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Where's My Remote: 1938
... Aroma We 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 ... 
 
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)
Cocoa Island: 1935
... supermarkets, but just barely. My grandmother lived in Brooklyn, New York City and had a supermarket named Packers which did that. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/26/2012 - 12:30am -

Washington, D.C., circa 1935. "Interior of D.G.S." The District Grocery Store at Seventh and E streets S.W. You'll come for the savings and stay for the sawdust! 8x10 acetate negative, National Photo Company Collection. View full size. I'm not cleanin' that up!I remember as a kid that we would spend our time "ice skating" around the floor at the local butcher while mom shopped. But then again, we did not have a large crate of eggs on the floor! Egg PressureWho knew you could pile eggs that deep without breaking the ones on the bottom. Sawdust on the floorsCommon use for sawdust in grocery stores/butcher shops (and bars) was to absorb dirt and liquids and thus easier to clean up. Does not sound very sanitary and is probably one reason its use being discontinued... and needless to say fire marshalls had something to do with stopping this practice too. Brings Back MemoriesI remember going to the grocery store with my mother and she would buy her meat from a display just like this one. There would be someone behind the counter and Mother would make her selection. The worker would weigh it, then wrap it in white paper, and place the price on the paper. I remember how strange it was when she began to select her own prepackaged meat from an open display. Campbell's Soup Can GeniusIn this form of grocery store you can see the genius of Campbell's can labels. Very distinct as they line the back walls of the store. Sawdust and TabsI have a dollar with me so I'll have a box of Rice Krispies, Hershey's Cocoa, a box of Milk Bone and some Oxydol. Oh wait a minute. Those cakes look good too. I'll take one of them and put the total on my tab. I am old enough to remember sawdust floor supermarkets, but just barely. My grandmother lived in Brooklyn, New York City and had a supermarket named Packers which did that. They cleaned up their floors by the late 1960's. She also had a corner grocer with a store like this. He had no sawdust but he did run a tab. When she wanted to watch her boring soap operas, she would send me to that corner grocer to buy a pint of ice cream. By the time I walked to the corner, picked a flavor, they wrote it down, gave me the box, and I walked back to her apartment, got a spoon, and ate it, the soap opera was over. It was a very smart way to shut a 5 year old up. Washington FlourWilkins-Rogers Milling Company was located on the Georgetown waterfront. The building was converted to condominiums in the 1970's, but the company lives on with a mill in Ellicott City, Md. In the 1950's, four brands were advertised together under the banner "Home Town Products." They were Washington Flour, Wilkins Coffee, Mann's Potato Chips and Schindler's Peanut Butter. Later, Wilkins Coffee TV commercials brought the Muppets early fame. Light fixturesI imagine those would bring a few bucks on eBay these days! Deco-catessenLove those art deco light globes, as well as the very precise and graphic regimentation of all the cans and bottles on the shelves -- I think Busby Berkeley may have had a hand in "staging" that display. Also, if Oxydol will consider reviving that art moderne package now, I'll take a whole case! corner marketI well remember sliding around on the saw dust with my mother chatted with the butcher. As well as the free bologna slice.And the produce man washing the field dirt off the vegetables in a big white claw foot bathtub in the stock room. I think they could stack lose eggs deep in a box like that because the shells where thicker back then. The broken wasted eggs I see in "protective cartons" at the market nowadays is amazing, what a waste. Hey, I found the white bread, but I don't see were they put the chips and salsa! Re: Campbell Soup CansFor rich.n If you did not know this, there is currently a limited selection of their tomato soup with four different Andy Warhol repro labels in the exact colors Warhol used in his famous artwork which is quite unique. I found mine at Target but don't know who else carries them. Very nifty to display in your kitchen, just FYI. P.S. I don't know how long their shelf life would be. Where's My Shopping List?Wow, I'm surprised to see that Bisquick and Milk-Bone were aound back then. Bisquick seems lke such a 60's product. The Hershey's Cocoa box hasn't changed much. It must have been a headache to keep all those cans and rows so straight and perfect. Elf rising. Elf rising (paper sacks). What does it mean? Uprising? Opressed elves uprised? It sounds funny for me, really. [Self-rising flour. - tterrace] Got Pep??Beautiful place to do your grocery shopping, everything is neat as a pin...except one item. One box of Kellogg's Pep cereal is upside down. And to the "elf rising" comment all I can say is this, surely(hopefully)that was not a lagitimate question. Hey I'm not that oldAnd I remember sawdust on the floors of the supermarket! (At least on rainy days.) Specifically Market Basket in Massachusetts, in the 1990s. It was always such a mob scene there, it was my least favorite place to go shopping as a kid. They don't have sawdust on the floors anymore but the stores are still wonderfully low fi and retro in style. They haven't updated the employee 'uniforms' since the 1970s at least. Is that lye I spy behind the bakery counter? And penny candy on the far end of the island? (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Stores & Markets)
A Day at the Races: 1918
... on Sheepshead Bay Motor Speedway's two-mile wooden oval in Brooklyn, New York. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 11:22am -

June 1, 1918. Six of the eight contestants in the 100-mile Harkness Handicap on Sheepshead Bay Motor Speedway's two-mile wooden oval in Brooklyn, New York. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Track SuitsOne wonders if fans were expected to wear a white shirt, tie and straw hat to the race track today, would the stands be empty? But times change, as does our approach to fashion and entertainment; I can remember when my mother wore a hat to the grocery store in the 1950s - and she was no buttoned-up lady! MechanicThe mechanic's duties included controlling engine temperature (with radiator shuttors) and maintaining oil level (with manual pump). [The New York Times articles on this race also mention that among the duties of the "mechanician" is to serve as a rear-view lookout to see who's gaining. - Dave] Two man crews, yes!In the early days of driving a 2-man crew was the rule. The second man was not a driver; he was a "riding mechanic." He was there mainly to change tires, which would go flat and/or blow out at the slightest provocation. However, the better riding mechanics could repair some fairly serious breakdowns on the track. This was, of course, much more important in endurance races (not sure if that term was used as early as 1918 but there certainly were such races in existence then). Later, better known endurance races were the Mille Miglia and Carrera Panamericana. I'm not positive about this, but I believe in the WW I time frame it was not uncommon for well heeled owners to carry a riding mechanic even for "civilian" (non-racing) driving. This could get crowded, with chauffeur and riding mechanic up front and the family in the back seats. Lots of wood!Especially when one considers the fact that the planks were laid vertically Two-man crews?Most (all?) of these racers appear to have two-man crews. One assumes that the basic tasks of driving, even with these exotic machines, were within the capabilities of a single man, as they are today. So what's the second dude there for? In case the primary driver needs a nap? But they're driving on a circuit. If there was a need for a relief driver, you could just swap 'em out in the pit stop. Clearly I don't understand what's going on here. The bike, the bike!The cars are great but my eyes naturally go straight to the Indian in the foreground. When do we get to see some bike races? Vrooom! Wood OvalThe track surface had me wondering. So I looked up the history on this speedway and found out it was boards. That took a lot of trees for a two mile oval. The article I read was from a 1915 NYT story on a race coming up. They also mentioned that the cars were able to hit 120 which follows up on that point on another thread below. So probably even faster by 1918. One question for the knowledgeable commentors, and you know who you are. Did a racing mechanic back then have any responsibilities during a race other than sitting next to the driver and waiting to do something, you know, mechanical? Riding mechanicsIn his book "Eddie Rickenbacker," Walter David Lewis writes: Riding mechanics, who sat beside the driver, had the most hazardous job of all. Unlike drivers, they could not brace themselves with the steering wheel if a car went out of control. Indeed, in some race cars a riding mechanic could not sit at all but merely clung to a strap behind the driver's seat, on the right-hand side of the vehicle, and braced his left foot on a projecting piece of metal. In Fryer's racer, Edd sat in a bucket scat, with handles on either side. Like other riding mechanics, however, he stood a good chance of being thrown into the air and killed in a serious accident. Riding mechanics had arduous duties. Before a race they worked practically around the clock, oiling components and checking connections. At the starting line it was their responsibility to crank the engine. During the heat of a contest, because gravity-feed fuel supply and splash lubrication systems were highly unreliable, their principal duty was to keep gasoline and oil flowing to the engine. Closely monitoring gauges on the dashboard, they vigorously manned bicycle-type air pumps and plungers to maintain fuel and oil pressure when necessary. They also kept an eye out for excessive abrasion and wear on the tires, which were notoriously undependable in the early days of motor sport. Using hand signals, they constantly kept the driver aware of what was happening behind him, especially if another car was about to pass. They had to be ready in an instant for any emergency. If there were blowouts, riding mechanics helped drivers change tires. One of the few detailed accounts of their activities called them the "forgotten heroes of the speedways," saying that they "had to be fearless and possess the overwhelming passion to compete." One riding mechanic noted in an interview in 2000 that it was his job "to read the blackboard when the cars roared by the pits to see their position, tell his driver whom to pass, look for tire wear and pump up the fuel pressure." Boards vertical becauseYou don't want a horizontal board working loose when you're approaching it at 100 plus. Especially with those brakes and those tires! Is that Buddy Hackett?I was watching "The Love Bug" with my kids and the final race had two-man crews in the car. Somehow I don't see the need to weld the two halves of these cars together during the middle of the race. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, G.G. Bain, NYC, Sports)
Loop the Loop: 1903
... obtained from Justice Hooker, in the Supreme Court, Brooklyn, an order directing Police Commissioner Murphy to show cause to-morrow ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 10:22am -

Circa 1903. "Loop the Loop at Coney Island, New York." Watch out for pickpockets. Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size. What could be safer?I'd have no problem riding that, since I'm sure they adhered strictly to the no-doubt comprehensive roller-coaster-construction rules of the time. And since it's so unlikely anyone got paid to look the other way when it was inspected -- for surely it was inspected! -- what could be the danger? Oh! How brave of them!I guess early rollercoasters didn't have safety bars. Those passengers look to be just bracing themselves going upside down! It's a MessI prefer the warning sign to the left. From the look of the begloved woman in the high hat, the sign likely reads: "Beware: high likelihood of fouling yourselves" New York Times, 28 July 1901Sorry about the neck and all, but you're in the minority, bub. LOOP THE LOOP TO OPEN AGAIN. -- Temporary Injunction Against Police Interference Secured Ex-District Attorney Foster L. Backus yesterday obtained from Justice Hooker, in the Supreme Court, Brooklyn, an order directing Police Commissioner Murphy to show cause to-morrow why the police should not be permanently restrained from interfering with the operation of the amusement enterprise known as the "Loop the Loop," at Coney Island, which was stopped a few days ago by Deputy Commissioner York, on the ground that it was dangerous. ... A mass of affidavits was presented to the court to show that many thousands of persons had taken the trip on the Loop the Loop without any having received personal injuries. New York Times, 28 July 1901 Go WhitefishCongratulations kid, you just passed Physics. Hot Wheels - LifesizedThis ferocious loop-the-loop was a large part of the magic of Hot Wheels that our sons experienced in the 60s and 70s. They happily spent hours clamping their track to anything sturdy in the house and ran their cars from room to room, finishing with a huge jump out the window into the flowerbed. While it was great fun helping them set up and listening to their verbal descriptions of the driver's derring do, we were all too chicken to ever try a real rollercoaster loop. Circular Loops of DoomNotice that the loops here are circular. If you look at modern roller coaster loops they are more oval, almost a teardrop shape, known as a clothoid loop. The G forces on riders in these circular loops is very intense, much more so than some of the most intense coasters out there today. My guess is, like many intense coasters of the time, that this one probably had a nurse on staff. Nosebleeds were probably common on this ride as well as graying out or blacking out. Loop the LoopAccording to Ultimate Roller Coaster's article on Early Coney Island coasters: Edwin Prescott's Loop-the-Loop was built at West 10th Avenue, Coney Island in 1901. The ride showcased engineering that greatly improved on the Flip Flap. The track was made of steel, the loop was larger, but most importantly it was an ellipse which pulled relatively few g's and provided a safe ride. Sadly, the public was more inclined to watch than ride. The Loop-the-Loop limped along until World War One, making money by charging people admission to the viewing area. Many more paid to watch than to ride and the coaster faded into bankruptcy Beware of PickpocketsHow come modern amusement parks don't have such helpful signs? Maybe it's because our pockets have already been cleaned out getting into the park. (The Gallery, Coney Island, DPC, Sports)
Children's Delight: 1910
... piano or calliope, circa 1910. George B. Marx Wagon Co., Brooklyn. View full size. Turn the crank and make it go Consider ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/08/2011 - 11:29am -

