Sunday, March 4, 2012

Livorno in the Future

Livorno in avvenire, Livorno in the future, 1906 vintage postcard“Livorno in avvenire” (Livorno in the future) as they imagined it in a 1906 postcard.
(Digitized from the collection of Antonio Cantelli)
See also: Four Moors
Search labels: postcard

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh ! what thoughtful commentary, even back then.


please have a good Sunday.

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of some scenes from when I played "Myst"...I like the man on the bicycle like device who appears to be propelling one of the balloons! Haven't quite figured out if the beings in chains are human or sculptures!

Michelle said...

Very interesting. Are those people in chains?

Randy said...

Wow what a great find.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

How fabulous VP! Someone in 1906 had a very lively imagination!

Dina said...

But I'm glad your monorail in the sky did not materialize.

Merisi said...

Back to the future, frighteningly looking like slavery!

VP said...

The guys in chains are not from the future but from the past. They are part of a monument, called the Four Moors, to the Gran Duke Ferdinand I de' Medici. This monument is normally used as a symbol of our city.

Babzy.B said...

i think i prefer the present ;)

cieldequimper said...

This reminds me of a book my father had as a child and which I now have. In 2000, we were supposed to have individual propellers to fly and yes, we also had trains in the air everywhere!!!

This is wonderful!

Lois Evensen said...

How fascinating! My parents were born in 1904 and 1910 so were children of those times. It's amazing how many changes they saw in their lives including some in the image.

joo said...

Fascinating! I love old postcards.

Rob Siemann said...

I really like those Jules-Verne-type of conceptions of the future. Is our present better than this future? Who knows.

Traveling Hawk said...

I don't want to see this future. I like their future as it is now our present. As for the future, why bother?! We are living in a world where others take decisions for us, so nobody would ask us what we prefer.

Luis Gomez said...

Love it VP. What a great postcard.

Cezar and Léia said...

With slaves on the foreground, strange expectation for the future...
God bless you!
Cezar

Unknown said...

According to some humanitarian organizations there are more slaves today than at other time in history so I would not be surprised if the chained people were a premonition instead of a sculpture, as you stated.

VP said...

Cezar - These guys weren't slaves but captured pirates and not really of the Hollywood type. They infested our seas and coasts at the time, raiding our villages and capturing our people for ransom.

Jack said...

Well, VP, you are going to have to wait a little longer.

Halcyon said...

Funny what people thought the future would be like! :)

Stefan Jansson said...

Looks like something in a sci-fi movie.