MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
Home

Search Shorpy

SEARCH TIP: Click the tags above a photo to find more of same:
Mandatory field.

Search results -- 30 results per page

D.G.S.: 1935
... This reminds me of the corner neighborhood stores in Baltimore. The blocks of rowhouses were frequently punctuated with such corner ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/31/2011 - 11:28am -

Washington, D.C., circa 1935. "Food supplies, interior of D.G.S. store." One of several District Grocery Stores in the capital; there's a P Street address on the burlap sack. The White Rose brand seems especially well represented on these shelves. 8x10 acetate negative, National Photo Company. View full size. Bug juiceAnybody else have a family history of calling Lea & Perrins "bug juice"? Also, re: sawdust in butcher shops: aid in absorbing fluids you didn't want to think about. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire SauceThat packaging has hardly changed an iota in all these years. Still familiar namesMueller's Aunt Jemima French's Campbell's Domino Kraft Lea & Perrins Wheatena Oxydol Sawdust MemoriesMy father worked in butcher shops when I was young and there was always sawdust on the floor. I guess that made it easier to clean up or something. Junket TabletsMake milk into DAINTY DESSERTS. Resting atop a box of Steero bouillon cubes. How terrific this isto see all of those oldtime products on the grocery shelf! Representative packages or cans of just about all of these items might have been found on my mother's pantry shelves back in 1940. It's especially neat to see that box of Oxydol ("Oxydol's Own Ma Perkins") but where is a box of either Rinso or Super Suds? ("Rinso White, Rinso Bright, Happy Little Washday Song", and "Super Suds, Super Suds, Lots More Suds with Super Suh-uh-uds"). [There is a big box of Chipso here. - Dave] Wire Baskets in this StoreDuring the same decade, in Oklahoma City, an inventor put wheels on some wire baskets and called them shopping carts. Seeman Brothers' Brand Folks in New York and New Jersey will still recognize the White Rose brand. It's the independent label for the Seeman Brothers wholesale grocers, est. 1886. Their website says they still offer 18,000 items in the New York area, dominating the market. It's all based on their unique fermented White Rose Tea. During my childhood in '50s South Florida, displaced New Yorkers flocked to New York style grocers on Miami Beach to get that tea which was as strong as coffee. A detailed history here. Disease and pestilenceLooks like they weren't expecting a visit from the health inspector. White RoseStill around. From their website: Today, White Rose is the largest independent wholesale food distributor in the New York City metropolitan area, which in turn is the largest retail food market in the United States. White Rose Food serves supermarket chains, independent retailers and members of voluntary cooperatives, providing more than 18,000 food and nonfood products to more than 1,800 stores from Maryland to Connecticut. The highest concentration of these customers is in the five boroughs of New York City, Long Island and northern New Jersey. Tea BaggersThe White Rose Food Company is still with us. They're most popular product is White Rose Tea. Based in New Jersey, they claim to be the largest food distributor in the NYC Metro area. The 125 year old company has an interesting story, you can read it on their website, www.whiterose.com/, Hello Jell-OJust noticed Jell-O hiding in there too. Both behind and to the right of the French's Mustard. Our 14th Anniversary Sale!DGS celebrates 14 years at their over 250 stores in the Metropolitan Washington area. Just phone in your order! (Despite the date, I doubt anyone phoned-in a birthday cake order for Der Führer.) More still familiar namesAdd Jell-o to the list One of the original house brandsWhite Rose "house brand" products have been around for more than a century, and the company is still around: http://www.whiterose.com/history.asp Key in the doorI love the fact that the key to the door is tied to the doorknob with a piece of string. Hard to misplace that way. Must have been lost previously so someone "fixed" that. Before there were supermarketsThis photo is representative of one of my favorite subjects: the old-time Ma and Pa stores. In it, you can see the evolution of retailing, product packaging, and brand name history. This reminds me of the corner neighborhood stores in Baltimore. The blocks of rowhouses were frequently punctuated with such corner stores. In my neighborhood, in a two block area, the four corners had a butcher shop, a grocery, a bakery, and a drugstore/soda counter. These existed into the early 1960s. Of course, today's supermarkets are a cleaner, superior shopping experience, but a certain flavor has been lost - can you remember the smell of a real bakery shop? Junket!I haven't thought of Junket in decades. My grandmother made it for my sisters and I all the time when we were below the age of 8, but it came in packets, not tablets. It made something akin to a blancmage, although I don't think you could ever have a Junket win Wimbledon. I believe you can still find it if you're lucky. District Grocery StoresDGS was a buying consortium of small independently owned groceries in the Washington area. They were a bit more expensive than the larger chain stores (A&P, Sanitary - later Safeway, etc). However, you could phone in your grocery order and it would be delivered within a hour or so. More sawdustHere, it might have been used to add flavor and palatability to some grungy looking celery. Re: Sawdust50+ years ago I worked in supermarket meat markets. Sawdust was put on the floor to prevent slipping. It was spread about an inch thick. At the end of the week it was swept up, the floor cleaned as necessary, and new sawdust put down. In general, health regulations today prohibit using sawdust. Celery gone overLooks like the celery has started to rot and the store manager is mad about it! Aunt JemimaWhy would some boxes have Jemima's picture, and not others? Another great mystery. Anyway, this youngster knows what to do with the box. Born in 1927, she has achieved fame and fortune as my Aunt Libby. Taken over-at-the-house-on-the-hill in Hamlin, West Virginia. [The box in your adorable pic is a jumbo size container of pancake flour. The one in our photo holds 24 small boxes, each with Aunt J's picture on it. - Dave] Wire baskets on wheels?Shopping carts? In Oklahoma today they are called buggies. HodgepodgeIt's interesting the mix of products on the shelves; no grouping of veggies in one area and soups in another and sauces in yet another. Were prices for the items placed in those holders along the edge of the shelves? Here's the Junket, but Where's the Beef?Junket was (and still is) a common way to use slightly curdled milk to make custards; and it's also used by cheesemakers. My mother used it whenever the milk was just about to go bad. Growing up in the Great Depression, anything that could be done to salvage food items was considered priceless. As for Steero bouillon cubes (later Herb-Ox?), they were used for flavoring soups and stews whenever actual meat was scarce/unavailable. Also, the broth was considered an early form of "comfort food". During WWII, my father and uncles received jars of Bovril, the U.K. equivalent of Steero in their Red Cross packages. It got traded amongst the men, almost as much as cigarettes and coffee. (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Stores & Markets)
PGH: 1905
... CSX predecessor roads include Chesapeake & Ohio and Baltimore & Ohio, so perhaps the still-extant station building belonged to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/15/2012 - 4:15pm -

1905. "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Mount Washington." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Mon Incline, Smithfield St Bridge, P&LE to either sideWe're probably on the Monongahela Incline, looking at the Smithfield St Bridge with the P&LE Station to the immediate left. Some of the buildings on the far river bank, to the left of the bridge, are still standing, and we've seen them in other Shorpy photos. On the right of the bridge you can see a sign for "Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad" I think that may be the old B&O station. On the right on the near bank, those are 'team tracks' for the P&LE, where local freight would be loaded onto wagons by teamsters (hence the name 'team track'). There's a flat car with what looks like marble or granite spotted by the stiff leg derrick on the far right, and closer to the river there's a wagon being loaded from what I'm pretty sure is a 'beer car', an insulated car like a reefer that does not have ice hatches. The barrels in the wagon would reinforce that view :-) To the left of that car, note the C&O car on the adjoining track with a noticeable dip. That car needs to have its truss rods tightened. Fill 'er Up!Looks like water being pumped into the open-top structure in the rail yard. I guess it got some natural fill from Mother Nature whenever it rained. Hellwith its hat off. PGH 2011Here is a very recent night view from a different location on Mount Washington. This one is for Train Lovers.The four-lane road to the left, crossing the Monongahela River, is Smithfield Street. The lovely masonry arches are still there by Google Earth Streetview (the lower tier anyway). Also still there is the 12 story building on the far side of the river, to the right of Smithfield. It looks like there were two railway passenger stations, one on either side of the river. The building in the lower left, with the two-level roadway access is still there too. The sign out front calls it "The Landmark Building" with address "One Station Square". The station across the river is gone, as are the tracks on that side. There are still two tracks parallel the river on the near side which probably belong to the CSX Railway (At least there are current pictures of CSX trains on these tracks.) CSX predecessor roads include Chesapeake & Ohio and Baltimore & Ohio, so perhaps the still-extant station building belonged to one of those. I really get a kick out of pictures of old towns, and old railway infrastructure. There seems to be many more pictures of locomotives, some trains, but few views of yards, stations, etc. Asthmatics BewareClicking on the "view full size" button might cause you to need your inhaler! Also still standing.. The courthouse!Also still standing is the magnificent Allegheny County Courthouse, designed in 1883 by Henry Hobson Richardson, built between 1884-1888. It's the humungous stone building near the top of the image, just to the right of the center. I've never seen it standing so proud; the march of progress has surrounded it with taller buildings that make its presence less profound. I'm sure there's significance to the fact that it has no smokestack billowing puffy steam/smoke. Off-site heating? Government holiday? Thermal inertia? StunningSo many landmarks to pick out. This is one I'll come back to over and over. I can almost see my office building from there, but it's just a tad too far away. ContrastThe railway cars and those tracks look like a very elaborate train set and across the river, the smog and smoke in the air serves to hide most of the visible city. Based on the plumes of smoke the wind during the shot seems to have been from this side of the river. Maybe the photographer waited for just the right moment. Steam.Quite a few buildings have a plume of white steam coming from a funnel-shaped exhaust, often located on the chimney stack, where the coal-fired smoke would exit. Is this an early form of pollution control? If it is, the air quality is still pretty grim. Or maybe it would have been even worse without the steam treatment. Since steam heat was common at this time the vents could just be excess steam escaping from the heating system. But it seems unusual to have such a vent arrangement like that. Did Pittsburgh have a central steam plant that delivered steam to buildings downtown? That might be the answer. [What is the coal heating? Boilers. Which are the source of the vapor. - Dave] Pittsburgh TodayIt's such a clean, beautiful city. What a change. Los Angeles, 2019 A.D.Heads down when those flying police cars buzz just overhead. Ahead of its timeIn the foreground and to the right of the flatcar load of stone is a rarity for 1905. The P&LE coal car is steel, rather than wood. Steel cars of any type were just starting to appear on the nation's railroads at this time. The extra deep bottom side sill on that car was totally unnecessary, however the earliest steel cars were built that way because some railroads initially didn't trust the steel and so overbuilt. The small freight yard in the foreground is an excellent example of a "team track." Customers were notified by the railroad their load had arrived (or empty car spotted for loading) and the customer would send a crew with wagon down to work the car, as seen being done here. Team tracks allowed businesses without their own rail siding to use a railroad's service, and allowed firms with limited capacity rail sidings or desire to use other carriers to move their freight. Most towns, even small ones, had at least a team track. Big cities had a number of team yards like this one. Pittsburgh Steam ExplainedThe boilers placed in these buildings usually served a variety of applications at once. Each application may have required different steam pressures and/or temperatures. So a boiler would be configured to generate steam for the biggest load. To serve a smaller thermal demand, steam would be branched off the main distribution line and the throughput would be “stepped down” by simply venting the excess steam, which is what you see here. Thermally wasteful? Sure. But fuel was cheap then. [On a more basic level: The large buildings here would have used boilers (mostly coal-fired) for steam heat and hot water. Hence the many vapor clouds in skyline photos from the era. - Dave] Sentimental JourneyThe night before Amtrak took over rail passenger service I took the last westbound B&O Capitol Limited to Pittsburgh, repeating a trip I'd taken more than a dozen times as a kid. As they had for decades, the B&O used this station which the P&LE kept in immaculate condition. I remember walking up the grand staircase with the shining brass handrails, and out that door to the bridge. It looked the same, with streetcars still running on the right side. There was even a steamboat -- a dinner boat -- tied up where the two are in this photo. As I walked over the bridge to get a better look, they cast off and chugged up the river. I truly felt I'd stepped into a time warp. PGH railroad cars Once again the old axiom is true: Every old railroad train picture has to have at least one Northern Pacific freight car in it! Wagon GaugeThe wagons traveling across the bridge are yet another rarely seen example of wagons having the same wheel gauge or width as railroads, or in this case, streetcars, 56½ inches or Standard Gauge. In close quarters like these, one set of wheels would eventually fall into the inside wheel flange groove while the other set of wheels rode just outside the rail. Certainly easy enough to pull to the side to get out, but usually one just "rode the rail". In cobble stone streets wagons commonly "rode the rails" as it was a smoother ride, while not literally on the rails, but just to one side. This width or gauge began with the Roman chariots fitting behind two horses and became standard down through the years. The beginning of railroads used horse drawn wagons or carts on wooden plank with the same gauge as the wagons previously. Early automobiles such as the model T also used the same width to run in the wagon ruts made before it. The wheel width is still in use as standard gauge. Sharpies!The radius curves there in the lower right in the yard are pretty tight. A few even has guard rails to aid the cars and locos around them. I wonder why kind of engine serviced this facility? 0-6-0? Probably nothing with a pilot wheel set unless they were very nimble. Green spaceA neatly manicured green space can be seen by the heating plant on the right side of the bridge; flower beds included. No doubt that was mowed with a "push" mower powered by muscle. Look at the golf green pattern; nice job. This was a common site on railway properties large and small. These were probably sacrificed due to cost cutting: pity. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Keypunch Orchestra: 1937
June 1937. "Baltimore, Maryland. For every Social Security account number issued an ... for banks to sort cash. (Technology, The Gallery, Baltimore, Harris + Ewing, The Office) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/23/2013 - 8:57pm -

