Stunning vintage portraits of the world’s diverse cultures — from Brazilian headhunters to Indian snake charmers — from over a century ago.
42 Photos Of People Around The World At The Turn Of The Century View Gallery
Around the time that Frank Carpenter began to make his first trip around the world, less than one percent (.14-.16 of a percent, to be precise) of Americans had traveled overseas. So when Carpenter published his visual dispatches from the far corners of the Earth, he offered more than just photos.
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1 of 43Man peddling vegetables, Japan, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
2 of 43A witch doctor, 1920-1930. Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
3 of 43Kenyan man, 1880-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
4 of 43Indigenous Filipinos hold baby, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
5 of 43Serbian man wearing hat, vest, belted pants, and pointed toed shoes with cane standing outside of building in Yugoslavia, 1880-1924.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
6 of 43Patriarch Harootiun Vehabedian of the Armenian church wearing hood, robe and five medals, 1880-1924.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
7 of 43Nubian woman, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
8 of 43Two Jewish women face each other in Tunisia, 1900-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
9 of 43Dervish man, 1920-1930.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
10 of 43Mexican people with guitars, 1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
11 of 43Chola cook, 1900-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
12 of 43Empress Sunmyeong (1872-1904), the first wife of Emperor Sunjong of Korea (1874-1926), 1890-1904.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
13 of 43East African official for Germany, formerly a sultan, Tanganyika, Africa,1902.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
14 of 43Sudanese woman, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
15 of 43An Aymara Indian, Bolivia, 1900-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
16 of 43Eskimo boy wearing ragged clothing made from flour sacks, Belcher Islands, Northwest Territories, Canada, 1927.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
17 of 43"Fete day costume, ‘Shkypetars,’ men of the eagle, as Albanians are known in their own country …1923.“Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
18 of 43Camels draw water from Egyptian well, 1905.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
19 of 43Anatomy class in Sudan, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
20 of 43Bedouin woman, 1900-1910.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
21 of 43Emir Nawwaf, a desert sheik, 1910-1920.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
22 of 43India – Fakir with monkeys, 1890-2920.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
23 of 43Woman holding a baby on a street in Istanbul, 1915-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
24 of 43Woman in old Greek Costume, 1920Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
25 of 43Two gypsy women standing, Palestine, 1893.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
27 of 43Boy and girl dancing in Scotland, 1900-1925.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
28 of 43Two women posing in Palestine, 1910-1925.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
29 of 43Japanese bedroom with thick quilt used as a bed, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
30 of 43Kling boy in India, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
31 of 43Kling people, Singapore, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
32 of 43Panama–Spraying oil on breeding places of mosquitoes, 1890-1925.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
33 of 43Priest sitting in India, 1890-1900.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
34 of 43Group of Russian peasants, 1875.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
35 of 43Snake charmers in India, 1890-1900.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
36 of 43Druse bride of Mt. Lebanon, Syria, 1910-1925.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
37 of 43Views of Thailand, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
38 of 43Zulu man, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
39 of 43Two women posed, seated, Saigon, South Vietnam, 1890-1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
40 of 43Zulu men near a cauldron, 1920-1930.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
41 of 43Women in Turkish clothing, 1923.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
42 of 43Two Jewish girls on a beach in Tunis, Tunisia, 1860-1890.Frank Carpenter/Library of Congress
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42 Photos Of People Around The World At The Turn Of The Century View Gallery
42 Photos Of People Around The World At The Turn Of The Century View Gallery
42 Photos Of People Around The World At The Turn Of The Century View Gallery
42 Photos Of People Around The World At The Turn Of The Century View Gallery
42 Photos Of People Around The World At The Turn Of The Century
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Indeed, Carpenter introduced millions to the many fabrics of human life. Over the course of his life, Frank Carpenter would travel the world three times, amassing tens of thousands of photos of the cultures and geographies he encountered throughout.
Born in Mansfield, Ohio in 1855, Carpenter commenced his career as a journalist, a profession that paved the way for his travels. By 1888, he had enough assignments with newspaper syndicates and magazines to pay for his first trip around the world. His sole responsibility? Send a letter each week to these periodicals, wherein he described what he saw.
On some of these travels, Carpenter brought his daughter, Frances. She followed in her father’s footsteps and became an author and geographer, and the father-daughter duo — when not globetrotting — would write books together, such as The Clothes We Wear and The Foods We Eat, which detailed cultural variance in otherwise humdrum affairs.
Frank Carpenter’s work — specifically Carpenter’s Geographic Readers — would become the gold standard in the United States for geography textbooks for decades as well as popularize the disciplines of cultural anthropology.
Fittingly enough, it was on his third lap around the world that Carpenter died at age 69. The world-revealing geographer would draw his last breath in Nanking, China.
Above, you’ll find a handful of photos that Carpenter took during his travels, which spanned from 1880 to 1934.
Next, look back on American diversity with these portraits of Ellis Island immigrants. Then, see some stunning portraits of Native Americans at the turn of the 20th century.
