Precursors

Here's a precursor to the "What's in your bag?" trope.  From University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's 1911 yearbook.

Before Eat, Pray, Love, there was Run, Walk, Laugh, Fly.  From The Companion Book for Day In and Day Out by O'Donnell, Scharschug & Carey, 1941.

They tell us the Conga line dance came to the U.S. in the 1930s, but note this from three decades earlier.  From Trilby by George du Maurier, 1894.

Here's a precursor to the Little Free Library, reported in The Children's Newspaper, 1932.

Here's a precursor to the classic "I don't want to be a witch!" illustrations.  From Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by John R. Neill, 1914.

Before the film 9 1/2 Weeks, there was the film of Elinor Glyn's Three Weeks.  From Nebraska Wesleyan University's 1909 yearbook.

Mister Potato Eraserhead Baby?  From the Duluth Evening Herald, 1903.

Before "this could be us, but you playin'," there was "I loves my baseball, but oh you bowlin'."  From the Duluth Evening Herald, 1909.

A precursor to Terry Gilliam's Brazil.  From Starting Points in Language Skills C, 1977.

Here's a precursor to I Dream of Jeannie, from The Children's Newspaper, 1919.

Here's a precursor to fandom's romantic pairings, known as "shipping."  Merriam-Webster traces the phenomenon to an X-Files fan forum in 1996, and before that there were shippings of Kirk and Spock from Star Trek, but of course the phenomenon is as old as time.  Here's one from 1920: "Will Cortes sleep with Columbus?"  From The Children's Newspaper, 1920.

Here's a precursor to Why Paint Cats.  From Lilliput Lyrics by William Brighty Rands and illustrated by Charles Robinson (1899).

Holidays were colliding long before Tim Burton.  Here's a nightmare before Christmas from a century ago, in Youth's Companion, 1925.

The movies were no better in 1916, if it's any consolation.  Here are 4 Hollywood magnates: O. U. Drivel, D. Bigg-Noyes, A. Buncha Junk, and Tommy Rott.  From Life magazine, 1916.

A precursor to the DC Comics atomic physicist character Doctor Manhattan.  (Thanks to Zestyblog and Phranklynfaerun.)  

Here's a precursor to a photo from St. Procopius College's 1964 yearbook.  Depending upon how you rotate the illustration from 60 years earlier, he's an acrobat, taking a nap, feeling bored, or a plague victim.  From Lustige Blätter, 1904.

Before Why Paint Cats? there was Why Paint Turtles?  From Reaching Our Goals by Horn, Goodykoontz & Snedaker and illustrated by Cleveland Woodward, 1940.

Before television screens offered "picture in picture," there was "postcard in postcard."  Via UpNorthMemories.