This picture preserves a moment few cameras ever caught — this Photograph, Taken Over 100 Years Ago In Jerusalem (1920), Shows A Sign In The Background Reading “The Palestine German Bank.” Remarkable Window Into History And The Vibrant Multicultural Presence In The Region During That Era. It was taken in 1920, and like the best archival images it needs almost no explanation — the frame tells its own story.
The 1920s roared with new money and new habits. Radio broadcasting began, cars became affordable for working families, jazz filled dance halls, and hemlines and haircuts shortened in ways that scandalized the older generation. News photography boomed alongside the tabloid press.
Most photography of the period chased celebrities and headlines, which makes surviving images of daily routine all the more precious. This is what the world actually looked like when nobody thought it was worth remembering.
