The Royal casket of King George Tupou V is carried towards the Royal Tombs during the State Funeral held for King George Tupou V at Mala'ekula on March 27, 2012 in Nuku'alofa, Tonga. King George died in Hong Kong on March 18th after six years as the King. (Photo by Sandra Mu/Getty Images)

“William Hope (1863 – 8 March 1933) was a pioneer of so-called “spirit photography” (spirit photography is a type of photography whose primary attempt is to capture images of ghosts and other spiritual entities, especially in ghost hunting). Based in Crewe, England, he was a member of the well known spiritualists group, the Crewe Circle”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Couple with a young female spirit.

With temperatures soaring and summer well underway, countless Americans will be spending their Independence Day weekend at the beach. Here we revisit some classic images from the turn-of-the-century to the 1930's of vacations by the sea, from Coney Island to Santa Monica.

We – Verena Popp-Hackner and Georg Popp - are professional landscape photographers. While we are based in Vienna/Austria, running our own (rights managed) image library and a small but fine photo-gallery. Photographing our tiny country Austria, with all it's culture and nature, canoeing it's rivers or lakes and hiking the Alps is our profession but our photographic “backyard” includes the rest of the planet as well. We use analog large format cameras almost exclusively for our landscape work, shooting on 4x5” sheet film, to provide clients with the maximum of print-sharpness and details and unsurpassed clarity and depth of focus.

With temperatures soaring and summer well underway, countless Americans will be spending their Independence Day weekend at the beach. Here we revisit some classic images from the turn-of-the-century to the 1930's of vacations by the sea, from Coney Island to Santa Monica.

A Penarth dance hall has banned chewing gum on the premises because dancers have complained that their feet keep sticking to the floor. (Photo by Richards/Fox Photos/Getty Images). 16th July 1936

A woman views a painting by American artist George Condo entitled “Jesus” on October 17, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Council staff clean a section of the rarely seen Minton tiled floor of the of the grand St. George's Hall on January 4, 2012 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)