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Model With Book
... of Oswald holding the Carcano rifle and a copy of the Daily Worker. They use an exacto knife to cut out Oswald's head from another ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 09/08/2011 - 6:39pm -

A young model lies in bed with a book. Photo by Fitz W. Guerin, between 1900 and 1903. View full size. QuestionWere some of the Guerins removed from the site? Fitz sure new how toFitz sure new how to titillate. Her skin is so perfect, not a mar or blemish. Fitz always exploits the best of his models attributes. I wonder how he found his girls? they all look so young. I'm having a hard time I'm having a hard time seeing Fitz at a wedding . Thanks for the linky link Denny Gill. Hee Hee"Bachelor Art". I love the euphemism. "It's art, honey, I swear!" 1910?According to the date of death for Guerins he died in 1903, so how could he have taken a picture of the model in 1910? Our Man FitzMethinks our man Fitz may have had a prurient thought or two when tripping the shutter, no? He apparently had a very interesting life as a society photographer in St. Louis, Missouri, capturing weddings and the occasional daring belle in what was defined as “bachelor art.” But even more interesting was his service during the Civil War, where he garnered a Medal of Honor for heroism. Denny Gill Chugiak, Alaska Is it me...or does the model look vaguely like Bettie Page? re: QuestionNo photographs were removed. YearNoted and corrected. Thanks for pointing out the error. By the way, the year's wrong on thisFitz W. Guerin died in 1903, and the hairstyle makes this to be more likely ca. 1895. GuerinDid you guys ever find the missing Guerin's one was the women with the grapes? [The pics come and go to make room for new images. We may have the bottomless cup of coffee here at Shorpy HQ but the server can hold only so much data. - Dave] Head match with bodyOn a modern photo; I would swear that this was a poor photoshop since her head angle and skin tone don't seem to match the body. I would have thought that the body was of an easy woman and that the head came from a more up standing type. I will assume that this is just my rookie eye. I believe this to be a composite photo.Having now seen the Ohio firetruck cut and paste job with the utility pole and fire alarm put in the foreground, I will now say that I believe this to photo to have a different head placed over the body. The color isn't the same, the head appears large for the body, the angle isn't right, and look at how her neck skin below her jaw line hangs in a different direction than does her neck in the body portion of the photo. Skin ToneGiven the amount of makeup sometimes worn, it's not at all unusual for a woman's facial tone to not match her unadorned skin tone. In watching motion pictures in color, you'll frequently see a marked difference between a woman's face and her natural skin tone. As to the rest of it, I particularly like the angel's face on the devilish body. Not PhotoshoppedNo, as a digital artist, I do not believe that this photo was altered. Notice that when viewing vintage photos of men, most of the faces, necks and arms are considerably darker than their chests and legs due to greater sun exposure. Women of the day in particular did not expose much of their chests out in public, so the skin maintained is ivory nature. The lighting of course can inadvertently accentuate this difference. See how even her forearms are darker than her chest? Still hold that this is a cut and past job.I will cede you the skin tone may not match and that can be explained by either lack of sun on covered body skin or make up (although you would expect the face to be whiter?). However the angle of the head and the slightly larger relative size still makes me believe that this is a different head. I think the head would be slightly more to the Northwest of the photo if actually attached to the neck. Ultimately the question is what does the source material show? [The Guerin photos and others of their era were, generally speaking, made before the kinds of darkroom manipulation you're describing. As for "cut and past" (i.e. paste), cut what and paste what? These are prints made from glass negatives. Nothing to cut and nothing to paste. - Dave] Getting tired of all the "critics"I'm getting tired of having to read through the comments from "critics" like "Texcritic" and "OldHippieDude". They can't seem to accept the information that has been provided about the type of original negatives and the photographer's captions without challenging it or attempting to cast some kind of doubt upon it (without coming right out and accusing the proprietors of this web site of "photoshopping" the original image). If they can't believe what their eyes are seeing or reading here, maybe they should find another web site on which to make their vanity posts. Mike_G "It's Photoshopped"I agree with Mike - some people seem to have set themselves up as experts. This is s wonderful site with amazing photographs - some people can't believe that it's for real, these are unvarnished, un-retouched photographs! I saw another photo site (with modern pictures) and on each entry, some doofus had seen fit to say "It's photoshopped". On EACH ONE. One photo was a news photo from the Seattle area, an airplane caught on powerlines. Same comment 'it's photoshopped'. I saw the actual accident aftermath with my own eyeballs, it's not photoshopped! It's the same sense of rolling the eyes with the crowd that refuses to believe color photography was around before 1963 or whatever. They are (insert favorite insult) and this is what they do with their days. Pity them. Pip PipRight-o Mike ole chap..."it is what it is!" Head/body matchDave: In the 1973 movie "Executive Action" (unless I have this wrong and I am thinking of Oliver Stone's JFK) the conspirators are shown producing the famous photo of Oswald holding the Carcano rifle and a copy of the Daily Worker. They use an exacto knife to cut out Oswald's head from another photo and attach it to the photo of a different man holding the gun. They did not show what happens next but I assume that a photo is taken of the doctored photo. I have assummed that this process could have taken place around 1900. Hey, I can let it go if you want, I just think the head so clearly doesn't match that this is a theory. Mike_G: This is the last forum I would expect to have a flame war. The best way to avoid that is to apologize from the get go for misunderstandings. My handle which seems to have set you off is the one I use on all forums and it came from a movie review forum I was on back in the 90s. I am not complaining or being critical about these photos, I thought the comments section are where, among other things, users comment on over looked aspects of the photos. Sorry to have offended. [No need to apologize. The Shorpy management team has found this thread to be hugely entertaining. No small part of which is the notion that someone would go to the trouble of putting this particular head on anybody's body. The lady was, by the way, the model for a number of Fitz Guerin's photographs. As for X-Acto blades and pasted-on heads -- that is indeed how they do that sort of thing in the movies. - Dave] Lets see the other shots of this model.Dave, Hmmm, I will admit you now have important evidence that I am off base: 1) the limited technology of the time and 2) the face of the model is on other photos. How about posting those other poses? I can then pounce on a wrinkle in her clothing and claim that it proves she has different collar bones than this body! Chopped, Brushed, Painted..? Bah!I think the awkward position of her head that gives the illusion of 'editing' is just that she's been no doubt asked to attempt a recline pose by the photographer, but for the sake of the image, the hand supporting her head is position slightly back than usual, tilting the face forward and downward. This also causes the jowls to droop slightly. I'd have had the model rest place her hand, just below and behind the ear; this would've supported her head more easily and prevented her skin sagging around the chin. I also think it's a bit naive to think that this reflects the flawless beauty of a bygone era; images in those those days were still quite heavily retouched, though often not to the degree of modern photography -- blemishes were removed by painting over the emulsion on the negative, and wrinkles were smoothed by rubbing certain greases over the face details. Many portrait plates often have an aging yellowing cloud shape over the face on the rear side of the negative for this reason; it often helped preserved the delicate image, but over time the emulsion tends to warp and crack. Look closely as some vintage portrait under a magnifying lens... in the days before Pro-Active, no way did Nanna have skin that smooth! (Fitz W. Guerin, Portraits, Pretty Girls)
Gotham City: 1908
... NYC, especially since I work on Madison Avenue and take a daily lunch stroll down Fifth Ave. I was wondering how the ladies on the upper ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/15/2016 - 2:49pm -

"Fifth Avenue and Forty-Second Street, New York." Circa 1908, horses and motorcars shared the streets. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. 42nd Street Come and meet those dancing feet On the avenue I'm taking you to - 42nd Street Hear the beat of dancing feet It's the song I love the melody of - 42nd Street Little nifties from the fifties, innocent and sweet Sexy ladies from the eighties who are indiscreet! Oh, there side by side, they're glorified Where the underworld can meet the élite - 42nd Street Come and meet those dancing feet On the avenue I'm taking you to - 42nd Street Hear the beat of dancing feet It's the song I love the melody of - 42nd Street Little nifties from the fifties, innocent and sweet Sexy ladies from the eighties who are indiscreet! There side by side, they're glorified Where the underworld can meet the élite Naughty, gawdy, bawdy, sporty, 42nd Street The big parade goes on for years It's a rhapsody of laughter and tears Naughty, bawdy, gawdy, sporty, 42nd Street Hat PinsLadies in those days kept their hats in place by pinning them to their hair with large steel pins often decorated with elaborate ends. Still sold to this day http://www.pennypins.co.uk/ They Do WindowsWow, window cleaners, top floor building on the left. No safety equipment. Don't think that would happen today. Occult BooksIn the third window from the left, top of picture... Does the sign say "Occult Books"? Bet that's an interesting store. Busy streetI love these old pictures of NYC, especially since I work on Madison Avenue and take a daily lunch stroll down Fifth Ave. I was wondering how the ladies on the upper deck of the bus kept their hats on but I guess the bus didn't go too fast anyway. Talk about Hollywood advertisingI know Hollywood likes to tease us a year or so before a big movie comes out, but really, "Bull Durham" being advertised in 1910? (yeah, yeah, I know, but I couldn't resist) Which Direction? Clues...In trying to figure out which direction they were looking, I first tried google maps and street view. Since construction on the New York Public Library building started in 1902, then the photograph must be looking up 5th or east on 42nd. You can see the banner on the right hand side says Apollinaris. Since they were located on 5th, then this photo must be looking up 5th Avenue. 1930 Blue Book Apollinaris "The Queen of Table Waters." Apollinaris Agency, Co., 503 Fifth ave. at 42nd st., New York City. GreatWhen I opened up this picture I was practically drooling - so much to look at!!! Love these busy street scenes. Thanks again for all the great pics. Armored Horse & Buggy?There is a horse and wagon turning which has Silver Vaults 37 and what is probably the firm's address on its side. The number 37 can also be seen in the shadow under the footrest of the driver and passenger. Any idea what the name refers to? How do the Ladiesget to the upper deck of the bus? He ain't doin' windowsIt looks like he's hiding from a jealous husband or he levitated up from the occult book store. HATS!When was the exact moment that going out in public without a hat became legal in this country? I'm guessing it was sometime in the 1950's, but it could have been in the late 1940's. Perhaps it resulted from the residue of WWII. All I know is that every picture of Americans dressed for the public in a downtown or urban setting between 1900 and 19XX shows each man and woman with a hat. Virtually this is without exception! What I don't know is when "XX" took place. There were holdouts. You might see some crotchety old gent with a derby or Homburg in the 1960's, but he was a quaint relic. What happened, and when did it happen? It just seems that the American Hat Industry went to heck in a handbasket on a given day for no apparent reason. [The reason was JFK. - Dave] Time TravelEach of these street scene pictures is a window into a "lost" world--like peering back in time. And each one is just stuffed with interesting things to see and think about. The small details, things the photographer probably didn't even notice, are riveting now. The "Occult Books" is an excellent example. If I recall correctly, Spiritualism and the Fox sisters had kicked off in the late 1800s and of course as soon as photographs were possible, "ghost" and "spirit" photography became the rage. Thanks, Shorpy. I hope you realize how much we appreciate this site and what a revelation it is. Every history class in high school should have it as required reading! TrafficWhat amazes me is the amount of traffic in the streets. Somehow I equated this much traffic with the LA freeways of today, and not the horse carriages of lore. It makes sense, but just not something you think about. Kids These DaysI was just reading in our local paper today some things from 100 years ago, and a socialite wanted to know how long this fad of young ladies going outside with short sleeves and no hats would last! Silver VaultsNew York Times, December 11, 1898 SAFES FOR SILVERWARE They are Coming More Into Use in Modern Houses SOME ARE VERY EXPENSIVE . . . Where safes are not used for table silver, the silver vault is built into the house, opening from the butler's pantry. A family well known in New York society, which figured not long ago in a noted burglary case, has recently had larger silver vaults put into the house. The most prominent architects now plan for these vaults in most of their most pretentious city and country houses. These vaults are small rooms fitted up much like the silver safes, though possibly with less velvet and more woodwork, as the vault is used frequently to hold fine china as well as silver. . . . The vault is built exactly on the principle of the most modern bank vaults in regard to security and outside finish. There are massive doors of the metal finished on the inside with a brass plate which shows through the heavy plate glass covering it. There is the day gate of open metal work, with a simple fastening exactly as in the banks, and used also for convenience. The woman of to-day not only has more valuables than she had a few years ago, but she uses them more frequently, and the bank is useful only for very valuable and seldom-used plate or while she is away in the Summer. Freeze FrameNotice something unusual about this picture? The action of moving objects is nearly frozen by the shutter speed. Most street scenes of the early 20th century have very blurred action due to the slow lenses and the even slower film emulsions. But why? I have in my hand a Seneca folding 4x5 camera from about 1910 and the fastest shutter speed is 1/200th. Why would a camera manufacturer offer such a fast shutter speed if the available films could not keep up? Maybe photographers did not choose the fastest speeds for some other reason. A clue might be in the very out of focus pedestrians in the foreground of this image. In order for the photographer to stop action using a film rated at ASA 25 or slower the lens aperture would have to be wide open resulting a blurry foreground and a blurry background. My guess is that most photographers were captured by the majesty of the scene – the beautiful new buildings or the sweeping landscape – and were less interested in the comings and goings of their fellow citizens. So faced with a decision between fast shutter speeds and long depths of field they chose to stop the lens down. Of course there were photographers that focused on people from the very beginning but it seems the street scene as a social document had yet to mature. [Regarding "available films," this photograph, like almost all photos of the era, was made without film. It's a glass plate negative. Just about any glass plate exposed outdoors would have had a short exposure time. Stop-action street photography was nothing new or unusual, as the hundreds of similar photos here will attest. - Dave] HorsesIt seems so incongruous to see horses in the middle of a big city. Where did they eat? Where did they poop? Where did they stay at night? [There were hundreds of livery stables and carriage houses in New York. Many were multi-story stables with elevator hoists. The horses went on the street, and the Department of Sanitation cleaned up after them. - Dave] Hansom CabNote the hansom cab in front of the double-decker bus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansom_cab The driver sat behind and above the passenger compartment, and controlled the door latch by a lever from his seat. That way he was sure that he'd get his fare! Both of my Irish grandfathers drove hansoms in New York in the 1880's and 90's, and their experiences made their way into family lore: SWELL DUDE: You DO know the way to the Lamb's Club, my good Man? GRANDPA: Do you take me for a greenhorn? Why it's in the sheep, isn't it? Now, where are yez going? Re: Hat pinsAnother nearly forgotten use for hat pins was self defense, a purposeful jab with a sturdy and ready-to-hand hat pin was frequently enough to discourage the attentions of less polite elements. Double-DeckersI can just barely remember double-deckers in NYC in the early '50s in regular revenue service. This is not to be confused with tourist buses of recent decades. Now one is being tested for transit duty. HorsepiesI remember seeing an editorial, from the dawn of the motor vehicle age, to the effect that all the pollution in the streets would be going away with advancing prevalence of the motor car. MTA Double-DeckersIn the mid to late 70's there were double-deckers in service for the MTA on Avenue of the Americas. I think they were M6s. If you know the City, I went to "Little Red School House," on Bleeker, and took that bus every day. That would be cool if they made a return. [From the NY Times: Double-decker buses "returned in 1976 when the eight British-made double decker buses went into service again on Fifth Avenue as part of a test program. But the buses did not hold up well, said Charles F. Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit, and were taken off the road after about two years." - Dave] Everything is oldI wonder what it was like to live at a time when everything in existence was old: the buildings, the vehicles, your clothes? I even asked my aunt, who was born in 1887, and she said, "Well, they didn't seem old at the time." But they look so old. Men without hatsF. Scott Fitzgerald made the comment when he was in college that he saw a group of young men going out without their hats and he dared to do the same. So at least around WWI, a few people risked societal disapproval by going outside bare-headed. Up the rampTo Anonymous Tipster and Dave (whatever happened to Dave?) -- nearly all the livery stables were multi-storied, and many had elevators, but the elevators were for hay and grain. The horses ascended to their stalls on the upper floors by ramp. There are still four carriage horse stables in NYC, and all are of this design: 37th and 38th Streets between 10th & 11th, and 48th and 52nd Streets between 11th and 12th. The ramps can be seen from the sidewalk in all except the one on 37th, which faces the back of the building. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC, NYC)
Homecoming: 1919
... 100 Yank Dead Brought Back from Archangel Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov 13, 1919      Washington, D.C., ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/29/2011 - 12:42pm -

