What struck me most about the photos was the formality of the clothing. People used to dress nicer. I remember seeing an old Yankee Stadium crowd shot and almost everyone was wearing a tie. It makes for nicer imagery, but I'm not sure I would want to return to that.
(Cheaper fabric and increased automation in clothing factories -- the deployment of sewing machines and then sergers is where the change really got going -- drove down prices; the £2 mass-produced suit in the UK in the 1920s meant that any working man could afford a new suit, so the suit became a working garment and the display of wealth moved on to new fields. And that's why we have ultra-cheap, badly-made clothing, fast-changing fashion, and a casual attitude to what we wear.)
(( A good suit is something special. But you can keep the neckties ... ))
Rich people used to dress nicer. Poor people used to wear dirty worn-out clothes day in and day out.
Today, people dress nicer for important and/or rare pictures (weddings, official portraits, etc) than for point and shoot pictures at the park.