Press sells reprints.

But, honestly, for the price to get someone to print a quality photo or to get one from AP, you could get a nice original vintage photo. A lot of them are quite affordable. Follow RMY Auctions.

But, beyond that, LOC has huge digital images that you can print yourself or get printed, and I've seen folks on eBay who sell LOC reprints for cheap-- don't now the quality though.

I assume you just want some appealing images for display. I understand that.

Bb hof

Thanks for the info! The project is to decorate my office! I was lucky enough to get onto Suite level at Yankee Stadium and they have a marvelous collection of photos. I thought it would be nice to get some prints and hang them up. I am most drawn to the vintage images.

I appreciate the suggestions.

Eric

Thanks everyone. I checked out RMY and Getty and they are more than I was hoping - things like images start at a few hundred and go up. I'll look further though through those sources. I'll check the LOC as well. Thanks!

All suggestions are most welcome.

Eric

Wayne State University in Detroit has lots of hi-res photos that were donated by the Detroit News. Just search for New York (assuming you're a Yankee fan) and a bunch of Yankees stuff comes up. You could probably have good prints made from them; they're large photos. There's a lot of old baseball.

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...vmc;page=index

Stuff like this:
http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps4dc5eda9.jpg
http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/z...pse7df9983.jpg

I have not inquired recently but the Hall of Fame was much more reasonable for photos.

If you order prints from the Associated Press, you can have them printed at your local Staples. I would talk with the Staples printing guy first, though - my Staples was unaware of the arrangement, but assured me that they would create higher-quality prints for me (I had some done by AP, and they were not-so-great).

Any time I've needed a hi-res print, I've just googled the subject with advanced settings set to larger images only, and I've always found what I needed.

Speaking of the Conlon Collection demise - I did order several silver gel prints from them, but never tried the platinum. The silver gels were certainly nicer than anything you could print yourself, but there was nothing vintage-looking about them. But it is a shame that the image collection is no longer available online - that was a fantastic source, and also great for reference. I was able to use it to positively identify many images as Conlons. Surprised that the major AH's didn't appear to use the site for the same purpose.

[QUOTE=SAllen2556;1345531]Wayne State University in Detroit has lots of hi-res photos that were donated by the Detroit News. Just search for New York (assuming you're a Yankee fan) and a bunch of Yankees stuff comes up. You could probably have good prints made from them; they're large photos. There's a lot of old baseball.

http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...vmc;page=index

Wow, this is terrific - just what I was hoping to find - thank you!!

One question for you - some images such as http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/imag...-46616%5D46616 appear to be very low res - not enough to print. Do you know if there is a way to get a higher res for printing? I'll keep looking but figured I'd check. Thanks so much!

Great info - thank you! I will check with Staples and what a great suggestion on finding a high res image. Didn't know you could do that. Thanks!

Eric

Yeah, that 'size' feature in advanced settings has been super-helpful. Also, if you are a Mac user, do such googling with Firefox - Safari has different options that aren't so great.

Here's an example: I just googled 'Babe Ruth' Conlon with size set to larger than 1024 x 768, and found this beauty. Who could possibly need anything higher-res than that? http://sports.mearsonlineauctions.co...52892a_lg.jpeg

Wow, you are right about that - this is an awesome tip!! I never knew this and it is an amazing tip. That's a great pic. I also found one of my favorite Conlon images: http://sports.mearsonlineauctions.co...52710a_lg.jpeg

Can't thank everyone enough - great suggestions.

Eric

Actually, thank you. I found that Ruth pic because I was trying to find a good example for you - now I'm using it for my desktop picture. If you set it 'as is', you'll get his famous glare.

Boston Public Library
 

The Boston Public Library has a terrific collection on Flickr.com. There are also lots of other vintage photos in addition. You are allowed to "copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format" as long as not for commercial purposes.

Boston Public Library on Flickr

For just browsing through great photos, this is easily my favorite site:

http://www.shorpy.com/search/node/baseball

I think the Conlon Collection may have unofficially moved here :

http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/ch.../framed+prints

Very interesting. Took a quick look and a number of my favorite images are there. They are a fraction of the price as the previous site. I assume these are mass printed vs. hand printed. Given that images that were only available in platinum for $1,000+ can be had for under $100 on this site, seems that there is quite a difference in approach. This site is quite affordable while the other seemed to be for collectors.

Thanks for sharing this!