June 1937. "Baltimore, Maryland. For every Social Security account number issued an 'employee master card' is made in the Social Security board records office. Testifying data, given on the application blank form SS-5, is transferred to this master card in the form of upended quadrangular holes, punched by key punch machines, which have a keyboard like a typewriter. Each key struck by an operator causes a hole to be punched in the card. The position of a hole determines the letter or number other machines will reproduce from the master card. From this master card is made an actuarial card, to be used later for statistical purposes. The master card also is used in other machines which sort them numerically, according to account numbers, alphabetically according to the name code, translate the holes into numbers and letters, and print the data on individual ledger sheets, indexes, registry of accounts and other uses. The photograph above shows records office workers punching master cards on key punch machines." Whew. Longest caption ever? Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Re: I dropped my first tray of cardsIn playing cards, it would have been called a "52 pick-up"; in Hollerith cards, it might have been a 5200 pick-up, or worse. They used to make a metal rod for carrying the cards, so they would stay neatly in order. It looked like a short spear, or a very large knitting needle. I am not at liberty to say how I know this, but I've heard through the grapevine that occasionally college students would use the rods for medieval sword fights. Again, that is just a rumor I heard; nothing I can personally confirm. The day I punched a key punch machineAs a damp-eared U.S. Army second lieutenant in the early 1960s, I was assigned to supervise some reservists during their two-week summer deployment to the Erie Ordnance Depot near Camp Perry, Ohio. We were a supply unit there to train on the Army's sizeable bank of IBM keypunch machines and all went reasonably well for a few days, with thousands of cards churned out to record the whereabouts and quantities of tons of military equipment. It was clear the Cold War would tilt in our direction because there was no way, I was sure, the Russkies had such technology on their side. About five days in, a soldier whose machine wasn't punching keys correctly called me over to help him. I knew zero about these things (hardly the first time the army put someone in charge of something he/she barely could recognize) but it was clear to me that if I pushed hard on these jammed keys here and maybe that bunch there, they'd pop in place and our nation would remain safe. The army had to fly an IBM wonk (he'd be an IT guy today, of course) in from New York to fix everything. The days I kicked a key punch machineOn the old IBM 029 card punch, my unjamming technique was to KICK the right side of the machine, HARD. Seldom required a second kick. The Candler BuildingAfter assisting in the field-measuring of every floor of the Candler building in the late 80's or early 90's, its octagonal columns and other memorable attributes are hard to forget! The building started out life as a Coca-Cola bottling facility. The individual column facets are not as uniform in shape as one might imagine. SortsYou do card sorts by running the cards into one of ten bins based on the last number. Then stack up all the cards from successive bins and run them through again into bins based on the second-last number. After running them through that way on all the digits, they're in order on all the digits. The chief hazard is card destruction by the machinery. In 1960 the keypunchers were all women but the boss was a woman too. Gradually the self-service keypunch area grew and the keypunch service shrank, as programmers learned to type faster than the turn-around on the provided service. Today programmers are all speed-typists. IT Guy From NYYep, that's me. I started in "computers" back in 1969, and they STILL had keypunch machines (albeit a newer, updated model from the one in this photo)at that time. Ladies known as "keypunch girls", later changed to "data entry clerks" were still the norm in '69. Not only was data created, but guys like me had to learn how to use the machine to create the cards that were read in to the computer to run the programs to process the data. Big grey tray cabinets (similar to the old card indexes in public libraries - anyone remember those?) held hundreds of trays with data. PC's were still a long way off. I worked for the Lincoln Savings Bank in Brooklyn until 1972, when I got married, and left for a better job with more money. I am still in the IT field, just turned 65, and work for Barnes & Noble, the booksellers. Haven't seen a keypunch machine in a long time, Everything now is server driven. Great Photo! Brings back a lot of good memories, especially for us "wonks". OH BTW - they call us "geeks" nowadays. For a good reasonThere is no backspace key on a keypunch. I dropped my first tray of cardsOn the tab room floor around 1968 The Sorter Ate My ProgramI was an operator/programmer during my tour in the Marine Corps. I used to HATE it when one of the pieces of equipment mangled some of my program cards, but the worst offender was the antique (even then) IBM 1401. Three units - CPU, Printer and card reader - each the size of a Volkswagen and giving a blistering 4 megbytes of memory. It was our fiscal computer and usually a lot of Marines leaving the service liked to "tinker" with the system, usually by inserting a card which instructed the machine to disregard any and all programs after a certain date (usually a month after said Marine had left the service). This photo brought back a LOT of memories. Early IBM SystemsThe IBM 701 was known as the Defense Calculator and it was announced to the public on April 29, 1952. It was also considered a Scientific Computer. The IBM 1401 was announced to the public on October 5, 1959. The IBM 1620 Model I was also introduced in 1959 and it was the first computer I learned about and used in 1962. ConfettiAs a young'un growing up in the 1970s, I spent MANY hours with stacks of punch cards my father brought home. We cut them up to make confetti. The rows of numbers made it easy to cut straight lines lengthwise, then cut a second set at a 90 degree angle. The holes made it fun, akin to driving over cobblestone as the scissors went from card to hole to card multiple times in a single cut. 1401 RestoredHere is a 1401 that has been restored to working condition; I was able to have helped out a tiny bit (no pun intended - well, okay maybe it was) with this project a few years ago. I have stood on that raised floor and listened to the glorious noise the machine makes when running a procedure that called for a lot of the machine resources at once - all the blowers and vacuum pumps and fans and motors; the smell of warm electronics and computer tape; the chatter of the printer; my my my! SO many memories!Yeah, my first IT job was about '69 as well. We were still hard-wiring unit record machines for reports and paycheck printing! rhardin has the sorter described perfectly. Of course, there were tricks to the job, when you had thousands of cards to sort. Among them was NOT placing the follower weight on top of a stack as you added them to the input hopper. That way, the machine ran continuously, until the output bins were filling up. Problem came when you got distracted and let the input hopper run down to (almost) empty. The bottom card would often buckle, tossing the last dozen or so above it into the air, and usually damaging the card. That's when JohnBraungart's title came in! DaveB 66 and still geeking IBM 1401s JohnBraungart: I started an IT career way back when as well, and remember the 1401 as well. I suspect you mean 4K of storage (we never called it RAM); the 1401 maxed out at 16K. It was a good machine in its way, and you certainly did learn a lot operating it. After that I was "promoted" to our 7080, and then to our two 360/40 systems. After that we went modern with the 370 series, and I fell in love with VM; ended my IT stint with the same company and retired after 35 years in IT. 701!The 701 was the predecessor to the 1401 (the first one I worked on). It was the last IBM tubed mainframe. They programmed one to control the traffic lights on Queens Boulevard in NYC. This was a first and they kept in service until the mid 90s! I did my thesis on a Univac 1600, a 20 K machine. The key punch machines never punched true. As StatPak took 18K and there needed to have room for the input data, the operators would swap out the operating system. We knew we had a bad card when the printer would start printing out paper with zeros by the box full. By the way, they still call the program that starts a mainframe the start up deck, even though punch cards have not been used in decades. Type 31 and expensive confettiSince nobody else mentioned it, those are Type 31 Alphabetical Duplicating keypunch machines. They were at the forefront of keypunch technology at the time, having a very typewriter-like keyboard with a separate number pad, a real numeric '1' key, and automatic card eject and feed. JS: You were making pretty expensive confetti! Circa 1975, used punch cards sold for around $110-$125 per ton. They were very high quality paper and the recyclers liked them a lot, and they also liked green bar paper. It took about 180 boxes of punched cards (2000 cards/box) to make a ton. We financed several Physics Department parties from recycled cards and green bar paper (which I think was around $75-$90/ton, but I'm not real sure of that one). FlashbacksOh my -- the infamous 1401... I still had to use one of these in the late '70s when attending Nassau CC at Mitchell Field (in the basement of a former barracks, no less) -- when computer sciences was still known as "Electronic Data Processing" -- oy. They jammed constantly and the only reprieve was getting past the first programming class where we were then "privileged" to have a pool of operators key in our programs for us (anyone ever punch out an entire program in Assembler on one of these?!?!) -- woe betide the hapless victim who mis-coded their punch sheets and got their deck back with all the "O"s as zeroes & vice versa. Rumor at the time (when some utility bills were still on these Hollerith cards) was that if you soaked them in a mixture of diluted bleach & alum they would shrink the holes just enough to pass thru a sorter unread. Me tooI'm another USMC vet who started off with the old keypunch machine in 1967. Someone once pointed out to me that the unique thing about punch cards was that they are the only medium that can be read by both a machine and the human eye. [Were, anyway, in the days before OCR. - tterrace] Punch cards: binary for the massesYes, those IBM cards where coded in binary, but the translation was printed on the top. One side benefit of punch cards was the chad (what was punched out to make the holes) was as a random number generator of sorts. Put a bit of moisture on your finger tip, stick it in the chad bucket and out would come a nice selection of random numbers stuck to your finger. Useful for the lottery, office pools, etc. With early IBM computers (like the 1401, et al) where there was no macro to control input/output you could issue the "start read/feed" to the card reader and see how may instructions you could run before you had to issue a "read" - i.e. before the card actually hit the read head. Thank Herman HollerithThose "IBM cards" are properly "Hollerith cards", after the inventor of the punched card system. He came up with it for the 1890 census. An operator would lower a thing with lots of pins which looked like a meat tenderizer onto the card, which had been punched with holes detailing the characteristics of a person (age, race, etc). Where a pin went through a hole and hit a contact, an electric current would advance a clock dial by one. As a result, the 1890 census was tabulated in only a year, compared to eight years for the 1880 census. The size of the card was no accident - it is the size of the dollar bill at the time. Hollerith picked it because then the cards could be sorted into racks designed for banks to sort cash. (Technology, The Gallery, Baltimore, Harris + Ewing, The Office)
Big Muddy: 1920
... says? ["Washington D.C. -- 'On Time All the Time' -- Baltimore Md." - Dave] If you don't like the way I drive... ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/06/2012 - 1:55pm -

1920. "Duplex truck, Culpeper trip." Nat'l Photo glass negative. View full size. BannerCan anybody make out what the banner in the bed of the truck says? ["Washington D.C. -- 'On Time All the Time' -- Baltimore Md." - Dave] If you don't like the way I drive...Then get out and walk! Wait right there, ladiesIs he testing the road first and then going back for the girls? Stick-in-the-muds"Yeah, right, we'll go with you and get stuck in the mud" ... is what I can picture the smart young ladies in the background saying. What the heck!Does anyone know what those two rectangular panel-like things are which are strapped to the front axle and are dragging in the mud? I know a few things about vehicles of this period but I have never seen anything like it. [Where I come from we called them "license plates." - Dave] So they are!At full size view I was not detecting that they had numbers on them; in your attached blowup I am willing to own that they are license plates indeed - even where I come from! Can't get away with hanging my plates underneath on my front axel axle in Virginia today (I despise having to mount front plates on my 1930 Model A 5-window coupe!) Pavement good!As I was navigating my way over icy pavement this morning, I was cursing it and thinking that back before roads were paved, it was a lot easier to walk on it during the frigid winter months. But this photo has reminded me that pavement is a very good thing indeed! To A or not to ANo A ever had a radiator shell like that, and there is no way that truck is 4 wheel drive. Take a look at the front axle... Duplex is the brand, but maybe they were responsible for the 4wd conversions for As. If the date is correct, the picture predates the A by about 8 years too! [On the radiator it says "The Duplex Limited." Below, a 1922 ad. - Dave] Duplex Model AThis appears to be a Duplex Model A - powered by a 4 cylinder engine generating an impressive 25.6 horsepower (hold on tight!) If you have a heavy hauling problem and do not already know the Duplex 4-Wheel-Drive, talk to the Duplex dealer and let him give you the facts at first hand. The Duplex Truck Company is the Originator of the 4-Wheel Drive principle and today its most successful exponent. There is pull and power in every wheel — and the Duplex 4-Wheel drive keeps going under conditions that are simply impossible for any rear wheel drive trucks. The Duplex 4-Wheel drive is setting new records of truck efficiency for lumber and Logging Company; Road Builders; Oil Companies; Coal Companies Mining Companies; Grocery Companies; Trucking Contractors—in fact in all lines where there are heavy loads to be hauled. The point is the Duplex 4-Wheel Drive is daily proving to a very economical truck for hundreds of owners who used to say it was too big for their needs. A couple of Google Book links: 1922 Official Handbook of Automobiles (page forward to see other models) Motor West (1920 advertisement) Duplex banner mysteryCan you turn the truck by 90 degrees please Dave? I think I see a banner with "DUPLEX" in in the middle of it. [There's a photo of the banner in the third comment from the bottom. - Dave] (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Natl Photo)
High Bridge: 1907
... at BridgeHunter: [ Link 1 ], [ Link 2 ]. Baltimore Sun, April 24, 1877. An Excursion on the Cincinnati Southern ... in telescopic form. The cost is $404,000, the builders the Baltimore Bridge Company. The work was begun October 16 and ended February 20. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 6:17pm -

