Tractor-Cycle, Treaded Motorcycle Designed by French Inventor J. Lehaitre, ca. 1938

In 1938, inventor J. Lehaitre introduced a fascinating innovation known as the Tractor-Cycle—a motorcycle equipped with a tractor-style transmission belt instead of conventional wheels. Designed to handle a wide range of terrain, this unique vehicle could travel at speeds of up to 25 mph.

Its rugged, tank-like track system gave it impressive off-road capabilities, making it suitable for military or rugged exploration purposes. In fact, it was even designed to accommodate a machine gun, suggesting potential military applications at the time.

Though it never became mainstream, the Tractor-Cycle remains an intriguing example of early 20th-century experimentation in all-terrain vehicle design.

The Fifth Beatle: 44 Amazing Photos of Stuart Sutcliffe in the Early 1960s

Stuart Sutcliffe (June 23, 1940 – April 10, 1962) was a British painter and musician from Edinburgh, Scotland, best known as the original bass guitarist of the Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as a painter, having previously attended the Liverpool College of Art.

Sutcliffe and John Lennon are credited with inventing the name “Beetles”, as they both liked Buddy Holly’s band, the Crickets. They also had a fascination with group names with double meanings (as Crickets, for example, the word referring to both an insect and a sport), so Lennon then came up with “The Beatles,” from the word beat (though Lennon’s original spelling was “Beatals”). As a member of the group when it was a five-piece band, Sutcliffe is one of several who are sometimes referred to as the “Fifth Beatle.”

When Sutcliffe performed with the Beatles in Hamburg, he met photographer Astrid Kirchherr, to whom he was later engaged. After leaving the Beatles, he enrolled in the Hamburg College of Art, studying under future pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi, who later wrote a report stating that Sutcliffe was one of his best students. Sutcliffe earned other praise for his paintings, which mostly explored a style related to abstract expressionism.

While studying in West Germany, Sutcliffe began suffering from intense headaches and experiencing acute light sensitivity. In February 1962, he collapsed in the middle of an art class after complaining of head pains. German doctors performed tests, but were unable to determine a cause. After collapsing again on April 10, 1962, Sutcliffe was taken to a hospital, but died in the ambulance on the way. The cause of death was later found to have been a brain haemorrhage in the right ventricle of his brain.

His death occurred just as the Beatles were on the cusp of international superstardom. Stuart Sutcliffe remains a significant figure in the Beatles’ history. He was later immortalized on the cover of their Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

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40 Amazing Photochrom Prints of Norway in the 1890s

Norway in the 1890s was a country on the brink of major transformation. Though still in a political union with Sweden (established in 1814), growing nationalist sentiment was building momentum toward full independence, which would be achieved in 1905.

The economy during this decade was shifting from rural and agricultural traditions to early industrialization. Hydropower development began laying the groundwork for future industrial growth, particularly in regions like Telemark. Fishing and maritime trade remained vital to coastal communities, while emigration to North America continued at high rates as Norwegians sought better opportunities abroad.

Culturally, the 1890s were rich with national romanticism. Artists, writers, and composers like Edvard Grieg and Knut Hamsun helped define a distinct Norwegian identity rooted in the landscape, folklore, and rural life. The expansion of railways and steamship routes also began to connect more remote parts of the country, changing how Norwegians lived, traveled, and interacted.

It was a decade of growing confidence, where tradition and modernity coexisted—and often collided—on the path to a fully independent Norway. Below is a collection of amazing Photochrom prints offering a glimpse of Norway in the 1890s.

Karl Johans Gate with the Royal Palace, Christiania, Norway, circa 1890s

Fish market, Bergen, Norway, circa 1890s

A Lapp family, Norway, circa 1890s

Andrée’s Station at Danskøya, Spitsbergen, Norway, circa 1890s

Bondhus glacier and lake, Hardanger Fjord, Handanger, Norway, circa 1890s

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40 Historic Posters That Captured the Spirit of the Great War

During World War I (1914–1918), posters became one of the most powerful tools of communication and propaganda. At a time when radio and film were still emerging, governments relied heavily on bold, visual messaging to mobilize public support, encourage enlistment, raise funds through war bonds, conserve resources, and shape public opinion.

These posters were often vivid, emotional, and patriotic. They used strong imagery and slogans to appeal to citizens’ sense of duty, fear, pride, and morality. Artists played a key role, blending fine art with mass communication. Some posters used heroic depictions of soldiers and civilians, while others vilified the enemy or portrayed the horrors of war to stir emotional response.

Different nations adapted the format to their own cultural symbols, but the goals were often the same: unite the population, sustain morale, and win the war at home and abroad. Here is a selection of powerful posters from the First World War.

l'Insomnie du Kaiser, 1914

Cacciali Via!, 1914

Deutschland, August 1914

Az Erdekes Ujság És a Kis Erdeckes, 1915

Belgian Canal Boat Fund for the relief of the civil population behind the firing lines. Send them something, 1915

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30 Stunning Portraits of a Young and Beautiful Meryl Streep in the 1970s

Mary Louise “Meryl” Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Known for her versatility and adept accent work, she has been described as “the best actress of her generation.” She has received numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, including three Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, eight Golden Globe Awards, four Emmy Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for seven Grammy Awards and a Tony Award.

In the 1970s, Meryl Streep established herself as a versatile and talented actress, transitioning from theater to film and earning critical acclaim. She began with diverse roles, showcasing her ability to inhabit different characters, and by the end of the decade, she had earned her first Academy Award nomination for The Deer Hunter and won for Kramer vs. Kramer. This decade marked the beginning of a legendary career for Streep.

