Accordion phobia or the "anti-squeezebox stance" (Alan Lomax) speaks to "the power struggles between social classes as well as to the makings, politics, and aesthetics of popular music" (The Accordion in the Americas: Klezmer, Polka, Tango, Zydeco, and More).  The caption here reads, "Would you mind moving further along?  There is a sick lady in the house opposite."  From Pearson's, 1911.

Kubelik by Thomas Downey for The Sketch, 1902.

"What of the future?"  From Cranberries: The National Cranberry Magazine, 1946.

From the Technique yearbook of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1895.  (For some unbelievably weird yearbook imagery, see our How to Hoodoo Hack a Yearbook.)

It's been said that the teacher cannot choose the student.  From Jugend, 1911.

Sousa at the Albert Hall, from The Sketch, 1901.

An ornate capital O from The Harvard Lampoon, 1878.  For some surprising meanings of the letter O, see our very own One-Letter Words: A Dictionary.

"Clobber my best hat -- my everything -- & sharp --."  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1886.

"What is wanted is a rapid elevator which should at once precipitate the performer on to the platform," from Pearson's, 1903.

Here's a keyboard-activated bird dispatcher.  From Judy, Or The London Serio-Comic Journal, 1883.

"Playing piano under difficulties."  From Popular Mechanics, 1911.

"Playing a circle of spinning banjos."  From Popular Mechanics, 1911.

"In the caliope's wake."  From Cartoons Magazine, 1919. 

"From the floor he cried in a voice that carried, so strangely vibrant was it with passion, 'Don't you dare play that!'"  From Wayside Stories, 1922.

From Die Bühne, 1925. 

Here's a precursor to the "Gourmet Night" episode of Fawlty Towers, in which hapless Spanish waiter Manuel stalls for time when the duck entrée is extraordinarily late.  From Die Bühne, 1934.

"Den historiske Udstilling i Trondhjem 1897" by Thorolf Holmboe.  Courtesy of the Nasjonalbiblioteket.