A slide show of vintage New Yorker ads that evoke the gin-fuelled Gatsby era of “flaming youth” and Prohibition, flapper culture and cabarets: http://nyr.kr/ZLAFeg 

(Source: newyorker.com)

Ourarchive contains plenty of thoughtful, informative writing about Valentine’s Day: there have been several investigations into the origins of the holiday, for example, along with a look inside a valentines factory on Fifth Avenue. But there are lots of fun and wistful Valentine’s Day stories, too. Here’s a look at a few from the 1930s and 1940s: http://nyr.kr/XPGIL7

(Source: newyorker.com)

From canoodling couples to a self-adoring politician to letters received in moments of loneliness, New Yorker covers celebrate love in its many shapes and sizes.

Here’s a slideshow from 1925 to the present: http://nyr.kr/12lQt9n

(Source: newyorker.com)

The “New Dance Group Celebration,” a series of remounted pieces by the members of that early modern-dance collective (1932–1955), was presented at the 92nd Street Y’s Harkness Dance Center, on February 1st, and it was an eye-opener. First, it showed you just how political the art of that period was. The New Dance Group was founded in one of the worst years of the Great Depression. Many members of the N.D.C. were proud Communists—their F.B.I. files swelled annually—and you can certainly tell from their work. Second, this concert of pieces that are rarely, if ever, shown today provided something that is sorely missing from dance history: a context for the dances that survived.

Joan Acocella gets a glimpse of the old sincerity in “The New Dance Group Celebration”: http://nyr.kr/UYz6a8

Photograph, of members of the New Dance Group in ”Improvisation,” in 1932, courtesy of New Dance Group Collection/Library of Congress. 

If you’re anything like me, January 11th isn’t just the day the renowned beer-brewers John Molson and Carl Jacobsen died—it’s also the time when your willpower begins to crumble, like the perfectly baked shortbread you’ve been dreaming of, and your New Year’s resolution to be in the best shape of your life falls by the wayside. It’s probably not surprising that, as a photo researcher, I respond best to visual motivational aids. Assuming that many of you who visit Photo Booth are similarly inspired, I’ve put together a slide show of historical photographs of physical activity to help get us all over the hump and keep our resolutions strong for at least a little longer.

- Jame Pomerantz. Click-through for more: http://nyr.kr/TP2eQs

(Source: newyorker.com)

Happy Holidays! Click-through for a selection of Magnum photographs from the past fifty-seven years of winter holidays and New Year’s celebrations: http://nyr.kr/ZAUOFh

He whittled down wooden blocks to make a whole bunch of pens, matchboxes, postcards. He made speech bubbles with quarter-inch wood, geometric shapes, notebooks, all drawn upon and painted with ink and wax crayons. Then he’d glue them to large sheets of wood, making dioramas of his life…

- Anton von Dalon, speaking about his friend, the artist Saul Steinberg.  Steinberg’s “Union Square, 1973” is featured on the cover of this week’s issue. Click-through for more on the artist, and for a slideshow featuring some of the 87 New Yorker covers he published in his lifetime: http://nyr.kr/QWcgjT

Over the years, The New Yorker has covered a lot of Election Days. Here are a few of our favorite voting scenes from the magazine’s archives: http://nyr.kr/YTwlqP

In “The Lie Factory,” her article for the magazine about the birth of political consulting as a business, Jill Lepore discusses the advertising produced during the election of 1952, the first time ads for a Presidential campaign appeared on television. In the clip above, you can see some of those spots, from Dwight Eisenhower’s team.