November 1919. Hoboken, New Jersey. "Dead soldiers from Russia. Funeral services for 103 slain fighting Bolsheviks." 5x7 glass negative. View full size. Uncanny timingThe Polar Bear Descendants Dinner, made up of descendants of the 339th Regiment whose members made up most of the 103 dead, is taking place tonight in Troy, Michigan. A ReminderOf what this weekend should be all about; remembering all those, throughout the years, who gave "their last full measure" to insure our ability to celebrate, and to complain sometimes, being Americans. Embrace Feedom! And thank anyone you meet in the Military, regardless of Branch! Longfellow's commentYour silent tents of green We deck with fragrant flowers Yours has the suffering been, The memory shall be ours. "Nation Honors Men Killed In Russia"The public funeral service took place on November 13 at Pier 4 in Hoboken, after which the coffins were escorted to a mortuary chapel. (N.Y. Times article, Nov. 14, 1919) 100 Yank Dead Brought Back from ArchangelChicago Daily Tribune, Nov 13, 1919      Washington, D.C., Nov.12 - [Special] -- The bodies of 100 midwest soldiers who died in north Russian during the allied campaign against the bolsheviki will arrive at New York late tonight aboard the Lake Daraga. Most of these soldiers were from Michigan, members of the 339th infantry.      Relatives have been notified to communicate with the port utilities officer, Hoboken, N.J., regarding the disposition of the bodies. Chicagoans in the list of dead were:      Leo P. Ellis, private, company I, 339th infantry. Mother, Mrs. Catherine Ellis.      Claude B. Hill, 2d lieutenant, 210th engineers, company A. Father, Dr. Charles Hill, 6330 Kimbark Avenue.      Michael J. Kenney, sergeant, company A, 339th infantry. Brother, Patrick J./ Kenney, 1825 West Garfield Boulevard.      Mattios Kozlousky, private first class, company M, 339th infantry. Sister, Mrs. Martha Getz, 704 West Thirty-first Street. Quite an assortment of gorgeous trucksLooks like the second in line is an air-cooled Franklin. Interesting that they are all different. [That's a Renault an International. The radiator is under the windshield. - Dave] Almost forgotten homecomingFew people remember that we had thousands of troops sent into the chaos of the Russian civil war, on short notice, shortly after the Bolshevik coup overthrew the revolutionary government. Two separate expeditions, in the Archangel-Murmansk region and in Siberia, backed Allied attempts to corral large supplies of in-transit war matériel, bolster loyalist 'White' forces, and evacuate the Czech Legion. The whole mess became politically unsupportable after Armistice and the continued unraveling of the "White" Russian forces, Allied troops were withdrawn in 1920. Good to knowI didn't know that so many Americans fought against Bolsheviks in Russia. They fought for freedom, but they lost. One year later, in 1920, Soviet forces came for Poland. Decisive Polish victory was battle of Warsaw, so unexpected that called "A miracle at the Vistula". Thanks to it we have secured Polish (and European) eastern frontiers for the next eighteen years, till 1939. Thanks, BinkThanks for the simple, but beautiful poem. Says it all! [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow deserves a smidge of credit, too. - Dave] When you think of itIt must be the only time in history where American soldiers actually fought in a war against Red Russian soldiers. About the gorgeous trucksFirst in line is from White Motors, second and fourth are from International Harvester, third is a bit more generic but my money is on Reo. You can almost make out the diagonal script on the front of number two's coffin nose in the full-size version. Finallya place where I can get my eagle washed. International HarvesterI suggest the "Renault" truck is an International Harvester. The lineup left to right is White, International Harvester, Reo, another International. 1919 International Harvester The second truck is a 1919 International Harvester. Model 15The first truck is a 1919 White Model 15. "This is not the Western Front""It is hardly no front at all." So wrote my grandfather in this letter to his parents dated "Archangel, Feb. 14, 1919. He was one of the approximately 5,000 "Polar Bears" of the American North Russia Expeditionary Force who fought the Bolshevik Red Army in North Russia from Sept. 1918 until June 1919 - more than six months after the end of the Great War. He was one of the lucky ones - more than 230 of his fellow soldiers died in North Russia. The "dead soldiers from Russia" shown in this photo were disinterred from the Allied Cemetery in Archangel and shipped home for reburial closer to their families. Archangel finally fell to the Bolshevik forces in Feb. 1920. The remains of most of the other American dead were recovered in 1929 and brought back to the USA. In addition to Sunday night's dinner, the 81st annual Memorial Day Service for the "Polar Bears" was held today at White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy, Michigan. Their service and sacrifice have not been forgotten. In the summer of 1918,In the summer of 1918, President Woodrow Wilson, at the urging of Britain and France, sent an infantry regiment to north Russia to fight the Bolsheviks in hopes of persuading Russia to rejoin the war against Germany. The 339th Infantry Regiment, with the first battalion of the 310th Engineers and the 337th Ambulance and Hospital Companies, arrived at Archangel, Russia, on September 4, 1918. About 75 percent of the 5,500 Americans who made up the North Russian Expeditionary Forces were from Michigan; of those, a majority were from Detroit. The newspapers called them "Detroit's Own,"; they called themselves "Polar Bears." They marched on Belle Isle on July 4, 1919. Ninety-four of them were killed in action after the United States decided to withdraw from Russia but before Archangel's harbor thawed. In 1929, five former "Polar Bears" of the 339th Infantry Regiment returned to north Russia in an attempt to recover the bodies of fellow soldiers who had been killed in action or died of exposure or disease ten years earlier. The group was selected by the members of the Polar Bear Association under the auspices of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The trip was sponsored by the federal government and the State of Michigan. Some picturesArchangel is actually the town where I was born and I was taught in school about British-American troops who invaded Archangelsk back in August of 1918. British memorial cemetery is situated there. British soldiers of WWI and WWII (sailors from polar convoys who were killed by nazis) are buried there. If memory serves me, there were also few American graves. http://autotravel.ru/phalbum.php/90212/137 You can see few interesting photos of WWI period here: http://warhistory.livejournal.com/1574525.html You can use Google translator to read the captions under the pictures. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, G.G. Bain, WWI)
Yesterday's News: 1940
... is evocative of a time when people truly treasured their daily or weekly newspaper, read it religiously, wrote letters to the editor, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/28/2018 - 8:56am -

December 1940. Brockton, Massachusetts. "Men and a woman reading headlines posted in window of Brockton Enterprise newspaper office on Christmas Eve." 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano. View full size. FedorasYour best bet finding them are in Hasidic neighborhood stores. Anthony UtoI think the sign reads "Enterprise Barber Shop." I have no doubt tho that the sign was changed to something that did not resemble the imperial battle flag! Still AroundUnlike the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or the Rocky Mountain News, the Brockton Enterprise will still deliver a physical newspaper to your home. I find that comforting. You two, yeah you, get out of the wayI really want to know more about problems with the schoolbooks, but those two guys are in the way. Twitter 1.0Just a few short words on a subject, broadcast for all the world (if the world happens to walk by that window) to read. Japanese Barber ShopThis picture was taken in December 1940. I'd be willing to bet that one year later "Anthony Uto's Japanese Barber Shop" was no longer in business. ["Japanese"? I think you're misreading the sign. - Dave] It Comes Full CircleI was wetting my pants in 1940 and here we are back in the same mode, its deja vu all over again. Brockton EnterpriseThe Enterprise of Brockton is still there: http://www.enterprisenews.com/ And it still resides at 60 Main Street in Brockton. And W.B. Mason (2nd Floor) is still going strong as well. R.I.P. Billy HillBilly Hill, Boston native, wrote a number of popular songs including The Last Round-Up, Wagon Wheels, Empty Saddles, In the Chapel in the Moonlight, The Glory of Love. At the age of seventeen he went out West and spent the next fifteen years working at various jobs including dishwasher in several roadhouses, cowpuncher in Montana, payroll clerk at a mining camp in Death Valley, and band leader at a Chinese restaurant in Salt Lake City. Sadly, Billy "lost his battle with alcohol" on Dec. 24, 1940. You can learn more at www.americanmusicpreservation.com Staying connected to your world.Wow! I wish we had a place to go today to read news headlines. Enterprise Barber Shop?Is that what is says? Although, when I saw the "Empire of the Sun" sign, my first thought was "Japanese" as well. School Board,not schoolbooks. The past is prologueInteresting how the formatting of newspaper pages on the window presages the formatting of information on the screen of my iPod Touch. Quake?There was an earthquake? Indeed, two? In Massachusetts? Many years back I read that there is a fault line running under Manhattan. I suppose this may be connected. EarthquakeThe USGS website confirms the headlines in the window. A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck the Lake Ossippee region in New Hampshire on December 20th and 24th of 1940. It reports that aftershocks were felt throughout the northeast. News FlashToday this would be replaced with the news "zipper" like in Times Square, New York. Evergreen street tree?Is that a Doug Fur or Canadian Hemlock in the corner of the picture? It looks like there is an ornament on it, which would make sense, but it seems like an odd place for a Xmas tree that size in the middle of the sidewalk. Keeping an eyeWas everybody a private detective in those days? Hatzoff, Fedora ManAs I grow older (and balder), I find myself coveting those fedoras. Gonna go find me one, somewhere... Get Your News HereUnlike today, there were no text messages, no blogs, no CNN, only newspapers and radios. There were no all news stations but there were morning and afternoon papers. Things changed much later on and I believe we are all the better for it. FedorasGosh, I really like the look of a man with a nice hat on. I remember that growing up in the 50's and 60's, practically all men wore them. I don't know why they stopped, but they sure look elegant. SantaI like that even back then they were "tracking" Santa and that he might not finish up his route until Christmas morning! Men Without HatsThe style changed, I believe, with John F. Kennedy, who was the first U.S. President to regularly go hatless. This encouraged a lot of other young men of his generation to follow suit (but not hat). Then there was the disastrous collapse of the once-mighty Japanese-American barbershop industry, which has yet to be fully documented. Not by me, though. Still, the familiar Kabuki barber in his garish makeup and flowing silk costume used to be a fixture in American cities from coast to coast, like Howard Johnson's restaurants and motels. For some reason or other, they never made a comeback after 1945. Maybe it was because, as my WWII veteran Grandpa used to say, "I'll never, ever trust one of those little guys with a razor again!" Since the average customer wasn't getting shaved bald any more (except for the traditional Samauri topknot, on request), the hat was no longer needed. [Disclaimer: If you don't think that real history is entertaining enough, you can always make up your own]. Marciano and HaglerBrockton is indeed home to boxing great Rocky Marciano. It is also home to another boxing great, Marvelous Marvin Hagler! Window vs. Web LogsBrockton, Mass. Who knew it was the birthplace of blogging? This is also a very early use of Windows Media. The Brockton BomberWasn't Rocky Marciano from Brockton? Eaton CuttersSomething about Eaton sounded familiar. The Eaton Cutters post for the army shoe workers is a reference to the Charles A. Eaton Shoe Company founded 1876 in Brockton, eventually adding their golf shoes to its line. In 1976, the company changed its name to Etonic. Read all about itAs a newspaper editor, this photo is evocative of a time when people truly treasured their daily or weekly newspaper, read it religiously, wrote letters to the editor, subscribed for generations, and hungered for important news as it was packaged in those days--on paper. Sure, they listened to H.P. Kaltenborn, but they still read all about it. Just a year later, when I was a month old, the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, leaving our generation to question why anyone in 1940 used a rising sun motif for their outdoor advertising! Nowadays, our industry is on the ropes, but I'm glad to see that the Brockton Enterprise is still going strong, right where it started. For how long, though? Reading is becoming a lost art, alas. Re: As a newspaper editorRe: As a newspaper editor, this photo is That's saying this photo is a newspaper editor. I thought it was reporters who fell into the trap of the dangling modifier, and the editors were the ones who pulled them out! Oops, ya got me!Anonymous Tipster is so right. Those dangling modifiers are pernicious. What is missing are the words "I find" from my original draft, inserted just after "editor," and just before "this." Good catch! I know who caused the earthquake!My dad, who would have been 14 at the time of this picture, grew up in Manchester, NH, and told me this story several times: One day he and his younger brother were in their upstairs bedroom doing nothing in particular while their mother was in the kitchen. Suddenly the dishes rattled and the cupboard doors shook. Mom marched to the foot of the stairs and shouted, "YOU BOYS CUT THAT OUT!" They looked at each other, then replied, "We weren't doing anything." (They were fond of fighting and wrestling, so Mom had every reason to blame them.) "You rattled the dishes down here!" "It wasn't us, honest. It must have been an earthquake," they countered. Well, that was ridiculous because earthquakes just don't happen in New England. However, when the next day's paper reported an earthquake, they all had a good laugh, and Mom was reassured that her boys weren't lying. The EnterpriseThe Enterprise is no longer at 60 Main Street in downtown Brockton. Delano's photo shows where the old Enterprise offices were, where the city of Brockton water/sewer offices currently reside, I believe. 60 Main is to the right, on the other corner. The building has been sold to a developer and the presses were dismantled and removed in 2008. In October 2008, part of the newsroom operation moved to a nondescript office on the city limits. Flying SantaThe "flying Santa Claus" referred to was Edward Rowe Snow, a local historian who every year, with the help of the Coast Guard, delivered Christmas packages to lighthouse keepers and their families. You can find more about him here. Grandfather Uto's barbershopThis was not a Japanese barbershop. My grandfather Anthony Uto came to this country from Italy in 1899 and opened his shop under the Enterprise building in the early 1900s. Until his retirement in the late 1960s, that was his shop. (The Gallery, Brockton, Jack Delano)
Seven Up: 1920
... scandal afoot with these loose women. Thank you for the daily glimpses into life during the past century, it is refreshing to add more ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/25/2012 - 3:06pm -

"Bathing beach, 1920." Seven lovelies at the Potomac bathing beach near the Tidal Basin. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Two of your loveliesare sporting a thin, shiny material that looks like no bathing suit fabric that I have seen from the period - and they are a very different style from the others. Do you think they are bathing suits or some kind of beach sun dresses? Not for Every BodyBathing caps, wool suits and swimsocks. That's a look you really don't see much anymore. MedallionsSeveral of the gals have medallions around their necks. Any idea the purpose? [Claim tags for the rented swimsuits. - Dave] Babes, Bobs ...No Bernices here. Not even Miss Nips was daring enough to bob her hair. My, What Teeth!These girls have pretty good teeth, for the most part, in an era during which orthadontics were the exception rather than the rule. Mom...is that you?The girl 3rd from the left certainly looks familiar? ScandalousWhat is the guy doing on the right? Like other shorpyers (shorpytonians?) observed I can see scandal afoot with these loose women. Thank you for the daily glimpses into life during the past century, it is refreshing to add more perspective to our history as an industrial and technological society. My word!This is NSFW! Have these gals no shame? Missys baring skin like this are looking for a good time, a husband or poison ivy. No good will come of it. Wool Jersey versus Cotton SateenMost of the bathing suits appear to be wool jersey knits, the most popular bathing suit material at the time. The two girls to the right, however, appear to be wearing home-made cotton shift bathing suits or beach dresses. The reflectivity and drape of the fabric suggests woven cotton sateen, an inexpensive fabric that was also sometimes used for beach garments, particularly by home seamstresses. (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Pretty Girls, Swimming)
TIME for Shorpy: 2013
... LIFE and fewer words. Progress. Anyway, thanks for the daily stroll down Nostalgia Pike. Thank you Dave Great story and thank ... shorpy.com many years ago but I'm glad I did. Shorpy is a daily visit. Kudos to you, Dave Bravo! Shorpy is the best site on the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/02/2013 - 11:32am -

TIME magazine's Lightbox feature kicks off the New Year with a profile on Shorpy by Vaughn Wallace. Click here for a slideshow, and scroll down for the profile. CongratulationsThe slideshow in Time magazine contained some of my all-time favorite images. Glad that Shorpy, Dave and the other unsung heroes got recognition for their hard work. GreatWell-deserved many times over. Shorpy is a jewel of the internet crown. Keep up the great work. Thanks for Your Hard Work, Dave!I have only been a member of Shorpy for a year or so. Other than learning about the site's namesake, I didn't know any of the backstory of Shorpy.com. The eye-opener for me from the "Time" article was that much of what we see is the result of restorative work that Dave has done. I'm embarrassed to admit that I thought Dave was "only" a moderator of our comments. The "Time" article is correct. This site brings history alive in a way that history books seldom do. The word "awesome" is overused these days, but there are many photos that I view in a profound way that I cannot put into words. I offer my deepest thanks to Dave and all those who contribute to the Members Gallery. Nicely stated featureI had given up making comments, however, must come back for this article to mention what an admirable job was done in describing Shorpy.com and Dave, along with example photos. A "well done" to author Vaughn Wallace! ^5!Wonderful! This is great. Congratulations Due CreditThe Time article did justice to what is fascinating about the site but, not being knowledgeable about photography, I suspect it just scratched the surface about the meticulous processes that are involved in bringing the images back to life. Also, I must give credit to the commenters, who are wonderfully civilized and curious-minded people. I've often wondered how much moderation our hosts must do, though I have hoped it is little. Congratulations ShorpyNow I suppose that we'll have to make reservations just to come visit. Congratulations.Great article. Good on ya Shorpy! I nominate DaveFor Time's Person of the Year 2013. Kudos on a nice article for an outstanding website. Important Educational ValueCongratulations are certainly in order for Shorpy! Let me add my enthusiastic praise. While Time touched on how Shorpy popularizes history, as a historian myself I think this aspect of the website is vitally important and cannot be overemphasized. As any grad student or professor who's tried to keep college students' attention in class discussion and on assignments, getting them to care about the past is the very first hurdle we face as educators. I have consistently found that using pics from Shorpy in the classroom and suggesting it as source material for assignments results in more productive engagement with the overall class goals. While other assignments are just as important, they often don't have the accessible impact that Shorpy does in getting students to think about what's at stake. Keep up the good work! Visual learners everywhere certainly benefit. Well DeservedSo happy you received this recognition. It must be a lot of work to make this site as fantastic as it is. I would also thank those people who provide the fascinating details about the people and objects that are the subject of these images. Salute! Well done, this site is a treasure. Well DeservedWell deserved recognition Dave! Shorpy is one of my favorite sites. Keep up the great work. Biggest SurpriseDave has a last name? I always thought he was a mononymous celebrity in the vein of Cher, Bono and Prince. Congratulations Mr. Hall. Congratulations, buttoo bad it wasn't LIFE. But I guess now TIME has more pictures than LIFE and fewer words. Progress. Anyway, thanks for the daily stroll down Nostalgia Pike. Thank you DaveGreat story and thank you Dave! You've made my life a more enjoyable one with this site. Congratulations!I'm sure you'll want to thank all the little people who helped you. Thanks!I don't remember exactly how I stumbled on shorpy.com many years ago but I'm glad I did. Shorpy is a daily visit. Kudos to you, DaveBravo! Shorpy is the best site on the whole darn internet! Every DayThere's not a day goes by that I don't stop by this site at least once. I've learned much about who we are, what we've done and where we've lived our lives. Thank you. More congratulations!I was telling my niece about Shorpy just last night--then this comes out today. I appreciate TIME backing me up. Certainly helps lend credence to what I was telling her. How many people who aren't newsmakers or otherwise famous (or infamous) get written up in TIME? Congratulations, Dave! You certainly deserve the honor for all your superior photographic restoration work. Don't forget us...now that you've hit the Big Time. LOL Congrats! My time well spentI spend WAY too much time on Shorpy every day, but it's time well spent - thanks for keeping up the fine work, Dave! What a tribute to you and Shorpy!Dave!! I'm so happy for you and I don't even know you personally, but knowing you through this wonderful site you co- created. I am just four weeks shy of having been part of the Shorpy family (as it may be)for two years and it's a daily part of my life. Having come across your site by chance I immediately related. I am learn as I go photo shop addict, starting with a box of old family photos several years ago, as soon as I was able to figure out the scanning and resolutions I began pulling small depression era photos into full screen high resolution reality. Seeing the clarity of those early box camera's was like a whole world opening up and seeing my ancestors up close and personal! I am also a life long lover of history and you have brought many moments of our countries past into a framework that pulls those moments out of the past and into my home. It's an amazing development in technology that you having discovered and so glad you chose to share your efforts with the world. So, congratulations Dave on this wonderful tribute to your good works. I know I'm grateful to have your site apart of my daily routine and discovery. I could almost bet that Shorpy is smiling down on you as well. Cheers! James Super !I have loved this site for a few years and never a day goes by that I don't stop by and check out the listings. I have turned on many folks to Shorpy. Dave..you do an amazing job. The details in many of the photos are stunning. It has helped me realize that the common scenes of todays world will soon be history and are worth preserving and saving. Thanks TimeI couldn't have said it better. Congrats...on this well-deserved recognition, Dave and all y'all. Congrats!What nice recognition for the suberb job you do! Thanks for my everyday fix of history. What took so long?Considering all of the fluff stuff certain national magazines print, it is well past time (no pun meant) for Shorpy and co-founder Dave - I caught that - to be so beautifully saluted for years of social enlightenment and entertainment. If the words "kudos", "huzzah", "woot-woot" and "bravissimo" had not yet been invented, they'd have to be just to begin to recognize what I consider to be one of the most fascinating destinations in cyberspace. Serious cheers to you, Dave, for all of it, and a tip of my Dad's old carbide-lamp helmet (he too was a miner in his youth) to young Shorpy, the unknowing inspiration, now memorialized for history thanks to Mr. Hall. KudosTwo friends pointed me to Shorpy just over a year ago, so I'm newer to the site than a lot of the veterans, but it does leave me with plenty of pleasant catching up to do. I have turned on many new Shorpy adherents myself, from children as young as 10 to oldsters in theirs 80s. It has affected my screen time at home a huge deal, and I realized today, in an art gallery, that it has really changed the way I look at all visual material. Thank you, Dave, for making these amazing images available to us, and thank you, tterrace, for moderating the comments. It's About TimeI've enjoyed (and purchased many prints)Plan59 and Shorpy for nearly 11 years. I have the "test drive" thumbnail image used at the entrance to the previous EphemeraNow site. It is dated 8-14-02 so, I guess that's when I first dropped by. All the action is over here now but for me, the real treasure is Plan59. Mid-century scans of that quality can be found nowhere else on the web. Good job Dave, Foy Adding my kudosThis is wonderful! I somehow stumbled on Shorpy when working a mind-numbing office job five years ago, and spent many an hour (don't tell my former employer!) combing the site and the wonderful comments. I'm now a grad student studying U.S. history, and this site has been a consistent visit for me throughout the years. I learn multiple new things every time I visit. I hope the new visitors that will undoubtedly arise from the feature only add to the incredible detective work and knowledge of obscure details that already make the comments such a joy to read. One Thing That Was MissedThe one thing that the writer of this Time article missed was one of the major reasons why I have kept coming back to this site for over five years: the superb community of people who contribute both their own photos and their knowledge and opinions to this site in the form of comments. I am pleased and proud to be a member of this group who contributes in my own small way. Well doneThe recognition is well deserved, Shorpy.com is one the best websites on the internet. It takes a village... to appreciate old photos as they should be appreciated. Thanks, Dave, for sharing your skill and dedication with us. And thanks to everyone who comments here! I love to hear from the railroaders, the aviation folks, the old car dudes ("old cars" that is, not "old dudes"), the architects and engineers, the genealogy buffs who search out details about the families in the pictures, and all the rest of you. I like it even when all we can think of to say is, "I had one of those!" "My dad had one of those!" "I remember my grandmother telling me about this!" All Shorpy comments are polite and friendly; most are enlightening; and many are hilarious. Good job, Dave. I have been spreading the word and will continue to do so. Day late....you know the restMy DSL was down for several days, just got up and running. First place I go to is Shorpy (of course) and this article makes me feel like I slept thru the discovery of life on Mars! So glad you are getting long overdue accolades. Hope us old timers don't get lost in the stampede. WTG Dave! Time Magazine 1/21/2013 p. 47Another Shorpy mention in the pages of Time Magazine. (ShorpyBlog)
The Salmon Kitchen: 1964
... commenting on things that were familiar sights in my daily life nearly 50 years ago and whose images remain burned in my memory. ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 07/13/2019 - 11:53am -