High Bridge, Kentucky, circa 1907. "High Bridge and Kentucky River." At right is a section of the stairway seen here yesterday. 8x10 glass negative. View full size. Those houses along the banksOr rather, cabins. I wonder who lived there and what they lived on. Those patches look way too small to be more than supplemental sustenance. And between the bank and the foot of the escarpment it looks like every time there is high water it would be a wash-out. Thanks, I'll take the high ground and the long way around. Still around?Is this bridge still there? I tried googling it but I'm getting a bunch of other bridges instead. [Yes.] General observationI'm glad Buster Keaton didn't see this photo. For sale cheap4 houses with river view, dry almost 8 months per year, bring rubber boots and a canoe, also included a large supply of logs donated by high water for that new barn. Nice View Of The RiverDo you think those houses ever got flooded out??!! Yes Vinny,It's still there. Courtesy Bing 3D. And another thing: I just can't get over the beauty of this photo! Maybe I'm crazyI realize we can't see the whole communtity, however, what a strange place to build houses. You have to get off the train and climb down those long flights of stairs, then when the river floods you have to run back up the stairs. Also, you have the critters near the water like mosquitos, snakes, rodents and belligerent loggers. A wonderful railroad site but I'd still be on that first train out of town. [The stairs were for the use of visitors to the park and resort at the top of the cliff, not access to the riverside houses.] Kinda Still ThereTo answer Vinny's question further: "A" bridge is still there, but not "the" bridge in the 1907 photo. The structure has been rebuilt; the stone towers are gone and the framework and supports are far heavier than before. If you move around in the Bing Bird's eye view that rvdroz provided in the stairs photo, you can see the differences. It was doubled-deckedYears ago on a steam train excursion that crossed High Bridge, I was told by a docent that High Bridge was widened to accommodate two tracks. He told me that that rail traffic used a temporary upper deck while the lower deck was under reconstruction! I've wondered if I misunderstood. If it is true, I wish I could see pictures of that! Whipple TrussBuilt in 128 days! The stone towers were originally intended for Roebling's never-completed suspension bridge. The towers were taken down in 1929 to allow for double tracks. More photos and info at BridgeHunter: [Link 1], [Link 2]. Baltimore Sun, April 24, 1877. An Excursion on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. Testing the Great Bridge. On Friday last a delegation of Cincinnatians, representing largely the wealth and business interests of the city, made a tour of inspection of the Cincinnati Southern Railway to the Kentucky river. The road was found to be in excellent condition. The track is heavily ballasted with broken stone to the depth of fifteen inches, the ties are laid close, and the splendid steel rails, of which the whole line is to be laid, are well put down. … The bridge was subjected to the severest tests possible, which it stood admirably, the deflection of the spans, with a weight upon them of 1,082,000 pounds, ranging from three inches down to three-quarters of an inch. This bridge is believed to be the highest railroad bridge in the world, standing as it does 275 feet above the river. Its trestles, 87 feet high, rest upon iron piers 175 feet in height, which in turn stand upon huge stone abutments 66 feet and high and 130 by 17 feet. The three spans are 375 feet each in length, though the middle section really reaches past the pier a considerable distance on each side, receiving the other sections in telescopic form. The cost is $404,000, the builders the Baltimore Bridge Company. The work was begun October 16 and ended February 20. The bridge is known as the Whipple truss double intersection girder, or continuous cantilivers. The whole structure is wrought iron. … Stand By MeIs this the bridge Vern dropped his comb off? This OneThis one goes in the wallpaper file for sure. Thanks Dave! About Those HousesI did a little traveling via Google maps and discovered an Old Saw Mill Road above those cliffs. Could they have been used for work crew temporary housing when there was a load of logs to be wrangled? For those who wish to return to the days of yore just check the distance you would have had to travel on a sleety February night to get to the privy. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
Where's My Remote: 1938
July 1938. "Garages in alley behind row houses. Baltimore, Maryland." Which one is ours again? Medium format nitrate negative ... city these particular garages are, but here's another Baltimore example. I heard through a neighborhood oral history project ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/20/2013 - 9:34pm -

July 1938. "Garages in alley behind row houses. Baltimore, Maryland." Which one is ours again? Medium format nitrate negative by John Vachon. View full size. Thought this was RussiaWhen I first saw this photo I thought it was set in Russia, where I saw many of these garageplexes in every city I visited back in the Soviet days. When you lived in a Stalin-era apartment highrise, you had to have some place to put your car, not so much for parking, but for working on it, because keeping a car running was a challenge back then. [Not to mention getting one. - Dave] X marks the spotX marks the spot. Marble StepsAround front, one set for each garage door. Malvina Reynoldswrote "Little Boxes"; Seeger (and others) only sang it. She wrote a whole lot of songs, actually; worth looking up on YouTube. Overhead is BetterHaving endured such a garage (and such garage doors) during a blustery winter in Ft. Leavenworth, I can state unequivocally that getting your car out on a windy morning requires either three people or one driver and two cinder blocks. The aroma!Those old fashioned wooden garages had SUCH a delicious aroma! A blend of old motor oil, dry, unpainted wood, and who knows what else. Strong, pungent aroma. And you have to look far and wide to find one like this any more. VERY narrow rowhouses?If the garages are lined up behind the row houses at one garage per, the residences must be very narrow. Re: Old Garage AromaWe had a garage similar to this when we lived in Brooklyn in the 50's. I know exactly what Jazznocracy means by the aroma. I often accompanied my Dad on the two block walk to the rented garage to retrieve the '39 DeSoto or the '50 Plymouth when we upgraded. Oddly, one of my better memories of that garage was the "lock protector" that Dad crafted from a piece of an old tire to keep the rain out. Thanks, 'jwp'Hate to come home on a Saturday night and enter this alley from the wrong end. 'The seventh garage on the right side' could turn into a real adventure! Eau de 10W40That aroma dear to car nuts may have been due to the habit of draining the oil directly onto the garage's dirt floor, where it soaked in (harmlessly, as was thought back then) and perfumed the air for an eon or two. Most of the hazmat that has to be remediated when military facilities are turned over for civilian purposes, for example, can be chalked up to motor fuels/lubricants' and used dry-cleaning fluids' being disposed of by dumping -- a common practice for decades and cetainly not restricted to the military. In fact, coastal cities in California (and presumably elsewhere) often have stencilled on curbs above storm drains the legend "No dumping/Drain discharges to ocean." Traffic JamImagine the fun of backing out of one of these garages when several of your neighbors, next to and across from you, were doing the same. Old garage aroma solved.When I built a new garage several years ago, it had the smell of adhesives and curing cement. Ugh. I found an old garage that was about to be demolished not far from my house with a very heavily built 30 foot workbench. At least 50 years old, with paint stains, oil, and who knows what else on it. After liberating it from it's doomed home, my neighbor and I split in half, and now we each have that great smell without the wait. ListenA variation on a certain Pete Seeger song comes to mind. Garage vs. house widthThe garages are probably not directly behind individual houses. I don't know where in the city these particular garages are, but here's another Baltimore example. I heard through a neighborhood oral history project that back when cars were relatively rare, you weren't allowed to leave them on the street! Had to go in a garage at night. There are some in the alley behind our block, but definitely not one per house (we don't have one). ooo-ooo that smell!As a realtor, I still occasionally get to experience the aroma of old garages here in Tulsa. And it's not just confined to garages. Old homes have their own unique scents as well. Sometimes, too, an old, vacant home can tell you stories if you just observe. For example, I showed one home close to downtown and behind a bedroom door were these different ruler marks notating a child's height as he progressed through life. The years were jotted down - 1930s to 1940s. Old structures will speak to you if you let them. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Cars, Trucks, Buses, John Vachon)
The New Willard: 1908
... into the city early due to reported assassination plans in Baltimore. Henry Willard borrowed a pair of slippers for Lincoln, who stayed ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/20/2022 - 2:48pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1908. "The New Willard, Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street N.W." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. The Willard presents its own historyPart of the Willard InterContinental Washington D. C. Hotel's website is a history of the hotel, from 1818 to present. I learned that, after years of declining revenue, the Willard closed in 1968 and stayed closed until 1986, when it reopened following renovation, spearheaded by two developers. The oculus windows in the original not-too-fussy ballroom support the ballroom was on the top floor, right under the roof. Today the ballroom has a more regal look and is most likely on a lower floor. This is the best original floorplan I could find. It appears each room had its own bath. In April 1907 the Ninth Annual Convention of the Architectural League of America was held at the new Willard Hotel. I'm pretty sure their banquet was held in the same room as the color photo on the left in the concierge brochure. That was an impressive banquet table. Click to embiggen Famous/Infamous HotelsWhenever I see or hear of the Blackhawk Hotel in Davenport, Iowa (Quad Cities), I am reminded that Cary Grant died there in 1986. Whenever I pass the Buckminster Hotel in Kenmore Square in Boston, I am reminded that the plot to throw the 1919 World Series was hatched there. When I walk past the Park Central Hotel on 7th Avenue in New York City, I always think, "This is where Fatty Arbuckle died and gangster Arnold Rothstein was murdered." Now, whenever I see or hear of the very stately Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, I will remind myself that this is where the "War Room" for the January 6, 2021 Insurrection was located. Lincoln sneaked into the old WillardAbraham Lincoln arrived unexpectedly at the original Willards' hotel early on on February 23, 1861, having sneaked into the city early due to reported assassination plans in Baltimore. Henry Willard borrowed a pair of slippers for Lincoln, who stayed until his inauguration. Lincoln knew Williards' from his single Congressional term: in 1849 he attended a meeting there to plan Zachary Taylor's inaugural ball. Right hand driveFrom what I can see, today's, as well as yesterday's photo, show all of the vehicles with right hand drive. 1909 was the first year automakers switched to left, so I'd say your date estimates are spot on! [As we noted in a comment you made a year ago, early American automobiles were a mix of right- and left-hand-drive vehicles. (Below, an 1896 Duryea.) The change to all-LHD was gradual and took decades (Ford introduced left-side steering with the 1908 Model T; Pierce-Arrow was still making RHD cars in the 1920s). - Dave] Still MajesticStill there and in a city of impressive buildings it holds its own I think. Gen. Grant at the WillardWhen U. S. Grant came to D.C. to meet the president and receive his Lieutenant General commission, he showed up at the (old) Willard with his son (Fred, I believe). He was an unprepossessing man to say the least, tended not to adorn himself with the trappings of high rank, and was dressed modestly in a travel worn Army uniform. The clerk, not recognizing him, told him they could only squeeze him in to a very small room. Grant, without complaint, signed the registration book "U. S. Grant & son, Galena, Illinois." When the clerk saw that, he immediately secured a much finer room. It's said that Grant never felt any resentment at the slight. Top of The WillardTop floor of the Willard Hotel during restoration in the 1980's. RenovationI worked on that renovation in 1985. They gutted the interior down to the exterior walls. You could see the original constuction materials and methods. The lobby floor and arched ceiling was done in tiny ornate tiles layed by tilesetters imported from Italy (or so I was told). Amazing to behold. Seaboard Air Line RRI grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and was always curious about the name. Shorpy has stirred me to action and a moment with Google provided the answer. An air line was the shortest distance between two points and implied that the RR was shorter than its competitors. Rooftop walkerWhen I first saw this photo, I thought the woman in white was walking on the roof of the Multi-copy Typewriting Company. But then I looked again. (The Gallery, D.C., DPC, Streetcars)
John Slebzak: 1909
John Slebzak, working on the Bottomley farm near Baltimore with his family (Polish). They have worked here three years and one ... Slebzak b. 17 Feb 1898 d. Sep 1971 Halethorpe, Baltimore, MD [Shorpy is impressed! Thanks, Emo. - Dave] dot com ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/26/2011 - 3:22pm -

John Slebzak, working on the Bottomley farm near Baltimore with his family (Polish). They have worked here three years and one winter at Avery Island, Louisiana. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. SSDI ResultsJohn Slebzak b. 17 Feb 1898 d. Sep 1971 Halethorpe, Baltimore, MD [Shorpy is impressed! Thanks, Emo. - Dave] dot comI'm going to go register slebzak.com and give shorpy.com some competition! See you on the internets! John Slebzak: 1909This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. I just talked to one of John's sons. He didn't know about the photo. There are three Hine photos of the Slebzak family on the Library of Congress website. I will be interviewing the son in a couple of weeks. John Slebzak: Berry Picker, 1909This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. I have completed my story on this little berry picker. See it at http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/john-slebzak-page-one/ (The Gallery, Baltimore, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Pop Art: 1938
July 1938. "Rear of grocery store in Baltimore." Only hinting at the delights that await within. Medium format ... The bewitching scent enlivened many a trip from Odenton to Baltimore for me. As an adolescent, some ten years later, my first sip of ... Dave says - they are all so DELIGHTFUL! (The Gallery, Baltimore, John Vachon, Stores & Markets) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/19/2013 - 4:52pm -

