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Today's Top 5
Night Watch: 1910
Submitted by Dave on Thu, 05/12/2011 - 8:29pm.
Tags:
November 1910. Birmingham, Alabama. "A.D.T. boys (telegraph messengers). 'They all smokes.' " Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Illinois Central
Submitted by KSlark on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 12:18am.
That's the Illinois Central/Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad map on the window, judging by the mainline that stretches from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico and the maze of branch lines in the Mississippi Delta. Birmingham is the far eastern reach of the empire, on the right side of the map.
Smoking is Bad
Submitted by jamesforsyth on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 11:19am.
None of them is around today. That's what smoking can do to you.
Tough hombres
Submitted by beachgirl2 on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 10:39am.
They are not even out of knickers yet! What's the matta with kids today?
Since the e-mail was invented
Submitted by Darnaud on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 9:32am.
It left us out of a job.
Knickers
Submitted by Plymouthfan on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 7:47am.
At what age did one stop wearing knickers and start wearing pants?
[When one stops getting taller. - Dave]
Snap that shutter quick
Submitted by uncle scrooge on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 6:29am.
before we all start coughing.
Young Toughs
Submitted by perpster on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 4:10am.
Was this a casting call for an ADT Burglar Alarm commercial? The boys look to be trying hard for the part!
Is the gent standing at the left edge admiring "modern" art, or a crack in the railroad's window?
[Ha ha. That's a route map. - Dave]
re: Either Phone
Submitted by lesle on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 12:11am.
Nowadays, many of us have multiple email addresses. Even multiple phone numbers. No fundamental difference.
"Either Phone"
Submitted by JohnHoward on Thu, 05/12/2011 - 9:31pm.
Curious. City directories in Indianapolis from the '20s routinely mention "old phone" and "new phone" (for the same business!) with different exchange names and numbers.
Sometimes I have found mentions of "night and Sunday" numbers, "private exchange" numbers, "Bell phone" numbers, and alternate numbers for when "Private Exchange is closed." Businesses commonly listed multiple phone numbers for themselves.
Evidently, in the early days there were several telephone companies servicing the city that either weren't connected or had limited coverage. It must have been pretty confusing for people to keep track of which phone to use for whomever they were calling.
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Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.
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Today's Top 5