Unless you happened to live in one of those fancy kitchen decor ads like you see over on Plan59.com, your 1964 kitchen might be like ours, a mixture of stuff from the 50s (1955 O'Keefe & Merritt gas range), 40s (sink, cabinets & fixtures from a 1946 remodel) and even the 30s (the copper tea kettle). A package of meat is defrosting on the griddle, which was always a little warm from its pilot light. My Kodachrome slide. View full size. Oh How I Wish That Was Mine!Be still my heart - I have a warm fuzzy place for pink kitchens and bathrooms. When my folks purchased their first home after a long while of rentals, the 4 bedroom Orange County (california) sprawling ranch-style had an exquisite pink wall mounted electric oven, pink electric counter top burners, and "boomerang print" pink and silver formica counter with glitter flecks. The best part - the pink sink. Oh how I cried when they remodeled in the mid-70's to a harvest gold monstrosity. Even then at 14 I knew I was born at the wrong time. Thanks tterrace for another beautiful memory!! The KitchenMy dad was a millwright at the local Alcoa plant and his hobby was woodworking and making furniture. In 1959 he decided that he would buy his first brand new car. Mom put her foot down declaring that her late forties kitchen would be remodeled before a new car ever came into the driveway. The very next day Dad went to Rogers and Company in downtown Knoxville and brought home a new 1960 Pontiac sedan. He parked it in the driveway and began tearing out the old kitchen. He told my older brother privately that he just couldn't walk away from the dare. I sold that house after Mom died in 2001. The appliances have all been replaced but the 1959 cabinetry is still intact. StoveThat is a beautiful stove! The stoveTo die for! Now, for two to three (or more) times the price you get half the stove. The kind of stove shown here was standard through the 40's and 50's (at least) and I miss it. They usually had 6 burners, a built-in griddle, a broiler (door on the left) and an oven. You can have the pink kitchen though. I still have one exactly like it, handles and all, except it's sort of cream color. Yuck. Our StoveThis one had four burners and a griddle, with a rotisserie in the oven. Mother loved rotisserie chicken. The motor eventually burned out, and could not be fixed. The chrome on the grill was well worn from years of flipping Sunday morning pancakes. -tt's big sister Now yer cookin' with gasAh, aluminum salt & pepper shakers - a classic kitchen staple. But what I really like is the partially painted drawer side. A little paint probably got splattered/brushed onto it by accident, so the painter decided to paint a bit more so it would look more "finished" when the drawer was opened. As long as you only open it a couple inches. Kitchen ItemsIn the We Had One of Those category, score one for the spoon rest hanging above the spice rack. Ours was identical. My guess for the item hanging from the rack is a match holder to light the pilot light on the stove. And the magenta, gold and silver items on the sink must be aluminum tumblers, a popular item in 50s-60s kitchens. Unbreakable! Across the Ocean...You'll be glad to know that kitchens didn't look much different here in Australia in that time. We had the metal tumblers (in the draining tray), the cabinets and drawers (painted the same too), the tea-towel hanging from the cabinet drawer, the spoon rest... this could have been my childhood kitchen. Only ours was painted a very fetching two tone of royal purple and lavender. Noice! Shaker VariationsI can't tell you how strange it is to have perfect strangers commenting on things that were familiar sights in my daily life nearly 50 years ago and whose images remain burned in my memory. Glad someone noticed the shakers; judging from their dents they'd seen meal preparation service since well before I was around. Now, how about that thing hanging from the rack they're on? I know, do you? Also, the magenta, gold and silver things in front of the cake cooling rack on the sink? Things that never fail to get a "Oh, yeah, we had those, too!" reaction from other 50s kids. The partially-painted drawer sides were intentional, I'm sure. I always thought it was rather clever. My father did the salmon paint job, and merely covered over the existing yellow from the original remodeler's work. All the drawers in the kitchen were like that. Can it be?Down in the righthand corner, with papers and magazines piled on it- can it be one of those chrome and enamel rolling tea carts? In pink? They were usually red. Or a pink step stool? I'd settle for that. We (or rather our grandmother) had the aluminum tumblers. They made the peculiar water in their town icy cold and drinkable. Froze your hands,too. The saucepan in the sink- the harbinger of harvest gold Things to Come... My other grandma's kitchen was a little more pink, from 1957 until they sold the house in the late '60s. Tumbler SweatThe lovely aluminum tumblers! My grandmother had a set and, because they sweated so much when holding iced drinks in summer, knit little socks/mittens to cover the bottom third of them. That meant, of course, that we then had to wash the socks or at least hang them to dry... AppearancesI have a hunch that if your mom knew that someday you were going to show the world her kitchen, she'd have done the dishes. She probably wants to give you a little swat right now, wherever she may be. Although these are not what my memories are made of, I still enjoy reading about others'. Refrigerator RemembranceThough I was born in the mid-1980s (way past the time of pink kitchens and more into an ugly brown carpet and dark wood time period), I love the ads of the beautiful bright 50s kitchens and this picture is almost as great! Tterrace, what kind of refrigerator did you have? My grandparents built their house in the late 1950s and had a GE wall-mounted refrigerator that I thought was the coolest thing when I was little--it, and their kitchen, went the turquoise route. They remodeled in 2006, and that refrigerator was still chugging along (though it leaked a bit). The electrician actually took it back to his shop and reinstalled it as a beer fridge--so its long life continues! I don't suppose they were ever very popular--you pretty much had to be remodeling to have room for one. I found a copy of the ad for one, and framed it for them as sort of a memorial to the greatest fridge ever. Kitchen appurtenancesThat is indeed a chrome and pink enamel rolling cart in the lower right, and I'm happy to say it's in my possession now. It held the toaster plus heaps of printed materials: Montgomery Ward and J.C. Penney catalogs and magazines on the bottom shelf, more catalogs and magazines and a dictionary (my mother did crosswords) on the middle shelf, more magazines and newspapers on the top with the toaster. The crumpled thing on top of the pile is a homemade toaster cover or "cozy." The thing hanging from the spice rack with the shakers is a cake tester. For some reason, I always visualize my mother poking it into hot gingerbread. Yum. The colored anodized aluminum tumblers came with cottage cheese in them, that's how we got ours. Our refrigerator, bought the same time as the range in 1955, was a Kelvinator, one with a separate dedicated freezer compartment, which quickly converted my mother into a freezeraholic. Shortly thereafter we got a separate upright. Welcome homeNothing evokes the feeling of home like being in the kitchen, which is the real heart of a home, the workshop, Mom's domain and the family's refuge. I LOVE this warm, homey, lived-in kitchen, it feels like I've been there. The object hanging (like a wire) from the salt and pepper rack is, I believe, a cake tester, which was better than a toothpick because it was much longer and could be used for deep cakes, breads, etc. They usually were free from the Fuller Brush man or Jewel Tea or Tupperware, but you could also buy them for pennies. This fabulous photo captures forever a middle class family's central headquarters where it all happened: the loyal fellowship, petty arguments, shared home-cooked meals, loving encouragement, heartbreaking news, revealed disappointments, warm hospitality to visitors, where all emotions from mindless silliness to deep, heavy sadness was witnessed. If only these walls could talk. It is a wonderful photo and really took me back home. Thank you. My KitchenExcept for the salmon pink color and the vintage appliances, that could pass for my current kitchen. http://picasaweb.google.com/Schmthaus/OurKitchen Groovy kitchensMy kitchen, which was my parents', was remodeled in 1966 when I was 6 years old. The countertops are white with turquoise flecks, which match the turquoise stove top. The wall oven door was also once the same shade, but was replaced by a white door in the 1980s. I may be jaded, but I still think its a very timeless color scheme. Much nicer than avocado or brown. My Mammaw's Kitchen, circa 1962That's me, hiding... Let's Make a DealWe don't have O'Keefe and Merritt here on the East Coast. (Oddly enough our gas range growing up was an RCA.) But we're familiar with the O'Keefe name. They sure gave enough of them away on the quiz shows! I just put a bid on a house......and while one bathroom is green, the other is PINK...tile and everything! The kitchen is white (mercifully!), but I don't know how I'm going to live without a dishwasher. (Instead of "mad4books," I'll just be "mad.") Oh, and schmthaus, thanks for the pics of your kitchen. It kinda' reminded me of the Shorpy gem found at: https://www.shorpy.com/node/3201 Aluminum tumblersI've commented here about anodized aluminum tumblers before (in fact, Safari filled in the Subject for me after I typed "Alu"). We had the little "socks" too. I'd make a full blender's worth of chocolate shake, fill up a big glass to drink, then pour the rest into an aluminum tumblers and stick it into the freezer. The little sock came in really handy when holding onto that when I took it out later to eat with a spoon. You can find the tumblers on many shopping sites. We got some new ones a couple years ago. Good Bye O'Keefe & MerrittHad to replace my MIL's O'Keefe & Merritt stove/ove about a year ago. Tried to sell it but ended up just having the appliance store remove it when they delivered the new stove. Great old stoves and ovens, but we just couldn't get it repaired to keep the pilot light lit. Custard CupsThe clear glass dishes on the back right corner of the sink are custard or pudding cups. We had 'em, too. I like vanilla pudding. Dad likes chocolate and butterscotch. My sisters like chocolate. Everyone but me likes tapioca. Not really sure which my mother preferred. Dad might know. Or the elder of my sisters (both younger). She remembers things *everyone* else has forgot. That looks like a rugged wall-mounted hand cranked Swing-A-Way can opener at the far left. It was the best kind, because it was geared, and didn't depend on just friction to advance the can. I don't remember ever seeing the hand-held model like the Swing-A-Way I have now. There were hand-helds, but they were the friction variety. We moved a lot (Dad was a Methodist minister), and it just occurred to me that he would have had to find either studs or wood paneling to mount it every time we moved. And we had (perhaps Dad still does) a rolling cart very similar to the one on the right. Ours is white, and has a heavy power cable for the outlet mounted on the cart, so it can be used to move a toaster close to the table. Aluminum tumblers we only saw in the houses of others. Not sure why we didn't have them. (Ours were fairly heavy-duty clear plastic.) We kids were suitably awed by the jewel tones. I can't quite make out what those things are between the sink and the back left burner. Anyone? Salmon Kitchen thingsNice observations, Custard Cup poster, thanks. Things to the left of the back burner you were wondering about: the round ones sticking up are lids to cooking pots and pans in a rack mounted on the side of the sink cabinet. On the counter in front of the custard cups, the orange-colored blob is actually a lemon, or half a lemon to be exact. That's what Mother used to remove tarnish from copper items, like the bottoms of her Revereware and that hot water kettle there on the stove. In front of the lemon is the little decorative ceramic dish that's on the wall at the upper right in our living room photos here and here. Must be there to get washed. Those Cabinets!Our kitchen cabinets looked like that, down to the same silver handles on the door. Our house was built in 1951, so I guess it wasn't just 40s vintage. Pink!I also have a fondness for that 1950s pink. I recently purchased a 1956 home in Sacramento with the original pink bathroom in absolutely pristine condition. I'm so lucky the place didn't get remodeled with the gawdawful '70s or '80s decor! I know that sink!My maternal grandparents had that exact sink, with the sloping/fluted area on the left for draining dishwater and the soap holder sensibly positioned over the valves/spout. Theirs was always equipped with a green bar of Lava - an item perhaps also visible in your photo. O'Keefe RangeI have to comment about the O'Keefe & Merritt range in the photo. We have one still in use at the local museum here in Bend, Oregon. A friend of mine and I just repaired it and adjusted the gas burners. Still works great. I don't think you can improve some things. What is interesting is the Cadillac emblem on the top of the range! [As well as that "DeVille" script on the right. Click to embiggen. UPDATE: This is O'Keefe & Merritt's deluxe 40-inch DeVille model, "the Cadillac of ranges." Below, newspaper ad from January 1957. Was tterrace's stove the Starline-Wilshire with Grillevator broiler and Hi-Vue oven? - Dave] Merritt MemoriesWow, that museum piece O'Keefe & Merritt range fryejo posted nearly brought tears to my eyes - the knobs, exactly the same as ours. Odd that knobs stir such nostalgic emotions. Possibly it's because they were so much closer to eye level when we got it. The power plugs bring back another one: Mother had the electric waffle iron on the griddle; the top slipped out of her hand and fell back; sparks flew; the latch had welded itself to the griddle. UPDATE to Dave's Update: Ours didn't have a fancy-schmancy nameplate, a Hi-Vue oven viewer or a Grillevator (though it did have a rotisserie that didn't work for long), it might have been something of a rarity; at any rate, of the dozens of vintage O'Keefe & Merritt photos I've found online, the only ones that match its configuration - wrap-around chrome top, space-age square clock, straight chrome door handles and single oven window - are of this one here on Shorpy. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kitchens etc., tterrapix)
Dressed to Drive: 1922
... much out there on her; just this from The Nevada (MO) Daily Mail of Apr. 29, 1924: "A notable wedding in Washington today will ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 8:12pm -

October 6, 1922. Washington, D.C. "Emily Dial, daughter of Senator Dial." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Spotlight sidelightThe spotlight doesn't just light up what's ahead. It can be adjusted to see a driveway or an address on the side of the road. And most roads had no lights at all in those days. To the Farkmobile!Farked again! Speed DialThis photograph proves that they had a speed Dial way back in 1922. We've seen some of Emily's younger siblings before on Shorpy: https://www.shorpy.com/nathaniel-dial-children-1922 As well as her sister Fanny: https://www.shorpy.com/node/4091 https://www.shorpy.com/node/4105 Somebody has to say itDon't touch that Dial! Click.Wasn't there a floor lamp with that same shade in the radio display photo we saw few days ago? That spotlightWhy did so many of these old cars have a big spotlight on the driver's side? Most of the headlights were HUGE and the roads seemed to be well lit. So was it just a "cool" feature like chromed wheels, or did it have a real purpose? Keys, PleaseI kept missing the references to the wind-up key, because I never thought twice about what I saw. That "Spam-can" key at the rear of the car is one of a pair of what are commonly called "Bair" brackets, and the metal or wood bows of the folding top bunch up and rest in them when retracted. On smaller cars the brackets were less prominent. I haven't been able to identify this car from the limited visual clues , but it's a big 'un. NiceShoes! Hope she remembered to wind the car up before she got in; wonder how many miles per turn of the key she got? Kinda CuteBetter looking than Fanny anyway. Rush RushAnd no time to iron my dress. Confused about sizeIs she a really small woman or is the car really that big? It doesn't look like she would have a good grip on the steering wheel. Were all steering wheels of the time that large? Does it have something to do with the lack of "power" steering? Well-heeledThe shoes are spiffy and unworn. She obviously owned more than one pair. (Yes, I am ever the shoe hound). Any guesstimates on her age? Love the hat ...Why don't women wear hats like that anymore? Not much out there on her; just this from The Nevada (MO) Daily Mail of Apr. 29, 1924: "A notable wedding in Washington today will be that of Miss Laura Emily Dial, daughter of Senator and Mrs. Nathaniel B. Dial, and James Lawrence Brownlee of Birmingham, Ala." Daddy served one term in the Senate and then failed to be renominated for a second term. The seat was the one held by Strom Thurmond for 44 years and which is now occupied by Lindsey Graham. No problemIf this car runs out of gas or the battery goes dead. I see that convenient wind up key at the back to keep it going. The DialsI wrote a story a while back on the Dial family, after seeing a picture of four other Dial children on Shorpy: http://www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/dialchildren1.html Popeye PowerYes, the fine cars of that era really are huge. Ole Henry Ford made his cheap ones tiny, which makes people today think cars of the era were small, but the high class and high priced cars were big on the outside. The sitting area in them is small though. I was riding in a 1923 Studebaker the other day. It supposedly accommodated six, but you could barely fit four real people in it. Lots of leg room but no width. A friend has a White touring car. He keeps it in a warehouse because it is too big to fit through a regular garage door. You feel like a mouse looking at an elephant when you walk up to climb in. The big steering wheels were needed to get leverage because you were really turning the whole steering mechanism with your shoulders and arms. Chow down on that spinach before you take one of these things for a spin because they really are steered by Popeye power. What of the eldest Dial daughter?Close examination of Laura Emily Dial's 1924 wedding story in the Post reveals that there was a fourth Dial daughter - Rebecca, then married to M.G. Williams. In the Library of Congress archives is an awful 1922 photo of her (dressed up as a fairy). But by the 1970s, as Rebecca Dial again, she wrote a biography of her father ("True to his Colors") and an autobiography ("My Stream Without a Name"). SheridanThis car is a 1920 or 1921 Sheridan. Less than 1000 were made and it appears that only two exist. You can learn more about them here. http://www.geaaonline.org/sheridan.html Both Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and William Durant were involved with the manufacturer of these cars. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Farked, Natl Photo)
Streets of Baltimore: 1940
... we lived on the southeast side, I passed this intersection daily making deliveries to the old Montgomery Ward building that was the next ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/23/2012 - 6:45pm -