July 1938. "Rear of grocery store in Baltimore." Only hinting at the delights that await within. Medium format nitrate negative by John Vachon. View full size. Location, Location, LocationEven the advertising posters are second class -- 7up & Model tobacco. The better areas had Coca-Cola and HRH Prince Albert in his can. Dental snuff?The upper right corner proclaims "Dental Snuff." Dental snuff? It turns out that Dental Snuff was created by a dentist. In addition to being therapeutic, it had extremely hot models in its advertising cards. All those signsThe American Pickers would have a field day here! Puff your troubles awaywith Dill's Best. And the cannabis bunch thought they invented Nirvana. Things You Learn Reading Old Fences1. Snuff can alleviate dental ills. 2. Phillip Morris cigs not only taste great (Lucy and Desi puff 'em constantly) but are, first and foremost, safe. 3. Many and varied were the off-brand soft drinks available in the Midwest in the late '30s. Re: Gingerly DistilledLiving briefly in Ann Arundel County, MD in 1950, I had many occasions to enjoy the aroma of cooking mash from the Lord Calvert distillery. The bewitching scent enlivened many a trip from Odenton to Baltimore for me. As an adolescent, some ten years later, my first sip of whiskey was a monumental disappointment, for it tasted nothing like the delicious smell emanating from the distillery had suggested it should. Time TravelHave a small collection of vintage signs myself. The Morton Salts signs got my attention so decided to snap pic of the one we have in the kitchen above the cabinets. It's in really nice shape for its age. Gingerly distilledLord Calvert became for a time one of Seagram's premium brands, first distilled at the plant south of town in Relay. Heavily marketed up into the 1960s, it now is sold ignominiously off the bottom shelf. What's Good For You !Ah yes, salt, soda, snuff and tobacco. All the things the doctors say we should avoid; but as Dave says - they are all so DELIGHTFUL! (The Gallery, Baltimore, John Vachon, Stores & Markets)
Richwood Depot: 1942
September 1942. Richwood, West Virginia. "Baltimore & Ohio train will take 300 men and women recruited by the U.S. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/02/2023 - 4:49pm -

September 1942. Richwood, West Virginia. "Baltimore & Ohio train will take 300 men and women recruited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in day coaches to harvest crops in New York State." Photo by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Extra Room on Top or in the TenderWith a single coach assigned to this train, (even with rotating seats and scratchy upholstery seen in a related photo) for comfort, let's hope additional trains were assigned to move 300 people! [Why would you think there's only one coach? - Dave] (The Gallery, John Collier, Railroads)
Johns Hopkins: 1903
Baltimore circa 1903. "Johns Hopkins University from Washington Monument." 8x10 ... was the sprawling port, tall buildings and the infamous Baltimore Street, to the North was the newly built Memorial Stadium home of the ... in 1928, occupies that space now. (The Gallery, Baltimore, DPC, Education, Schools) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/19/2012 - 12:57pm -

Baltimore circa 1903. "Johns Hopkins University from Washington Monument." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Think I can see my house.So awesome to see my neighborhood that long ago. Thanks to ShorpyEvery time I see a photo of roof tops I look for a broom. Don't do it!Man on the edge of the roof, thee story townhouse, right side of photo. Today's View View Larger Map The picture would have been taken from the window high up the monument facing east towards Johns Hopkins. Do a 180 on the Google view and you can see Monument Street as it goes towards the hospital. The Washington Monument was a favorite destination when we felt like a bike ride. The main attraction was a great view of our town and the cost was right (free). We would run up the spiral staircase and take in the wonders of the town. To the South was the sprawling port, tall buildings and the infamous Baltimore Street, to the North was the newly built Memorial Stadium home of the Orioles and Colts, to the Northeast was our home turf along Belair Road, to the Northwest was Pimlico Race track. Not the Johns Hopkins of todayThis downtown campus was a temporary home from the start. Legal and financial problems kept Johns Hopkins in this crowded neighborhood for over 30 years. But around the time this picture was taken, previously secret plans were revealed to move a couple of miles north to what is now known as the Homewood campus. The relocation wasn't complete until 1924. I may be more than a tad conservativewhen it comes to architecture. But when I see photos like that I wonder why we let architects, builders, clients, planners, authorities and regulators to lose all artistry, skill and craftmanship. Especially (but not limited to) when it is about every-day urban architecture. It's a west view from the Washington MonumentThe camera is looking west toward W. Monument Street. W. Mount Vernon Place is in the foreground. Cathedral Street runs north and south just beyond that. Many of the buildings are still there, but the partially ivy-covered mansion at the southwest corner of W. Monument and Cathedral is gone. Peabody Court Hotel, originally built as luxury apartments in 1928, occupies that space now. (The Gallery, Baltimore, DPC, Education, Schools)
Appleton Here We Come: 1962
... been a business trip made by Kermy and Janet's father from Baltimore. 35mm Kodachrome slide. View full size. A long-vanished ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/14/2013 - 5:10pm -

October 1962. "Wisconsin plane trip." En route to Appleton, it's Mad Men with choreography. This would seem to have been a business trip made by Kermy and Janet's father from Baltimore. 35mm Kodachrome slide. View full size. A long-vanished airlineNorth Central Airlines is now three generations into the past. It became Republic Airlines after a merger with Southern Airways in 1979, Northwest Airlines acquired Republic in 1986, and Northwest became part of Delta Air Lines in 2008. It's possible that there may be a few pre-1979 North Central employees still working for Delta, most likely flight attendants as they often stick around for decades. The aircraft appears to be a Convair 340, one of the last of the pre-jet airliners. Douglas DC-3First operationally flown in 1935, the Douglas DC-3 became a real workhorse of commercial airlines and of the U.S. Air Force as as the C-47. Some are still being flown today, mainly by smaller third world airlines. A few of the earliest DC-3s are still flying about 75 years after they were manufactured. North Central Airlines was founded as Wisconsin Central Airlines in 1944. The name was changed to North Central in 1952 and headquarters moved to Minneapolis. North Central flew as many as 32 DC-3s during its existence. The airline ceased operations in 1979. DC-3 StairsMy dad loved DC-3s and had one-- it might have been the C-47 version-- in the late 1960s. One day he tripped or caught his foot or something while coming down those little steps and broke his arm when he hit the tarmac. The doctor asked him how he had injured himself, and my dad, a man of few words even when he wasn't in pain, replied he had fallen out of an airplane. The doctor said, "Well, I don't know how high the plane was, but you got off pretty easy!" DC-3/C-47The DC-3/C-47 is my favorite airplane; I built countless model variants as a kid. The North Central livery is particularly nice. More detail here. MemoriesI can remember DC-3s flying over our small-town house to the local airport when I was a kid in the early 1960s. They seemed really huge to me at the time. Whiskey CentralI well recall my father's jokes and asides regarding North Central Airlines -- or Whiskey Central, as he and not a few others preferred to call it in the early days. We lived in Eau Claire, Wis., home of Presto Industries and 25 below zero temperatures. As a traveling salesman for Presto, dad would occasionally ride Whiskey Central to some distant city on business. Be it the dead of winter, he never failed to carry a hip flask filled with Early Times, which he affectionately referred to as "my infallible portable heater." He further noted, as I recall, that the stewardesses were all males, and very likely descended from hardy Viking stock accustomed to Icelandic weather. Atop their uniforms they wore fur-lined coats adorned with turned-up mink collars. I also vividly remember standing beside my mother on the tarmac and waving back at my father as he paused halfway up the airplane ramp. And then remaining rooted to the spot until the speck in the sky disappeared from sight. Jim PageGreat story; your dad sounds like my dad. Few words were too many. N25651Click to enlarge. Photos by Kermy's dad of the plane in the main photo above. AmazingThe old Gooney Bird is still in use to this day. What a great aircraft! [The only thing still in use is the number N25651. It's assigned to a 21-year-old hot-air balloon. Our DC-3 was deregistered in 1990. - Dave] Oh, I really thought there were some still in use.... you mean none flying worldwide? It'll get you there -- eventuallyI flew North Central in the summers in the early 70s. Convair 340s from Washington National (home) to my aunt and uncle's in Grand Rapids. As I was only about 10 at the time and traveling alone, my parents booked me on North Central as there were no plane changes. It did, however, stop at Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Lansing along the way. Please tell methis plane had a lavatory. A very old DC-3In fact not a DC-3 as such but a DST (Douglas Sleeper Transport) the original version built long before WW II with 16 sleeping berths for night flights, convertible to 24 seats for day use. It had Wright Cyclone engines not the more familiar Pratts. N25651 had a long career. It was impressed into the army as a C-49 and postwar served not just North Central but also Galaxy, Holiday Hunters, Shorter and finally Bahamasair. It was last reported derelict at St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. PBA/Naples AirlinesIce Gang's comment is cool; living in Naples back in the 60s and being at the airport with my pilot dad all the time, I'd see those PBA/Naples Airlines planes a lot. At some point prior to those days, Provincetown/Boston Airlines had absorbed the old Naples Airlines, unless I remember it wrong-- which isn't impossible! I remember hearing that old Naples Airport was the site of the first U.S. airplane hijacking; a fellow hijacked a plane there to fly him to Cuba. Now, I'll leave it up the the brilliant folks here on Shorpy.com to let me know if that little tidbit is correct or not. I think it's really a DC-3I'm pretty sure it's not a DST. The DST's boarding door was on the right. It had auxiliary windows above the regular ones so the upper berth didn't feel too closed in, and Dave's picture of the full exterior doesn't show those. Route of the Blue Goose"Route of the blue goose" was the tag, like "Wings of man" for Eastern, in the ads. All dressed up-And somewhere to go. I wonder at what point travelers began dressing down for flights; it used to be an occasion and people dressed accordingly. I remember flying on the west coast's PSA in those days and always wearing a suit and tie, even as a teenager. We flew to from home in San Diego to Hollywood-Burbank and back for under $20 and still had money left for shopping trips to Desmond's and Silverwood's, nice Los angeles area clothing stores. DC-3 hoursMany years back I flew from Tampa to Naples Florida on PBA airline, I was the only passenger and the pilot told me this DC-3 had the most hours of any DC-3, 84,876 hours, the plane is being restored in Washington and is still flying with over 91,400 hours (10 1/2 years in the air) Canadian Pacific Airlines had a flying Canada goose as it's logo, only it was flying to the right. Dressing upI can only guess that the "dress code" for flying went away in the mid to late 60's (at least on the west coast). My first plane trip was in 1970, from Sacramento to L.A. on PSA, and I don't recall donning anything more than what I'd have worn on any given day (I was 17, so somewhat attuned to these things). But maybe I was just a slob. Eight Years LaterI have a North Central flight schedule dated January 1, 1970, with 22 tiny print pages of flights. They really covered the Upper Midwest. About that Dress CodeI don't think that they're dressed up just because they are flying. It appears to be a business trip, so the gentlemen are dressed just as they would if they were going to the office. This is still common practice for some companies today - if you're traveling for the company, you follow the dress code that's in place. But general office dress codes are less strict in many businesses now. I flew in and out of Appleton on DC-3sYup---I flew from Appleton on a DC-3 to Chicago via Milwaukee when I went into the Navy in 1960. I would come home on leave to Appleton by air and through Chicago via Milwaukee--I'd arrive in a DC-3. Sometimes as few as two passengers would be on board from Milwaukee to Appleton. It was a bouncy ride from Chicago. History will show the DC-3s on North Central Air were tough birds--one collided with a small private plane between Chicago and Milwaukee---and carried the other craft all the way to safe landing in Milwaukee---the small plane imbedded in the DC-3s port bow. I am not sure the DC-3 views shown on Shorpy's are at the present airport location west of town or the one I remember on the north east side off Ballard road. Dressed to FlyWe flew often during the 60s and 70s and I remember my mom making sure we all wore Sunday best - all five of us kids. In fact when packing our bags, the question was always posed to us - "What are you wearing on the plane?" It wasn't until the 80s that it was about dressing for comfort and then of course it morphed into dressing for airport security checks. The connection between dress and self-respect as well as respect for the occasion has deteriorated quickly since the baby-boomer generation. Soon we'll all be wearing shorts and flip-flops to the office just like many do at church these days. 1975 versionHere's a picture of the DC-3 from 1975: http://www.airlinefan.com/airline-photos/6642431/Shorter-Airlines/Dougla... Never heard of "Shorter Airlines" but the picture says it was taken in Miami. http://www.michaelprophet.com/imagesSanJuan1985_1989/55.jpg This might be the same plane, it matches the paint scheme from the 1975 picture, but the registration number is covered by the bushes. Sad it see it in that shape. (Aviation, Kermy Kodachromes)
Dreamland in Color: 1905
... the pavilion on the right that dramatizes the "Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. Forget Six Flags, I wanna go here! Another ... I find the exhibits on "Fighting Flames" and "The Great Baltimore Fire" somewhat prophetic. Spectacular Anyone who thinks ... 
 