"Children's Delight" carousel wagon with piano or calliope, circa 1910. George B. Marx Wagon Co., Brooklyn. View full size. Turn the crank and make it goConsider Patent # 773292 [1] It would seem that the carousel rotates by turning the hand crank, as observed by padieg. Children's DelightIn the late 1950's a truck used to come around our Philadelphia neighborhood with a small carousel on the back of it. The truck itself was vintage 1954, but I can still hear it out on the street with all of the kids and moms running out to greet it. CarouselHow was it operated? There's a small vertical wheel on the left but I think you had to make a big effort to turn it when the carousel was loaded (in case hand cranking that wheel was the method by which the carousel worked). Children's DelightPeregrine, I remember them well, I grew up in South Philly Childrens DelightVery excited to see photo of childrens Delight as we have one. How do we get in touch with Dave for further info about this photo. Oh.. cool..that is badass.. I want one! Children's DelightGeorge B. Marx was my great grandfather. I would love to get in touch with you. [Use the contact form on the right side of the homepage. - Dave] CarouselBorn and raised in Philadelphia, I fondly remember the truck carousel. The driver cranked a wheel to make it turn. The little horses all faced outward. We were also visited by a truck with "The Whip" where you sat in the cars and it operated much like the Whip ride of today. We also had a man come around with a ferris wheel on his truck. What great memories! Riding the "Whip"I remember riding the "Whip" on an oval shaped track on a truck while living in Oxford Circle in Philly in 1952. I'm rather sure that the music playing was "Davy Crockett." (The Gallery, Curiosities, NYC, Sports)
The Oriental: 1903
... 1903. "Oriental Hotel and boardwalk, Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York." Panorama of two 8x10 glass negatives, Detroit Publishing ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/03/2014 - 11:57am -

        The Oriental Hotel, at the eastern end of the Coney Island peninsula, opened in 1880 and was demolished in 1916. 1903. "Oriental Hotel and boardwalk, Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York." Panorama of two 8x10 glass negatives, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Ruh-rohThis can't be good. College at the beach, or vice-versaWhile hotel's receding into the mists of history, and the boardwalk no longer extends that far east, a small, crescent-shaped portion of Oriental Beach still remains. What makes it a bit unusual is that it is located on the campus of Kingsborough Community College and students use it as a lounge and outdoor lunch area. During the summer, outsiders can get special permits allowing them to use the beach, accessing it via a walkway that keeps them away from campus buildings. And yes, that's Dead Horse Island in the background, though its proper name was actually Barren Island. Landfill has since connected it to the mainland. The more things changeLook at the woman's waist. That can't be healthy. A wonderful imageby any standard, in any century! Was that panoramic pair printed in 1903 or was it a contemporary collaboration with Shorpy? If so, all hail Photoshop! [Photoshop! - Dave] Pre-sprinkler eraGroundskeepers watering all that lawn by hand!?! DreamlikePossibly the most beautiful image I have seen on Shorpy so far (and I have been coming here for a long time). SpectacularWhat a beautiful building! I'm often surprised to see just how short-lived some of these magnificent buildings were. A mere 36 years is all this gorgeous hotel existed. I guess that's the price of progress. Homeland Security 101On the sidewalk to the left we see that the local constable is making a beeline towards the suspicious GWC (guy with a camera). After all he could be a spy or something. Getting Oriented Trying to figure what's off in the distance behind the two promenaders. Maybe Dead Horse Island? Add My VoteSuperb image; surreal and very simple, but can be interpreted on several levels. Thank you, Dave. Shorpy does it again! I was a student at Kingsborough Community College. When I attended,the campus consisted of barracks left over from a WWII training facility. The old wooden buildings wouldn't have been worthy of being outhouses for this grande dame that stood on the sight earlier. Groundskeeper Willie x2I bet it's the same guy, this must be where the negs split, there's a line of bad focus running up through there. SousaDuring the summer of 1893, John Philip Sousa and his band were engaged to perform several daily concerts at Manhattan Beach for a 10 week period. Manhattan Beach March was written directly after that summer concert series and was an immediate hit. (Panoramas, Coney Island, DPC, NYC)
A Throwdown: 1905
... of their g-grandparents. My grandfather was living in Brooklyn (age 2) not far from where this photo was taken. He was the youngest ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 2:07pm -

"A throwdown." All washed up on Coney Island circa 1905. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. And in another 105 years... each of us will be as completely, totally and utterly forgotten as these people. Okay girl,Please don't do that some more! Cheer up!Just because we don't know these people doesn't mean they are "forgotten". They probably have great grandchildren somewhere who may remember stories told to them about their fun loving great grandparents! Who knows, they might even resemble them a bit! Let me take that nasty crab off your backThis won't hurt a bit. I'm a lucky girl!I am lucky enough to have known 3 of my 8 great grandparents and I have cherished pictures of at least 3 others. Although I might not recognize a picture from their youth, my living grandparents, who as a matter of fact are NOT cousins, probably would! 0 for 8Everyone has 8 great-grandparents (unless maybe your parents are cousins). Would you be able to identify a single one of those eight people from a photograph? Or even name them? I sure couldn't. Stocking UpPardon Miss, but you seem to have forgotten some accoutrements and are exposing a bit of ankle there. A fistfulOf sand! And another one loaded to go. The old "sand down the back" beach fun, she probably had a few down her back first. 0 for 8? Really? That's rather sad.I certainly have the names of all 32 of my great-great-great grandparents and pictures of some of these as well. Great-grandparents are comparatively easy. Didn't you talk at all your grandparents about what things were like when *they* were growing up? Even if you didn't know great-grandparents directly, most people know at least some of their own grandparents. Great-grandparents were just (obviously) their parents. Many peoples' lives overlap at least some of their g-grandparents. My grandfather was living in Brooklyn (age 2) not far from where this photo was taken. He was the youngest of 6, and even though he's not in it, I do scan the faces to see if any are is older siblings. Not this time. [Maybe it's "sad" if you're inclined to sad thoughts. Even knowing your grandparents, let alone great-grandparents, can be a stretch for some people, if their ancestors were late marriers. One of my grandfathers (Mom's dad) was born not even 10 years after the Civil War ended, in 1874. He died in 1928 so I never knew him. And I'm a young(ish) forty-something. - Dave] Great-grandpaYes, I could identify four of my eight great-grandparents from their photos. One-hundred-year-old photos aren't that rare -- Shorpy is proof of that. What most of us lack, though, are depictions of our ancestors at work and at play. That's something Shorpy helps us with vicariously. Not even the grandparentsI didn't even know any of my grandparents. My father's mother died when he was 3, circa 1922. His father died in the 1960s. My mother's father died between VE and VJ Day and her mother died in 1951, five years before I was born. I knew my step father's parents (whom we visited once, in 1968, in India) and his first wife's mother. She was a lovely woman who welcomed me in as one of her own. I'd give anything to have known my grandparents and all their siblings. Two out of EightGreat grandparents: I'm fortunate enough to have photos of two of my 8 great grandparents, and of all four of my grandparents. Another group with no grandparentsIf your ancestors were Jewish and lived in pre-Revolutionary Russia, or 1920's Germany, those who were well off enough to afford it, and saw the political problems brewing, sent their children away. The Bolsheviks and Nazis extinguished people who were left. Those immigrant children raised their own children without grandparents. And some of those first generation American children raised me. So, though we genetically have eight great grandparents, and four grandparents, my parents, and millions like them, had zero. There aren't graves or even records with their names. (The Gallery, Coney Island, DPC, Swimming)
Fresh Air Outing: 1913
... adults take a "fresh air outing" on a trolley in June in Brooklyn, New York. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham ... Rarefied. Trolley Dodgers Hey, one of the famous Brooklyn trolleys, from which a contemporaneous professional baseball team got ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 09/07/2011 - 5:42pm -

Children and adults take a "fresh air outing" on a trolley in June in Brooklyn, New York. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. "Just look at the joy on"Just look at the joy on their faces." I was thinking that as I looked at the picture wondering why so few of the people in older pictures ever seem happy. They're always to not-happy looking. Oh, and the people are shorter. Nutrition has come a long way towards getting people taller over the past 100 years hasn't it? Evidently, height = happiness. How's the air up here? Rarefied. Trolley DodgersHey, one of the famous Brooklyn trolleys, from which a contemporaneous professional baseball team got a nickname -- one that they still have today. There's quite the egalitarian story -- and lots of great history -- to Brooklyn, its trolleys, and the Trolley Dodgers team. More here: http://www.trolleydodger.com/about/ No, smiling in photos is more recentI'll take the serious looks of the past over the fake-assed plastic grins of the present. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC)
The Tombs: 1905
... like it might help. They took the train out to Queens or Brooklyn or whatever. It turned out to be a cavernous, gloomy, warehouse of a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/18/2012 - 3:34pm -

Circa 1905. "Tombs Prison, New York." The view down Centre Street at Leonard Street. What I wouldn't give for five minutes inside Cosmopolitan Incandescent Supply Co. ("Headquarters for Gas Lamps"), or A. Epstein Novelties & Games! 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Covered domesMust be several hundred men visible in this photo and not one without a hat of some kind. LoiteringAre there a few folks waiting for relatives to be released at the front gate? Sorry - CorrectionThat was the "regular 15 cent dinner" (not 50 Cent, who became a rapper). Thank you. I guess 15 cents was the poor man's rapper. [Shorpy Tip-O-the-Day: If you were signed in as a registered user, you could edit your comments at any time! - Dave] Cable CarsI didn't know New York had them. Wonder if they had recently replaced street cars, former tracks for which are in the street where bricklayers are working. [These are not cable cars. Electrically powered streetcars, underground power supply. - Dave] IncandescentTen years or so ago, my father offered to help an upstate NY neighbour, a sort of quasi-Mennonite farmer, find a replacement part for his old gas stove. An old, old gas stove. My dad, visiting a college friend who still lives in Greenwich Village, looked up a hardware place in the yellow pages that sounded like it might help. They took the train out to Queens or Brooklyn or whatever. It turned out to be a cavernous, gloomy, warehouse of a place, run by a gnomish old guy. My father showed him the broken cast iron part. The guy looked at it, shouted "Hey, Merl, bring up a Flamemaster Eight Doohicky Support Flange!" And another gnomish old guy brought out the exact part. I figure that place started out like the Cosmopolitan Incandescent Supply Co. What a revelationI've heard of 'The Tombs' prison mentioned numerous times in various forms of media and always had a mental image of it being situated on an isolated piece of land far away from populated areas. It is interesting to see that it is located within the city. Yes, we have no bananasexcept for these on the cart in the lower right. I also plan to buy that "Regular 15 cent Dinner." Looks like today is bargain day on the Lower East Side. Dave's Time Machine Trip Dave, don't go to the stores, pick up a copy of the New York Daily News from that wagon out front of the incandescent supply store and put all that money you were going to spend into the stock market! (just make sure to set the time machine before 1929 when you go to collect). Old ShopsMy friend's father owned a hardware store on the Lower East Side. The business was founded by his grandfather in the 1920s. Talk about 5 minutes in a store, I wish I could go there again. I remember him telling me about a customer coming in, in the 1980s, and buying 10 boxes of nails and screws. Then he asked my friend's father if he wanted the contents of the boxes back. It seems he didn't want the nails and screws, but only the containers. They were of value to him because of the NRA emblems printed on them. Tomb it may concern:Like Madison Square Garden, the name "The Tombs" has applied to a succession of buildings. Shown here is the second building (1902) to carry the name; the original (1838) was styled after an Egyptian mausoleum hence the name, which seems to be just too good to retire with the building. Another 5-minute IdeaWhat I wouldn't give for 5 minutes of sitting on that street corner (head covered, of course) and watching that scene unfold. Preferably with a digital video camera. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Streetcars)
Sport Mart: 1923
... Union Course, L.I., Bathing Suits. John Spicer, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., Bathing Suits. Gantner & Mattern, San Francisco, ... Sweaters. Kenneth Harbison, Inc., 720 Herkimer St., Brooklyn, N.Y., Athletic Clothing. E. Weisbrod Sons, Greenfield, Mass., ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/18/2013 - 5:40pm -