"Row houses, Baltimore, June 1940." Medium format safety negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. For the love of old cars.The immaculate black 1937 Ford Touring Car was a rarity at that time and scarce today - valuable indeed. The last car is a similar vintage Chevrolet. Would someone please identify the car in the middle of the scene. ShuttersI don't think I've ever seen shutters on doors before. You usually see them on the windows of coastal cities for storm protection but unless the doors were primarily glass the shutters would be more ornamental than practical. AntennasI'm always fascinated to see rooftops without TV antennas but I'm seeing shortwave "longwire" antennas aplenty here. Radio truly was the mode of communication back then. Work dayIt must be a workday -- no one is stoop-sitting. Baltimore was famous for marble steps on its row houses, but these look like wood. LocationAnyone know this intersection? Hear the drums?Gene Krupa! ShinySo that's what they looked like brand new! Bazooka Bubble GumI bet those kids are reading the Bazooka Joe comics from the gum they just bought. Gene Krupa, July 2Wow! There's a band date I would have liked to attend. Baltimore Row ApartmentsAll those incredibly narrow apartments with the flimsy wood stoops. They can't be much more than 12 or 14 feet wide. Is this an old Baltimore solution for cheap housing, or do some other Eastern cities have these as well? They all look neat and well scrubbed, but my dad would have called them "cribs." Meeeeeeooooow!You can almost hear that kittycat on the stoop wailing to get back in! Graham-PaigeThe middle car would appear to be a circa 1934 Graham-Paige, possibly a Blue Streak or Custom Eight. Quite a machine. Fond memories are mineThese are not apartments! They are individual homes. Many had small back yards on the alley. Some even had garages. Many residents would turn their "stoops" over at night. Virtually every step was painted annually, and was washed every day. Most of the rowhouses were on "land leases" over the whole city. The ground lease was typically for 100 years. Philadelphia and St. Louis also had many rowhouses. What's the larger structure in the background? That would place this on the money. I think this is north of the harbor. Marble stepsIt looks like there are some of the famous marble stairs by the first parked car in the background. I imagine this looks fairly similar to my dad's boyhood home on Kennedy Avenue in Bawlmer -- He'd have been about 4½ when this picture was taken. Cross-ventilationThe shutters were on the front door for ventilation. The row houses I knew had solid front doors. The front door was opened; the shutters were closed and latched. Typically the front door was at the bottom of the steps to the second floor. The windows would be opened at the back of the house on the second floor. Voila; natural ventilation. Shuttered doorsShutters are common all over the Caribbean and in South Florida, and exist in many places in the south. They were popular in pre-air conditioning days, so you could get let a breeze in with the window or door shaded to stop "heat gain" and a wood barrier is slightly more security than a flimsy screen. In a urban setting like this, the bigger appeal may have been privacy, even with the door open. Yikes,This is funThe tracks were for the #27 Streetcar line. The building in the background was the Carroll Park Shops. This was an absolutely enormous facility that did virtually all of the heavy overhaul and maintenanc for Baltimore's streetcars. Found this on Wikipedia: The Washington Boulevard streetcar line, which started operating in 1905, was designated No. 27. This was converted to electric trolley buses in 1938. Ground RentNot called "land lease" but "ground rent." It made it possible for people with not a lot of money to buy a house without buying the land. The rent is fixed and rather low. The system is so old and antiquated and the deeds were so poorly unrecorded that people who bought a rowhouse would sometimes not know they were on ground rent. Until they didn't pay for X years and had their houses taken away from them! The Baltimore Sun did a series on this in the last couple of years and laws have been reformed to make this impossible. Too bad there are no visible house numbers, that would help narrow it down a lot. You can see it was on a streetcar line. It appears to be fall or spring, not hot enough for the man in the background to go without a jacket, but the kids are okay without one. [Another clue is in the caption, where it says "June 1940." - Dave] So tidyYes, those are actually wooden steps. I think marble would be seen on a slightly higher class house (or later). These look like "alley" houses, the smallest of the rowhouses, usually built for working folks. I just looked through a book at BCPL on Baltimore Alley Houses, and they showed a lot of pictures of houses with shutters on the doors and windows, to actually use in hot weather. Seems like it would be so handy. They do look about 12 feet wide in this picture, which is pretty common. Judging from the Italianate styling, I'd guess late 1800s. They do have rowhouses in other cities. Washington, Philadelphia, and the narrowest ones I've ever seen were in Georgetown (DC). MemoriesGrowing up in Bal-mer in the 50's and 60's, these places are my memories. We lived in the burbs although all my family lived in places like these. And yes, even in the burbs we were paying ground rent! Just a way of life and I've never heard of it anywhere else! Horton"Horton" (or Morton) would be the company that painted the sign. HortonDidn't they sometimes used to put street names on corners of buildings back then? I wonder if Horton is maybe the name of that side street. Just a thought. Hortons Nortons and MortonsI checked them all via local.live and google maps. They're alleys with nothing like this scene. The street has streetcar tracks, so it's at least a halfway important street. But Baltimore had tons of lines. The big structure in the background looks like a church nave to me, the front of the church facing the photographer, so that would put the church on a corner. [This is from a series of photos taken on U.S. Route 1, Baltimore-Washington Boulevard. - Dave] I think it's a LincolnI think the spiffy droptop on the street is a Lincoln Zephyr, which would've looked a lot like it's poor cousin, the Ford. The teardrop shaped headlamps are the clue. [The car is a Ford, not a Lincoln. - Dave] Found it: Carroll ParkThanks Dave for the clue about US 1. View Larger Map This is at the corner of Washington Boulevard and Bayard Street. The opposite side of the street is Carroll Park (which probably explains why the car has such a long shadow). The big roof in the back ground is not a church like I thought, but an old carbarn for the streetcars. The long monitor roof along the ridge of the carbarn has been removed and the building is now a bus maintenance garage. Of course, being Baltimore, the whole row is covered in FormStone or PermaStone, whatever you want to call it. You see one of the sad things about FormStone: all the great wood cornices are chopped off so the FormStone can be installed. Charm CityGreat shot--it's June, the two kids are hanging out at the corner store, the cat on the steps, the car--a nice moment in time. Trackless TrolleysYes, these are in fact trackless trolley wires. You can clearly see where the B.T.C. simply added a negative wire along side the existing positive street car wire. There is a Baltimore trackless trolley sitting inside of the car barn at the Baltimore Street Car Museum. It was built by the old Pullman Standard Car Mfg. Company of Worcester, Mass. I grew up in BaltimoreIn the 26th Ward, in a rowhouse just like these. I'll never forget Saturday mornings and my mother scrubbing the white marble steps. Although we lived on the southeast side, I passed this intersection daily making deliveries to the old Montgomery Ward building that was the next block down!! MemoriesI grew up in Baltimore and my grandma lived on East Monument Street and she had marble steps. All the neighbors would wash their marble steps and keep them looking white. And everyone sat outside at night to chat. Pigtown Historic DistrictThis scene is indeed at Washington Boulevard and Bayard Street, facing south. It is within Pigtown Historic District. The hip-roofed building at the end of the row appears to have been constructed after 1914 and been demolished by 1951. It stood at 1463 Washington Boulevard, and was a filling station by the December 1951 Sanborn map. The 1914 Sanborn shows the lot owned by D.M. Larkin, Contractor. None of the buildings depicted look much like the hip-roofed structure in the photo. The Carroll Park Shops, on the far side of Bush Street from the mystery building, were constructed c. 1899. The United Railway & Electric Company hired B&O architect E. Francis Baldwin to design a single, centralized shop for repairing and rebuilding streetcars. Two huge one-story buildings (each covering an entire block) went up on the southeast side of Washington Boulevard, between Bush and Elk Streets. Each structure is lit by four long roof monitors that run the entire length of the building. Today, these turn-of-the-century facilities still stand as the repair shop for MTA buses. The buildings were never three stories high, however, and couldn't be the structure depicted in the photo. Of the houses in the photo, they were built in 1888 by Cornelius H. Saffell (or Soffell), and have typical Queen Anne-style decorative brick door hoods; first floor windows have segmentally arched lintels made up of a double row of header bricks, with the upper row alternately projecting to create a decorative effect. The late Italianate-style cornices have jig-sawn friezes. Saffell was one of many German-born builders to construct buildings in the district. Indeed, many of the residents were German immigrants working in the butchering industry. +74Below is the same view from July of 2014. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Jack Delano)
Redwood High: 1958
... '98 Holy crap! I went there!!! I check this blog daily! This really trips me out! Barefoot! Crazy to see a girl walking ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 06/24/2009 - 4:53pm -

1958. My dog Missie catches the eye of a passing cheerleader at Redwood High School in Larkspur, California, the year it opened. Notable alumni in addition to your humble correspondent (Class of '64) include Robin Williams and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. My brother's Ektachrome slide. View full size. Your beautiful restorationsEither your brother's slides were stored under immaculate conditions in temperature controlled vaults, or you are doing an ace job of photoshopping them back to life. I very much appreciate your loving care in restoring these Ektachromes and am highly enjoying the results. More! Gavin NewsomGavin Newsom "notable"? Try "notorious." Really enjoying your photographyWondering where your website is to see more of your photography. The stuff from the 60s and 70s is particularly interesting to me - just before my generation (born in '79), but it's really striking to see well done non-fictional photos from the same era as movies I love by Woody Allen et al. Keep on postin'! Dave http://www.seinberg.net/wordpress Redwood, more like Deadwood!Ah Redwood, home to a summer school session or two. It was often rumored (spread no doubt by those of us who attended rival Tamalpais) that the school was designed by the same person who designed nearby San Quentin. Redwood AlumI also went to Redwood and wow! It is really cool to see it back then. We all thought it was such a horridly ugly school, but looking at it pristine like this makes me appreciate it more. It's got a bit of the midcentury modern going on! Some other (lesser) notables who went there: the children of Jefferson Airplane, Dennis Hopper, and Joe Eszterhas. Woof.Bow wow WOW! So who is this girl. After making friends with Missie did she make friends with you? Dennis HopperUh, Dennis Hopper went to Helix High in La Mesa, Southern California, graduating in 1955 - the year I was born. I graduated from Helix in 1973. [Or was the commenter referring to Dennis Hopper's kids. - Dave] Redwood RamblingsYes, Redwood's resemblance to San Quentin (just a couple miles due east) was definitely a common joke among the student body from the beginning. Originally, its starkness was offset a little by some Bauhaus-like design elements that unfortunately have not been maintained. The window-walls at the end of corridors in the classroom building were made up of varicolored glass panes, and the outer walls under the roof arches of the gym were broken up into panels of various pastel shades - sort of Mondrian lite. Now that's all been painted over with a bland margarine color. As with all of our pre-1962 Ektachromes, this one has gotten red. I generally rely on the auto-color correction functions of Epson scanning software and/or Photoshop Elements to get me in the ballpark - they're both a lot better at that than previously - then I start tweaking. A big challenge in scanning transparencies, both negative and positive, is managing shadows and highlights. I don't have quite the knack for that that ShorpyLabs has, or maybe my Elements version of the filter is dumbed down, but whatever it is, more often than not they've been improved by the time you see them here. East CoastI grew up on the East Coast in Lexington, MA. Our high school was based on school designs in California and has a passing resemblance to the picture above. The biggest problem was that there were several separate buildings connected with an open overhang. Something that might have been good for California, but not good for New England weather! Dennis's DaughterYes, I was referring to Dennis Hopper's daughter, not Dennis Hopper - as in, "the children of the following people: ..." Re: Dennis's Daughter...as I silently admonish myself, "Be a reader..." Class of '98Holy crap! I went there!!! I check this blog daily! This really trips me out! Barefoot!Crazy to see a girl walking barefoot at school! Never saw girls this in my school days. Barefoot in the Parking LotThis wasn't a school day; in fact, it was a month before the school opened for its first day of classes. The cheerleaders were practicing in the parking lot, possibly for opening ceremonies. '58 ModelCheerleaders in 1958 were built right. Rah RahMiss Cheerleader looks like she came out of one of those 1980s high school movies -- "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," or maybe "Grease" except for the hot pants. California must have been before its time even then. Building DesignIt is interesting that when I saw this picture, I thought "what a cool modernist building" ... then I clicked on the comments to read that many didn't like it. Redwood HighI remember Redwood High very well. I went to Tamalpais High, Class of 1954. What are the odds I wonder for me to find this website? Never been here or knew it existed. I was just surfing through the web and was sure I was suffering a flashback or something. And yes, that is the fifties alright. And California stays ahead of the rest of the U.S. for some reason. Diversity perhaps? I have looked at this photoI have looked at this photo many times in the last year - I think it is one of the most perfect evocations of California life in the 1950s I have seem. The gods were smiling on your brother that afternoon. As alwaysDogs are babe magnets. Redwood High My entire family of five kids spent their high school years going here. From around 1962 to 1974. It's great to see the school just before it opened up for classes for the first time. You can see the hole in the roof of the entrance where they have yet to put in the flagpole. They recently did a facelift on the building, but it does not really hide the original construction. I live about a half a mile from there still, and walk the dog there often. Lucky me. Oh, and Robin Williams and Pete Carrol (USC) went to this school. San RafaelI graduated from San Rafael in '62 and married a Redwood grad (Class of '66) when I got home from Vietnam. Neither was a great experience. I first lived in Santa Venetia then moved right across the street from the SRHS tennis courts. Left Marin in '68 -- got way too expensive and crowded. Have enjoyed your Marin photos though. It was a great place to live in the early 60s. And, I assume, before that. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Dogs, Pretty Girls, tterrapix)
Meats Coke Fruits: 1942
... up in 1950s Baltimore, the corner stores were part of daily life. Embedded in the corners of block-long row houses, our stores were ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/16/2017 - 2:54pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1942. "Car in front of Shulman's Market on N at Union Street S.W." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Louise Rosskam. View full size. Thanks for the color!Never mind the color naysayers. The color photos are amazing. Keep 'em coming! :-) colorized??I'm sorry, anyone thinking the color shots have been "colorized" must have issues with their vision. You do understand though, this is not 2042. I'm just sayin'...."Shorpy - The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog" and all...not that I mind the color or the more "recent" pictures. They are all fascinating. Long live Shorpy! Love the carAnother great picture. Interesting to see how worn the car is. By the way, do you have Prince Albert in a can? Then you better let him out! James clerk MaxwellI read an account that maxwell stumbled into and 'lost' an apparent color process. Sorry it's an unsourced and unqualified assertion; i cannot remember where i saw that.. :( but that there is surviving examples My God, I can't get over theMy God, I can't get over the quality of these....I don't think I've ever seen any color photos this old look as good as these do. If the year hadn't been posted, I would've thought these were taken on some recent movie set or whathaveyou. Absolutely gorgeous! Colors areColors are gorgeous! Interesting to see the graffiti scratched into the store window. A store in this same location today would likely have the same vandalism. Love Shorpy! An everyday stop for me now. GraffitiSomeone soaped the windows -- scribbled on them with a bar of soap. What kids did back before spray paint. And thanks -- Shorpy loves you too! What short memories we haveDoes anyone remember that The Wizard of Oz was released in 1939? The first movie shot in color was The Gulf Between (1917). Color Pictures in 1942At the date of this picture, color was widely available but was a premium process that was expensive. But if you've ever seen naval war footage of 1942 it's mostly in color because the Navy began using it, interestingly the Army in Europe didn't. Very nice sceneNice, very nice shot. It's amazing how the image is sharp. How is the photographer that took it? [Louise Rosskam died in 2003 at the age of 93 - Dave] N and Union: 1942Wonderful shot. Colourised? Colorized? I sincerely doubt that anyone has that degree of virtuosity, although Photoshop ace Tom Maroudas comes pretty close. (See http://precodecinema.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html and http://precodecinema.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html for details.) I remember reading an article by Andreas Feininger about the super qualities of Kodachrome when it was 10 ASA (ISO) and came in 8" X 10" format. Apparently, he took some Kodachrome pictures in that format back in 1937, and once developed he put them in a drawer in his darkroom where it was permanently dark and arid. In the '80s he was cleaning out his darkroom and found the perfectly preserved pictures is the same condition as they were over forty years before. The colours were vivid and the contrast had not changed. Amazing film. I hope that the digital medium can come within hailing distance of this marvelous film. (And as an advocate of digital, I am not holding my breath.) Soaped WindowsLooks like they "soaped" the car windows, too. Although it appears they used paraffin wax, not soap. It came in blocks and was used to seal the top of jams & jellies. Doesn't come off with water - you have to use gas or kerosene, or a razor blade. Kids caught doing this when I was young got the "pleasure" of removing it, too (not that I have any personal experience or anything... ;^) And is that a picture of Hitler in the window? The carThe car in this picture, a Model A Ford, is 10 to 12 years old. Old color photosThis is such a magnificent photograph. I remember, as a child, assuming the whole world was colorless, since all the"old" photos I saw were b/w. Here is a link to WW-I color photos, they are incredible. http://www.worldwaronecolorphotos.com/ The CarYou have the age right, make wrong. It's a 1931 Chevrolet. Wonderful shot, Shorpy! Pictures in the windowNot sure about old Adolph in the window of Shulman's Market, but I do recognize Il Duce - Benito Mussolini on the left side. Maybe and advertisement for some magazine or some sort of patriotic screed against the various "rats" the US was now at war with. Rationing stickerThe windshield has a gas rationing sticker, the letter "A" on the passenger side. That was the basic gas allowance, "B", "C", etc, allowed more gasoline to be purchased by the car owner. I believe the "A" allowance was 5 gallons a week and ration stamps were required. Colorized?Why would people think that these were colorized? seriously, how dumb can you get? XD So vibrant back then; I love the little boy just wandering about... So little has changed.It's amazing, some of DC still looks so close to this that I could almost imagine this photo being taken today. In fact, I'm almost up for going to that corner to see if those building still stand. Even the painted blue is the same color you see almost everywhere today. [Good luck finding that intersection. - Dave] Color Film from KodakKodak's new color film for home photographers was first displayed and demonstrated, but not sold, in the "Palace of Photography" at the 1935-1936 California Pacific International Exposition in San Diego. It went on the market the following year. More than 400 natural color film processes were patented, and many of them marketed to the public, from the 1890s through the early 1930s, before Kodachrome dominated the market with its superior quality and relative ease of processing at Kodak labs. New ExcitementSeeing these pictures of N and Union Streets has brought out a whole new range of excitement for my family. We were raised on N Street, at that corner, and spent all the wartime years living there, through all the blackouts and air raid drills, and day-to-day living. We got groceries at that store, played street football on that corner, played Kick the Can on those sidewalks, and lived harmoniously in the racially mixed neighborhood, not realizing at the time just how "rich" we really were. Thanks a million for producing those pictures. Love these Old DC photos. Love these Old DC photos. This one's getting close to the neighborhood of my great-great grandparents. They lived there in the 1870's - early 1900's. I'm looking for photos during that period in the vicinity of 1513 Half St., SW, 1506 First St., SW; 1342 & 1346 Half St. SE; 62 N. St., SE? My G-G-Grandmother, Mary E. Hunt and Sons Wallace and Newton Cornwell bought property between Half & 1st. Sts, and M & N Sts. SE. and had a brick making business there. My G-G grandparents James & Isabella Storey lived on the SW side of Half Sts. Their daughter Jane and Newton Cornwell married. They are my G-grandparents. We had know idea of them or where they lived until I recently started researching our family tree. Anyone who can help, my email is: ae-mitchell@hotmail.com. I love this site! Herb's MarketI was born in D.C. 1941 and grew up living over my dad's grocery store, a DGS: Herb's Market, 621 Seventh Street N.E., between F and G. Any photos around besides my few taken with my Brownie Hawkeye? Buddy Shulman, the owner of the store in the photograph, was a "cousin" of my mother, or a relative of Buddy's. Also, I think related to Max Shulman. AntennaIt looks like the bottom of what might be an antenna on the roof. The photo pre-dates TV, but I didn't think they used rooftop antennas for radio. Is that what it might be? Or is there something else more likely? [Rooftop radio antennas go back to the 1920s, with many examples here on Shorpy. -Dave] Corner stores from the pastAs a kid growing up in 1950s Baltimore, the corner stores were part of daily life. Embedded in the corners of block-long row houses, our stores were specialized: one provided groceries, another was a meat market; there was a bakery (oh, the smells!), and a pharmacy with an oldtime soda fountain. Today, Baltimore's corner stores have been replaced by liquor stores or simply abandoned -- along with many of the row houses. Many inner urban neighborhoods now complain of "food deserts". It was a different world then. Cheap rent & MeowYears ago when I was in college I rented an apartment above a store. I liked watching the world pass by below. Sometimes I could just stare out the window for thirty minutes, it made me feel like a cat. --great photo. God bless KodachromeI'm always amazed and impressed with the Kodachrome shots shown here at Shorpy. Especially the large format shots in 4x5 and 8x10" formats. Kodachrome was tough to work with given its low ASA/ISO speeds but the sharpness was second to none. The reason that Kodachrome colors are SO stable and don't fade with age is because it was a "dye-additive" film as opposed to films like Ektachrome which were "dye-subtractive". Simply put, Kodachrome's colors were put onto the film during processing and were extremely stable and not prone to fading. Go look at a 50 year old Ektachrome and you'll see the result of dyes fading. Union StreetUnion street is long gone. I found it on a map from 1893. The Car is Not a Model A FordI have been restoring a Model A Ford for 12 years now, with a lot of study of the years they were built 1928-'31, and I was at first taken in by the similarities, however 1. there is no gas tank filler cap (which should be in the center of the windshield on the metal cowling) 2. the cowling shape is '30-31 3. the headlights are '28-29 on a Model A. 4. the hood stamping looks different, and length appears longer than an "A". Even after this, I can't identify the car. Cars built during these years shared many similarities in design. (The Gallery, Kodachromes, D.C., Louise Rosskam, Stores & Markets)
The House Jack Built: 1940
... 60 people, and the Pie-O-Neer has better pie than The Daily Pie. The Farm Bureau building The Farm Bureau building still ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2012 - 12:02pm -

