Did photographers in the past cover themselves with cloth?

Not only in the past, but also now, large-format photography has always been like this.

Because the large-format image field is large and the brightness on the screen is dark, it is not easy to see in the sun, so the nose and viewfinder will be covered with cloth for framing and focusing.

Use a large format landline.

One more thing, except for paraxial view, all optical viewfinders use ground glass as the light screen, which used to be the case, and it is also the case now.