Washington, D.C., 1923. "Sport Mart, 1410 New York Avenue N.W." Continuing our day of window-shopping. National Photo glass negative. View full size. Twinplex StropperFound one of these in the attic of my grandparents' Lake Huron house in Michigan many years ago. Please Dave!!??Can we stop for a malted milk after window shopping? I promise we'll all be good. Converse All StarsThis is probably one of the last photos of a pair of Pre-Chuck Taylor Converse All Stars. In 1923 the patch was redesigned with Chuck Taylor's signature. Pure wool bathing suitsThey certainly must have itched! MizpahFront right, we have the No. 44 Mizpah Jock Supporter, which comes with a two week trial - just return it if you find it unsatisfactory. (Fortunately, it can be boiled, which was probably a wise thing to do before putting it on for the first time, given the return policy.) A more intimate version of Mizpah jewelry, perhaps? "The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another," indeed! $3.95 for a wool bathing suitSuspect the itching and scratching were free of charge. Sports Technology!Based on the description found on Google Books, I was excited to see the Brooks Golf Stroke Counter. I thought it counted stokes by detecting the movement of the arms in a swing, kind of like a pedometer detects steps, which would make it a seminal device. Alas, I learned from patent application 1,460,842 granted on July 23, 1923 that the golfer had to click it to count his strokes, thereby making it subject to cheating despite the claims to the contrary. What easier way to cheat in golf than "forgetting" to click your high-tech counter? "A huge maintenance hassle"To quote Dave on awnings, three posts back (One-Chevy Home:1964). For evidence, please note the narrow panel of the awning, running the width of the shop, just above the fringe with the name and address, where one can view holes that have been patched and holes that have not been patched. KedsGee, I had no idea Keds went back that far. That was what we had before there were Nikes, Reeboks, etc. And wool bathing suits sound so uncomfortable. For members of the Polar Bear ClubPure wool bathing suits; must be for those January 1st dips in the ocean. ToymakerI suspect the "Toymaker" box near the door is a kit for casting figures in lead. Can you imagine the outcry if you were to attempt to sell such a toy today? People would be apoplectic! Give me back my THING MAKER! Sure, I have a scar or two from the hotplate, but it was worth it. [Used with wood. - tterrace] My old neighbor ChuckLove the Converse All Stars. Shoes invented by Chuck Taylor, who spent some time in my hometown of Azalia, IN. Sport Mart MerchandiseSport Mart had locations at 914 F St. N.W., 1303 F St. N.W., and 1410 N.Y. Ave. N.W. The following lists some of the suppliers for the sporting goods they carried (compiled from Jun 5, 1923 Washington Post). D. Nusbaum Co., Union Course, L.I., Bathing Suits. John Spicer, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., Bathing Suits. Gantner & Mattern, San Francisco, Calif., Bathing Suits. Armstrong Knitting Mills, Boston, Mass. Distinctive Knit Jackets. Revere Knitting Mills, Malden, Mass, Sweaters. Kenneth Harbison, Inc., 720 Herkimer St., Brooklyn, N.Y., Athletic Clothing. E. Weisbrod Sons, Greenfield, Mass., Leather Bill Folds. Newtown Line Co., Homer N.Y., Fish Lines. Pflueger's Fishing Tackle, Enterprise Mfg. Co., Akron, Ohio. H.S. Frost Co., New York, N.Y., Snelled Fish Hooks.
Lessons Learned: 1935
... upper right corner, same place mine were in the 1940's in Brooklyn, NY school. Air conditioning Today they close the school when ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/09/2016 - 9:58am -

1935. "School in Red House, West Virginia." Medium-format nitrate negative by Elmer Johnson for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Loving the cursiveThe teacher's elegant cursive is just one more thing that has disappeared in these ensuing eighty-one years. DC ?In 1971 living in Englewood N.J., I bought a large Dutch Colonial type house that although electrified, still had live gas lines running through it. Hung under the floor joists in the basement were double lines on porcelain stand offs EXACTLY like the ones seen in the upper right corner above. I was told it was from the original Edison direct current lines of old. They disappeared up into the walls at varying points but obviously were not connected to any fixtures in the house. Help Wanted: Hair StylistLooks like the town had only one barber who bobbed or shaved the girls and boys alike. No braids. No Shirley Temple curls. The girl in the center of the photo has a particularly skill-less variation on a boy haircut. Seems like there would have been a depression era job opportunity for a decent hair stylist in Red House. Cool in the winterI'll bet that was one school room to keep warm in the winter. No insulation in the walls or ceilings. I would guess this picture was taken in late spring, judging from the flowers, open windows and the kids clothing. Is that door to the right of the black board a storage room or indoor privy? Shoes OptionalLove the bare feet! The three "r's"I believe this town and school may still exist in W.V. Some of those kids look well-dressed while others have no shoes or socks, but they still learned all they could. Being descended from a humble Pa. coal-miner grandpa I can verify that even with his lowly job, he could read and write fluently in two languages and valued a good education for his kids. These kids are paying attention. Looks familiar...but I don't see Spanky or Alfalfa. CleanBut notice how clean and ironed those dresses are. Long arithmeticAbout 8 years ago, when my daughter was beginning arithmetic at school, the teacher asked a few of us parents if we wanted her to a) let them use calculators from the word go, or b) actually teach them arithmetic. We all looked at one another dumbfounded. She wasn't kidding. We chose arithmetic. No InkwellsI guess without any pigtails they didn't see a need. HaircutsIn a small town in West Virginia in 1935, the kids didn't go to barbers for their haircuts; their mothers cut their hair at home. My father (older than these kids - born in 1911) told us how a haircut happened when he was a kid. Mother put a bowl upside down on your head, and cut all the hair below the bowl. Looks like that's what a lot of these kids got. And was this a Little Red School House in Red House? May not have pens and inkbut there are inkwells in the desks. They're clearly visible on the first and second desks in the leftmost row, and the third desk in the first row of boys. Reading levelLooking over the shoulder of the little girl in the second row, there's no pandering going on here. Plenty of small text and minimal pictures. Impressive. I looked at my mom's middle school history book from 1920, and it's the same way. Just text, and a few maps. Compare this to the oversize, overweight and, I would contend, "content-light" textbooks our kids have now. On inkwellsThere are inkwells. Look at the corner of the desks on the left of the picture. There doesn't seem to be anything in them at the moment though. Our school desks in the 1950s still had inkwells, but they were never used. Ink Wells?Look closely and you will see at least four ink wells, all positioned at the upper right corner, same place mine were in the 1940's in Brooklyn, NY school. Air conditioningToday they close the school when it gets hot and the air conditioner breaks down. Air conditioning here consists of an open window. (The Gallery, Education, Schools, Kids)
Pop, Gas, Smokes: 1950s
... the whole vending machine itself from National Vending in Brooklyn for $75.00... far less than the cost of a carton of cigarettes these ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2015 - 9:03pm -

From a newspaper morgue somewhere in California comes this undated medium-format mid-century negative with the sketchy notation "Oakland service station." Who can help us to fill in the blanks? View full size. Tires balanced while-U wait.Those round things hanging on the pedestal are part of a Hunter tire balancing system. Back in the days when balancing tires was more of an art than a science those were attached to the wheels while they were on the car. The mechanic then spun the tire with an electric motor and adjusted some knobs until it felt the smoothest. After he stopped the wheel the dials on the machine would tell him where to put the weights. There was a shop in my home town using this system well into the 1980's, now of course a computerized machine is used with far greater accuracy. The Lost DotThis seems to be shortly after Dr Pepper lost the '.' My First Comment on ShorpyThe business depicted is currently DC Auto Repair, 14673 San Pablo Avenue, in the town of San Pablo, California, a few communities north of Oakland. The apartment building seen across the street is still there, and can be found on Street View at 2836 Del Camino Drive, San Pablo, California. As an Oaklander, I figured it out with the address shown, "14673," recognizing it as a high address number that would only be on one of the lengthy north-south roads that pass through Oakland. I first tried 14673 MacArthur Boulevard, because those hills and apartment building-style look like those in south-east Oakland/San Leandro. Then I tried 14673 Foothill Boulevard, for similar reasons. Then I tried 14673 San Pablo Avenue. Bingo. San Pablo Avenue is an old Mission-era road, Camino de la Contra Costa, which is also State Route 123, and runs 23 miles from the town of Crockett on the Carquinez Strait to downtown Oakland. As with so many environments from the early-mid 20th Century, the area is, ironically, now much more green and wooded despite its greater population density. [Bravo! For your next trick, what's the name over the address? -Dave] 30 cents a packAn Arkansas newspaper article dated 1957 reported prices increasing from 27 to 30 cents in vending machines. At that time, you could buy the whole vending machine itself from National Vending in Brooklyn for $75.00... far less than the cost of a carton of cigarettes these days ($85-$90 in Connecticut). The YearThat we'll never exactly know. The cigarettes in the machine tell me it is the late 50's. The Marlboros are in flip-top boxes, introduced in 1955, so it can't be before then. Bailey's StationIt is apparently Bailey's, judging from this advertisement selling a La Salle mobile home in the 20 November 1960 Oakland Tribune. Crude wheel alignments tooThe device the wheel balancer rings are hanging on is a toe gauge. The car would be driven over it slowly. This would only check the toe, not camber and caster. It was assumed if the toe was correct, caster and camber were also correct, since changing either of these angles affected toe. Doing an alignment, toe is always set last. Regarding the Hunter wheel balancer - that assembly was spinning at least 70mph, inches from your body and you hovered over it adjusting the weights to get the smoothest spin. One of the wheels was held to increase/decrease the amount of weight, and another was held to rotate the weight around the wheel. I remember balancing an old 55 Chevy with this contraption. I dialed in too much weight and knocked a whole chunk of body filler off the fender because of the vibration. We still have the motor spinner at work. We use it to find noisy wheel bearings. It has TWO motors and is 220 volts. 14740The apartment building seems to be 14740 San Pablo. The railings are pretty distinctive. 10-2-4The photo is no earlier than 1954, which is when the streamlined Dr Pepper logo on the side of the bottle cases was introduced. You are correctI was going to argue the location, but then noticed this detail. An Anxious World Wants to KnowIs he a Pepper too? 1958-1963?Those Salem cigarettes were introduced in 1956. Assuming it would take a few years of promotion to get them popular enough to include in the cigarette machine and judging by the man’s boxy suit and Brylcreemed hair which was in style at the time, I’d guess this photo is from the late fifties early sixties. 1960? '61? Going upThe automotive hoist in the bottom left of the picture was manufactured by Globe Hoist Co. I have one identical to it in my garage. Bailey's Signal ServiceYes, that would be Bailey's Signal Service at the bottom of Tank Farm Hill* in San Pablo, on San Pablo Ave. at about Lake St. I passed it every day on my way to Richmond High School in the 1960s. Apartment building in the distance is 14740 San Pablo Ave. - and it's still there with distinctive railing. * Before Hilltop Mall (1970s) and other development, the storage tank visible at the top of the hill in the picture was just one of many in a "tank farm" on Standard Oil refinery's land between San Pablo and Pinole, (The Gallery, Gas Stations)
Cortlandt Street: 1908
... It will run crosstown to East River and a point under the Brooklyn Bridge. Conduit cars replaced cable cars and drew power from rail in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 5:46pm -