Sept. 1940. The Jack Whinery family in their Pie Town dugout. Homesteader Whinery, a licensed preacher, donates his services to the local church. More on the family below. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee. Re: Dancing Africans?Not Africans. Injuns. There's such a thing as aThere's such a thing as a "licensed preacher"? Stupid comment hereThe girl second from the right seems to be channeling Napoleon Dynamite. Sorry to ruin it. Juvenile. Sorry. [Gyaaah! - Dave] Dancing Africans?I'm a bit intrigued by the pattern on the boy's shirt. so youngi'm more intrigued with how young they look and how many kiddos they have. wow. looks like the 2 girls on the left are twins. Sad eyesIn so many pics of poor families in the 30s/40s, I notice how sad (maybe just tired) the mothers look while the dads somehow show some kind of dignity or at least of being alive. PIE TOWN I just talked to some friends who went there this summer. There are still people who bake pies and have a very rural lifestyle. They said it was a great place! Licensed preacherSure there's such a thing as a licensed preacher. In many states, there are 2 distinctions: licensed and ordained. A licensed minister is recognized by the state and can perform weddings, funerals and the like. It kind of depends on the church you attend, but ordination is usually church recognition of a minister's credentials. Sunday best....wonderful how they managed to step up to the plate and present themselves in their "finest'...an amazing and poignant photograph... me again1940 = year I was born in Norfolk VA..... :-) Velva MaeIf my research is correct, the Mrs. is Laura Edith, née Evans, and Jack’s full name is Abrim Jack Whinery. The eldest daughter, the camera-shy one on the right, is Velva Mae. If she’s still alive today, she’ll turn 76 on August 29th. Denny Gill Chugiak, Alaska There's a Velva M. Kosakowski who may be the oneHere's her obituary. She's the only Velva in the SSDI born on that date with the middle initial M, and the obit says she's Jack and Edith Whinery's daughter. It looks like the same Velva Whinery you mention, Denny, but whether she's one of the girls in the photo I don't know. The girl on the right looks far too old to me to be nine (she is almost as tall as her father when sitting plus she has breasts - I'd suggest she was about 12-13), but the girl on the left looks nineish. Charlene...thank you for the information! I think you're right: the camera-shy girl on the right is likely well beyond nine, now that I look at her again. The obituary you linked us to shows that Velva certainly came a long way from this Pie Town dugout, eh? Denny Gill Chugiak, Alaska The girl on the rightI think that girl is Wanda Whinery. She's mentioned in the obit as being Velva's deceased sister; a Wanda Whinery shows up in the SSDI from the Grand Junction/Clifton, CO area (where they all seem to have ended up). She was born in 1929, so she'd have been 11 in this photo, an age at which most girls are shy, awkward, and uncomfortable. You're right about it being a long way; a little girl sitting beside her mother to a great-grandmother in her own right. SadHow old was that mother when she married? She doesn't look that much older than her eldest child. Sad. namesInteresting how first name fashions come and go. Here we have Jack and Edith (basic early 20th C names) with a Velva and a Wanda, surely exotic names for the time -- though the 30's, when they were born, was a time of experiment in many things... What were the other children called? Bet the boys got more ordinary names. One boy's name was Lawrence,One boy's name was Lawrence, apparently. And if the Obit for Velva is right, Wanda Whinery never married - no married name is listed. They may have been dirt poor, but the kids look healthy and cared for. young mothers>>>"i'm more intrigued with how young they look and how many kiddos they have. wow." My paternal grandmother was 15 when she married my grandpa 1932 (in Lovington, New Mexico), and they started a family right away. My grandmother preferred to say that she was "almost 16". They were actually residing at that time around Brownfield, TX, but they drove all day and night (accompanied by the father of the bride) to the nearest courthouse in NM, because at that time, 16 was the legal age for girls to marry in TX. Apparently, there was nothing shameful or even unusual for girls to marry at 15 in that place and time, though perhaps 14 might have been pushing it. Both families were fairly strict and god-fearing people-- poor but not destitute. Grandpa's whole family were members of the Primitive Baptist Church. Scott, in Taiwan distichum2@yahoo.com They are all so thin. NotThey are all so thin. Not starved thin as much as built thin. Thanks for all the comments on who they might have been! They are interesting reads. clothingThe fabric the clothes are made from has to be flour/feed sacks. Perhaps not the father's but the rest of them surely are. The parents do look so young. Not more then 30. And yet they must have led a hard life up to this point. Amazing the family resemblance. Feed Sack FabricIn the late 1800's cotton sacks gradually replaced barrels as food containers. Flour and sugar were among the first foods available in cotton sacks, and women quickly figured out that these bags could be used as fabric for quilts and other needs. Manufacturers also began using cotton sacks for poultry and dairy feeds. The earliest of these bags were plain unbleached cotton with product brands printed on them. In order for women to use these bags they first had to somehow remove the label, or to make sure that the part of the cloth with the label was not normally visible. It did take some time for the feed and flour sack manufacturers to realize how popular these sacks had become with women, but finally they saw that this was an opportunity for promoting the use of fabric feedsacks. Their first change was to start selling them in colors, and then in the 1920's began making them with colorful patterns for making dresses, aprons, shirts and children’s clothing. They also began pasting on paper labels that were much easier to remove than the labels printed direstly on the fabric. By the 1930's competition had developed to produce the most attractive and desireable patterns. This turned out to be a great marketing ploy as women picked out flour, sugar, beans, rice, cornmeal and even the feed for the family farm based on which fabrics and pattern they wanted. I can remember that if my mother was not able to go along when my father went to buy feed, she would often send a scrap of material of the fabric design she needed so that he would be sure to buy the right one. This was during the 1950's. By the 1950's paper bags cost much less than cotton sacks, so companies began to switch over to this less expensive packaging. The fabric feedsack industry actively promoted the use of feedsacks in advertising campaigns and produced even a television special encouraging the use of feed sacks for sewing, but by the end of the 1960's the patterned feedsack fabrics were no more. Pink feed sacks...The girls' clothing is actually relatively new cotton muslin, and in quite good shape. Dad and the baby are wearing the most worn-out clothing of all of them. I doubt feed sacks came dyed with pink flowers or other feminine designs. The ones I own are just plain off-white. As an aside, I just noticed that all the kids look just like Mom except the oldest daughter, who looks just like Dad. The Sack DressFeed sacks came in every design imaginable. I have a friend who collects and lectures on them and she has seen literally thousands of different prints. Andover Fabrics out of New York will be doing a line or reproduction fabric based on her collection soon. I've even seen feed sacks printed to look like toile. The variety is astounding. Information about the Whinery childrenI was in Pie Town a few days ago and managed to find the name of all the Whinery children. The oldest girl is Laura; Velva (middle name "Mae") is in pink, and Wanda is in white. The eldest boy is A.J, and the baby boy's name is Lawrence. I know for certain that Wanda, Velva, and Lawrence have died. Wanda was born in Adrin, Texas on August 29, 1931 and died on May 27, 2007 at the age of 75. She was married twice, to Clifford Miller on Nov 4, 1956, and she had four children, two boys and two girls, and Chester Kosakowski, age 81, on Oct 31, 2005. In her obituary it says that Wanda and Lawrence preceded her in death, Wanda likely unmarried as they referred to her as Wanda Whinery instead of with a married name. It also said that Laura and A.J. survived her, so unless they have passed away in the meantime, Laura is living in Clifton, Colorado, with the married name Murray, and A.J is living in Dayton (it doesn't say which of the 23 Daytons in the US, so I'm guessing it is Dayton, TX) I talked to a man who lived in Pie town for all of his life, and he said that he doesn't think the Whinery home is still there. Neither is the Farm Bureau building that the children went to school in. On the other hand, one of the other school buildings is still there and being re-stuccoed and made into a residential home. Their current public schools are in Datil and Quemado, none in Pie Town. The current population of Pie Town is approximately 60 people, and the Pie-O-Neer has better pie than The Daily Pie. The Farm Bureau buildingThe Farm Bureau building still exists. It is now used as the "Community Center" and is the property of the Pie Town Community Council. A porch has been added along the front, and an additon on the side for a kitchen and restrooms, but otherwise it looks pretty much as it did in the Russle Lee photos from 1940. Gyaaah! Unbelievable! (The Gallery, Kodachromes, Pie Town, Rural America, Russell Lee)
Diner at Seven: 1940
... The driver is reading the February 19, 1940 issue of The Daily Clintonian . The reward mentioned to the left of the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/27/2018 - 11:03am -

February 1940. "Truck driver in diner. Clinton, Indiana." Medium format negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. French Fried Popcorn- - am I reading that right?? [Mrs. Klein says, "Yes." -tterrace] Milk for the truck driverAnd I see Sen Sen in the background. They tasted like soap to me. Bus DriverHis change dispenser is on the counter to his left. [That's what those pants made me think. I saw Greyhound drivers still wearing them in the 1950s in Marin County, California. -tterrace] [Also, his cap-badge says BUS. - Dave] I'd kill to have that light fixture!There's so much going on in this photo. The more I look at it, the more questions I have. 5 cents a bagWhat in the world is french-fried popcorn? I want some! French-fried popcorn?Pretty much what it sounds like: Heat a deep fryer load of oil, put in a basket, and pour in the kernels. Cover(!!) and wait until the popping slows to a stop; lift out the basket full of popcorn. Local NewsThe driver is reading the February 19, 1940 issue of The Daily Clintonian. The reward mentioned to the left of the masthead was for E. C. Harris, who stole the money from a $26,000 Clinton bond issue, and for Earl "Doc" Potter, a former cemetery superintendent who had embezzled city funds. Street Car ConductorThe gentleman looks like a street car (light rail) conductor. There was a spur of the Terre Haute, Indianopolis & Eastern Traction Co. that ran up to Clinton from Terre Haute. Clinton was a small town of about 7,000 residents at the time. About 3,000 of these residents have strong ties to Italy because their parents or grandparents came from Northern Italy. [As noted below (as well as on his cap), he is a BUS driver. - Dave] Baby It's Cold OutsideLook at the condensation on the window. Not a good night to be outside in your shirt sleeves. Whre in Clinton?Can anyone zoom in on the Store License (over the shoulder of the waitress)? The address and perhaps the name of the owner might be legible. Clinton is not that large a town. I suspect it might have been near the bus station--when it existed. Bulk Buying Bargain!Charles Thomson. 3 cents each, or five for 15 cents! What's in the little tubes?The name is obscured. Something-phos? Sanitized for your protection...Note the transformer and wires up on the wall (next to ceiling light) probably leading to a neon sign in the window behind the valence or maybe an outside sign. The way the wires are strung and the way that switch is wired to the overhead light, I predict a fire in their future. Especially since someone spent all that time, cutting up crepe paper to trim the shelves. I wonder about the condensation on the window indicating the temperature outside. Probably the result of all that cookin' going on inside. If you have pots boiling or a steam table holding food at temperature, you would get condensation inside the windows. Also very surprised to seen "whoopie pies" on the desert shelf, a Pennsylvania delicacy. Finally, I note the "Sanitary" nut dispenser. "Sanitary" was a big buzzword then, even to the point of there being diners named "Sanitary Diner" in Indiana back then. The Pinball MachineMy Cousin the Pinball Guru came up with a make and model for the Pinball Machine. It's a 1937 Bally "Arlington" Probably named after Arlington Park in Illinois, Bally was based in Chicago. Who knew there was an Internet Pinball Machine Database. http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=88&picno=6566 What's in the tubes -- Answered?If you check the illustration above the tubes, you'll see a hand pouring a tube's contents into a glass. This leads me to believe it's either a headache powder, or something akin to Alka-Seltzer. Sometimes it pays to do internet research, or just ask."We received your inquiry on a picture that was found of a 1940s diner in Clinton Indiana. "We believe that it was the Speed Grill on 114 N. Main St. Thanks." Christina Hardesty Librarian Assistant Clinton Public Library 313 S. 4th St., Clinton, IN 47842 PHOSShort for phosphate. I have found kali phos (potassium phosphate), ferrum phos (iron), calc phos (calcium), and mag phos (magnesium), all homeopathic treatments for a range of ailments from pain and fever to anxiousness and sadness. But I haven't been able to find an image of those 1940 tubes, and I can't make out the word to the left of PHOS on the display panel. [It's Bromo-Phos liniment. - Dave] FirestoneI wonder what kind of product is sold under the brand Firestone: "Mar..tips"? or ".......ES"? [Matches. -tterrace] (The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Eateries & Bars)
Chicks Ahoy: 1922
... Bensonhurst Lifeguard from 1908. Thank you for my daily Shorpy fix, Dave!!! Those little animals My grandmother always had ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/16/2023 - 10:41pm -

June 3, 1922. New York. "Schoolgirls sailing." Recent graduates, their chaperones and a litter of fleabitten furries. 5x7 glass negative, Bain News Service. View full size. Dad's daughtersKnown as the"Father of foreign photographic news" George Grantham Bain, is, I suspect, little remembered today (tho his namesake gets 1,732 mentions in Newspapers.com ... 1,731 more than most of us can hope for). As for this specific (non-foreign and not really news) photo: some fashions from the past have aged better than others. [Departures out of New York Harbor to Europe and arrivals there from the Continent were most definitely news, with thousands of shipboard photos in the Bain News Service archive chronicling the trans-Atlantic travels of various social notables. - Dave] I interpreted the caption to mean this was a post-graduation harbor excursion, but yes, a European voyage makes more sense: "chaperones" seem out of place for a day trip. -N Waist corsageI looked up "waist corsage" online, but every link took me to wrist corsages. In any case, just the accessory for sailing in your fur coat, big-brimmed hat, and the open air. [A bouquet fastened about the waist is, in Victorian parlance, a nosegay. - Dave] Once again, Shorpy sends me online, to the Oxford English Dictionary. 'Nosegay' was a general term for a bunch of flowers, often with emphasis on scent. They could be carried or attached more or less anywhere on the person. (It is odd, however, to think of the association of 'nose' with the waistline.) When I was a kid in the '50sWe had company, and the lady had a coat with an animal for the collar. Her husband was a bit of a prankster and put his hand under the coat. At 5 years old I went over to see the critter and he jumped the coat at me I about wet my pants. I hated that idiot the rest of my life. Fur is one thing but ...I never knew rotting skulls were fashionable. Thank you!As I've said before several times, Dave, these are my very favorite Shorpy photos (whether they are men OR women OR both!). I so wish I knew of the lives of each of them because that is most fascinating to me -- especially the Gunston Girls from 1905 and the Bensonhurst Lifeguard from 1908. Thank you for my daily Shorpy fix, Dave!!! Those little animalsMy grandmother always had one around her neck with her traveling suit and hat and those thicker higher heeled shoes when she got off the train from St.Louis every year (from Niagara Falls) when she came to visit for about 6 weeks each year. We met the train as she got off, and I could recognize her from her outfit right away. I liked to sit in the back seat going to our house, opening and closing the "mouth." This was through the 1950s. She always had licorice drops in her "reticule." She was lots of fun. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, G.G. Bain, NYC)
Kitchen Candid: 1984
... the agglomeration of stuff from over 40 years of daily family meal preparations. My brother stands in the doorway to the dining ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 11/27/2010 - 10:21pm -

