Friday fun: Kitschy, colourful curios from bilwissedition

akg-images is now very pleased to offer over 17,000 images from our friends at bilwissedition, an incredible historical archive based in Germany. It has been an absolute pleasure rummaging through their archive because it is clear just how carefully all the images have been selected, not only for their historical importance but also for their aesthetic qualities.

The choice of images seems never-ending! While looking through the collection I have sourced incredibly useful portraits of historical politicians, writers and scientists alongside fascinating illustrations medical, botanical and zoological. There are some beautiful imaginings of the Greek and Roman myths next to frankly bizarre vintage photographs of cats and dogs posing in human clothes.

I could have pulled out my favourite nine pictures from any and all of those topics – and the photograph of the two cats wearing dressed and playing jump rope with a creepy doll is a sight to be seen  – but it’s Friday afternoon, the sun is shining, and once I happened upon the coloured postcards and photographs of bathing beauties and kitschy couples, I knew I had to share them on the blog. (And yes, there are more like these on our searchable website. And yes, they are available for licensing for cards, postcards, wrapping paper, packaging. The only limit is your imagination.)

Enjoy, and have a lovely weekend.