Posted by Avzam - 03/17/2012 - 7:07pm -

New York circa 1905. "Dreamland Park, Coney Island" (original image). It's hard to believe it all burned to the ground. This was one heck of a coloring job but I was intrigued to see Dreamland as it might have been. If only we could visit this amazing place. View full size. Comments"Where other colorization jobs often appear unnatural and garish " - well, thanks. Maybe you'd like to give it a go? However - well done Avzam. It is really a good piece of work, and at least you're getting comments. Colorizations never seem to warrant them no matter how much work has been put into them or how good they are (and I'm talking here not of mine, but some other very talented colorizers whose work is on here). [This might be a good time to point out the link to the Colorized Photos gallery down the left-hand column that some may be overlooking. - tterrace] Nice WorkDespite my mixed feelings about artificially colorized images you have done an excellent job with this photo. DetailsI don't think you missed one! Most excellent job! I ConcurSome colorization's come out feeling too ... something. I don't know what it is. Yours looks natural and balanced. Just wowNice job! Superb, Avzam!Exceptional work. Whadaya mean?Looking at that, I feel like I am there now. Beautiful RestorationExcellent! Even the little boy about to go swimming. Neat, neat neat! Absolutely GorgeousI love this so much, I could practically marry it. This is gorgeous. The saturation and balance is right on target. It looks "correct," if you know what I mean; I can look at this photo and believe it. That's a tough target to hit, but you've done it. Excellent attention to detail. Everwhere I look I see variation. This isn't a photo that was colorized; this is a photo that was restored. I expect this took freakin' forever to do. NiceI am not a big fan of colorization of old photos, but as someone else mentioned already, this feels natural and "real." Nice job. Fantastic!I didn't realize Eastman was experimenting with Kodachrome this early. The B&W original is very interesting, but this colorized version actually makes me a little sad I couldn't have gone there. Truly excellent work, Avzam. ImpressiveWonderful job, well done. Thankyou Wow!I have been visiting Shorpy for years but never as a registered user. This photo impressed me so much I felt compelled to register just to leave this comment! Like others who have commented I'm not really a fan of colorization, but your photo is absolutely spot on. Where other colorization jobs often appear unnatural and garish yours seems almost perfectly balanced. The fact that it is a Coney Island photo (one of my favourite subjects) is simply icing on the cake. I can't wait to see your other photo projects. Simply excellent. Off-the-chart effort. I hopeOff-the-chart effort. I hope all the praise the community is giving you brings cheer. =) Really an exquisite jobReally an exquisite job. I can't imagine how you did it; it must have taken hours. But the result is stunningly realistic. I'd love to see you take on some of the glorious street scenes on Shorpy. Natural-looking color adds so much life. Only your set dresser knows for sureChecking my daily Shorpy newsletter via my cell, l scooted this image around on the screen checking out details before seeing the note that it HAD been colorized. Honest to goodness, I had no idea. Didn't even cross my mind I wasn't looking at a color photo. I'm glad I didn't notice the title or caption first; it was the best "Wow" moment I've had for quite a while. Thank you. Very Nice Job!With the colorization, more of the details are noticeable. For example, the pavilion on the right that dramatizes the "Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. Forget Six Flags, I wanna go here!Another excellent colorization of an old amusement park. I can almost feel the spray from the Shoot-The-Chute as I speak. With all the over-dressed [by our modern standards, anyway] folks in the photo, it's nice to see one person--the little kid on the beach at lower right--is bucking the trend and going his own way. "Dang it, it's summertime and I'm gonna be comfortable!" And, given the park's demise by fire several years later, I find the exhibits on "Fighting Flames" and "The Great Baltimore Fire" somewhat prophetic. SpectacularAnyone who thinks colorization is always a bad thing for historic photographs needs to go to Avzam's web site (http://paintedback.blogspot.com/). Scroll down to the one with the Greyhound bus and the Royal Crown Cola sign for a real treat. AmazedI am amazed at the color detail of this picture. How in the world does one begin to colorize a photo like this? Do you look at old colorized postcards to get a sense of which colors to use or just jump in and use whatever seems right? There are some really great colorized photos here on Shorpy. Thanks to all the contributors. (ShorpyBlog, Colorized Photos)
Hamburgs 10 Cents: 1940
... best as I can make out are L-R Pepsi-Cola, American Beer (Baltimore), Free State Supreme Beer, Ballantine Ale, Gunther's Beer, Arrow Beer (from Baltimore), Budweiser, National Bohemian pale beer, American Nut Brown Ale, ?, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/27/2019 - 7:29am -

June 1940. "Diner along U.S. Highway No. 1 near Berwyn, Maryland." Acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Get off my lawnI'd have to be mightily hungry for a hamburg -- and there be nowhere else to get one for miles around -- before I'd ask anything of the haughty missy behind the counter. Just saying. Kewpie dollI’ll leave the beer and soda bottles to someone else. What caught my attention was the gal behind the counter. Purity Body FlavorThat's a billboard for Ballantine Ale there on the right. Looks like a swell place to grab a quick lunch! Times changeHard to believe there once was a time you could stop at a burger stand and get a beer with your hamburg - in full public view, no less. The bottlesThe bottles on the counter as best as I can make out are L-R Pepsi-Cola, American Beer (Baltimore), Free State Supreme Beer, Ballantine Ale, Gunther's Beer, Arrow Beer (from Baltimore), Budweiser, National Bohemian pale beer, American Nut Brown Ale, ?, Pepsi again That's all I got (completed with Dave's help). She's nice, but --That's a honey behind the counter, but what really caught my eye was the old trolley being recycled as a diner. Look over the doll's shoulder, and you can see the clerestory ceiling of the former streetcar. Dames are swell, but a fellow's got to have his priorities in order. Booster seatsI like the wooden blocks under the stools to bring the seats up to the counter height! Stealth slotThere's a Mills 'Vest Pocket' slot machine front and center on the counter. These were tiny machines with a flap over the payout chute and another flap to cover the tiny reels on top. With just a coin slide in front it was just a metal cube that looked very innocuous, yet it was a fully automatic 3-reel gambling device. I'm surprised to see that in 1940 Maryland. U-Needa Cigarette VendorThe cigarette machine is a 1930s U-Needa Vendor. http://vintage-restorations.net/index.php/component/virtuemart/uneeda-ci... Curious when we stopped calling them "hamburgs". Mustard and pickles only please.I think I'll take one of those hamburgs with a bottle of Pepsi. My dad the beer snob would like to know if you have any IPAs. He'll take a hot dog, no ketchup. (We're from Chicago. Order a hot dog with ketchup there, and you'll get the hairy eyeball from everybody.) And all those signsare lettered by hand, amazing. June in MarylandIt looks hot. You wouldn't catch me sitting out in the midday sun. Even with a bottle of old school beer. Hamburgs Still ExistThere is a drive-in locally that has been around since the 1930s. Their sign is a bit newer, I believe, but not by a whole lot. Mystery MealI suppose we'll never learn what's included in the 25¢ Platter. The Whole SignPurity Body Flavor. Drink Ballantine Ale and Beer. "Hamburg Steaks" Have a Storied PastGoing back to Marco Polo and Genghis Khan's grandson. You can read all about it on Wikipedia. RegionalismsI recall that in the area around Rochester, New York, in the mid-'50s, what most of the world calls the hamburger was known as a hamburg, though my brief residence in Maryland earlier in that decade brings no similar memory, this photo's evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. I can also recall from several road trips from Rochester to Ohio that in the little stretch of littoral Pennsylvania in between, signs for a typical stainless steel eatery would spell it "dinor." Hungry or haughty?I'm smitten by the delightful waitress with the bee-stung lips. How Ms. Pennifer can declare her to be haughty when compared to the snarls and pointed disinterest of many waitstaff today is a mystery. Can I have a Hamburg and whatever brew is the coldest, sweetheart? Impossibly CheapAccording to the Interwebs, 5 cents in 1940 is worth 91 cents now. I don't know anywhere I can get a hot dog for that much. Even Costco's cost $1.50. I can however, buy a hamburger at McDonalds for $1 so.. go figure. Looks like she's waiting for someoneWho could it be, the mailman or John Garfield? (The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, Jack Delano)
Mayo Man: 1926
... while conducting a delicatessen stand in Lexington Market, Baltimore, Simon Gelfand prepared Mayonnaise from a special recipe for the ... sunlight surrounded by a well kept lawn in the suburbs of Baltimore. Automatic machinery draws the olive oil as it arrives in tank cars, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/08/2019 - 2:31am -

Washington, D.C., circa 1926. "Semmes Motor Co. -- Gelfand's truck." There is of course dignity in all work. But still, I'm glad I don't have to tell people that "I drive the mayonnaise wagon." National Photo glass negative. View full size. "Say cheese"And doesn't he look pleased about having his photo taken? Servicing the Mayonnaise TruckWhen it was time for a valve job, would they take it to the Mayo Clinic? UnmodernizedNot sure if I would want that title either, but this was in the day when grocery stores would get individual deliveries, opposed to what we have today where one truck pulls up and has everything on it. Mama always said"You gotta watch out for the mayonnaise man." I Drive the Mayonnaise WagonYou wouldn't have to tell them anything, David. The things you do to keep body and soul together are none of their business. Gelfand's Mayo Washington Post, Oct 16, 1925 The Home of Gelfand's Quality Products Fifteen years ago while conducting a delicatessen stand in Lexington Market, Baltimore, Simon Gelfand prepared Mayonnaise from a special recipe for the customers who patronized his store. The product sprang into instant popularity. Today Gelfand's Mayonnaise is made in a modern factory, flooded on all sides with sunlight surrounded by a well kept lawn in the suburbs of Baltimore. Automatic machinery draws the olive oil as it arrives in tank cars, mixes the product, fills, caps and labels the glass jar containers. To insure the utmost cleanliness and healthful conditions, employees of the factory are required to undergo medical examinations at stated intervals, each employee is furnished with a clean uniform daily, and shower, baths and recreation rooms are provided. Distributing branches for Gelfand's products are located in points as far west as Los Angeles, as far north as Boston and Detroit, and as far south as Tampa, Fla. Harry Carpel, with headquarters in Washington, conducts branches in Philadelphia, Boston and Pittsburgh. Mr. Carpel has been associated with Mr. Gelfand since the founding of the business. Mr. Gelfand is now preparing for a trip to the coast where he is going to make arrangements for the establishment of a branch factory, to take care of the rapidly growing business out there. A branch is necessary because of the inconvenience of shipping in carload lots from Baltimore. Harry L. Carpel Obit Washington Post, Jul 18, 1956 Harry L. Carpel, Food Merchant Harry L. Carpel, pioneer Washington food distributor, who continued in business and public life though stricken blind six years ago, died yesterday. He was 60. Mr. Carpel who often put in 14 or 16 hours a day traveled frequently to Chicago, Florida and Georgia to conduct his business. In 1917, he was one of the first to distribute package cheese and mayonnaise, which was made in Baltimore. In 1938 he started marketing the Carpel brand of frozen foods. Mr. Carpel fought a diabetic condition for 20 years before his eyesight began to dim. He became totally blind in 1949. He said that the loss of his sight only sharpened his memory. He became well known for his charitable acts. He loaned money to many small grocery men to get them started in the business. He was a sponsor of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Brandeis University and Haifa Institute of Technion in Israel. In March, 1954, he was honored at a testimonial dinner by friends of Bar Ilan, a university in Tel Aviv. The university presented him with a scroll symbolizing the dedication of the Harry Carpel Building of Chemistry. [It's still there!] After losing his fight against blindness, Mr. Carpel sold the controlling interest in his business and began to move toward a forced retirement. But within a few weeks he went back to work for the new owners and in September, 1953, he repurchased his controlling interest and went back to work as owner and chief executive. Mr. Carpel explained it saying, he had too much time on his hands. He said he learned it didn't pay to quit. He is survived by his wife, Anna; two sons, Albert J. of Chevy Chase, and Jack of Washington; two brothers, Samuel L. and Joseph M. Carpel, both of Washington; two sisters, Rose Geller of Washington and Sophia Gumenick, of Richmond, and five grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at the Beth Sholom Congregation, 8th and Shepherd sts. nw., Thursday at 1 p.m. Burial will be at Beth Sholom Cemetery. The family asks that flowers be omitted. The truckGraham Brothers. Submarine sandwichRemember when Harry Carpel drove the truck into the Potomac? It was Washington's first Sinko de Mayo. I Hate MayoEver since the day (I was about 9) that I swallowed (but not for long) a HUGE tablespoon of what I THOUGHT was Marshmallow Creme, just the thought mayonnaise is ghastly enough to make me profoundly ill. It's taking effect just by writing this. The picture of this truck takes it to a whole new level. If I taped a picture of the Mayonnaise Wagon to the fridge, I could cut down my food costs by roughly 100%. Mr. Carpel was also honored... with an underground passage between the Harry Carpel Building of Chemistry and another campus laboratory. Surely you've heard of the Carpel Tunnel. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Natl Photo)
Crowded Commute: 1943
April 1943. "Baltimore, Maryland. Students and workers returning home on a trolley at 5 ... On the positive side -- given that a few years later, Baltimore would close its public swimming pools rather than racially integrate ... have overlooked that. - tterrace] (The Gallery, Baltimore, Marjory Collins, Streetcars) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/30/2013 - 1:29pm -

April 1943. "Baltimore, Maryland. Students and workers returning home on a trolley at 5 p.m." Please leave by rear door! Medium format nitrate negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size. Win Some, Lose SomeOn the positive side -- given that a few years later, Baltimore would close its public swimming pools rather than racially integrate them -- several African-American passengers seem to be sitting near the front of the bus. On the negative, the smoker in the first row is taking a few seconds off each of his fellow passengers' lives, with apparent impunity. Cigarettes on buses?Is the man in the lower left corner smoking a cigarette, or does he simply have an unlit cigarette in his mouth? I want to say smoking was not allowed on the bus, but say it was -- where would you ash (or put out) your cigarette on such a crowded bus? [On the floor. - tterrace] Strap HangersYup, that's where the term comes from to describe people at meetings and other functions that are "just there for the ride"! The NerveYou would have thought back in the day that those gentlemen would have offered their seats to those ladies having to stand in the aisle of the trolley compartment. Those Men Were Not Raised By My MomOne of the first rules of etiquette my Mom taught me was to always offer a lady a seat on a public conveyance. It didn't matter how tired or hard worked you were no lady was allowed to stand while any of her children were sitting down. Bus or streetcarSurely this was a streetcar, not a bus? I'm an English viewer but like to think I know the difference! [As noted in the caption, it's a trolley, but some other commenters have overlooked that. - tterrace] (The Gallery, Baltimore, Marjory Collins, Streetcars)
Transit Grill: 1943
April 1943. Baltimore, Maryland. "Baltimore Transit bus with trolleys of 1917 vintage. Many old cars have been ... size. Locals locate From a discussion board of Baltimore locals: "The photographer is standing in the middle of Eastern Avenue ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/12/2017 - 11:12pm -