First of all, a belated apology to my mother for catching her with her slip showing. Despite the relatively late date, much of what we see here was already verging on the antique. The kitchen itself dates from a late-1940s remodel; the white utility table that or even earlier. Lord knows the vintage of the unenclosed rubber-bladed fan. I loved sticking my hand in it and stalling it. Oddest item is the brown cushion on the kitchen chair at left, relict of a long-gone love seat, now the province of the cat. Elsewhere, the agglomeration of stuff from over 40 years of daily family meal preparations. My brother stands in the doorway to the dining room, where shortly thereafter we gorged ourselves on my father's 82nd birthday dinner. Available light Kodacolor 1000 negative. View full size. Behind the shelfTterrace, it looks like your shelf was hung in front of a narrow door in the kitchen wall. My guess (and I'm probably wrong) is that it's a no-longer-used water heater closet. Hmmm? Your mom got it right tterraceFrom your shared family history, it is apparent that your wonderful mother wanted what was best for all of her family and she managed it all without fanfare and egotism. We know she loved crosswords (brainwork), gardening (nature lover), cooking (nurturing loved ones), a nice cup of tea (coziness factor), the color salmon (all shades of pink have been found to psychologically calm people from hyperactive bi-polars to agitated criminals and they use it in child care and police custody rooms), music and comunication (the radio on the kitchen counter = every cooking mom's companion) and her tireless efforts to make her loved ones happy (I'm remembering the picture of your ninth birthday when she made you a full turkey dinner). I know your dad was also a very hard worker, non-complaining and devoted spouse and father (and car lover). You have exposed your life and family members' personalities to all of us selflessly with such honest and truthful genuine photos. If only all people could be raised as you were, what a wonderful world we might have. Bless you all, past, present and future, may your giving yourselves to others become your family tradition. You have written a book in photos that exemplifies what a family should be. Thank you. Egg BeatersThank you tterrace for sharing this wonderful image. It captures yet another family moment as well sharing great detail of a typical mid 20th century American kitchen. The color palette and array of kitchen appliances and furnishings remind me so much of my youth. -stanton_square What Juxtaposition! I see a 1970's (Radioshack?) intercom beside the door with a stove top toaster (1920's?) on the rolling cart shelf below. What a time spread of the items we see! The kitchen reminds me of all the comfortable kitchens that I've grown up in. Thanks for sharing tterrace. By the way, that rubber bladed fan is just like the one my grandparents bought in the late '40s for their cabin and it really hurt when I walked into it in the middle of the night. Just spotted itAfter all these years, I just now noticed that the brown shelf at the upper left, with the books, wood recipe box and cans of tea is the only thing I ever completed in shop class at Redwood High, over 20 years before this shot was taken. Originally light mist green, my father must have subsequently re-painted it. I haven't seen it for years, no idea whatever became of it. My God. I do have the varnished wood recipe box with the fruit decal, with all my mother's hand-written recipe cards in it. Talk about juxtapositionsCock 'n Bull Ginger Beer and sensible shoes. Ginger BeerI love the ginger beer in the lower left. ThanksSo many times you have opened your life to us on the internet. It is amazing to see this scene and apply our own family moments into it. A time of family creating and caring together surrounded by the things that we have collected and gathered over the years. The skinny doorI had an identical door in the kitchen of my 1927 house in Detroit. It originally held a fold-out ironing board - very common in that time period, and also the source of many a gag in Tom & Jerry cartoons. Changed twice since thenMy mother-in-law had that same flooring when I met her in '82. Does every guy make that shelf?My husband and I have been dragging his old shop shelf around for the last 30 years--looks just like the one in the picture!. I believe the object on the lower shelf of the rolling cart is just a box grater. I think these cabinets are what were in my childhood home--and the "cozy" kitchen was just what most every house had that was built in the post WWII housing era. I am about to do a kitchen remodel on what is a luxuriously large and functioning kitchen compared to this one. We are a bit spoiled I think. Warm beermust be the norm (Binden-Binder?) Also beside it a couple of large bottles of the "hard stuff." This is where? Although it could be anywhere in North America, except Mexico. That's coolThe fan appears to be a Samson Safe-Flex, shown on Page 72 of Witt's Field Guide to Electric Fans. No definitive dates, but probably mid-'30s to '40s. FlashbackYour mother has my mother's copper measuring spoons. I may cry now. Old Hippie Grows Upto become stockbroker. Or maybe political activist looking though law books for loopholes as his contribution to society. Which is it, TTerrace, what did brother do with his life? He looks in mighty fine threads here, and sporting a good hairdo as well. What has happened to this home? Did it stay in the family? Lie to me, I do not want to think of another family in this home, or enjoying that fine terrace vista. A cook lives in this kitchen! That's why all the jumble and she knows where everythng is! My own kitchen is spotless, nothing sitting around taking up space or "handy" and you will come to my house with reservations to go out for dinner. I remember that utilitycart for it's great round knobby wheels! it was so cheesily- made it was a marvel that any weight could be put on it. Kitchen Candid SupplementalIn answer to Anonymous Tipster's speculations, brother was a high school English teacher and department head. Below we see graphic evidence of from whom he, and the rest of us, inherited the expounding gene. Oh well, yes, now that you mention it, I can see "teacher' in brother. I'm gleeful at the sight of the expounding gene photo! Gosh I would have loved Mother! In the vernacular of the day, What a dame!!! Once I painted my kitchen in 50s pink. Everything, including the cabinets. Then i put it on the market and had to redo everything in white. Tsk. TTerrace, thanks for the response and for all the enjoyment you and your family memories give to us Shorpy fans. Am I right?tterrace, I'd bet that large aluminum vessel to the left of the stove is a pressure cooker, probably a Presto brand. I prefer Mirro-Matic with its adjustable pressure-regulating weight and Cerro metal safety valve. The floorlooks really clean, except maybe for a dusting of flour around your mother's shoes. This is the kind of kitchen one can trust. It's not Binden-BinderIt's GINGER BEER. [The very best ginger beer, imho: D&G (Desnoes & Geddes), from Jamaica. Intensely gingerful. Made with real ginger root and cane sugar. Very useful for making the rum drink called a Dark & Stormy. - Dave] Relict of a long-gone love seat?A relict is a word that is a survivor of a form or forms that are otherwise archaic. It is was also an ancient term for a widow. A relic is an object or a personal item of religious significance, carefully preserved with an air of veneration as a tangible memorial. Expounding on a relict relict: 2. Something that has survived; a remnant. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2000) However, in this case my deliberate choice of this archaism was for an ironic riff on lines you might find in Victorian novels: "Mrs. Fotheringay-Phipps, relict of the late Col. Fotheringay-Phipps of the Fourth Dragoons." YumToo bad scratch-and-sniff internet hasn't been invented yet, cause pound for pound, the kitchen churned out some serious home cookin' I'm sure, and my belly is grumblin'. FlooredFunny, I remember that exact vinyl (linoleum?) flooring from the first house I lived in. I was pre-kindergarten age at the time, but I remember when it was installed and what it smelled like when new, and I remember playing on it with various toys. Of course at that age I was quite close to the floor. ArmstrongIf I remember correctly, I think that the linoleum was the among the first (and most popular) patterns that Armstrong introduced. A fixture in the house we (and friends) bought in the '60s. I think that the appliance on the bottom shelf to the right of Mom's leg is a stovetop toaster. Obsolete for 50+ yearsDefinitely a stovetop toaster. (For power outages when one simply had to have toast?) May I pretty pleasePoke through all the drawers and cupboards? I bet I will find a trove of 50s era treasures, many of which I probably already own after having spent way too much for them on ebay. For example, here is my own little guy who perfectly matches the one perched proudly on top of the clock. No granite countertop here!I love these older pictures of the minimalist, functional kitchens where magic was made despite the lack of stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops! White hair geneMy family shares the gene that gives us early "gray" hair. That aside, your brother seemed to age in other ways, rather rapidly, in ten years or so. From hippyish to extreme button down collar and cerebral glasses. Hey, I was about the same age in the same span, also a professional. And at dinner time, the tie and dress pants went goodbye! [That's why they invented napkins. - Dave] Bertolli Chef FigurineWow, JohansenNewman, that is the very guy. Happy to say I have him now, although a bit yellowed compared to yours. However, since that yellowing is from kitchen vapors from years of Mother's cooking, that's even better. The earliest kitchen photo I have that shows it is from 1968. I don't know where we got it; it's possible that my father got it through the grocery store he worked at. Would I be out of line asking how much you paid for yours? ttTVI enjoy watching the house hunting programs on HGTV from time to time, and always laugh a little when some well-heeled woman dismisses a kitchen because "it doesn't have granite--I need granite!" Tterrace's mom didn't need granite, nor much counter space either, it looks like. Definitely makes me rethink any whining I've done about my little apartment kitchen-- if your mom could whip up meals for a family that probably contained many more dishes than anything I make does, I'm showing my late-20th century skewed perspective of what is necessary. I love your pics, tterrace. My great-aunt's house also has that linoleum--can't believe how prevalent it apparently was. They must have made a killing on that stuff! If I could rememberjust how much I paid for that little guy, I would gladly tell you! I think I must have gotten him in my "buy any and all 50s chefs" period on ebay, although he could have been an antique shop find, too. Just did a search for "vintage chef" on ebay. He did not show up this time. Unfortunately for me, too many other cool things that might have also been in your mom's kitchen did. In so many ways, Shorpy is health food for my soul, but bad for my pocketbook. No Sis-In-Law? I see the frequently pictured elder brother but not the lovely sis-in-law with the long braids. Is she in the other room waiting for the salmon kitchen to yield up a birthday dinner? The flooringWe had the exact same flooring in a house we rented in the 1990's. Glad to see the landlord had only the most up-to-date stuff for us! Me too ! Wow! That must have been SOME popular textile line! I had this same exact flooring in an apartment in 1991, in Doylestown, PA. ! Amazing! Is your Brother named Will ???I swear he is my high school English teacher from 1979 in Santa Cruz. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Kitchens etc., tterrapix)
Zenith City: 1905
... Railway and many other points of interest, make up our daily dose of Duluth. Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full ... recognizable . Alluring Alliteration "Daily dose of Duluth." Gotta love it. Improvements Duluth really looks ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2012 - 6:55pm -

Duluth, Minnesota, circa 1905. "Elevators and harbor," along with a view of the Incline Railway and many other points of interest, make up our daily dose of Duluth. Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size. The Old BallgameAre those guys playing baseball in the lower right? They're spread out like they're playing something very similar. (Click to enlarge.) Let us venture back to a timeWhen Railroads ruled the Earth. Are they birthing Orcs in that roundhouse? The same scene today.Despite all the changes, this scene is still recognizable. Alluring Alliteration "Daily dose of Duluth." Gotta love it. ImprovementsDuluth really looks much, much better today! Rail lineA mid 1880s source cites the "St. P.&D. and N.P. Round House." That's the biggestroundhouse I've ever seen! Any bigger and it wouldn't have a way to bring locos in. Here is a shot of a current Duluth roundhouse from above (Google). Re: The Old BallgameYep. I think we've stumbled onto some Duluth-variety hardball. And from the outfield alignment, we can only guess our batter is not a pull hitter. Baseball?Good catch. Who's on second? This is why we look at the ShorpyAnother truly amazing photo. It's deeply three-dimensional: From the busy shirtwaist lady in the foreground, to the slouchy men hanging out by the steam laundry, to the (obviously) baseball people, to the infernal roundhouse, to the ships in the harbor... Visually they're all stitched together, front to back, by the power poles: you can see individual insulators on the nearest ones, behind the Clarendon Hotel (New!), but they merge into infinity as they march to the shining harbor. This is surely one of Shorpy's best. Apart from the swimsuit girls, of course. Duluth & Iron RangeThe boxcars lower left look like they might have "D.&.I.R." on them. That would make it the Duluth & Iron Range, which merged in 1938 to become the D.M. & I.R. There are some more boxcars above those D&IR ones that look like they might be Great Northern. But the owner of the roundhouse is definitely not clear. Re: What's MissingIndeed, they probably walked to and from work. I grew up in Beech Grove, Indiana, home to a large repair yard for Penn, Penn Central and Amtrak that dates back to 1910 or a little before. In the early '60s it was astonishing to see hundreds of workers in overalls, kerchiefs and the traditional engineer cap (with its distinctive narrow gray striping) as they walked westward down Main Street after work. Each carried a lunch pail and most seemed to have a newspaper under the arm. They would crowd the sidewalks on both sides for several blocks, from a distance looking something like a pair of giant centipedes. Not surprising, Main Street was also lined with taverns which surely enticed many men to stop for a quick beer as they made their way home. Big SkyCan anyone comment on why many of these old photos have so much "head room"? Photographers today compose their shot to get the most matter and keep the sky to a minimum. (Not to mention having to deal with the contrast ratio.) What's Missing!!!If this photo were made today there would be employee cars parked everywhere. That roundhouse surely employs quite a number of people. In 1905 I assume that most folks either walked to work, like the folks walking on the viaduct, or rode the streetcar. There isn't even a horse and buggy to be seen. It does look like there might be a couple of streetcars way down the street. For the birdsI like the big bird house in the back yard of the place across the street from A. Larson's "General Arthur" store, or whatever that says. It looks just as ramshackle as the rest of the buildings. Being on a crookedstump doesn't help -- the eggs'll roll out! Unfortunate use of quotes"The Best" Beer in Milwaukee, eh? For some reason I don't believe you. Why'd you have to use the quotes, huh? The RoundhouseLots of comments about the roundhouse, and it is a big one: 36 stalls if I count right. It's interesting to see photos of such buildings when they were comparitively new as opposed to how they looked by the end of the steam age. Question I have is which railroad did it belong to? Has to be either C&NW or DM&IR, but I can't tell by the locomotives parked nearby as I'm not an expert on either road's power. I'm guessing C&NW, a far larger road who would need a roundhouse of this size. Selz Royal BlueFantastic details. This world of busy, grimy character has a real appeal for me. And what a great opportunity to see newly-painted side-of-building advertising in all its glory. Today one sees mostly faded "ghost" images. Across the way from Miller Beer, Selz Royal Blue was a shoe brand advertised all over the country. This ad in the Arizona Journal-Miner is from 1905. Rices PointThe rail yard is the Northern Pacific Railways's Rices Point Yard and roundhouse. The elevated tracks on the left are Great Northern Railway. Actually, that looks like cricketAs to the ballgame being played at the right, the people don't seem arrayed correctly for baseball, but it looks like it would work for cricket, which, as I understand it, was actually played in parts of the U.S. at the time. [Duluth -- "Cricket Wicket of the Unsalted Seas." - Dave] Iron AgeA portion of the fancy iron railroad bridge off in the distance still exists -- the first truss span -- visible on Google Maps and Street View from the freeway bridge next to it (its concealed by the freeway bridge in the modern view in the first comment). Its the only landmark I can find that exists from the original picture. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Duluth, Railroads)
Morning Mail: 1938
... The caption implies that these boxes got more than one daily delivery, though the USPS website says that "as a rule, rural carriers ... as the public convenience shall require." Multiple daily deliveries were common, though cutbacks reduced these, particularly ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2020 - 9:29am -

November 1938. "Morning mail at the Mineral King cooperative farm, Farm Security Administration, Tulare County, California. Old ranch house, California type, in the background. Buildings will be replaced by modern structures suitable to community farming." Medium format acetate negative by Dorothea Lange for the FSA. View full size. Replaced by FSA housingIt took a bit of digging, but it turns out that Mineral King Ranch is a different place from the named place in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. But here's a view of the surviving homes that took the place of this old farmstead: Should we hang around for another delivery?The caption implies that these boxes got more than one daily delivery, though the USPS website says that "as a rule, rural carriers have always delivered mail to their customers once a day, six days a week." When free home delivery in cities began in 1863, the guideline was "as frequently as the public convenience shall require." Multiple daily deliveries were common, though cutbacks reduced these, particularly during the Depression and World War II. Finally, on April 17, 1950, the Postmaster General ordered once per day home delivery, "in the interest of economy." [As the caption implies, the Farm Security Administration's cooperative farms got multiple daily deliveries. - Dave] DetritusI’m wondering about all the organic matter in the dirt road in the foreground. The trees appear to me to be plane and maybe palm – is all that stuff from the trees? Or some kind of farm byproduct? I see quite a few pods or beans. Never having been to California, I’m unfamiliar with these things. [One palm and multiple eucalypti. - Dave] F.G. HendersonI believe the F.G. Henderson mailbox belongs to a Frank Glenn Henderson. He would have been 40 years old in 1938. Amongst other corroborating evidence (including 1938-40 California voting rolls), I find Frank in the 1940 Census, which describes him and family living in Union Township, San Joaquin County. The Census confirms Mr. Henderson resided in Visalia (Tulare County) in 1935. His profession is listed as dairyman, working on a FSA dairy farm. Frank Glenn Henderson @ Find A Grave. [NB: The Census shows *him* living there. Not "he." - Dave] [I earlier edited from 'him' to 'he'. Pffft. I'm clearly overdue for a self-directed grammar refresher course. And yes, I appreciate correction(s) when committing an error. - d&v] Modern structures suitableWhat I don’t understand is how those tiny new sad bungalows (thank you, ContextSans) – the “modern structures suitable to community farming” – were considered superior to the “old ranch house, California type” which they replaced. The old house was bigger and so could hold more people, and was probably breezier, and generally roomier. Plus those replacement houses look awfully postwar to me. EucalyptusStill a very common sight in many parts of California. It was introduced from Australia in the late 19th century by the Southern Pacific Railroad, as a fast-growing source of cross ties. It proved too brittle for that purpose, but landowners continued to plant eucalyptus as windbreaks. (The Gallery, Agriculture, Dorothea Lange, Kids)
Vacation Time: 1969
... spring, its a 4 door sedan and not a wagon. But it is a daily driver kind of car, not a show car, so I drive it in the same way your ... 
 