New York circa 1908. "Cortlandt Street." Lapping at the balmy shores of the Glen Island Hotel, with the new Singer Building rising in the distance. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Ground ZeroThe hotel sat at 115 West St & Cortlandt. It's now the site of the new World Trade towers and the 9/11 memorial. Cortlandt, back in 1960At that time, Cortlandt Street was teeming with small shops, mostly associated with radio parts and consumer electronics suppliers. It was one of the travel links I used to travel up to 42nd Street in midtown, one leg in a trip that began with a drive from Plainfield NJ to the train at Scotch Plains NJ, to Jersey City, across the river by ferry, a walk up Cortlandt Street to the subway, and finally, to midtown. A most interesting and varied commuting route. WTC etc.Whoa, this is basically on West Street facing east, right at the base of where the World Trade Center was. Also, looked up Oelsner's Pilsner. Haven't found much, yet. Radio Row!So this is what "Radio Row" was like before Marconi came along & everything went downhill. Historical LocationCortlandt Street has played many roles in 20th and 21st century history. It was home to "Radio Row," a substantial congregation of radio and electronics merchants from 1930 to 1970. Replaced by the now infamous Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. 6th Avenue Elevated[This shows the Ninth Avenue Elevated line, not the Sixth. - Dave] This is looking east toward the 6th Avenue Elevated line (it is running on Greenwich Street at this point), which ran to South Ferry and where one could connect with ferries to Governors Island, Staten Island and other points. Connections could be made to 3rd Avenue and 2nd Avenue Elevated Lines at that same destination. The conduit streetcar of the Metropolitan Railway is short-switching instead of going down to North River. It will run crosstown to East River and a point under the Brooklyn Bridge. Conduit cars replaced cable cars and drew power from rail in slot between two running rails, as shown in the photo. Cortlandt Street, in addition to being "Radio Row," was a center for WW2 surplus and street cart merchants. Dave's note at head of this entry is correct. My memory was faulty on this point. The 6th and 9th Avenue Elevateds shared common track both uptown and downtown, but diverged north of Battery Place and coincided again uptown. The station on Greenwich and Cortlandt in photo is 9th Avenue line. 6th Avenue Elevated Line Station was east at Cortland and Trinity Place. See map at :http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/maps/irt_1906_railways_guide_54.gif The New Cortlandt StreetThe shopping district, known as Radio Row centered on Cortlandt Street from 1921 through its demise in 1966 when the most of the area was condemned to make room for the World Trade Center. The exact count of stores is unknown, an educated guess put it at 70 over those few blocks anchored by Cortlandt. I never worked there, in 1966 we were basically in the Kitchen Appliance and Radio/ TV business in Queens and the Nassau/Suffolk County areas. We came to Manhattan around 1974, Radio Row was gone, a mini replacement was happening on West 45th Street between 5th and Sixth Avenues. When we first got there, there were 11 storefronts there that sold Electronics, ours was the 12th. A few Cortlandt Street holdovers were in the neighborhood as well, Leonard Radio, Davega, Lafayette Radio among others. Over the next 30 years probably 25 more stores came and went. We sold our shop in 1998, My Brother retired and I stayed with the new owners for a few years . At the end only our store, Sound City and the esoteric Harvey Electronics remained and they are both now gone as well. In motionnearly 21 years later. A Fox Movietone camera recorded street scenes on Ccrtlandt for posterity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ArWEgINIg (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Streetcars)
In Just-spring: 1952
... violation of policy) and reading in a heavy, husky, hoarse Brooklyn/Bronx accent, "Thy fingers make early flowers of all things -- " ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/16/2014 - 8:30pm -

"May 4, 1952. Dam at Blue Earth below cemetery." The latest installment of Minnesota Kodachromes might be titled "Tadpole and the Big Dippers." And hey, did you see that fish?! 35mm color slide by Hubert Tuttle. View full size. And now we knowThis must be the trouble that our mothers knew we'd get into if allowed to frolic unsupervised. Incredible colorI feel like I could step right into the picture. Initial impressionsNot even posed. At first glance I thought this was a Rockwell painting. You know you're in Minnesota-When boys wear winter hats with earflaps for Springtime wading. I'm lookingBut I don't see the little lame balloonman. Best dam photo on ShorpySeriously, that is a beautiful photo. A Genuine Snapshot MasterpieceThe composition, lighting, and color in this image truly rise to the level of masterpiece. I think Bazille would have traded his canvas and brushes for a roll of Kodachrome had he seen it. Image qualityEither these were incredibly well preserved slides, or you have changed your scanning techniques. The quality of this set is absolutely amazing. Initial impressions (cont.)I agree Dutch. Had to study closely looking for brush strokes. Great and unusual lighting and exposure. RockwellianIf you say this is a Kodachrome, OK, but I've never seen a photo look so much like a Norman Rockwell's painting. (Maybe it's a Kodachrome of a Rockwell painting?) E. E. Cummings Flashback!Just seeing the phrase "In just-spring" flashed an image in my head of Sven Armens, longtime (long, long time!) English professor at the University of Iowa. He looked like Rance Howard and sounded like Arby's sandwich detective Bo Dietl. I can just picture him sitting casually on the corner of the classroom desk in loose slacks and sport coat, chain-smoking ultra-low tar Carlton cigarettes in the classroom (in violation of policy) and reading in a heavy, husky, hoarse Brooklyn/Bronx accent, "Thy fingers make early flowers of all things -- " eddieandbill come runningSomebody should note the title's reference to a wonderfully apt poem by E.E. Cummings. (Make that e.e. cummings if you're a purist.) CompellingIf this was just a snapshot, it was certainly a lucky one. It also proves that, in spite of what many used to say, Kodachrome was capable of subtlety in the way it handled greens. When the box of slides came back from the processor, it must have been a happy day for this photographer. Warm spellOften the lilacs don't bloom in Minnesota until after Mother's Day. 1952 had an unusually warm spring: "The longest warm spell was from April 23 to May 7, constituting 15 consecutive days with warmer than average high temperatures." It reached 91 degrees in Minneapolis on May 4. No doubt Blue Earth was enjoying comparably toasty temps, but I'm sure that water was still ice-cold. (Minnesota Kodachromes, Swimming)
Edna and Olga: 1925
... actor James Dunn (an Oscar winner for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"). Musty monikers I always find it interesting the way names, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2011 - 12:39pm -

May 6, 1925. Washington, D.C. "Miss Edna Rush & Miss Olga Joy." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. DepthThere looks to be only six inches of water, hope they were able to catch something besides our eyes! Fishing in PearlsMust be a high class fishing hole, they're both wearing pearls. They must be asking themselves "Do I have to put my feet in that mucky water?" Rush to Joynothing more to add. The fishing hole is most likely the C&O canalThe steep rocky banks are a giveaway. Although there is a building in the background, of which there are very few. It looks like it was partially drained at the time. Edna!Miss Edna Rush was a popular nightclub and vaudeville entertainer who at one time had her own radio show. In 1945 she married actor James Dunn (an Oscar winner for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"). Musty monikersI always find it interesting the way names, like clothing and so many other things, go out of style. I can't say I've heard of too many Ednas or Olgas nowadays. Here's a list of some old-fashioned names to give some examples of what I mean (though interestingly, neither Edna nor Olga are on it... lol). Ogling Olga!Not so much really, but couldn't resist using one form of the word ogle. Crude BoatIn this self-consciously rustic scene the boat is self-consciously crude too -- no ribs, thwarts resting on a stringer with no knees or gussets securing it to the hull, oarlocks on blocks through bolted with huge unsightly bolts to the sheer strake, itself held on by staples (probably the joint is not watertight), and the area below that shows no seams. It couldn't be plywood in that period, could it? But that's what it looks like. If we could see all of it, it might well be a pram (square in the bow as well as the stern where Edna, or is it Olga, is fishing.) Which leads me to wonder where they got such a craft in the (even then) fairly refined nation's capital. [The craft is a small river punt. - Dave] "Oprah...Uma. Uma...Oprah"Edna...Olga. Olga...Edna. Rememberwhen fishing was sexy? Whither Progress It's depressing to note that wooden row boats are now found only in maritime museums or wealthy collectors storage sheds. Those clunky, heavy and slow handmade half-crates were pretty much indestructible, as long as you hauled them out now and then, but you could never get the stink of worms and fish out of the bilge. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, D.C.)
Capital Traction: 1932
... was very wide popularity, and was a standard of New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago, and dozens of other cities throughout the U.S. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/14/2011 - 4:42pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1932. "Capital Traction Company trolley in car barn." 8x10 safety negative, National Photo Company Collection. View full size. I Should Have KnownWhen I saw this Shorpy photo, I became instantly curious as to the origins of the offbeat name, "Capital Traction." A little research revealed that the company and its name were the brainchild of our US Congress. Now it all makes perfect sense to me. [There were hundreds of traction companies in the early part of the century, the traction coming from a moving cable under the street. A lot of them eventually adopted electric propulsion or switched to buses. - Dave] I wonderIf O. Roy Chalk had a framed copy of this picture somewhere in his offices when it was D.C. Transit? Neat picture, thanks, Dave for the posting. CTC 679Back to the library: Capital Traction 679 was part of a group built by Jewett in 1911, Nos. 621-700. Succeeding Capital Transit renumbered them 207-286. These were part of the largest group of DC streetcars built by Jewett from 1910 to 1912. This series of cars was scrapped between 1945 and 1947. Note this is NOT a "trolley car." There is no trolley on the roof. Many of this series never had a trolley pole; they ran off the conduit inside the slot between the running rails, indicating this car spent its career running in the DC inner-city. The conduit system was mandated by Congress to eliminate unsightly wires along DC streets. [Fascinating research! Generally speaking, a trolley car can be "any wheeled carriage running on a track." Over the years, Capital Traction operated both electric and cable-traction streetcars. Washington's only cable-car loop ran out of Capital traction's car barn in Georgetown. - Dave] Transfer TableThe car is sitting on a transfer table. Transfer tables were used to switch cars using a much smaller space than a traditional yard with turnouts. Going Sideways.I see the Capital Traction car shown on the transfer table collects it's its electric current from a shoe suspended between the rails in the centre of the track. The rectangular checkered "manholes covers" allow maintenance of the current conductor under the pavement level. This method eliminates all the above the surface of the street, trolley wires, support cables and poles, presenting a cleaner street view. (Maybe Dave can find a photo of the current collection shoe hanging beneath a streetcar? I understand there were concrete pits in the streets where the shoes could be applied and removed at locations where streetcars so equipped could change from shoe operation to trolley pole and wire operation in suburbs.) [See this post. - Dave] The car shown has only two traction motors on the inner two axles. The wheels on the outer two axles are of a smaller diameter than the inner wheels with the motors, and the journal boxes on the outer axles reflect this and are closer to the road surface. Apparently some versions of this style of two-motor truck was more prone to derailment on curves than the standard streetcar truck with all the wheels the same diameter. Some eight-wheel cars had only two motors for use in flat cities, many more cars had four motors, some cars had no motors at all and were trailers pulled by the motor car coupled ahead, with an electric jumper cable between the cars for the towed trailer's lights and so it's its Conductor could signal the Motorman in the front powered car. The electric traction motor and it's its gearing to move the transfer table at right angles to the streetcar tracks on each side of it is visible to the right below the wooden walkway. The controller for the table is to the left, and is similar to one found on a streetcar. The power for the transfer table is picked up from power rails parallel to the table on the end similar to the "third rail" found in subways. True Dave, butI'll grant that most would call this a trolley car. And CT did run some cable lines, but the cable was long gone by the c.1932 time of photo. The slot in DC track was for spaced contacts which were swept by a skate or plow attached to the bottom of the car. The skate was always in touch with at least two contacts. [I believe New York City had the same conduit system.] Any former residents of DC region about 60 years of age will remember the "plow pits" located near the District line; here the pit man would remove the skate or plow from under an outbound car while the car's crew would raise the trolley pole for the ride into the suburbs. Inbound cars reversed this procedure. All of this is to make the point that CT 679 is an electric, not cable car. Dave, I've got to believe Harris and Ewing had some photos of Washington's plow pits! [There's no question about this being an electric streetcar. - Dave] Pay-within Car Washington Post, Jul 4, 1910. District Railway Commission Hears Many Complaints, and Acts on Others. A defense of the pay-as-you-enter cars was made in a communication received from Amherst W. Barber, of the general land office, who declared that the cars in question have done more to protect women passengers from rough crowds and smoke on the back platforms of the old-style cars than anything else. Mr. Eddy reported to the commission that a new style pay-within car has been put in operation on the Fourteenth street line of the Capital Traction Company as an experiment. The car is similar to the pay-within cars which have been in operation on the Chevy Chase line for several months, but differs from these in that the entrance and exit doors are of the folding instead of the sliding type, and are operated manually instead of pneumatically. The door and folding step mechanism are so constructed that the doors can be opened and closed with little effort on the part of the motorman or conductor. A wealth of detailThere was something rather splendid, and elegant, in the use of the clerestory type of roof in railway and street-car vehicles. It was common here in England up until the 1930s, but then, sadly, became history. Modern tram-type and railway vehicles are undoubtedly extremely clever, but utterly soulless when compared to the beautiful designs of the vehicles from yesteryear. As with all photographs on this site, there is a wealth of detail here. I was intrigued to see that the figure 7 in the "17" painted on the side of the pit (and almost directly beneath the 'CTO' symbol on the side of the vehicle) is in precisely the same font style as the figure 7's in the numbers 679 on the side of the vehicle. The Company obviously valued conformity to common standards! I know that the old San Francisco cable cars are still operating, but are there any electric cars like 679 in the picture being operated, even if "just" in a museum? Dave in England Vintage StreetcarsSan Francisco has an active electric Muni system and operates a fleet of vintage cars mostly on the Embarcadero route as tourist attractions. New Orleans has fairly classic cars running on the St Charles line. The Orange Empire Trolley museum in So Cal runs cars on the weekend. Google will no doubt turn up much more detail regarding these and others. Ad CopyI wonder what the ad partially visible in the penultimate window from the right says. Boys Own stuffThere's more detail here for young lads than you'll get in a Meccano set. I notice Dr Who has just left, judging by the plasma warp through the image. Capital Transit M Street ShopsThat photograph was taken in the Capital Traction M Street Shops, at 3222 M Street NW in Georgetown, DC. A photograph looking in the other direction is on page 289 of "100 Years of Capital Traction" by LeRoy O. King. As Olde Buck notes, Car 679 is a Jewett, painted a solid dark apple green with silver pinstriping. With only two motors, they were noted for slow acceleration. The car behind the door is one of the cars numbered from 26-85. Cars 26-45 were bought from J. G. Brill in 1918. Cars 46-85 were bought from Kuhlman in 1919. They were rebuilt in 1928 with leather seats, faster motors, and painted light grey with a green stripe on the upper half of the lower side panels. One car of this series (number 27) belongs to the National Capital Trolley Museum, who are presently restoring it to this appearance. This information would put this photograph sometime between 1928 and 1933, when Capital Transit and Washington Railway and Electric merged to form Capital Transit. I'd figure the earlier end of that range, since that car in the background looks so fresh. The M Street Shops remained in service until 1962 and the end of streetcar service in Washington DC. The site is now The Shoppes at Georgetown Park. Odd sized wheels.This car uses the 39-E type wheelset. It was very wide popularity, and was a standard of New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago, and dozens of other cities throughout the U.S. With this version being one of the earliest examples of the "maximum Traction" truck. Unlike most trucks where the bolster is centered between the axles, to increase tractive effort, the bolster on this type of truck is offset toward the driving wheel side. (The larger wheel) Unfortunately, this also made the truck prone to derailing on the smaller "pony" wheel end. By 1930, the 39-E had fallen out of favor in the US. However a variant of this with the pony and driving wheels reversed, did continue use in the UK and Australia. (The Gallery, D.C., DPC, Streetcars)
Logan's Heroes: 1942
... destined for medical corps training. Here he is back in Brooklyn with his younger sister either on his way west or on his way to Fort ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/18/2022 - 2:15pm -