April 1943. Baltimore, Maryland. "Baltimore Transit bus with trolleys of 1917 vintage. Many old cars have been reconditioned because of wartime transportation pressure." Photo by Marjory Collins, Office of War Information. View full size. Locals locateFrom a discussion board of Baltimore locals: "The photographer is standing in the middle of Eastern Avenue looking north up Grundy. The business on the left would later become the White Coffee Pot and the buildings out of the frame on the right would be torn down for Goldenberg’s. The two unit streetcar is the 26 about to turn left on its way to Sparrows Point, and the bus is on the #10 loop, although displaying the Paterson Park route scroll." Buffalo LunchThe Google finds plenty of references TO a "Buffalo Lunch", but not a definition of WHAT it is. Hopefully somebody in ShorpyLand can provide a definition? [Older references seem to indicate it meant cafeteria or buffet-style service. -tterrace] Thanks, one of those rabbit-holes Shorpy often presents that I dive into and can't find an answer. -HP (The Gallery, Baltimore, Eateries & Bars, Streetcars)
Five Sisters: 1850
... 1880 census shows a Ladonia Hoy (born c. 1828) living in Baltimore. There is a portrait of Joanette in the LOC archive that was taken in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/01/2008 - 7:29pm -

The Clark sisters circa 1850. Half-plate daguerreotype. Note on stationery of the Arts Club of Washington, in handwriting of Frances Benjamin Johnston, identifies sitters (l-r): "Aunt Harriet Allen, Aunt Ladonia Hoy, Grandma Joanette C-B, Aunt Julia Millard, Aunt Laura." (Harriet Elizabeth Clark Allen, 1818-1863; Ladonia Charlotte Clark Hoy, b. 1827; Joanette Clark Benjamin, c. 1814-1880; Juliaette Alcesta Clark, b. 1820; Laura Miles Clark Palmer, b. 1822.) View full size. String-ThingsThey're ripcords for those corsets. Stand back! InterestingYou can definitely see the family resemblance. AmazingI wish I could write up the thoughtful comment that this photo deserves, but right now all I can muster up is: "wow". Because... wow! LanyardsThey look like sterling silver needle cases. My great-great-grandmother had one, with the lanyard. Needle CasesI agree, probably needle cases. I'm also guessing this is a rather well-to-do family, judging by the amazing garments and jewelry. No smilesThey sure don't look happy- but people never do in old photos. Makes me wonder if they were always frowning back then. What are those things?Three of the sisters (center and to the right) have some kind of string or wire loop around their necks or attached to their dresses. That loop holds a small metal cylinder or ??? Any ideas? Four sisters and one mother?Four are called aunts in the caption, but the one in the middle is "grandma" and probably mother to the other four. She does look older than the rest. [You might want to do the math on those birth dates. Joanette is the grandmother of Frances (Fanny) Johnston, who wrote the caption. The others are Fanny's great-aunts. They are all sisters. - Dave] Lanyards IIOr it could be a vial of smelling salts. Where from?Any idea where this family is from? The stationery is from Washington -- are they as well? I was just trying to figure out what their fortunes might have been during the Civil War. Speculation, of course, but I'm a fan of that, as many others here seem to be as well. [Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952, below, who captioned this photo) was a well-known photographer with a studio in Washington. The 1880 census shows a Ladonia Hoy (born c. 1828) living in Baltimore. There is a portrait of Joanette in the LOC archive that was taken in New York. - Dave] ThankfulOne of the many things that makes me thankful that I live in this day and age is that corsets are strictly optional! I wouldn't be smiling, either, if I had to spend my days bound up in one of those things. Those dresses don't look as though they were made for comfort, either. Grandma Joanette looks like she's wearing a set of quarterback's shoulder pads! To each her own. Go Grandma JoanetteThanks Dave. Northerners then. And that's quite the picture of Grandma Joanette. Interesting contrast with her demeanor in the sister pic. When was this second one taken? (Sorry for all the questions--just too interesting, I guess!) ImmortalizedThis photo is one of the portraits that most fascinate me. The pose so arranged, the textures of the dress (gorgeous!) The facial expressions of these women (now, dead), the gradations of gray, the wear suffered by the image and, of course, the desire to immortalize, explicit at each of the looks. (The Gallery, Portraits)
Toasty Nuts: 1905
1905. "A chestnut vender -- Baltimore, Md." 5x7 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. ... the Mediterranean area. Italian? Greek? (The Gallery, Baltimore, DPC) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/01/2021 - 1:38pm -

1905. "A chestnut vender -- Baltimore, Md." 5x7 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. A small roast (after the BIG one)The (re)building activity in the background is presumably repairing the damage from the Fire the year before. XDRunning to the comments to see the jokes ... Minstrel showThe upper left banner may be from the show 'Evalyne' by Paul Dresser. "May Contain Nuts" I've been waiting years for this to actually happen. Plan BIf he runs short on chestnuts, he can warm his hands underneath those prodigious mutton chops. Vendor's originGoing by his appearance and attire I'd assume this chap migrated from the Mediterranean area. Italian? Greek? (The Gallery, Baltimore, DPC)
Flash Mob: 1943
April 1943. "Baltimore, Maryland. Third shift workers waiting on a street corner to be ... the two Parks Drugs in the mid-1950s. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Bicycles, Marjory Collins, Stores & Markets) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/16/2014 - 12:03pm -

April 1943. "Baltimore, Maryland. Third shift workers waiting on a street corner to be picked up by car pools around midnight." Last seen at the lunch counter. Photo by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size. Car poolsSo we were wrong about the streetcars. Drugs and Liquorand cut rate, it doesn't get any better than that. "Frankly my dearI'm waiting for my carpool." Clark Gable still looking dapper, even with dirty dungarees, and his lunch pail. TrendsetterThat sure looks like Clark Gable in a hoodie. Handsome fellow! ClarkI never realized that Clark Gable did third shift work. Early doo-wopDrugs, liquor, and some early doo-wop on the street under the light on the street corner. Those were the days! It Happened One NightMost of the folks are waiting for the car pool, but Clark Gable is taking the bus. Is That The Profile I see?Is that Lionel Barrymore I see in the far background facing the crowd showing his famous profile? [It was his brother John who was "The Great Profile." Who'd have been happy to stumble across this liquor store. -tterrace] [Ha! You are right of course. I hope I didn't embarrass the Barrymore family (especially Drew)- baxado] Isadore Jack Parks, 90, owner of two drugstoresFrom a 1998 obit: Isadore Jack Parks, who had owned two drugstores and worked in advertising, died of cancer Wednesday at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 90 and a longtime Pikesville resident. Mr. Parks managed drugstores for the Read Drug and Chemical Co. from 1931 to 1944. In 1944, he opened a drugstore next to the famed Nate's & Leon's, a delicatessen at North and Linden avenues, and another pharmacy on Pennsylvania Avenue. He sold the two Parks Drugs in the mid-1950s. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Bicycles, Marjory Collins, Stores & Markets)
Islesworth Gardens: 1906
... out why Darrow used the B&O railroad for his game? The Baltimore and Ohio never served Atlantic City; only the Shore Fast, Reading, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2012 - 12:32pm -

Continuing our trip to Atlantic City circa 1906. "Islesworth Gardens Hotel, Virginia Avenue." 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Just for a momentI thought the woman in the streetcar was texting a friend. Then I woke up! Great shot!I think the Trump Taj Mahal casino is there now. All GoneI'm about an hour's drive from Atlantic City, though not being a gambler, I don't go there often. With the advent of the casinos, locales such as this, evidently at the Boardwalk, are completely gone. I'll have to make a trip there with a camera and some of these old pictures to see the differences. Thanks for all the great pictures. The Streetcar!At first I was confused with the streetcar having its pole up in the wrong direction for a double track line but then I noticed that there is a crossover (a pair of switches in the street) allowing the car to "turn back" or "short turn" without having to go to the end of the route. The pole has been turned but the seats are still facing the wrong direction. The faded lettering on the sign on the roof also suggests that this car might not be going to the end of the line. InterestingThe only people I see around here using parasols are Asians. Remembering Atlantic City in the 1950sOur family vacationed in Atlantic City for many summers in the 1950s. We would load up our old Buick, include the dog, and take off from Cincinnati for that glorious week on the Jersey Shore. We stayed in an old converted mansion on North Carolina Avenue called the Manlor Guest House. Every morning was an open air breakfast on the Boardwalk, then to the beach and back to the Manlor to squirt off the sand in the backyard and go to dinner at Betty's Restaurant. The Manlor is long gone along with all the other old converted homes but those places had a charm that no Holiday Inn could replace. Look through the windowYoung lady in the window under the letter "N" of the streetcar looks like she just realized she has purchased the wrong ticket. TrumpedIf this is where the Trump Taj is now, I think it looked much better then! Her TownThe sidewalks are full of Mary Poppinses. The End of the Line or Back at 'Go'?The streetcar in the photo is interesting, having just arrived at this location on the track closest to the curb and the horse cabs. The car seatbacks are in position indicating the right end of the car was the front on arrival, the seat backs could be flipped over depending on car's direction. The outer arm rests are on the window ledges. The seats at the front and rear two side windows would have their backs to the window, the patrons facing the aisle. On cars with sanders the sand boxes would often be located under these lengthways seats which hinged up when filling with sand. However, the trolley pole has been moved around so the car will now travel right to left when it starts on it's next journey, the left end now the front. The car is short enough, altho' it has two 4-wheel trucks beneath, that the Motorman or Conductor could walk the trolley pole around with the trolley pole rope still able to hang over the end at either end with the trolley pole stand centered lengthways on the car roof. Without the trolley pole rope overhanging it would be difficult to centre the trolley pulley on the wire. A longer two-truck car would have to have a separate trolley pole at each end. There were also parameters governing the placement of the trolley pole stand on the car roof so that the pulley would track on the wire properly when the car beneath turned at a track switch at an intersection or went straight thru. Now, there are TWO tracks in the street, and this car will cross over to the far track to 'Run on the right' as it moves ahead on it's new journey. The 'crossover' in the street is visible by the man's head above the nearest horse cab and thru the cab behind. Thank You. Phones in RoomsThe Islesworth Gardens Hotel was popular with conventioneers (pharmacists, railroad ticket agents, elevator operators ...) 1908 Advertisement Impossible waistsThe women wearing corsets have those impossibly small wasp waists. I wonder about the young woman walking toward the camera. She appears to have a normal waist. The corset must have exacerbated the heat problem. Give me my smelling salts. And Gracious Sakes, I see a few women without their hats in public! City of the FutureIt looks like a futuristic city of dollhouses. They had some kind of super "green" vehicle that ran on hay and produced fertilizer instead of carbon monoxide... and even mass transit that ran on electricity! Wow, imagine if we could harness that kind of technology. No sunscreen requiredI but none of these people is thinking about sunscreen! Also, its a shame that we don't use parasols anymore. I count about 15 in this picture (if you count both sides of the street). Dress CodeNo shorts or tank-tops allowed! Good MannersNotice that the men use proper etiquette when walking with a female companion. The man walks on the street side, ladies to the inside. By the way, what is the covering on the roofs of the horse cabs? Is it some kind of treated cloth? In praise of ShorpyShorpy is my all time favorite web site ! It's like having a portal to the past. Shorpy lets us see in incredible detail what life was like decades ago. I tell everyone I know about this fantastic site. My problem with this site is that I could spend all day looking at the photos. Thank you for all of the work you do in making these Library of Congress photos look as good as they do. Fastest Way to Ocean CityThat interurban trolley on the right is from the Shore Fast Line connecting Atlantic City to Ocean City, New Jersey. It operated into the 1940s and was immortalized as the Short Line on the Monopoly game board. Car 6812West Jersey and Seashore Type Q semi-convertible, built by the J. G. Brill Co., Phila, 1904-05. Originally single ended, rebuilt as double ended car in 1908. Sold off in 1913-14 when new "Nearside" cars were delivered. The cars, incidentally, are numbered in the Pennsylvania Railroad fleet as the WJ&S was a PRR subsidiary. This is the kind of picturethat deserves the "even bigger" option, or the colorized version. Lovely, absolutely lovely in every detail. Exquisite photo. Speaking of Monopoly RR'sDid we ever find out why Darrow used the B&O railroad for his game? The Baltimore and Ohio never served Atlantic City; only the Shore Fast, Reading, Pennsylvania (later these would merge into the PRSL) and the Central RR of NJ (with it's its infamous Blue Comet) did. From Atlantic City to Ocean CityThe trolley advertises 2 ways to get to Ocean City: "SHORE FAST LINE ELECTRIC FLYERS VIA GREAT EGG HARBOR BAY" "ATLANTIC AVE. TROLLEY AND BOAT VIA LONGPORT" No. 6818 is a local Atlantic City car, maybe even a shuttle out to Atlantic Avenue. It does not have 3rd rail shoes, which Shore Fast Line cars needed, as they used a part of the West Jersey & Seashore RR to get across the meadows between West Atlantic City and Pleasantville, where the electrified railroad didn't use overhead wire. Shore Fast Line ran between Virginia Avenue and the Boardwalk, Atlantic City to 8th Street and the Boardwalk, Ocean City, both on barrier islands, via the Mainland. (The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC, Streetcars, Travel & Vacation)
Golden Years: 1941
... Pompeian Brand Olive Oil Still produced here in Baltimore, Maryland~~ Oil I noticed the oil too--everyone seems ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 8:19pm -