Posted by Mvsman - 09/13/2011 - 10:36pm -

Leaving Walnut, CA for Wyoming and Nebraska in July 1969. I'm on the left, trying to look cool, going to start high school in the fall. Yikes, those socks! There's my Dad and Mom, who appeared in earlier pictures. They're showing some age progression. Both are in their early 40s here. My little brother was a surly bundle of anti-joy then, and he whined a lot through the whole trip. We packed up the '64 Chevelle wagon and left for the great unknown. As a surly teen, I read a lot of books along the way and grunted and moaned a lot. During the trip, we heard about the Charles Manson family murders in Los Angeles, and being only 30 or so miles away, I was really scared to come home. It all worked out ... thanks for looking and I look forward to your comments. View full size. Chilling NewsWe too were leaving for our vacation on our way from Diamond Bar (not too far from Walnut) to visit the grandparents in "Idyllic Larkspur" (near San Francisco) when we heard all about the Tate-LaBianca murders on the car radio. It definitely put a damper on the trip for us adults. With the three kids squabbling in the back of our VW van (Mom, she looked at me!), I don't know if they heard any of it or not. Our oldest kid was 9, the middle one 6, and the youngest 4. -- tterrace's sister Vacations in a wagonYou know, vacations just aren't vacations without a station wagon. Sorry, but an SUV just isn't the same thing. Folks across the street have a 1965 Rambler Classic Cross-Country; ours was a 1966. Did you have air-conditioning? Maybe that would have quelled the grumbling and moaning somewhat. I know that we welcomed the A/C in our Rambler after 10 years without it in our '56. But now, decades later, I'll occasionally switch mine off and roll down the windows when cruising along a rural road, and the breeze carrying the aromas of cut hay and other vegetation fills me with a warm, nostalgic glow. A great, era-defining shot, thanks! (Out of respect for your mother, I won't comment on her headgear - although I just did, didn't I?) West of the MidwestWyoming AND Nebraska? You are a lucky, lucky boy. One of our few vacations from our Indiana home was a trip to Iowa but since my dad was on some sort of a deadline* we didn't get to enjoy any of Illinois' diversions that must surely have existed along I-80, or so I dreamed. Departing from Walnut, CA, mvsman must have seen plenty of I-80 as well on his "Asphalt of America" tour. *Who has a deadline on a trip to Iowa? It was only 250 miles! FootwearYour shoes are in style about every 8 years or so. Just keep the shoes and wait for them to come back. Your dad's dark socks (with shorts), on the other hand ... Adler socksI bet they were Adler socks. I graduated from high school the year before and it was all the rage to wear Adler socks in colors that matched your shirt. Black socks with sandalsMy wife thinks I invented that look. I can't wait to show her that it's retro chic. Chevy Bel AirIt's either a 68 or 69, sitting in the other neighbor's garage - complete with trailer-light connector installed in the bumper. [It's a '68. - Dave] Love Your Mom's Hat!I think you looked quite cool for an "almost" high schooler! Your mom's hat is the best! I bet she's pinching your little brother. Or maybe that was just my mom! PurgatoryWe used our '69 Pontiac Catalina station wagon to put the gear in the middle and the whiny kids waaaay back on the rear-facing seat. Man, I loved that car! Meanwhile ...At the beginning of that very same month we were on our way back from Los Angeles in a white 1965 Impala wagon with no AC and a ton of camping equipment both on the roof and in the back. We stayed in Reno on the Fourth, hoping that the drunken manager of the KOA there wouldn't accidentally back over our tent. I was more or less inured to the lack of cool, even back in Maryland, and I think the only time we really noticed it on the trip was when it was over a hundred crossing the Mojave. The Impala was passed on to my great-uncle who drove it until it dropped sometime in the mid-1970s. By 1969 we had left short haircuts behind, which since I had thick glasses meant I looked totally dorky in a completely different way; my father, on the other hand, was well into leaving hair itself behind. I notice you're wearing the de rigueur cutoffs, which is pretty much what we wore when we weren't in jeans. TweaksDitch the socks and you'd fit in perfectly with today's Williamsburg hipsters. You were scared?I was terrified! I was 11 years old at the time of the Manson murders and lived only 20 miles away. In my 11 year old mind, I was convinced the murderers would find their way to my house and they were specifically go after me! Thanks for posting this. This photo captures the "feel" of L.A. suburbia of the era perfectly- just as I remembered it. To the Moon!I started high school in 1969, too. Did your trip start before or after the moon landing? Did your parents make you watch it on TV, even though you wanted to be out with your friends? That was a surly moment for ME for that reason. Don't worry -- the shades and the hair in your eyes make up for the socks. 1969Was not this the year of the PLAID ? Fun vacationNebraska? For a vacation? I drove through that state. Couldn't get out fast enough. I was only 3 in 1969, but lived in nearby Simi Valley, home of Spahn Ranch. What city was this taken?? Oh yeah, love your mom's hat. I have pics somewhere of my mom wearing the same thing. What were people thinking?? We went after the moon landingI actually watched it on my little black and white TV in my room. I was a space geek then (and now). Thanks! That Ramblerbelonged to the superintendent of our school district! He and my dad knew each other causally, to say hi to or wave at as the car went by. I don't recall if we had AC in that car. It had a small engine and was seriously underpowered for hills and mountains. Now, I'll try to did up slides of our earlier trips in my granddad's borrowed 1959 Chevy Nomad wagon! This was truly a luxury barge on wheels. This thing looked like it was 15 feet wide and 25 feet long (to my 8 year old eyes). I had the entire back area to myself and my comic books, as little bro wasn't on the scene yet. The Summer of '69Grew up in La Puente, not far from Walnut. My 1969 was the the summer of "Sugar, Sugar" and Man on the Moon. 41 years ago -- WOW Taz!When I saw your brother, the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil came to mind! Mom's "Hat"That's no hat, it's a curler-cover. A la Phyllis Diller. A different eraIn '69, my dad was making probably about $18K-$20K a year. My mom stayed home. Yet we took similar vacations, 2-3 weeks at a time. Now, my wife and I work like rented mules and can't afford to go anywhere. When station wagons ruled the roadEach summer, Dad would load up the gear in the suction-cup equipped, stamped steel Western-Auto roof carrier on top of the old '61 Ford Falcon wagon and off we'd go. Looking back, it truly took faith and fortitude to pile a family of five and enough gear to support a safari in that underpowered, unairconditioned two-door wagon and set off fron Louisville to the far reaches of the country (New York City, Washington D.C., Miami). I remember fighting with my brothers over the desirable real estate in the back of the wagon where you could stretch out (no seatbelts) and watch the miles of highway fade into the distance through the tailgate window! Wagon MemoriesOur 1957 Mercury Colony Park station wagon with the Turnpike Cruiser engine had a similarly slanted rear window. On our trip to California later that year, Pop decided to drive on through the final night to miss the desert heat, with us kids sleeping in the back. I discovered I could position myself to see the road ahead as a reflection in the rear window, while simultaneously looking through the glass to watch the clear Western skies for shooting stars. What can beat the cozy feeling of slipping off to sleep while rolling along the open road while Pop faithfully pilots the family bus through the dark? Sixty-NineAh, Summer of '69, my favorite year. Got my driver's license. Got my FCC Third Phone. Started work part time in a REAL radio station. My parents ran their own store so we couldn't take too many trips. I'm jealous of those of you who did. And yes, Nebraska was borrrring to ride across back then, but today it isn't bad -- there are several interesting attractions across the state and a nice Interstate to zip you through! FourteenI was 14 years old that summer of 1969 (living in Cocoa Beach, Florida). I can relate to the yellow socks. I had a few pair of those. The color of the socks were supposed to match the color of the shirt. It looks like those are a freshly cut-off pair of jeans. What's in your father's right shirt pocket? A lens cover, maybe? Who took the photo? I see the car in the garage across the street looks like a '68 Chevy Impala--round taillights. And the Rambler in the next drive looks very nice too. A little peek of the mountain is nice too. I've never been to that area so I have no conception of what it's like there. Great photo, thanks for sharing a piece of your childhood memory. Cartop carrierMan, I want one of those roof carriers. Looks like it holds a lot of stuff. Memories aboundOur vacations were exactly the same (even my dad's socks with sandals). We headed from our Fountain Valley Ca home like thieves in the night. Had to get across the desert before the heat killed the kids. Of course we had an aftermarket AC installed by Sears so the front seat was a chill zone (no kids allowed). Our vacations happened at breakneck speed but we saw everything and always ended our trips with a pass through Vegas for Dad & Grandma. Fun times! "The Box" - Rooftop CarrierOur family trips were always in a station wagon, and always with "the box" on top. Dad built and refined a series of boxes over the years. They were much larger and taller than the one in the picture. All our luggage, supplies etc went in "the box" leaving the wagon for the 6 of us. With the back seat folded down my brother and I could sleep in sleeping bags in the back. In the winter dad put brackets on the box sides and bungee-tied all our skis on. The station wagons themselves were amazing. Dad always bought the biggest engine offered (we needed it), a large v8. The last wagon had dual air conditioners, front and rear. And how about the rear doors on a wagon. The rear door folded down or opened from the side, and the window went up and down. SUVs, get serious, they have very little useful space. No fairI suspect one of the reasons the younger brother is looking so crabby is that he didn't get sunglasses like everybody else. It's no fun to squint all day. Tterrace is completely right, roadtrips just aren't the same without a big ol' station wagon. I loved sitting in the rear-facing seat when I was a kid. And I remember being fascinated by the tailgate that could open two ways: swinging from the left-side hinge or folding down like a pickup truck. Hi Pat QYour recollections are so evocative of those road trips from another time. Life seemed simpler, or is it just filtered through our nostalgia screen? Great Time To Be AliveSure brings back memories!! I started HS in '68. We went on many, many driving vacations to New Mexico, Colorado, OK, MO & many places near the Panhandle of Texas where I grew up!! Road trips now are usually to the coast or TX Hill Country, but still have a magic to them, leaving before the sun's up!! ChevelleLove the car. In high school, a wagon was an embarrassment. Now I wish I had one. VentipanesOur family of six and a dog would pile into our '63 Lincoln and while sitting in the driveway Dad would ask Mom, "Okay, where do you all want to go?" Then we would be off to Nova Scotia or Florida. There was no AC in either the Lincoln or the '63 Impala we had so we would drive the whole way with windows open in the summer heat. If you turned the vent windows all the way open so they were facing into the car they would generate a terrific amount of airflow into the cabin at highway speed. It was quite comfortable actually and 40+ years later I wish cars still had those vent windows. Lunar summerSeveral have mentioned the Apollo 11 landing. I have a similar tale. I was 7, just a little too young to understand the significance of the event. I remember my mother trying to keep me interested as she sat on the edge of her seat watching the coverage. Now I'm glad I remember that night, and get chills watching the video and Walter Cronkite taking off his glasses and saying "Whoo boy!" totally at a loss for words. That was an awesome summer! Oh yeah, we had a station wagon too. '69 Caprice Estate with fake wood paneling! Almost had the wagon...Our family was cursed to miss out on having station wagon vacations - first time in '65, we were supposed to be getting a red '62 Corvair wagon from my uncle who was going into the Air Force but he hit some black ice and rolled it while he was delivering it from back east (he was unhurt). Next in '66 we traded our rusted-out '56 Chevy for a beige '63 Dodge 440 eight-passenger wagon; I was looking forward riding in the third seat on our annual trip from Chicago to Paducah, but a lady in a '62 Continental hit it. We ended up with a maroon '65 Impala hardtop for the next several years' vacations, but at least it had AC! Our imitation wagonWe did not have a wagon so Dad cut a piece of plywood for the back seat of our 57 Mercury that gave us kids a full flat surface in the back seat. Holding it up were two coolers on the floor. On top Dad blew up two air mattresses, then they gave us "kiddy drugs" (gravol). They caught onto that after the first trip in which that back seat became a wrestling arena. Hi BarrydaleSugar Sugar is a favorite of mine to this day. The San Gabriel Valley has changed a lot since those days, eh? And the year beforeAnd the year prior to this photo my family, consisting of myself at 13, my sisters aged 10 and 4 (or 5) loaded up in a 2 door Marquis and headed from Raleigh up through Indiana, SD, WY Oregon down through LA and back east across the desert through AZ, NM, TX and driving one marathon from Texarkana to Anderson SC in one day, during the peace marches throughout the South that summer! I still remember passing the civil rights marchers for mile after mile on the roads through MS, AL and GA. The trip took two months.... and you think YOU heard whining from your brother? Sometimes things don't changeThe socks may be a little bit high, and shorts a bit short, but the way you are dressed is exactly the way many kids at my middle/high school dress now. Especially the ones going into high school, I'm just stunned by how similar you are. I could actually almost confuse you with my younger brother, who is so similar he even has blond hair. Right now I'm planning a road trip in my 1968 Ford Falcon for the spring, its a 4 door sedan and not a wagon. But it is a daily driver kind of car, not a show car, so I drive it in the same way your parents might have driven their car, not to show off, but just to get around. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Kids)
Brooklyn Bridge: 1903
... she'd slip us a dose in some chocolate milk. Apparently daily BMs were high on her list. Hyphenated Don't forget the billboard ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/31/2012 - 2:56pm -

New York circa 1903. "East River and Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan." Among the many signs competing for our attention are billboards for "Crani-Tonic Hair Food" and Moxie. 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Carter's Liver PillsCarter's Liver Pills may not have had the exposure that Chas H Fletcher's had on these billboards but they gave them a run for the money. Those early 1900 nostrums lasted into the post WW2 Era and even after that. The public finally caught on and I don't believe they're easily found anymore. However the pharmaceutical ads of today are blasting the same cure-all messages but they cost a lot more money. Lots of LaxativeCharles H. Fletcher certainly made his presence known in this vicinity. According to Wikipedia, he was a very successful laxative maker. Did Manhattan need it very badly? Ferry BoatsWonderful collection of vessels on this very busy waterway. In contrast, an almost leisurely pace on the bridge. Top o'the World?This view looks like it was taken from the top of the New York World Building on Park Row, which was seen earlier on Shorpy. Although the advertised height of the World Building (349 feet) was somewhat exaggerated, the top was still pretty high up! Hard to starboard !Looking to the right of the bridge,on the Brooklyn side,you'll see a ferryboat at a really bad angle! She's tilting hard to port while making a starboard turn, churning up the water real bad. Almost looks like she's trying to avoid the dock. Land Ho!What an amzaing picture. Could study it for days and not get bored. From Uneeda Biscuit, to Carter's Small Pill - Small Dose - Small Price Pills; to the two railcar ferries, to the WHOA! WAIT A MINUTE! What's up with the ferry listing hard to port with lots of propwash behind it heading for Brooklyn, just south of the bridge?!? Looks like it's trying hard to bank to port with props in reverse to avoid slamming the pier (but looks like it's too late to miss it!). Maybe the captain had to go too fast to make it across the busy water traffic and didn't have enough room to slow down. But if the captain hadn't sped up, there'd have been a collision. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The captain probably needed one of the many advertised tonics after that ferry landing! What a country!The year this was taken was during the huge migration from Europe which lasted several decades. Just imagine the amazement of those often poverty-stricken, downtrodden, oppressed people arriving at Ellis Island with everything they owned on their backs and being brought to the city in which they must now make a new life and seeing, for the first time in their lives, this magnificent panorama of mind-boggling industrial activity, ships from around the world, sky scrapers everywhere, phenomenal bridges and modes of transportation, bustling well-dressed, smiling healthy people, ads everywhere for appetizing, abundant food and other worldly pleasures, religious steeples and domes, the smells of ocean and fumes and foods all mingled together and offering an endless buffet of opportunity and freedom. I find this beautiful picture breathtaking. Thank you Shorpy from a descendant of the huddled masses. For those of you good at spotting details:Did anyone notice any "Fletchers Castoria" ads? Mixed trafficIt must be the rush hour. Look how close the electric elevated train from Brooklyn with the trolley poles is to the cable Bridge Only train in front of it. The white disk on the front of the cable train tells which cable, set of interlaced rails, and station platform it is using. The elevated train uses its trolley poles when it runs on the ground beyond the end of the El structure in the outer reaches of Brooklyn. I want more Chas. H. Fletcher ads!Wonderfully detailed photo. I could study it for hours. Ah, memoriesWow, think there are enough ads for Fletcher's Castoria? I remember that gawdawful stuff from my childhood. Whenever we'd visit my grandmother she'd slip us a dose in some chocolate milk. Apparently daily BMs were high on her list. HyphenatedDon't forget the billboard for Pe-Ru-Na! One more thingAnd at least eight signs for Fletcher's Castoria! Steeplechase Park Bargain10 cents for five hours! Heck, I'd give $100 for five hours to be able to travel back to 1903 to experience Tilyou's Steeplechase Park. From the old photos and video clips of it I have seen, it was a happening place. Even today with all our technology, I'd bet folks would still have a wonderful time! Decisions, decisionsWith this dime burning a hole in my pocket I could either buy two Cremo cigars or spend five hours at Steeplechase Park. My BridgeWhat a wonderful picture of my bridge that I just bought last week from a nice man who told me that I could buy the Brooklyn Bridge for a few hundred dollars. Looking at this picture I believe it was a good investment. Running the gauntlet on the Brooklyn BridgeHaving a close eye on the rails for the El, interesting that they are running a gauntlet track on both sides across the bridge...no switch points, just a frog. Under a closer look, it looks like there is a cable between the rails for a...cable car? Seen just past where the switch points would be if it was a normal switch. BTW, first post here at Shorpy! Love the site!! Chas. H. FletcherI believe I count at least 21 Chas. H. Fletcher signs. Some are a bit obscured, but the text is quite distinctive so I believe I have it correct. If I ever get catapulted back in time, I am opening a sign company! Must have been a lucrative business. Fletcher's CastoriaI found 20 signs in this photo and there might be more! World SeriesNow that it is World Series time, in the middle of it actually; can anyone from New York confirm that it's called the World Series because the New York World newspaper promoted the first of these events, and the Series name has no international implications? [That notion is debunked here. - Dave] Fletcher AdsI found 20 of these ads. There might be more! 22 Fletcher Signs !!One wonders what his advertising budget was - apparently unlimited - Personally, I feel this was overkill and would be annoying enough to cause me to choose the other brand - I easily counted 22 if his signs, including 5 on the Brooklyn side of the river. Scuffy the TugboatThis fantastical scene reminds me of the old Golden Books story of Scuffy the Tugboat, when the two children were peering over the bridge on the harbour, watching Scuffy, as he found himself in a bewildering maze of giant ships all around him. What's with the ferry steamer in the upper right side of the photo? His paddles look "full-ahead," while the vessel is listing hard aport and about to ram the wharf? Uh-oh! Great photo; begging to be colorized by some Shorpy artista. Blowin' in the WindThere are almost as many rooftop clotheslines loaded with laundry as there are Fletcher's Castoria signs. It is interesting to note that even though the Brooklyn Bridge had been open for twenty years, the ferries were still running and would continue to do so until 1924. Hang On!Lots o' signs, yes, but my attention was drawn to that hard heeling-to-port ferry approaching the pier on the opposite shore (right in the photo). Was somebody showing off for the citizenry, or were they perhaps initially headed into the wrong berthing space? [Probably not. - Dave] TrafficCan you imagine the insanity on the river? There's even a ship hitting a bulkhead while turning into its dock. Lucky for them the wind was in their favor. (I now see Denny covered this the first comment. D'oh.) And Castor Oil had a predecessor? I never knew. Why pilots are regular officersInteresting factoid about castor oil: WW1 airplane engines were lubricated with it and sprayed a steady stream of the stuff back into the pilot's face, with predictable consequences. More RecentlyI was told that this Fletcher's Castoria sign at Henry & Market Streets, on NYC's Lower East Side, was around until about 2003. There are probably others that are still visible. Cable Power on the Brooklyn BridgeThe original Brooklyn Rapid Transit line that ran over the Brooklyn Bridge to the Park Row terminal was indeed a cable-powered line. The line was eventually electrified. Rapid transit service over the Brooklyn Bridge ended permanently in 1944 when the NYC Board of Transportation decided to terminate Brooklyn elevated train service at Jay Street/Bridge Street station. Trolleys then were briefly used on the Bridge tracks. The huge Sands Street and Park Row terminals were later torn down and the Bridge itself was rebuilt in 1952 and converted solely to automobile use. Today, there are three lanes in each direction on the Bridge for cars. The innermost lanes are the rights of way for the rapid transit/trolley lines. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, NYC, Streetcars)
Union Station: 1943
... Shorpy. Union Station I commute via Union Station daily, Irish pubs there are just like Ruby Tuesdays, more like a bar than a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 12:56pm -