May 1942. Kremmling, Colorado. "Soldiers from Fort Logan hitchhiking along U.S. Highway 40." Acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Synchronized ThumbingOur boys show how it's done: Army Air CorpsEnlisted Army Air Corps personnel (collar insignia). There's an airfield in Kremmling, but I don't know if that was an Army Air Corps installation at one time. I wonder where they're heading, particularly since they don't seem to have any luggage. My dad was on his wayWithin a year or so of Vachon's picture my father arrived at Ft Logan as a newly minted Army Air Corpsman destined for medical corps training. Here he is back in Brooklyn with his younger sister either on his way west or on his way to Fort Dix where he shipped out to England (not sure of which way he was going). Here they are again (on the left) about twenty years later in this picture I posted here a few years ago. I don't have many regrets but one I do have is never really asking Dad about his service time. He told me quite a bit about his college days but never elaborated much on his time in the Army. I wish I could go back and question him about it. Army Air Corps (not yet Air Force)The two soldiers appear to be wearing the DUI (Distinctive Unit Insignia) of the Army Air Corps' Technical Training Command, which had a branch at Lowry Field, Colorado. As opposed to flight instruction, the Technical Training Command instructed soldiers in support skills like photography, armament and clerical roles. Superman SustainsIt's a bird; it's a plane; it's an Airman! CockedI bet that guy on the left didn't wear his hat that way during inspections. Hitch HikersI would give them a lift anytime. (The Gallery, John Vachon, On the Road, Small Towns, WW2)
Colossus: 1902
"New East River bridge from Brooklyn." The Williamsburg Bridge under construction circa 1902. Detroit ... McLean Construction Company, contracted to build the Brooklyn side anchorage. The other side was contracted to Shanly & Ryan. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 5:31pm -

"New East River bridge from Brooklyn." The Williamsburg Bridge under construction circa 1902. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size. UniqueAs the posted bill says. A photo you can almost walk into. Incredible detail here! My Bridge...During my early childhood this Giant loomed large just outside my bedroom window on the Manhattan side. We were on the top floor in one of the towers of the Baruch Houses. I can still remember the rumble of the subways going back and forth through the night. I would peer into the passing cars and wonder who they were and what would be their final destination. I have a wonderful Underhill print showing the Manhattan approach, I believe circa 1913, which show trolley cars and subway entrances along Delancey Street that no longer exist. Thank you for another great post! My Bridge, tooThis photo was taken from South 6th Street between Wythe and Kent avenues. I live on the other side of the bridge, on South 5th, almost directly across from where the photographer stood. The best bridge in the city. Bridge BuildersThe somewhat faded name on the building is the Degnon McLean Construction Company, contracted to build the Brooklyn side anchorage. The other side was contracted to Shanly & Ryan. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, NYC)
Too Much Fun: 1905
... Community College Professor Emeritus (and former Brooklyn Borough Historian, director and archivist) John Manbeck. He complied ... Coney Island ephemera that has since been donated to the Brooklyn College Library. On his list of rides and shows is this entry: ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 1:49pm -

New York circa 1905. "Dreamland Park at Coney Island." Among the amusements to be sampled: An observation tower, the Bostock trained animal show, a Baltimore Fire cyclorama, the General Bumps ride, a miniature railway, Will Conklin's Illusions, the Temple of Mirth and Hooligan's Dream. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Oil burnersThese were oil burning steam locomotives. The Miniature Railroad was built by the Cagney Brothers in 1904 to replace an earlier version that was lost in a November, 1903 fire. It made a circuit of the park running underneath the promenade. The locomotives, which could pull three of the two-passenger cars, were built by the Cagney Brothers' Miniature Railway Company in New York. Their ad below is from the February 7, 1903 issue of The Billboard. An earlier Shorpy post with a closeup of one of the locomotives has more information here, and a 1903 Edison silent movie of Coney Island before the fire (found here) shows the train emerging out from under the promenade at the 7:44 minute mark. You Can't Miss MeI'll be the one wearing a mustache a hat and a dark suit. The cops must have had an awful time with witness descriptions of the perps back then. Where to look first?There are so many wonderful aspects to this picture, I hardly know what to take in first. I love the "Temple of Mirth" (Can you imagine "mirth" being used on a ride today? How many folks even know what it means anymore?) I also love the "Hooligan's Dream" (but ditto on the meaning being mostly lost on 21st century folk). What REALLY intrigues me however, is what the people in the forefront are looking at instead of the elephants right behind them, which I would be fascinated by. Surely elephants weren't a commonplace sight. [Happy Hooligan, whose image is in the circle on the sign, was an extremely popular comic strip character of the time. - tterrace] Soon to be gone - againDreamland was rebuilt in early 1904 after a disastrous fire destroyed it in November, 1903. Six years after this picture was taken this scene was again destroyed by fire. It made news even in far away Australia where, two days later, the tragedy was reported by The Argus newspaper. FIRE AT CONEY ISLAND. AMUSEMENT PALACE DESTROYED. DAMAGE 3,000,000 DOLLARS. NEW YORK, May 27. A destructive fire occurred yesterday at Dreamland, one of the great amusement resorts at Coney Island, New York. The damage is estimated at 3,000,000 dol. The menagerie was destroyed, 50 wild animals being cremated. The adjoining place of entertainment, Luna park, was saved. [Dreamland and Luna Park practically constitute Coney Island, which is the greatest resort of its kind in the world. The resources of inventors are taxed to provide new thrills, with the result that each season finds some ingenious novelty installed for the New York clerk and shop-girl. Dreamland contains dozens of forms of entertainment. The visitor may travel by captive airship, or glide at fearful speed down the chute, through a cascade of real water. He may "loop the loop" in a car, or travel in a small chariot over an undulating sea of metal, the waves of which are caused by machinery below. The "Rocky Road to Dublin, " a fearful switchback apparatus, and "General Bumps," involving a hazardous slide down a polished wooden surface, are among the joys of the place; while those who desire to visit other lands may take a trip to the North Pole or the wilds of Central Africa with equal ease and cheapness.] A more complete newspaper story with pictures of the aftermath can be found here, and a few more pictures can be seen here and here. The steam locomotivehas been hooked up to some pretty fancy oversized cars, and can you believe observing HYENAS for 25 cents, forget lions and panthers, they've got HYENAS ! Bostock's Wild Animal Exhibition Broadway Magazine, April 1905. Although Coney Island has improved greatly in the character of its shows within the last few years, the same atmosphere of careless holiday-making prevails, and you always have a feeling of jolly irresponsibility as you go from one place of amusement to another. Bostock's wild animal exhibition in “Dreamland,” is again a prominent feature of the summer. The animals are interesting, whether in their dens or in the arena, while the trainers who put the savage creatures through performances in the large steel cage are as impressive as ever. There was one act I saw at Bostock's lately which struck me as particularly good. A young lady in short skirts, who was announced as “La Belle Selika,” skipped into the cage with seven—I think it was seven—lionesses. She made them get up, reluctantly, upon pedestals in different parts of the cage. Then, as the orchestra struck up the music of the “Pretty Maidens,” in “Florodora,” she danced, teasing the animals by pointing her slippers at them one after another, and retreating just far enough to escape the angry paws darted at her each time. They seemed eager to tear her to pieces. She pirouetted about the creatures, always close to them, but just far enough away to avoid being clawed, until at last she struck an attitude immediately in front of the most savage of her pets and smiled in response to the applause, while the lioness growled. It was decidedly the prettiest act I ever saw in connection with trained wild animals, and it looked fearfully dangerous, whether it was so actually or not Live Steam?I would assume that that little locomotive was actually a steam powered kerosene burner... does anyone know? UPDATE: The kerosene assumption was (wrongly) made because I couldn't imagine firing a firebox that small with coal to maintain a working head of steam - Ausonius. Pigmy Locomotive While the Cagney Bros. operated many miniature railway concessions, the actual builder of this engine was the McGarigle Machine Co, of Niagara Falls, NY. Tobbacconist, is there something in the photo that indicates oil as the fuel source? The following article states the originals were built with a 10 inch firebox burning anthracite. I think this engine is coal fired. In 1905, coal was still a widely available and familiar fuel. Also, the trousers on the engineer appear rather well coated in coal dust. [Additional information and photos.] The Railway Age, July 1, 1898. A Pigmy Locomotive. What is claimed to be the smallest locomotive ever made for drawing passenger cars has been made for the Miniature Railroad company by Thomas E. McGarigle of Niagara Falls. This steam railroad is to be operated at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, Neb., and, in all, six locomotives are to be built for the company under the present contract. It is possible they will be used at other resorts, such as Coney Island, Atlantic City, Deal Beach, Washington Heights and Niagara Falls. … The height of the locomotive from the top of the stack to the rail is 25 inches, and the gauge is 12½ inches. The cylinders are 2x4 inches. The boiler is 1½ horse power, made of steel, and is tested to 300 pounds pressure, and will hold 24 gallons of water. … The firebox is 10 by 10 inches. The weight of this little engine is about 600 pounds, and it will run on a rail three-quarters of an inch square. Hard coal will be used as fuel. The capacity of the locomotive is 10 cars, each containing two persons, or about 4,000 pounds. The locomotive is equipped with sandbox, bell, etc., and has a steam brake between the drivers. One man, whose position will be on a seat in the tender, operates the engine. The scale on which the locomotive was built is about one-seventh that of one of the New York Central's largest engines, and as it stands in the shop it has a very businesslike appearance, as shown by the illustration. Live Steam Model FuelsThere`s no guarantee or requirement that this locomotive is oil fueled. Even today Live Steam enthusiasts operating large scale locomotives are running with a variety of fuels. Propane is popular as is oil or kerosene. However coal is still the most popular fuel for ridable trains like this and can be used at gauges as small as 1.26 inches. So unless there were other considerations, like local laws, there`s a high likelihood that this engine was coal fired. All in the FamilyYes, a great number of the 'Cagneys' (as they were known) were built in the Niagara shop of Thomas and Peter McGarigle; however, since their sister Winifred married Timothy Cagney, it was considered to be all in the family. Peter—an engineer—was mostly likely the one who designed the first of the miniature locomotives, ostensibly in 1885. In the early 1890s Timothy and his brothers David and John, were running a ticket brokerage company known as Cagney Bros. in New York, but by 1898 decided to fully concentrate on marketing the McGarigle locomotives and so incorporated The Miniature Railway Company, of Jersey City. For years the two businesses were nearly indistinguishable from one another, and were in fact interchangeable as far as miniature railways were concerned, as they worked together on various projects. In 1903 the Cagney Bros. Co. was ensconced in the Planter's Hotel in St. Louis—there to build the eight mile miniature railroad that would run through the grounds of the St. Louis Purchase Exposition (the 1904 World's Fair). Timothy Cagney was listed as President, and Peter McGarigle as Chief Engineer. While the Cagney Brothers' Miniature Railway Company was selling the vast majority of the McGarigle railroad oriented output, the Niagara firm was still peddling their own product as late as 1915 when they made a proposition to the City of San Francisco to operate a miniature railway in the park. By the 1920s however, the Cagney Bros. had absorbed the miniature railway portion of the McGarigle Machine Company, and McGarigle's—once also known for their gasoline marine engines—appears to have been reduced to being an automotive machine shop. The locomotive building operation was now referred to as "the Cagney Brothers' Amusement Company Niagara Falls plant." By the 1940s the late Timothy Cagney—and not Peter McGarigle—was being given credit as the inventor. According to one report, two of Cagney's "best known installations were two gold-plated trains with steam locomotives built for the King of Siam, and the 'Trip Around the World' exhibit at the New York World's Fair of 1939 and 1940." As for the oil burner reference, it's from a list of Coney Island rides and shows complied by Kingsborough Community College Professor Emeritus (and former Brooklyn Borough Historian, director and archivist) John Manbeck. He complied a vast collection of Coney Island ephemera that has since been donated to the Brooklyn College Library. On his list of rides and shows is this entry: A Miniature Railroad built by the Cagney Brothers made a circuit of park beneath the promenade. Each of its three small cars, pulled by a small oil-burning steam locomotive, held two passengers. I do not know what his original source was (but I'll try to find out); however, while the vast majority of the McGarigle/Cagney locomotives were coal-fired, it makes sense that these would be oil-fired as it would have virtually eliminated the fear of sparks from the smoke stack—especially so soon after the disastrous 1903 fire. (The Gallery, Coney Island, DPC, Railroads)
Extra Firm: 1905
... A little rest. My father worked for Con Edison in Brooklyn. When they worked on a site a tool trailer was dropped off, the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/08/2014 - 1:09pm -