July 1941. "Sun bathers at the park swimming pool." Yet another shot by Russell Lee of the ladies of Caldwell, Idaho. 35mm nitrate negative. View full size. Olive OilNote the use of olive oil as tanning oil - Pompeian brand Ice cream!Note also how the dark haired girl with the medallion around her neck is eyeing the fudgecicle held by the girl getting her back oiled. Sure seems to want to finish it for her! Pompeian Brand Olive OilStill produced here in Baltimore, Maryland~~ OilI noticed the oil too--everyone seems completely fascinated by this! [Yes. We do seem to have a lot of cooking fans here at Shorpy. - Dave] Bikini in 1941?Bikinis in 1941? [Two-piece swimsuits go back thousands of years; having two pieces doesn't make a swimsuit a bikini. The "official" bikini, a two-part swimsuit with an abbreviated bottom section, was named after the Bikini Atoll, site of an atom-bomb test in 1946.- Dave] Boys to MenThe boys in the background had NO idea that, within a few months, America would be at war and they would be in it. This is the last carefree summer in their teenage years. [They had a very good idea. The war had been going on since 1939. After the Germans bombed London, Americans knew it wouldn't be long before this country entered the war. - Dave] Timing of the two photosI love the two shots of this group! It reminds me of the many days that my siblings, friends and I spent at swimming pools, in the mid-late 60s. It looks to me like there are two sets of sisters here. The three blond girls appear to be wearing identical bathing suits, and so do the two dark-haired girls. I also wonder if the fudgesicle is actually two different fudgesicles. The smallest of the blond girls has wet hair in one and dry hair in the other, yet the fudgesicle is about the same size in both pictures. I can't think of how the fudgesicle could have stayed the same size long enough for that to happen. I'm sure this attention to detail, in pictures that most people wouldn't spend two seconds looking at, could probably be diagnosed as some kind of mental disorder, but I see where others here pay attention to small details too, so I guess if I have a disorder I am in good company! I doubt that these boys would have been quite old enough to serve in WWII, which would have been over, four years later. Perhaps they did like my dad, who was a little too young to see action during the war, but enlisted soon after. There was still a tremendous amount of work for the military to do, and a lot of tragic things to see, for several years afterward. (The Gallery, Pretty Girls, Russell Lee, Small Towns)
Girls With Guns: 1925
... of the team, who scored 100; Miss Helen Beyerle, of Baltimore, a former pupil at Western High school, 100; Miss Rebecca Willis, of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 11:35am -

1925. "Girls' rifle team, University of Maryland." National Photo. View full size. Better Than the MenNote that the event where the "girls" out-shot the men occurred exactly 84 years ago today, February 10. U. of M. Coeds Defeat Men in Rifle Match Co-eds of the University of Maryland Proved themselves better marksmen than the male students at the institution in a rifle match Tuesday at College Park, according to a "post-mortem" examination of the score today. The score showed the men had made a desperate effort to avoid defeat, registering 497 marks out of a possible 500. But the female of the species proved "more deadly than the male" with the rifle - at least the girls came off with a score of 499. The campus yesterday was a dismal place so far as men were concerned. Vainly they tried to show resignation, or smile or treat the whole affair as an accident. It was hard to realize and acknowledge that girls had beaten them. However, the vanquished team had forgotten that its triumphant adversaries had a reputation for marksmanship to preserve in the contest Tuesday. The reputation was won when the girls gained third place in the nation-wide intercollegiate competition last year, although it was only their second year of shooting at targets. The five girls who made the best scores were Miss Thelma Winkjer, of Washington, captain of the team, who scored 100; Miss Helen Beyerle, of Baltimore, a former pupil at Western High school, 100; Miss Rebecca Willis, of Washington, 100; Miss Julie Louise Behring, of Washington, 100; and Miss Mary Harbaugh, of Washington, 99. Washington Post, Feb 12, 1925 Girl's Sports Making Big Strides at Maryland University The rifle team has established an enviable record at which both the girls' and men's teams in all schools will shoot for some time before equalling. Every match shot this year has been won by the College Park girls, including a shoulder to shoulder affair with the boy's team, and there is every reason to believe that they will finish the schedule without defeat. ... The team has defeated the University of Washington and West Virginia, Agricultural College of Utah, University of Chicago and Drexel Institute in telegraphic matches. Those still to be shot are Syracuse university, universities of Arizona, Vermont, Illinois, Delaware, and Michigan Agricultural college. The high scorers are the Misses Rebecca Willis, Anna Dorsey and Helen Beyerle. Team members are the Misses Thelma Winkjer, captain; Mary Harbaugh, manager; Betty Amos, Grace Coe, Anna Dorsey, Alma Essex, Julia Louise Behring, Mary Jane McCurdy, Rebecca Willis, Elizabeth Flennor and Helen Beyerle. ... Washington Post, March 29, 1925 Bullet pointsThe girl on the left maybe doesn't want her picture taken. Hope the lens cap was bulletproof. New WaveThis is a great showcase for one fad of the 1920s and 30s -- marceled hair. You go girls!This is one of my favorite pictures of late--especially in combination with stanton_square's articles. That poor defeated men's team--I wonder how long it took to live that down? The third girl from the right looks like she's really enjoying the photo shoot. I bet they'd be an interesting group of ladies to hang out with. It looks like a few of them are wearing pants (especially the girl second from left), though possibly they could just be carefully arranged skirts. How big of a stir would wearing pants have made by this time? Or was it sort of accepted by this point? Girls Gone Rational"Rationals" were a form of women's athletic clothing worn while taking part in outdoor sports. Most rationals were a combination of a skirt and bloomers (see the woman third from the right), but some were just bloomers (fourth from the right) -- the latter could also be known as simply knickerbockers, and were at first glance indistinguishable from them. Like other forms of athletic wear of the time, they would not be worn as street clothing. At this point, women of fashion are not wearing trousers for day wear quite yet. It'll another seven or eight years before Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn, etc. begin to make trousers fashionable for all but women deliberately dressing as men. She's just not that into youThis reminds me of a bad breakup I had in college. Where on campus?I went to UMD - wish I could figure out where on the campus this was. It was after the big fire, so the buildings in the pic should still be there. Would love to see more of these around campus if there are some! [This is probably in Washington. It's the same location as in this photo of the Drexel rifle team. The two teams met in March 1925 at George Washington University's Corcoran Hall rifle range. - Dave] There's One!"Girls, swing 'round! There goes one behind us!" Firing SquadThey're not posing! Their hairdresser is tied up to a pole just off to the right of the photographer.... No SurpriseWhen my daughter started college, her dormitory floor's Resident Assistant held a floor meeting, and asked the residents what they'd done over the summer. The one that I remember was the one who was instructing riflery at West Point. Wrong school citedThis photo is a scene on the campus of the George Washington University, in Washington, Dc. It is not a view at the U. of Maryland. [Confused? This is the University of Maryland rifle team, competing in Washington at GW. - Dave] (The Gallery, Natl Photo, Sports)
Army Bread: 1863
... for use in Civil War reenactments. These show the city as Baltimore, but a New York Times account (in the "Marine Intelligence" digest of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 8:41pm -

February 1863. "Captain J.W. Forsyth, provost marshal, Aquia Creek, Virginia." An army marches on its stomach, and the stomach's boots are made of dough. Or something like that. Wet plate glass negative. View full size. FortifiedWith iron? Wonder what the other duties of the Union Mechanical Baking Company were, and if this is all hardtack. "Bigger than a breadbox"In this case would be pretty big! Amazing.The photos from the 1800's never seize to amaze me-- the older the better! This was 147 years ago! Dave, do you know which is the oldest image on here? Also, what is the difference between Army Bread and regular bread? Hard times and hardtackOdds are the hardtack in those boxes was tougher than the packing crates. Sung to the tune of "Hard Times Come Again No More," the soldiers said it best: 'Tis the song and lament of the hungry Hard crackers, hard crackers, come again no more! Many days you have lingered upon our stomachs sore, Oh hard crackers, hard crackers come again no more! Hardtack BoxesReproduction Union Mechanical crates made of pine (photo below) are sold as hardtack boxes for use in Civil War reenactments. These show the city as Baltimore, but a New York Times account (in the "Marine Intelligence" digest of December 15, 1862) gives the address as being in New York City, where there is indeed a 45 Leonard Street. A phrase I never thought I'd hearPrivate - "Go out back and bring in a box of bread!" Brings a whole new meaning to the question "Is it bigger than a bread box?" Taste and compare!Which is fresher--the bread, or the crate it came in? It was hard alrightAbout 20 or so years ago, divers found a sunken Union supply ship in the Savannah River. Amongst the stuff recovered were some easily recognizable hardtack biscuits. To have survived and remain recognizable after being submerged for 135+ years means it was tough stuff made to last! Tough for a reasonWhen you consider that the Union Army had to feed a million men in the field and transport all the food on horse drawn wagons, nothing else would do. Button UpI'm sensing a pattern here. In a previous Civil War era photo here an officer on his (lean) horse had buttons undone in the middle, but his jacket was buttoned at the top and waist. I had thought that perhaps his jacket was too tight in the middle or some buttons or buttonholes were damaged, but here it is again. Was this a military fashion trend at the time? Umm, HardtackI believe that it was commonly referred to as tooth dullers. I have a recipe for it somewhere, and you bake it to rock hardness. Supposed to last forever. Re: Taste and CompareKind of like modern army MRE crackers. Softer than hardtack but about as tasteless as the cardboard box they come in. Some things never change, I guess. "Digestible leather"What they used to call this Civil War staple. Probably provided a high percentage of their caloric intake while in the field. Buttoned Jacket = corsetThose jackets looked very sharp when fully buttoned, but you couldn't bend, move freely, or slouch without risking popped buttons. Undoing a few in the middle meant you could button-up quickly when needed, but still work in relative comfort. Also, it made a convenient pouch to store things. Hard enough to break teethI'm a civil war (southern) Reenactor and I can honestly say that Hard Tack was EVIL. This stuff was like a cracker, baked two or three times and hard enough to crack your teeth if you weren't careful. It never spoiled, and could last decades before you needed to replace it. Seriously cheap to produce, both the South and North used it in their packs. Veteran soldiers knew that to make the hard tack palatable, you would take the "bread" and break it over a rock before putting it in your bacon grease after cooking breakfast. Letting the tack soak up the grease and fry some would soften it up enough to make it edible. (The Gallery, Civil War)
Alray: 1943
... them in December on a cold Railway Express platform in Baltimore, Md and feeling the the heat come out of a carload of Christmas gift ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 1:42pm -