One of Streep’s first professional jobs in 1975 was at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, during which she acted in five plays over six weeks. She moved to New York City in 1975, and was cast by Joseph Papp in a production of Trelawny of the Wells at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. She went on to appear in five more roles in her first year in New York. She starred in the musical Happy End on Broadway, and won an Obie for her performance in the off-Broadway play Alice at the Palace.

Although Streep had not aspired to become a film actor, Robert De Niro’s performance in Taxi Driver (1976) had a profound impact on her; she said to herself, “That’s the kind of actor I want to be when I grow up.” Her first feature film role came opposite Jane Fonda in the 1977 film Julia, in which she had a small role during a flashback sequence. Most of her scenes were edited out, but the brief time on screen horrified the actress, “I had a bad wig and they took the words from the scene I shot with Jane and put them in my mouth in a different scene. I thought, I’ve made a terrible mistake, no more movies. I hate this business. However, Streep stated in 2015 that Fonda had a lasting influence on her as an actress, and credited her with opening “probably more doors than I probably even know about.”

Robert De Niro, who had spotted Streep in her stage production of The Cherry Orchard, suggested that she play the role of his girlfriend in the war film The Deer Hunter (1978). Author Karina Longworth notes that Streep, “Made a case for female empowerment by playing a woman to whom empowerment was a foreign concept–a normal lady from an average American small town, for whom subservience was the only thing she knew.” Pauline Kael, who later became a strong critic of Streep, remarked that she was a “real beauty” who brought much freshness to the film with her performance. The film’s success exposed Streep to a wider audience and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In the 1978 miniseries Holocaust, Streep played the leading role of a German woman married to a Jewish artist played by James Woods in Nazi era Germany. She found the material to be “unrelentingly noble” and professed to have taken on the role for financial gain. With an estimated audience of 109 million, Holocaust brought a wider degree of public recognition to Streep, who found herself “on the verge of national visibility.” She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance.

In 1978, she played a supporting role as the former girlfriend turned lesbian in Manhattan (1979) for Woody Allen. Streep later said that Allen did not provide her with a complete script, giving her only the six pages of her own scenes, and did not permit her to improvise a word of her dialogue. Vincent Canby of The New York Times described her performance as being “beautifully played.”

In the drama Kramer vs. Kramer, Streep was cast opposite Dustin Hoffman as an unhappily married woman who abandons her husband and child. Streep thought that the script portrayed the female character as “too evil” and insisted that it was not representative of real women who faced marriage breakdown and child custody battles. The makers agreed with her, and the script was revised. In preparing for the part, Streep spoke to her own mother about her life as a wife with a career, and frequented the Upper East Side neighborhood in which the film was set, watching the interactions between parents and children. The director Robert Benton allowed Streep to write her own dialogue in two key scenes, despite some objection from Hoffman, who “hated her guts” at first. Hoffman and producer Stanley R. Jaffe later spoke of Streep’s tirelessness, with Hoffman commenting: “She’s extraordinarily hard-working, to the extent that she’s obsessive. I think that she thinks about nothing else, but what she’s doing.” The film was controversial among feminists, but it was a role which film critic Stephen Farber believed displayed Streep’s “own emotional intensity,” writing that she was one of the “rare performers who can imbue the most routine moments with a hint of mystery.”

For the film, Streep won both the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, which she famously left in the ladies’ room after giving her speech. She received awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review and National Society of Film Critics for her collective work in her three film releases of 1979. Both The Deer Hunter and Kramer vs. Kramer were major commercial successes and were consecutive winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture.

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Sweethearts of the Rodeo, 1917

In 1917, the photograph “Sweethearts of the Rodeo” captured three professional cowgirls – Clyde Lindsay, Mildred Douglas, and Ruby Dickey – at the Miles City Round-Up in Montana. Dressed in split skirts, spurs, and boots, they posed with two quirts and an extra hat, likely belonging to the photographer, Ralph R. Doubleday. Mildred Douglas, a prominent figure among them, later became a champion bronc rider, the first woman to ride a steer, and a successful trick rider and sharpshooter.

The Miles City Round-Up, where the photograph was taken, was a significant event in the early days of the rodeo.

Mildred Douglas, who would later be inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, was a pioneer in the world of rodeo. She not only rode a steer, but also performed as a trick rider and sharpshooter with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Show. She also starred in western films with Tom Mix and trained animals for films and circuses. In 1954, at age 59, she became a professional nurse.

Cyndi Lauper Photographed by Rob Verhorst at Pullitzer Hotel in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1980

In November 1980, before her meteoric rise to solo stardom with hits like “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” Cyndi Lauper was in Amsterdam as part of her band, Blue Angel. It was during this period, specifically on November 19, 1980, that she was photographed by Rob Verhorst at the Pulitzer Hotel.

At this time, Blue Angel had released their eponymous debut album, which, despite critical acclaim for Lauper’s distinctive vocals, did not achieve significant commercial success. The photoshoot at the Pulitzer Hotel likely served as promotional material for the band.

While the exact details of the photoshoot itself are not widely publicized, Cyndi Lauper herself has reminisced about her time in Amsterdam in 1980. In an interview, she mentioned releasing a single there and even an incident where she twisted her ankle onstage during a show, requiring her to walk with a cane afterward. She also fondly recalled purchasing unique clothing items, like stretch leopard pants and a reversible coat, which she would incorporate into her stage attire.

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