Circa 1905, location not specified. "Please go 'way and let me sleep." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. He must have drifted off quicklyA fetal tuck would have been a better position on that pier. He will wake up with sore kneecaps. Don't laugh; this could be youI've seen railroaders curl up and doze in some pretty incredible situations. (I never was much good at that.) But that was in the modern era. A typical work schedule for any "blue collar" employee (not "worker", a Bolshevik term) in the early 20th century was 10 or 12 hours Monday-Friday, and half day on Saturday. They gave you Sundays off and the two holidays were Christmas and July 4 with holiday pay optional. Also, in 1905 mechanical aids in work were just starting to show up on some jobs. Muscles were cheaper than machines. This fellow worked a lot harder than most of us could do today. Spend a day with our friend here, and you could crash right along side of him. A look at the shadow indicates midday, and no one is around but the "suit." This guy's sleeping through lunch break. Barlow Boye Co.If we could locate the Barlow Boyle Co. (see sign on the building behind the bridge, we might have a location). Nothing came up on Google or Ancestry. [The sign says Barron Boyle -- a maker of paints and varnishes in Cincinnati. - Dave] Thanks Dave, for the correction. Now I see it. I was also thinking "Barton," but your eyes are sharper. A. S. Boyle established a paint and glass company first located on West Court Street and then 428 Main Street. The advertising sign, however, may have been on any building in Cincinnati. TrendsetterHe's the first to demonstrate the "Lying Down Game" where 105 years later people amuse themselves by assuming a stiff horizontal position in random places and then post it for everyone else's amusement. http://www.lyingdowngame.net/ His Sleep Numberis B50. Cat napI appreciate Old Buck's view of what is going on here. When I first looked at it, I thought this was a homeless man, and very sad, but it makes more sense that he would be a "blue collar" employee just taking a cat nap before going back to work. My grandfather, who was a sugar-beet farmer, would always lie down for twenty minutes, after dinner (the noon meal). Thankfully, Grandpa had a comfortable couch to lie down on, though! His Sleep Number ...is B50. Notice the wooden stob protruding from the piling. Did they not use metal rebar back then? C&O Railroad BridgeThis is the C&O Railroad Bridge in Cincinnati at the very northernmost end. The picture would be looking east, or upriver. If the picture were broader to the right you would be able to see the Roebling Suspension Bridge about a quarter mile upstream. The C&O Bridge was built in the late 1880's. 40 winks?That'll B50. A little rest.My father worked for Con Edison in Brooklyn. When they worked on a site a tool trailer was dropped off, the workers reported direct, Dad got to wherever he had to be that day by trolley, bus and/or train. One day after lunch he told his partner that he was going to close his eyes for ten minutes, and to wake him up at 12:30. He sat down with his back against a utility pole. About 2:30, he woke up to find his partner laid out fast to sleep on the little grass strip between sidewalk and street. They had some catching up to do, but didn't get caught. AmazingThe poor fella must be totally exhausted. And the shoes? Maybe the pair at the foot of his bed would fit him. They seem to be in better condition. Great picture, Dave. Thanks. BustedThat was me last Friday. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
Doll Party: 1913
... VERY cool! High button shoes My Mom grew up in Brooklyn. She used to tell me she hated the high button shoes they had to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/14/2011 - 11:51am -

July 22, 1913. Washington, D.C. "Dorothy's party." At center is Dorothy French, daughter of National Photo Co. proprietor Herbert French. View full size. Left OutThe poor little girl on the other side of the fence looks so forlorn. Did the invitation specify a dress code?What a sweet group. I bet the solemn faces disappeared when the cake and ice cream arrived! BackgroundThere's a neighbor maid's daughter on the other side of the fence. Not serious enoughYou - You there in the back! Wipe that "smile" off your face! Flappers!The fashion for big, floppy hair bows for little girls in the 'teens lead to the name those girls would go by as they became young women in the 'twenties - flappers. Sock CorsagesThe little girl with the colorfully dressed doll (the birthday girl, probably) has rosettes at the top front of her socks. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that. VERY cool! High button shoesMy Mom grew up in Brooklyn. She used to tell me she hated the high button shoes they had to wear. Some of these girls are wearing Mary Janes, which look like shoes worn today. None of these girls look too happy but it's a great photo. Little girl lostI would like the think that they would have preferred to forget the photo so they could play with the little girl on the other side of fence. (The Gallery, D.C., Kids, Natl Photo)
Mixed Message: 1917
... from Governor's Island and the Marine Corps Band from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Fair included booths of goods donated by more than 500 ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/20/2012 - 4:05pm -

New York, 1917. "Actors' Fund Fair." Break a leg, if it doesn't get shot off first. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Turrets SyndromeRarely do we see such warm, open inviting smiles on Shorpy; surely these nurses were chosen for the kind, supportive ends of this event. Why, I'll bet you'd have to trigger a search far and wide to sight others of this caliber. Kilroy?I think I see Kilroy in the background Can I have the first dance?You there, dear. Sitting down, third from the left. That twinkle in the eye has absolutely taken my breath away. sublimePJ, that is one of the coolest sublime comments I've seen on Shorpy Or else?Dance Mister! 7000 Attend Actors' Fair OpeningThe Actors' Fair was a charity fundraiser that netted about $80,000 during its twelve-day run in May, 1917, at the Grand Central Palace on Lexington between 46th and 47th. Built in 1911, the Grand Central Palace was a 13-story office building with three floors of public exhibition and entertainment halls and meeting rooms. It also housed the main New York induction center for American military recruits during World War I. The formidably guarded Army-Navy Tea Room was located in a partitioned section of the main exhibition hall's balcony. According to the NY Times, 7,000 attended the first night's festivities, which were opened by Woodrow Wilson pressing a telegraph key from the White House. Louise Homer sang the National Anthem from the balcony, accompanied by the 22nd Regiment Band from Governor's Island and the Marine Corps Band from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Fair included booths of goods donated by more than 500 merchants, and hawked to the crowds by popular New York stage celebrities. A full account of the fair's opening night is online at the NY Times Archive. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C04E0DD123AE433A25750... Missing the star of the showAft of the weapons and abeam a couple of the dancing nurses (or nursing dancers), that folksy ship model is center stage, appearing to be surrounded at the waterline by a tiny ocean made out of whatever they used to fill Easter baskets before plastic grass was invented. Pro Patria PosterHere's that "For The Fatherland" poster, which, in Latin, probably did not look too Germanic to World War One American eyes. Well girlsif these guns don't make them dance, nothing will. How big?Looks like a final decision on the size and location of the 'cross' was still pending. Great photo. (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC, WWI)
De Forest Wireless: 1905
... in his lab in Jamaica Queens. I was a young student at Brooklyn Tech and was trained on triodes in my junior year. To listen to Mr ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 9:41pm -