March 1943. "An eastbound Union Pacific freight waiting in a siding at Alray, California. Coming up through Cajon Pass. The Santa Fe tracks are used by the Union Pacific as far east as Daggett, Calif." One of many images taken by Jack Delano documenting a Santa Fe freight train's journey from Chicago to California. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency. Office of War Information. View full size. Alray todayView Larger Map ArticulationWow, you can really see the articulation of the boiler in the curve. Delano must have been having a ball on that trip. Great photo in a beautiful place of an impressive machine. ChallengerThis isn't a Big Boy; it's a UPRR Challenger Class 4-6-6-4 wheel configuration, predecessor to the Big Boys. The Big Boys were 4-8-8-4 engines built primarily to service the steep and heavy Wyoming-Utah routes. Their numbers were 4000-4024. The Challengers did lighter freight and passenger lines across most of the UP routes, including Nevada and California. The later locomotives of this challenger class were numbered 3930 to 3999. All beautiful engines and this is a great photo! Flexible Flyer?Well, first off, it is not a UP Big Boy, which were numbered in the UP 4000 series and had 16 driving wheels to the 12 driving wheels under UP 3931. Although at home on freight, the UP 3900s were frequently used on passenger trains as capable of higher speed than a Big Boy 4000, the latter primarily a freight locomotive. Both types of locomotive had two steam engines, the front one hinged so it could take curves, the rear engine fixed parallel with the boiler. Two steam engines, ONE locomotive. In these cases the boiler did NOT bend, but the Santa Fe DID have articulated locomotives in which the boilers 'bent' on curves, the front portion solidly fixed to the hinged front engine, the rear portion, with the firebox and the cab, fixed to the rear engine. A maintenance headache, to say the least. On the UP 3931 the headlight is mounted on the smoke box door on the front of the boiler, and, in this position will shine way out into nothingness as the locomotive rounds curves. On many articulated steam locomotives including the Big Boy, the headlight was mounted on the front engine which followed the curves, the light beam then shining more directly down the track ahead of the locomotive. In the spur to the right are two Maintenance of Way cars probably for the use of track employees. The nearest car is an old locomotive tender, the fuel once going in the opening facing the camera, the rest of the car being for water, in this instance the tender becoming a 'Water Car' which was filled at the same water towers as steam locomotives. The car behind the old tender is an 'Outfit Car' in which workers would live while on the road. Note sloped steps up to center door, windows in side and a low stove pipe. The aforementioned Water Car would contain water for their use. The freight cars behind UP 3931 are refrigerator cars which, in this era, were cooled by blocks of ice put into bunkers at each end of the car. The hatches at each end, propped open at an angle on some cars in the photo, are where the ice would be dumped in at Ice Houses next to the track. Lovely Photo! Thank You!! Motive powerThe engine looks like a Union Pacific Big Boy one of the most powerful steam engines ever built designed specifically to haul war materials over the Sierras. Clean Machine !Looks like UP#3931 just got out of the shop.The paint is shiny enough to reflect the trackside off of the tender and boiler.It won't look like that in a month or so. Old 395ran parallel to the tracks. now it is I15. It was two lanes in 1943, now 6. When i was young in 1943 my parents had a desert shack on the eastern side of the hills near Phelan. I remember well watching the big steam engines on the grade. There were cabooses then, too. Its twin is still runningAnother UP Challenger, #3985, was rebuilt by the volunteer work of UP employees in 1981 and is still active in public relations tours. This photo nicely illustrates the effects of World War II upon deferred maintenance of way. The Santa Fe would never have tolerated all those weeds under normal circumstances. OK, you get my voteAnytime you publish a photo of a steam locomotive you have my undivided attention. Oh what a thrill the last generation missed of standing beside one of these monsters. Still alive and very wellOne of the Challenger locomotives, #3985, is still kept in operation by the Union Pacific Railroad, out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Those of us fortunate enough to live along the mainline route of the UP have the thrill of seeing this magnificent engine in action when it passes by on its special excursions. Several years ago, #3985 was taken from being a static display and fully restored to operation by UP employee volunteers. I love this siteSee, I can look at this pic and register "steam engine" and "boxcars". Other than that, I'm pretty much a dial-tone. Then there's a comment, and another, then one disputing and correcting and the next thing you know, it's a Shorpster geek frenzy, and before you know it you've learned something. Articulated locomotives. Whoda thought? A couple of other UP notesAs others have said, this is an engine from the first set of Challengers, built well before the war. The second set, built after the Big Boys, had the same front end arrangement as the latter. UP 3985, the largest operable steam locomotive, came from that set. If you look at the headlight closely you may notice that its visor is rather oddly shaped. This sort of half-conical shield was applied to a lot of west coast engines early in the war on the theory that it would make them less vulnerable to air attack, since less of the light was visible from the air. Personally I think the pattern of light on the ground would point back at the engine all the same, but at any rate, I don't believe it was ever used elsewhere in the country and it seems to have died out as the war progressed and the possibility of a Japanese attack faded. Additional data on locomotiveFrom: http://www.steamlocomotive.com/challenger/ "In the 1930s, with freight traffic increasing, the Union Pacific Railroad had to use combinations of its 2-8-8-0 and 2-10-2 locomotives to get trains over the rugged grades of the Wahsatch Mountains. To stay competitive, a more powerful locomotive was needed to speed up the railroad and to reduce the rising cost of helpers and extra trains. The UP simply needed a locomotive that could climb the Wahsatch faster. Arthur H. Fetter, the General Mechanical Engineer, had been designing locomotives for the Union Pacific since 1918, and had been responsible for the development of its 4-8-2 "Mountain" and 4-10-2 "Overland" locomotives as well as many other innovations and improvements to UP motive power. Fetter suggested a high speed articulated locomotive to reduce the reciprocating weight of a compound and to increase the 50 mph speed limit of the railroad's most powerful locomotives, the rigid wheeled 4-12-2s. Fetter had a long standing working arrangement with the American Locomotive Company and he often collaborated with ALCO's engineers on locomotive designs. For the new more powerful locomotive he and the ALCO engineers started with the 4-12-2. They decided that the leading four wheel truck would be needed for better side control. They split the six sets of drivers into two groups of three and replaced the two 27" outside cylinders and the one 31" middle cylinder with four 22" x 32" cylinders. Two inches were added to the diameter of the boiler and the pressure was raised from 220 psi to 255 psi. The firebox was enlarged and they added a four wheel trailing truck to carry its added weight. The first 4-6-6-4, UP number 3900, was received from ALCO at Council Bluffs on August 25, 1936, and after a brief ceremony it headed west pulling a refrigerator train." From: http://www.steamlocomotive.com/challenger/?page=up "The Union Pacific Railroad took delivery of the very first locomotive with the 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement in 1936 when it received 15 of them from the American Locomotive Company. These newly named "Challengers" were designated Class CSA-1. In 1937, another 25 ALCO-built "Challengers" were added to the roster. This group, designated Class CSA-2, was given road numbers 3915 through 3939. They were similar to the Class CSA-1s. Six of them, numbers 3934 through 3939, were equipped for passenger service. In 1942, ALCO delivered 20 Class 4664-3 "Challengers" which were numbered 3950 through 3969. The tenders on these locomotives were larger than either of the CSA classes. In 1943, another 25 Class 4664-4 "Challengers" came from ALCO and were numbered 3975 through 3999. This group was very similar to the Class 4664-3s except that each weighed 6,500 pounds more. A final 20 ALCO-built "Challengers" arrived in 1944 giving the Union Pacific a total of 105 of the 4-6-6-4s. These locomotives designated Class 4664-5 were similar to the Class 4664-3s except for an additional 7,500 pounds in the total weight. They were numbered 3930 through 3949 which required that the Class CSA-1 and CSA-2 locomotives be renumbered into the 3800 series." == The information above is consistent with data from published reference works on the topic excepting perhaps minor incidental details and slight adjustments of specific dates for specific engines, so far as I can verify. Interested readers may wish to locate and peruse such titles as The Challenger Locomotives / by William Kratville (Kratville Publications, 1980) for further information on the locomotive, or Union Pacific Motive Power in Transition 1936-1960 / by Lloyd Stagner (South Platte Press, 1993) for their utility and operational impact on the railway. An excellent photo study of this type, both the early and late engines, in action in various scenic locations is Union Pacific Steam, Challenger Portraits / by James Ehrenberger (Challenger Press, 1993) As a final thought, I would only note a few things: one, this particular machine would have been oil-fired at the time and place of the photo; two, in 1944 it would be renumbered by the railway into the 3800 class, to avoid confusion with its later, more modern siblings; three, photos and extant records document these locos in service for both passenger and freight trains over this same line as in the photo on Shorpy; fourth, reefer (produce, or "perishables") trains were high value, spoilable products shipped as quickly as possible to avoid ruin enroute, so an excellent choice for such an engine; fifth, the engine is in the siding (note the smaller rail and lower ballast than the mainline), perhaps to let a higher priority train go by -- virtually the only trains with higher priority would have been passenger or "main" (i.e., troop) trains; sixth, the stack exhaust is showing only as a very slight haze & a mild disturbance of heat shimmer, meaning the firing is very clean and the tubes probably fresh, corroborating with the boiler paint's shiny finish (NOT the smokebox, which is "graphite" gray) that the loco has been freshly shopped; seventh, only a very mild steam exhaust is issuing back near the firebox, with no steam issuing from the pop-valves above the boiler, further evidence the fireman has everything pretty much under control; eighth, there is no steam exhaust from the cylinders, indicating the loco is at rest, which is consistent with other photos by Delano which appear to have been taken from on top of the reefers going up the hill on this run, and that this operational stop allowed him to explore another view, where he quickly found a classic image to exploit; last, this is one of the most beautiful photos of this locomotive, and of a locomotive on this line, and of this location with a classic westward-looking framing, color or b-&-w, that I've ever seen. A Breath Of Warm AirOthers see Challengers, articulating boilers and Big Boys but what stands out for me are those those yellow Fruit Growers Express box cars. In what now seems to be another life I remember opening them in December on a cold Railway Express platform in Baltimore, Md and feeling the the heat come out of a carload of Christmas gift boxes of oranges and grapefruit. I never did figure out if the heat was caused by the fruit itself or just the remnants of the California sun but it was nice having a warm place to work the night away. Big Boys and Challenger MalletsYes,the Union Pacific Challengers and later Big Boys ARE Mallets. Santa Fe and Union Pacific 1953Santa Fe and Union Pacific dieselized the California lines in 1953 but the Southern Pacific stayed with steam until 1957-8 (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Jack Delano, Railroads)
Fine & Dandy: 1912
1912. "Democratic National Convention, Baltimore. Bennett Clark, son of Champ Clark." Beauchamp Clark, favored to win ... were like. The rest of his suit is nice. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Harris + Ewing, Politics) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 1:03pm -

1912. "Democratic National Convention, Baltimore. Bennett Clark, son of Champ Clark." Beauchamp Clark, favored to win the presidential nomination, ended up losing it to Woodrow Wilson. Son Joel Bennett Clark represented Missouri in the Senate from 1933 to 1945. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size. Fine & DandyDandy must be the one on the left. To The Manner BornThe future Senator's father, the aforementioned Champ Clark, was Speaker of the House from 1911 to 1919. Boaters RockLove the cigar stump wedged in the corner of the mouth, too! Its the tie!Wow, it looks like he spilled something on the end of his tie. To bad we can't see the whole thing, or maybe it is a good thing. [What's on his tie is a paisley print. - Dave] LightingI love the quality of light in this photo. Stunning! Paisley or ParsleyI know it was a paisley print, but I still think it is an ugly tie. I can only imagine what the colors were like. The rest of his suit is nice. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Harris + Ewing, Politics)
Maryland Crab House: 1938
July 1938. "House in Negro section of Baltimore, Maryland." Crabs and clams to go, please. Medium-format nitrate ... "Negro section" According to the 2010 census, Baltimore ranks 5th, at 64%, among U.S. cities with the highest ... coming back. Good eating. Save The Bay! (The Gallery, Baltimore, Eateries & Bars, John Vachon) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/21/2013 - 11:43am -

July 1938. "House in Negro section of Baltimore, Maryland." Crabs and clams to go, please. Medium-format nitrate negative by John Vachon. View full size. "Negro section"According to the 2010 census, Baltimore ranks 5th, at 64%, among U.S. cities with the highest African-American populations. There is a long and rich culinary tradition here, with crabcakes being perhaps the most famous. Old Bumper Sticker"Virginia Is For Lovers" "Maryland Is For Crabs" Don't ForgetOysters from the Cheasapeake Bay, they are slowly coming back. Good eating. Save The Bay! (The Gallery, Baltimore, Eateries & Bars, John Vachon)
The Three Basketeers: 1924
... View full size. Petersburg Promoters Baltimore Sun, August 11, 1924. Boys on Tour To Advertise ... their city—Petersburg, Va.—arrived in Baltimore yesterday. They are making their tour on bicycles and have visited ... Jackson and A.S. Goldsborough, executive secretary of the Baltimore Association of Commerce. They are carrying pamphlets explanatory of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/04/2014 - 6:59pm -

August 8, 1924. "Stewart Shortt, John Ayers, Eliott Smith at White House." Who seem to be bicycling to Atlantic City in August. Might want to loosen those bowties, boys. National Photo Company glass negative. View full size. Petersburg Promoters Baltimore Sun, August 11, 1924. Boys on Tour To Advertise Petersburg, Va., Reach City Three Youths Will Visit Mayor Today —Expect To Go To Atlantic City. Three boys who are advertising their city—Petersburg, Va.—arrived in Baltimore yesterday. They are making their tour on bicycles and have visited Bowling Green, Fredericksburg, and Alexandria, Va., and Washington. They plan to complete the trip August 20, when they expect to arrive at Atlantic City. Today the boys—Stuart A. Shortt, Elliott A. Smith and John W. Ayers—will visit Mayor Jackson and A.S. Goldsborough, executive secretary of the Baltimore Association of Commerce. They are carrying pamphlets explanatory of Petersburg's growth as an industrial city. Their visit to Baltimore will be lengthened in order that Shortt may receive treatment from Dr. William S. Baer for an injured leg. (The Gallery, Bicycles, Boy Scouts, D.C., Natl Photo)
Dynamite: 1904
"Baltimore Fire, 1904. Buildings on Baltimore Street dynamited to stop the flames." National Photo Company ... foreground really makes this one work. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Fires, Floods etc., Natl Photo) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2011 - 9:08pm -

"Baltimore Fire, 1904. Buildings on Baltimore Street dynamited to stop the flames." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Dynamic CompositionA striking photo; the striding man in the foreground really makes this one work. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Fires, Floods etc., Natl Photo)
Night Ride: 1943
April 1943. "Baltimore, Maryland. Trolley leaving the terminal at night." Photo by Marjory ... and thus returning to the terminal. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Marjory Collins, Streetcars) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/26/2013 - 2:28pm -

April 1943. "Baltimore, Maryland. Trolley leaving the terminal at night." Photo by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size. Spooky, EmptyEmpty? "Room for one more." What atmosphere in this pic. Edward HopperReady to settle in place for "Nighthawks"! Ghost carNot a human in sight. Ahead of its time?Either this car is moving away from us with a hidden motorman or there's a phantom driver piloting it driving toward us. I didn't know they had driverless vehicles already back in 1943. Lights, pleaseThere's just something I love about streetlights with clear incandescent bulbs, such as this one. Here in Connecticut they're all but extinct (Stonington Borough is the last town of which I'm aware that still has these). Still blows my mind that these go for a couple hundred dollars on eBay. Coming or going?Since there is no driver at the left end, and the overhead contact pole points to the left, I think this car is heading to the right and thus returning to the terminal. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Marjory Collins, Streetcars)
« first‹ prev…4 [5]6…next ›last »
Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.