The Jersey Shore circa 1905. "Along the beach, Atlantic City, N.J." Note the radio mast at right on Young's Pier. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Bowler Hat Concession There doesn't seem to be much non-conformity in the men's headwear department.I wish I would have had the Jersey Shore bowler concession back then. Wireless TelegraphDeForest tried, with minimal success, to create a worldwide network of wireless telegraph offices. This was evidently one of them, a spark-gap transmitter. He would go on to demonstrate the first AM audio transmission in December 1906. His fort­é was brilliant ideas that he just never quite succeeded in perfecting. Others would, and reap the rewards rather than Lee. DeForest the audion tube and co-invented amplitude modulation (AM) which made AM radio, commercial broadcasting, and home 'wireless' sets possible but these were still about 20 years away. CrowdedFirst crowded boardwalk scene I've seen on Shorpy. And obviously off-season at that. ["The season" in Atlantic City was at its most crowded around Easter. - Dave] VarietyI see five pushmobiles in this scene and they are all of a different design. Nowadays the pushmobile concession would be held by one company and all of them would be identical, same color and design. Much more interesting back then. Dr. Lee De Forest comment" I came-I saw-I invented-It's that simple-No need to sit and think-It's all in your imagination" Look where you're going!Not a cell phone in the bunch. Just don't step on the alligatorThere, between the fourth guy from the left and the mam'selle, rests an alligator-skin bag. Speaking of mam'selle, one of the most successful lyricists in American music, Mack Gordon, wrote the song so named, along with Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?, I Can't Begin to Tell You, I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo, Serenade in Blue, The More I See You, There Will Never Be Another You, Time on My Hands, You Make Me Feel So Young and You'll Never Know (Oscar winner in 1943 and the first song Barbra Streisand ever recorded). Oh, and he wrote "On the Boardwalk at Atlantic City," released in 1945. "Read all about it!"Those newsies sure do get around on Shorpy. I spot 2 just on this short stretch of boardwalk. I also see one satisfied customer leaning on the near railing. Spring is in the airThis looks like the Easter Parade with everybody wearing brand spankin' new clothes, flowery hats, new shoes, etc. and there doesn't seem to be anyone in swimwear. And I'd be reluctant to lie around on that beach with galloping horses running roughshod. Drool droolHam Radio operators dream of a salt water ground but to have a station out on a pier is the cat's pajamas. Why the name DeForest ?Lee DeForest was an American inventor that created what we would now call a triode tube. It was the first device that amplified a signal. That meant we could detect radio signals from a lot further or listen to music louder then the way it was recorded. He was brilliant and way ahead of his contemporaries. Why do I know this ? My first girlfriend lived next door to a gentleman that worked in his lab in Jamaica Queens. I was a young student at Brooklyn Tech and was trained on triodes in my junior year. To listen to Mr Whitman was such a thrill. Such a nice guy, so humble, but he was there when it happened. To put it in perspective, I'd rank this second only to the Edison light bulb. This broadcastThis broadcast provided as a public service to all wireless-mast non-believers (seen in a number of Shorpy photos atop tall urban buildings) out there: Yes, they did have them back then and yes, they looked like that. (Technology, The Gallery, Atlantic City, DPC, Swimming)
Construction Zone: 1931
... less, thundering down Fulton Street past Borough Hall in Brooklyn. Given the condition of that heavily worn pavement, it must have been ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/16/2014 - 5:28am -

The San Francisco Bay Area circa 1931. "Earth-moving equipment and trucks." 8.5 x 6.5 inch glass plate by Christopher Helin. View full size. Truck IDsTruck with water(?) tank is a Pierce Arrow. Others are Sterlings with chain drive. Note Pierce Arrow has hard rubber; others have balloon tires. High tech! What will it be?It would be interesting to know what it is they're constructing. Maybe somebody will know. Chain driveSterling retained chain drive at least as late as 1952 (see picture), and maybe later for all I know. I think they were the last holdout with this driveline system. Contractor where I grew up had a fleet of them, and I can still hear their clanky whine as they went by. The shovelThe shovel is a Northwest, probably a model 80 or 105, probably gas but possibly diesel. Relatively modern for the time. Many contractors were still using steam shovels at this point. The CarCirca 1926-27 Chevrolet coupe. Chain DriveAs late as about 1959, I remember seeing Mack chain drives, with solid tires, no less, thundering down Fulton Street past Borough Hall in Brooklyn. Given the condition of that heavily worn pavement, it must have been a punishing ride indeed for those poor drivers! Gas Shovel Pit and Quarry, September 1922. New Gas Shovel The Northwest Engineering Company of Green Bay, Wis., announces that after exhaustive tests in the field a new Northwest gas shovel has been released for general sale. This shovel, because of its sturdy simplicity and unusual range of utility, is expected to find wide application for the general contractor and road builder, and in quarries and sand and gravel pits. The device is an adaptation of a new, and according to the manufacturer a revolutionary shovel mechanism, to the Northwest crawler crane. This crawler device is depended upon to give the shovel ideal mobility. Incorporated in the crawler base is the patented Northwest steering device which, in the words of the maker, make the device “as easy to steer as a truck.” The shovel travels at a good rate of speed to and from the job without taxing the motor and, being operated by a gas engine, no stops to get up steam are necessary. … Could be grade separation.A temporary bridge is in place and a 4-lane divided road is being knocked out from below. NorthwestSize of the shovel looks like a 105. Here is a 1926 Model 105, set up as a dragline, working. http://youtu.be/aavrzUYlcyY?list=UUFi8qTmbq8tIIyCap45cEGA Sunset Boulevard under construction at Sloat?Using the hints in the photo (Excavation work in sandy soil under a divided highway, electric railway/streetcar tracks, and the caption info), I'm guessing that this is a view of Sloat Boulevard with the excavation for the new Sunset Boulevard taking place. Just a guess from 2700 miles away. I vote for SloatI'm with grubbed. The attached photograph was taken by the City of SF's Department of Public Works in October 1931. It shows construction work on a viaduct for Sloat Boulevard to cross over an as-yet unnamed new roadway, which became today's Sunset Boulevard. Those fence posts sure look the same. Three votes for Sloat and SunsetI agree with grubemed and Histry2. First, the year of the photo corresponds with San Francisco's development of Sunset Boulevard through undeveloped sand dunes west of the city. Histry2's photo does seem to be of the same construction site. This image, taken the same day, captures what appears to be the same temporary bridge as in our photo. It impresses me that, eighty-three years later, the overpass is still in use and is a handsome, but time-worn, bit of engineering. I'm not sure the same will be said of most bridges being built today. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Chris Helin)
Ann Fulton Club: 1918
... The Ann Fulton Club An article in the Feb. 23, 1918 Brooklyn Eagle describes the creation of the Ann Fulton House by the War Work ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 2:34pm -

New York, 1918. "Ann Fulton Club." Question of the Day: Who was Ann Fulton? 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. A juxtapositionPerhaps Ann Fulton is not a person but an area - referring to three blocks in New York's financial district, east of Broadway, that are bounded on the north by Ann Street and on the south by Fulton Street. The address of the YWCA (115 Fulton) would be on one such block. TodayThe building at 115 Fulton Street that once housed the Ann Fulton YWCA is long gone, the site being occupied by a 7-story office and retail building dating to the early 1960s. Spike in Google searches for Ann Fultonin 3 ... 2 ... 1 Shall we dance?I think the man in the hallway wants to cut in! A clueI found this poster for the Ann Fulton YWCA that may be helpful. A GuessThere is a surprising lack of online information concerning Ms. Fulton, but as far as I can tell, Ann Fulton was a founding member of the Longwood Progressive Meeting of Friends, a Quaker abolitionist group founded and active in Chester County, PA, that may have been an important part of the Underground Railroad. There may be more to the story but that was all I could find. Ann FultonInternationally renowned tango instructor. Ann-Fulton StreetThe Times uses it here (1904) in its hyphenated form. Was shefounder of a charity club for homely, ill-dressed girls & boys? FootwearIt's interesting to see that while some of the ladies' shoes are 'standard' high-button models, the woman in the center is in pumps - but provided with spats for the purpose. I detect dress standards & proper decorum being observed. Ankles! The Ann Fulton ClubAn article in the Feb. 23, 1918 Brooklyn Eagle describes the creation of the Ann Fulton House by the War Work Council of the YWCA at 115 Fulton in Manhattan, a clubhouse formed for the women who were working in Wall Street because of the war. The article quotes an insurance company manager who said he had 125 women working for him as opposed to 12 a year earlier. http://bklyn.newspapers.com/image/57092638/?terms=115%2Bfulton (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, Music, NYC)
New York City Photo Map
... this site are from the New York area, but why no love for Brooklyn? re: Re: Now with more photos Thanks for pointing that out. ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 10/24/2007 - 2:44pm
NYSPCC: 1908
... the McQueen, the Sienna, the Sicilian, the Bostonian, the Brooklyn, and the Firenze. Still in Business EB Meyrowitz still making ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/02/2020 - 10:01am -

1908. "East Twenty-Third Street and Fourth Avenue." Anchored by the shelter of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size. Ahead Of Its TimeMacfadden’s Physical Culture Restaurant must have been seen as a kooky polar opposite of dining at Delmonico's. It was one of the earliest outlets devoted to vegetarian "healthy" eating in the city, and clearly (way, way) ahead of its time in 1908. Bernard Macfadden made a life out of promoting healthy eating, living and at all costs avoiding the consumption of white bread. There may not be a long line outside in this photo, but his idea for eats would not seem at all out of place in the same locale, circa 2020. He lived to be a ripe (for then) 87 years of age. Meet me at Macfadden's Physical Culture Restaurant?You couldn't make this up. Bernarr Macfadden (1868-1955) was an aggressive health advocate and the model for such as Jack LaLanne. He founded Physical Culture magazine as well as "healthatoriums" and a religion called "cosmotarianism." He was an advocate of bodybuilding, very long walks, recreational sex, and vegetarianism. He urged followers to avoid white bread and the medical profession. He expected to live to 150. He also promoted week-long fasting. Just how that mixed with his restaurants is open to speculation. (I doubt that the photo below was used to promote the restaurants--or the fasting, or the sex.) Probably had the same waitressMacfadden's Restaurant reminds me of this place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv323rDw618 Hat hierarchyI'm interested in the distribution of hats seen in this picture. A ubiquity of straw boaters worn by the men on the left, kids (including newsies on the other side of the street) in flat caps, a few old-school black bowlers, the more elegant and lofty hats associated with specific professions (as worn by a cop and a chauffeur), and some stylishly-bedecked wide-brimmed hats worn by the identically-dressed women. To what extent were the various styles strictly associated with class? Or did age, subculture, personal predilection filter in as well? Also note the chunky scaffolding on the nearly-completed building on the far right. Must be summerEveryone looks a little wilted, despite the straw hats and white shirtwaists. Lots of open windows and people leaning out. I love the giant spectacles. Oh look, the guy in the bow tie is on his cellphone. Still mostly thereThe space between the buildings has been filled with a 20th Century lifeless structure, but the rest is still there. E.B. MyerowitzCould Emil Bruno Myerowitz, born in 1852 in Prussia, have known that 112 years later there would still be a store on Old Bond Street in London, an active online bespoke business for eyeglasses, and an Instagram site? Names of various spectacle models include the New Yorker, the Atticus, the McQueen, the Sienna, the Sicilian, the Bostonian, the Brooklyn, and the Firenze. Still in BusinessEB Meyrowitz still making some of the world's most expensive glasses. Bespoke if you may! NYSPCC: the logoThe 1893 (?) picture of the building, from the Mechanical Curator collection of the British Library, did not yet show the logo of the time. I found one on the cover of the Seventh Annual Report, I guess it is similar to the one on the building. Mechanical DentistThe following was published circa 1900: Besides the doctors of dentistry, there is the man known as the "mechanical dentist." He is really not a dentist at all, but a skilled mechanic who makes in his laboratory the artificial materials (such as crowns, bridges and plates) needed by the dental practitioner. The mechanical dentist need not be of so studious a nature as the doctor of dentistry, for his work requires chiefly manual skill. It is desirable that the mechanical dentist have the equivalent of a high school education. Then he must have practical training in the making of crowns, bridges, inlays, artificial teeth, and in the proper use of metals and other materials for this work. When were crosswalks invented?It seems clear that they were still unknown in New York in 1908. I found three sites that claimed the first crosswalks were instituted in the early 1900s, the 1930s, and the 1950s(!). So, I still don't know. Apparently you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. Change of AddressStrictly speaking, there is no longer any such place as Fourth Avenue and 23rd Street, as most of Fourth was renamed Park Avenue South in 1959 (so much the better to sell real estate, my dear). Dumbbells and Carrot Stripswas the title of McFadden's biography, written by his ex-wife Mary Williamson. In it, she accused him of being an authoritarian and a miser, claiming he only liked health culture because it was cheap. (The Gallery, DPC, Kids, NYC)
Play-by-Play: 1924
... of telegraph sender was made by the Vibroplex Company of Brooklyn, NY, whose logo featured a likeness of something like a Box Elder Bug. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/05/2013 - 4:37pm -

"Washington baseball, 1924." The broadcasting cage at Griffith Stadium in the early days of commercial radio. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size. BleachersIf you were in the front row of the bleachers on the third base side, off to the left, odds were you had to ask folks how the game was going. Neat picture of an old Washington landmark, gone these many years. Everready 770 'B' BatteriesVery common in that era, but putting eight 45 volts batteries in series like that would yield 360 volts of fully exposed shock potential. You'd never be able to get away with such an arrangement today. Visions of baseball in 1924This from a Washington Post article from last year... "...the stadium erupted in mayhem when the home team entered the history books with a walk-off win in the deciding game of the World Series. As The Post reported, the crowd of 35,000, “delirious with joy, broke into a bedlam on the field that had never been duplicated in point of volume and intense excitement in the annals of sporting history.” The Washington mob was so unruly that Walter “Big Train” Johnson, the local team’s ace, fled the ballpark in a fast motorcar, trailed by a “sea of humanity in an endless snake-dance,” and the Secret Service was all but helpless to protect President Calvin Coolidge and his wife, who quaked in the presidential box." Bug?That looks like a semiautomatic telegraph key ("bug") - it makes dots fast if you push right, and one long dash if you push left - which enables you to send very fast morse code. Just going by the visible tops and the guy's arm position. That's a lot of foul territory but --I am sure the short fence in the outfield more than made up for any defensive advantage. re: Bug?I think rhhardin is correct, that is a telegraph. Ronald Reagan told stories about "live" baseball broadcasts in the 1930s where in the studio he narrated the play-by-play from a telegraph operator in the stadium. OK, not the most reliable source, but still I believe the practice endured for years after 1924. A Telegraph KeyWas used by AP (and other news services) to telegraph news stories to newspapers. This guy's got it backwardsThis type of telegraph sender was made by the Vibroplex Company of Brooklyn, NY, whose logo featured a likeness of something like a Box Elder Bug. Thus the keys themselves came to be known as "bugs." My now long-deceased neighbor, a railroad telegrapher, taught me the rudements of the trade, though I never got any good at it. Rule No. 1: learn to key with your left hand, leaving your right hand free to write your copy of each word as you send it (or underline what you have already received and are sending back as confirmation). When the computer mouse came out I realized that was a pretty good tactic. To this day, I drive my mouse with my left hand. Telegraph ticker broadcastsWhen I was a kid back in the very early 50s, Waite Hoyt, the local radio announcer for the Cincinnati Reds would do a play-by-play for out of town games based on information he received from a telegraph ticker. You could hear the ticker clacking away in the background during his broadcasts. Baseball Radio Broadcast: 1924When I lived in the Washington, DC suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s, I listened to Nat Allbright's broadcasts of the LA Dodgers games. Nat also used the AP wire service to create his own phony "play-by-play." Thus, his broadcasts always lagged a few minutes behind the live action. Once I found out what he was doing, I played a funny trick on my father that must have convinced him that I could predict the future. I wrote a brief story about it, and you can see it on my website. http://www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/personal7.html Re: The keyPhotographic evidence suggest that the key pictured is a "bug." A straight key, the kind we're more familiar with, doesn't have the side adjustments pictured. In fact, a normal straight key has, for most models, just two adjustments. A bug, depending on which model, can have up to nine adjustments adorning it! Teletype baseballBack in the late 1940's and early 1950's, the Indianapolis Indians road baseball games were broadcast on WISH radio by Luke Walton, a legend here in Indy, using a teletype, the listener could hear it in the background, he would tell us he was using a teletype. (Technology, The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Sports)
Ruth E. Pember: 1901
... with a 50-horsepower gasoline motor at Commercial Wharf in Brooklyn. She went into service as part of the Fulton Fish Market fleet. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 4:27pm -

Circa 1901. "Ruth. E Pember at sail." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Schooner beachedNew York Times, Dec. 17, 1917. Schooner Beached Near Sandy Hook The American schooner Ruth E. Pember was beached early yesterday near the Sandy Hook Coast Guard station after having been seriously damaged in collision with a submerged wreck one and a half miles northwest of the Scotland Lightship. The vessel is 95 tons register, built in 1901 at Tottenville, Staten Island, and owned by John F. Cohn. So, 95 tons. Would that be the same vessel? Though are the passing moments frailNothing is so timeless as water and sail. Hats off to the Photographer!Shooting an 8x10 plate from a boat with a large sailing vessel bearing down on you is NO EASY TASK! Kudos to the snapper! Great photograph! BreathtakingOur view of photography from a century ago is everyone standing stiffly in the noonday sun. What a great action shot. A Bit More SpecificAccording to "Merchant Vessels of the United States: (Including Yachts)" published by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915 her specs were: Official number 111334 Signal letters KSWR Rig Schooner Gross tonnage 95 tons Net tonnage 58 tons Length 92.3 feet Breadth 22.8 feet Depth 9.7 feet Crew 20 Built 1901, Tottenville, NY Home Port New York, New York Re: Schooner beachedFrom the NYT (undated): PEMBER - HINE ENGAGEMENT Announcement has been made of the engagement of Ruth Eldridge Pember, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Pember of Hartford, Conn., to Harold Morton Hine. Miss Pember is a graduate of Vassar College, class of 13, and Mr. Hine was graduated from Wesleyan in 1912. No date has been set for the wedding. AND from the Connecticut Historical Society comes Harold's obit, on 12/22/41, age 54, leaving Ruth, whom he married 4/18/17, and their son, Thomas, Wesleyan 1941. So, right, they're all dead except maybe Thomas, who was born in 1919. Famous Last Words"There's a wreck near this lighthouse, but our centerboard should clear it." Capsizing SchoonersCostello: "I once had a schooner capsize on me" Abbott: "What did you do?" Costello: "Wiped off the bar and ordered another one!" "Signal letters KSWR"I'm intrigued by this. As far as I know, very few vessels had radio by 1915 (when the Coast Guard record was entered), so any identifying signal letters would have been flown on coloured signal flags. That is, if the boat wasn't already flying its name on a huge banner! "KSWR" certainly fits the format of a U.S. maritime radio call-sign. Either the government was routinely allocating call-signs to registered yachts by 1915, or perhaps the identifying letter groups used on signal flags were already in this format. [Lots of ships had Marconi wireless (radiotelegraph) equipment in 1915. And even farther back. The Titanic, for instance. - Dave] Follow that codAfter floating from Brown's yard in Staten Island, the schooner was fitted with a 50-horsepower gasoline motor at Commercial Wharf in Brooklyn. She went into service as part of the Fulton Fish Market fleet. Captained by F.M. Redmond, who owned her in partnership with John Feeny, she sailed in pursuit of bluefish and mackerel, patrolling seas between Block Island and Cape Hatteras. Redmond was Ruth's uncle. Re: "Signal letters KSWR"At least as far back as the late 1870s, registered US (and British) vessels were given 4 letter codes as a part of the International Code of Signals. This was, of course, before radio. The signals were made by flag, semaphore, or by night beacons and a 4 letter code was easier and usually quicker to signal than spelling out a name, especially when considering the code flags originally consisted of only consonants. When radio came along, the system was continued and is still in use today. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC)
Free Lancers: 1898
... The tell-tale tail Of all the auxiliary ships at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1898, only the two receiving ships—the New ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/25/2014 - 5:05pm -

1898. "U.S.S. Free Lance -- officers and crew." This patrol vessel, a converted steam yacht, was loaned to the Navy for service in the Spanish-American War. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Here's Looking at You, FellasToo bad the two seated fellows on the ends, in the front row, were born in the 1860s and 1870s instead of the 1960s and 1970s. They never got the chance to be leading men on the silver screen. A tough looking bunchThe Chief Quartermaster and the 2nd Class Boatswains Mate in the middle row look particularly intimidating. The CO and XO, too, look like they'd stand for no guff! The tall guy in the middle all the way back ...Sure looks like Peyton Manning. Back from the future??All the men with their mustaches and slick hair parted down the centre are appropriate for the late nineteenth century. But check out the smiling sailor in the back row (on the right) whose clean shaven face and mussed up hair looks like he dropped in from 2014 USS New Hampshireis the vessel moored directly astern. This old-style 'ship of the line' was authorized in 1816 and completed in 1825, but not actually launched until 1864. By then her design was obsolete, so she served as a storage and training vessel before being converted into a "receiving ship", a floating barracks to house naval recruits. In this photo she is moored at the New York Navy Yard, which the Free Lancers were assigned to help protect against marauding Spaniards. Time TravelerI had the same thought when looking over the group of sailors and noticed the clean shaven sailor in the back row. This brings up the question - does time travel or time leaps exist. It's an entertaining thought and possibly this face will appear in future photos. :-) I also noticed the knuckles on the right hand of the standing sailor to the far left - possibly Rheumatoid Arthritis or years of hard work? Floating Hat and Gatling GunWho is holding the floating hat? I wonder how that gatling gun was mounted on the deck? [That looks like a bit of a finger at the left edge, so I'd say it's being held out by the sailor with the hint of a playful grin on his face, second from right in the front row. -tterrace] Rank insigniaWhat is the rank of the officer seated on the right with the broad dark stripe on his sleeves? Passed Midshipman? CravatsI guess there were no regulations for NCO neckwear. Those 3 Petty Officers, 2nd row center, Left to right, a bow tie, a conventional necktie and no tie. New Hampshire?Robo: How did you determine that the ship in the background was the New Hampshire? There seem to be no markings. Hello Handsome!The fellow seated at the front left. Oh my! From his manly expression of toughness to his dashing pinky ring. He's swoon worthy! The tell-tale tailOf all the auxiliary ships at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1898, only the two receiving ships—the New Hampshire and her sister ship the Vermont—had sterns built like this one. However, the stern of the Vermont (below) had a different rudder post than did the New Hampshire, and had filigree, while the New Hampshire did not. The last duty station of the New Hampshire had been at New London, Connecticut as a receiving ship. She was decommissioned there in early June 1892, and the next year transferred to the New York State Naval Militia as a training ship. In June 1898, the United States Auxiliary Naval Force (consisting of the naval militias of the various states) was created, and on the 14th the New Hampshire was transferred back to the navy. From then until the end of the war she again served as a receiving ship and also as the headquarters of the Third District of the Auxiliary Naval Force. The Free Lance also served in the Third District. After the war the New Hampshire was returned to the New York State Naval Militia to resume duties as a training ship. She was renamed the Granite State in late 1904 to free up the New Hampshire name for a newly authorized battleship. As the Granite State she continued to serve the Naval Militia as a training ship in the years leading to the First World War. In May 1921 she caught fire and sank at her Hudson River pier. A year later she was refloated and sold for salvage. While under tow to the Bay of Fundy to be scrapped—usually done by beaching and burning to recover the metal fittings—she again caught fire (some of the salvage crew were assumed to have been cooking onboard). As she became engulfed in flames off Marblehead, Massachusetts, the towline parted and as a flaming hulk she drifted to just east of Graves Island off Manchester-by-the-Sea, where she sank in 30 feet of water. Said to be an easy dive, parts of her broken hull can still be seen today. The picture below—taken after she was raised from the bottom of the Hudson—shows the distinct stern. Rakish Lines and Gatling GunsThe Free Lance, later Freelance, was loaned once for the Spanish American War and leased later for duty in WWI. Rakish lines and the Gatling gun installations clearly shown here. The later WWI configuration appears far more 'Navy'. IN both cases, the yacht was returned to its patriotic owner when the wars passed. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC)
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