Washington, 1943. A study in contrasts at Union Station. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparencies, photographer unknown. Office of War Information. Miss KodachromeThe ladies sure liked their lipstick RED then eh? Again, I cannot believe the crisp vividness of Kodachrome transparencies. A 1943 movie on TV will look like a century ago, and this looks like yesterday. You could count the pebbles in the pavement. A Bit ConfusedI have to admit I am a bit confused. Is this two different photos taken years apart? If so then i have a real problem with the shadows on the wall across from where both people are sitting. Strikes me as photoshop had something to do with this. Plus, and this too seems odd but nothing of the surrounding area has changed? I am a bit skeptical. [I'm confused, too. About why you are confused. Why would you ask if these photos are supposed to have been taken years apart? They were taken in 1943, as stated in the caption. On the same day. - Dave] Side by SideI agree, I love this very much, and the crispness of it, ahhh, it just leaves me haunted. It's as if, when things were black and white and "dated" looking, they could still be haunted and "distant," but they were easier to keep in the past. Whereas with these images, yes, it's haunting, it's like being there *now*. As for the "contrast," obvious things aside, doesn't the little girl have personality? Any more of these?You can see the same car parked beyond the stone wall in the background of both photos, so I'm guessing these images were taken on the same day. I wonder if there are any more? It appears the photographer was taking candid shots of people who didn't know they were being photographed as they sat on that wall, so why would he/she stop at two? (Unless the photographer's intent was to specifically show the "contrast" between these two people.) [There are more from the same general location. These people would have known their pictures were being taken, what with the big camera and tripod a few feet away. The little girl is shown in three different poses. - Dave] The look of the dayA costumer could easily copy her outfit, a hairstylist could create the hairstyle, and a makeup artist could reproduce the cosmetic style. The biggest obstacle is actually the eyebrows - eyebrow style in women changes from decade to decade, and it's the rare model who will allow a photographer to reshape her browline. Twin CityI'm always fascinated by the comments, often provoked by Kodachrome color, that the picture looks like it could be "yesterday," or today. Granted, the color is impressive, and the details are sharp. But - and I would love to see an experiment along these lines - how close could we come to duplicating a shot like this (say, the adult woman) today? Assuming the buildings are still there, and look much the same; catch the weather and light the same way, and assume we get a similar looking model, and carefully dress her to look like this; using professional technology, could a photographer make a picture taken today look like this? I have a sneaking suspicion each age and era has its own "look", and it's impossible to fully re-create it. Union Station todayIt would be possible to re-create this photo, though some of the features have changed. Google does not offer a "streetview" of this location (national security?), but if you look at the satellite view of the point where E Street NE and Massachusetts Ave. and Columbus Circle converge - just north of the Capitol, you can get an idea of the photo's location. It appears that a parking lot (natch) is now situated where the lady and the girl are posed in the photo. Perhaps Columbus Circle has been enlarged since the photo was taken - this is a busy intersection today. About a block away - southwest down E Street - are two good Irish pubs side by side. Irish seven-course gourmet dinner? A six-pack and a baked potato! Goober Pea KodachromeKodachrome is wonderful stuff, but Kodak is gradually curtailing its manufacture. It is getting difficult to find processors for it. Mama is indeed taking our Kodachrome away and it will be a great loss. Looking at these images makes me want to throw rocks at digital cameras. Re-creating the Look of the DayI agree, Charlene. Hollywood movies SEEM to re-create the past regularly, but they rarely do it exactly. Their purpose is entertainment, not historical education. An example being westerns made in the fifties. The men sported 50's American ducktail haircuts, and the women had fifties make-up. In the sixties, the men finally got some longer hair, but the women had those huge "sixties" false eylashes. The result? You can tell the decade a western was made, even if they all are supposed to be set in the mid to late 1800s. Today, they do tend to be more subdued in westerns, but they still make concessions to modern tastes. That's what I love about this site. For us history lovers, we are getting the real thing. Almost as good as time travel! Actually, Charlene...I just saw the movie "Chinatown" again, recently, and Faye Dunaway sported a very authentic thirties pencilled-in eyebrow line. I loved the "look" in that film Union Station From AboveUnion Station from above. Click to pan (Google Maps). Union Station LadiesThe Location for these pictures has not changed. I work across the street from this location. It is the little park adjacent to the Russell Senate Office building. Still looks essentially the same, except the street lights are gone. Same aggregate concrete floor. They are sitting on the wall next to the steps leading down to North Capitol Street. The woman is facing west toward the Teamsters building. Strikingly clear day, no jet contrails spoling the view. I tell you what, I will bring in my camera and recreate this view for you. The look of the dayI could never watch the Korean War show "M*A*S*H" because Alan Alda had a 1970's haircut. Similarly, in the otherwise excellent movie "The Last Picture Show," set in 1951, Jeff Bridges' character is seen near the end in his Class A uniform visiting Anarene just after Army basic training, sporting hair much longer than a 1951 soldier ever would have had (especially one just out of basic). Argh. Ruins it. How hard is it to give a guy an authentic haircut? Washington ReduxThanks, Anonymous Tipster - I would love to see the photo re-shot. I used to know this area well, too. It was on my path to Union Station to catch the Red Line to Bethesda. The recent posting "Battle Stations" appears to have been shot from the same plaza/park. Goober Pea The Old LookInterestingly to me, when it comes to trying to re-create the look and feel of another time, it's high-end fashion photography that routinely, and lovingly, does this. I would even go further and say it's specifically gay men in fashion who truly adore and appreciate old photos and styles, and are attentive to subtle details in fashion, or eyebrows, or heels, very precise as to the 'when' something was chic. But as someone said, and I've independently looked into, Kodachrome is shutting down. The one place to get it developed is in Scandinavia! And that's just for the moment, til it becomes a loss. It's a very hard look to replicate, that Kodachrome vibrancy. (I'm "Miss Kodachrome" commenter 1) Re: The Old LookUnless I've missed something, only Kodachrome 25 and 200 have been discontinued, and Duane's in Kansas still processes Kodachrome 64. In any event, the Kodachrome in all these 4x5s is a lot different than today's film. The present emulsion is a lot more accurate than the pre-1961 film, which was slow (ASA 10) and featured bright reds and blues, so the film everyone's been mourning in these comments has been gone over 45 years. I think what catches the eye here is the tremendous detail captured in the large format. I used to go out photographing with a friend with Kodak Elite in both my Nikon and his 4x5 view camera. We would photograph the same scenes, but it was no contest. His transparencies were amazing, and would blow mine away. The look of todayIn response to everyone who wondered if such a photo could be taken today, I would suggest that a women sitting outside Union Station in that particular pose nowadays would be reading a text message on her cell phone or Blackberry. The look of TodayI agree that Kodachrome is a wonder film, but don't discount the size of the negative (120 or 4x5) and the quality of the lenses. I use a Mamiya RB67 with fuji chromes and the images just pop out and poke your eyeballs. Get out there and shoot some film folks! 50 Years from now, perhaps our pics will be posted on Shorpy. Union StationI commute via Union Station daily, Irish pubs there are just like Ruby Tuesdays, more like a bar than a restaurant. No seven course gourmet dinner. My first date with my wife was this Irish pub. Obviously not identicalThese amateur photoanalysts must be blind. The background is obviously not identical -- the rightmost flag is waving and is in different positions between the two photos. (More questionable is the digital "213" on the edges. But that's outside the area of the film itself.) [The 213 frame number ("digital" only in the sense that it's composed of digits), made with a pin register, will be familiar to anyone who works with old large-format Kodachromes. The backgrounds aren't "identical" (and who said they were?) because these are two different photographs. The point is that they were taken the same day. Which we know because of the cars in the background. - Dave] Union Station TodayIn addition to other differences noted by others, the grassy area between the woman and Union Station is now lined by trees that have grown up so that the view of Union Station is not nearly as clear and direct anymore. Also, Columbus Circle is now lined with the flags of all 50 states plus territories. This is a great historical photo. 67 years laterI located the same exact spot where this picture was taken, and took another picture of what it looks like today. What's interesting is that the lamp posts are still in their exact same locations -- Even the two-headed lamp post off in the distance. The view of Union Station is pretty much obscured by trees now, but you can still make out the rooftop. Click to enlarge.
Jersey Shore: The Prequel
... a mere moving shadow, representing the joy and activity of daily life with the technology available at the time. In the future, when ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/03/2010 - 3:12am
Barbeque Gas Beer: 1940
... wall for years. When I opened up Shorpy today for my daily perusal, I couldn't figure out where I was for a second. Why is this ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/14/2010 - 2:58pm -

June 1940. Melrose, Louisiana. "A crossroads store, bar, 'juke joint' and gas station in the cotton plantation area." 35mm color transparency by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Squeak-SlamI can still hear the squeaky hinges and the stretching of the springs that were used to close those screen doors. Well I never."Dental Snuff"?? Whoa.I build dioramas of soulful, seedy and well-worn buildings, and have a good-sized collection of photos I use for reference and inspiration. A little ink-jet print of this one's been on my studio wall for years. When I opened up Shorpy today for my daily perusal, I couldn't figure out where I was for a second. Why is this familiar? What day is this? Finally came to me. It's nice to see this beautiful photo get the Shorpy treatment. I see details and texture I never discovered in my reference print. Now I think I'll relax with a cold Nehi and a pinch of Dental Snuff. My kind of placeNo flashing disco balls here. I'll bet the barbeque is top of the line and the sauce is home made. The buns would be regular hamburger buns, no fancy swirls or seeds. Maybe there would be a red & white checked or plain white cotton tablecloth; more than likely it would be a black or red linoleum top. The napkins would be in a chromed dispenser and the salt & pepper shakers would be octagonal with chrome tops. The ashtrays might have beer company logos, if not just plain pressed glass. The floors would probably be plain wood, the finish worn off by years of traffic. Sit back, soak up the atmosphere, swat a few flies and have a good meal. Re: My kind of placeHamburger buns? There's a real, transplanted Southern BBQ joint near here (San Jose) that serves a lunchtime "rib sandwich" in what I understand to be the authentic style: A basket with a section of incredible, slow-smoked baby back ribs, and two slices of white bread in a sandwich baggie! The bread is basically your edible napkin, so's not to miss any of the sauce. Regal BeerAbsolutely wonderful picture. Regal was still active in the early 50s and was perfect with shrimp or oysters! You can feel the summer heat just oozing from this picture. Thanks. Looks like just the spot! Dental SnuffA product still readily available today, "Dental Snuff" was advertised more than a century ago as a cure for toothache, gingivitis, facial neuralgia, caries, and scurvy. The page goes on at length to list the harmful effects with pictures). My cure is a cold beer. Time slowly changesI bet twenty years later, those men will still be there, talking about life with a "chaw" of tobacco, and a bottle of beer. I remember places like this from my childhood in rural Kentucky. AmazingThings have changed so much in the last 70 years. Listen to the MusicGrowing up in the 50's in the south,there were still a lot of these old stores left. I guarantee the front entrance is an old screen door with a bell attached. I can still hear the creaking of the door opening,the distinctive slam and jingle of the bell.There was always an ice cold 6 oz. Coke to be had inside to be drawn from the old chest type CocaCola cooler. Location, location, location...Melrose is between Alexandria and Natchitoches in central Louisiana, in case anybody was wondering. Including the gas pump, I see between $5000-$10,000 worth of antique advertising here. Wonder where it all wound up? And "Jax-Best Beer In Town"? Not what I've heard from those who survived the experience of drinking one! The CrossroadsThis might be a great place to be after the sun goes down and the "boys" pull out their guitars. PopNehi Orange was the good stuff. Forget the Root Beer. Hey, no fair.Dave B. You cannot give out information like that regarding BBQ and not give the location. A name would be nice if it's not against the rules. That place sounds awesome. Doesn't even look that oldI've seen gas station-restaurants still operating in rural parts of the South that don't look too different from this pic. (Granted, I've never seen a combination gas station and bar before.) And I bet the barbecue here was insanely good. Top TobaccoTop Cigarette Tobacco is still around, and the package looks just the same. Re: Hey, no fairSorry about that, "r"! Quincy's Bar-B-Q 70 North Main Street Milpitas, CA 95035-4323 (408) 945-7943 Under the Calaveras Blvd. R/R overpass, where you'd expect to find a seedy bus terminal. I think they may be gone, according to the most recent Yelp! entry. MemoriesBack in the 1950's my dad would take me with him into the Mississippi Delta on his Saturday laundry route. With the exception of the sign advertising whiskey, that place looks like dozens of small stores, gas stations, and/or joints we stopped at to pick up and deliver laundry. (Mississippi was dry, well at least you couldn't advertise whiskey) The places were colorful, dirty, dusty, and their coolers were always filled with some of the most exotic soft drinks you could dream of drinking. Oh this photo brings back such fond memories. Digital PaintingSuch a great image, it inspired me to do a little photoshop magic on it. Click to enlarge. Jax jingleRemembered from my Mississippi childhood in the late '50s. Oh you'll never know What that other beer lacks, Until you've tried The real beer taste The real beer taste of Jax! Mellow Jax! Model BarI thought that this image looked familiar. Twin Whistle Sign and Kit has a model kit based on this photo. [Wow. Amazing! - Dave] (The Gallery, Gas Stations, M.P. Wolcott, Stores & Markets)
Factoryville: 1910
... modified. The low swing bridge is Center St., still in daily use. The stone part of the Old Superior Viaduct still stands. The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/09/2014 - 5:10pm -

An uncaptioned industrial scene from the early 1900s. What is this gritty city? Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size. Rungs on the smokestackAre those (barely visible) rungs on the right side of the smokestack? If so, what a harrowing climb that would have been. Also, why would anyone need/want to climb that smokestack in the first place? Cleveland, OHThe Stowe-Fuller Co. in the lower right is the clue. Cleveland?I'm gonna guess Cleveland. The Stowe-Fuller Company was based there. Henkel's Flour was out of Detroit, but I think there was an outpost in Cleveland, too. Gritty CityCleveland. Stowe-Fuller CoLooks like the origin may be Cleveland. Could be the Cuyahoga River. There's much railroad infrastructure along that river still. DetroitJudging from the Henkel Flour mill, I'd guess Detroit MI. DetroitI'm going to take a wild guess and say Detroit, Michigan. That looks like Henkel's Flour mill sign in the background. Before the river caught fire (I think?)Cleveland. Was my first guess based on looks alone, but this picture of the Henkel's Flour elevator would seem to confirm it: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/det1994021768/PP/ I also found info indicating that there was indeed a Stowe-Fuller Co. in Cleveland. Stowe and Fuller Co.Cleveland, OH? ClevelandCould that be the Cuyahoga? On 11/27/1899, the Stowe-Fuller Co filed a U.S. federal trademark registration for a brick called Alumnite. Wow! The cityIt's Cleveland. It's ...Cleveland! ClevelandStowe-Fuller seems to have been a Cleveland Ohio Cement and Brick maker so I'll guess Cleveland? Cleveland?The Stowe Fuller name is all over google as a Cleveland business. Where Are We?Detroit? Henkel's Flour mill was there. Detroit?Since there is a Henkel's Flour building and since the negative has a Detroit Publishing source, I would guess that it is Detroit. FactoryvilleThe Flats. Cleveland, Ohio. The old Superior Viaduct can be seen crossing the Cuyahoga River off in the backgound. On Lake ErieCleveland, Ohio. Henkel's Flour had a grain elevator on the river and another photo is attached showing the freighter North Star tied up next to their dock. Also, theh Stowe-Fuller Co. was based in Cleveland too. The Stowes tell itCleveland, Ohio Looks like it might be Detroithttp://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270836777233&item... Stowe-Fuller FirebrickThat would be Cleveland, Ohio, no ? ClevelandHere's another angle on the Henkel's sign. On the far right is an ad to visit the Likly and Rockett showroom at 405 Superior Ave. Taking an Educated Guessat Cleveland, based on the Stowe-Fuller Company building in the lower-right corner of the picture. Why this is Cleveland The clue is the Stowe-Fuller Co., who made fire brick among other products, on the river bank. Possible I.D.I think it is Cleveland, Ohio. Henkel's FlourQuick search revealed the plant was located in Detroit on Atwater Street. Also known as Commercial Milling Co. Detroit's Commercial Milling Co.A search for "Henkel's Flour" (seen from the reverse of the sign in the distance) returns results for the Commercial Milling Co. from Detroit. I tried searching for Stowe-Fuller Co. too, but did not retrieve many results. Cleveland, OhioPossible taken at the same time as Detroit Publishing Co. no. 500408? http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/det.4a25417/ Based on that picture, which shows a warehouse at 405 West Superior Road, the Henkels factory was at the tip of the elbow in the Cuyahoga river where Carter and Scranton Roads meet today, and this picture would have been taken from about where Route 10, Carnegie Avenue, crosses the Cuyahoga. Use Henke's FlourAlong with Pillsbury, Henke's Flour was produced in Minneapolis. The faint image of a stone bridge in the distance also looks like one still standing in Minneapolis. Google leads me to think it's ClevelandBoth Fuller-Stowe and Henkel's Flour seem to have been located there. Cleveland OhioWhat do I win? ClevelandCleveland, shot northward from Franklin Ave., just west of where the big Cleveland Union Terminal RR viaduct would be built in the 1920's. Here is a streetview from almost the exact location. It was shot on Franklin Ave, just east of W 25th street: https://maps.google.com/?ll=41.488721,-81.705558&spn=0.007756,0.016512&t... Streetview is difficult, as there is now thick vegetation between Franklin Ave and the river. The coal dumper was Erie RR (NYPANO). The farthest flour mill is still there, modified. The low swing bridge is Center St., still in daily use. The stone part of the Old Superior Viaduct still stands. The replacement Detroit Superior viaduct would cross about where the Erie coal dumper was. Henkel's Flour building still thereThe Henkels flour building is still there - you can see where the sign was taken off the roof. And the swing bridge just past it on the opposite bank is still there too, it looks like - you can see it in red behind the overpass. View Larger Map Absolutely ClevelandAs a Clevelander, here's what I can add: The 1910 Cleveland City Directory showed Henkel's Flour mill at 1636 Merwin Ave., and Stowe-Fuller nearby at 1722 Merwin Ave. The Center Street swing bridge in the river was built in 1901. Construction of the Detroit-Superior High Level Bridge, shown in an earlier aerial photo, was substantially complete in 1917. There is no sign of that construction project. So, the general date range of the photo is after 1901 and before 1915. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Cleveland, DPC, Factories, Railroads)
Karl the Karrot: 1955
... the purchase of a pair of Keds, one of the sponsors of the daily kids' show "Fireman Frank" broadcast by KRON-TV in San Francisco during ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/22/2011 - 4:52pm -

This button was a promotional piece about 1-3/4" in diameter, given out by shoe stores on the purchase of a pair of Keds, one of the sponsors of the daily kids' show "Fireman Frank" broadcast by KRON-TV in San Francisco during the mid-50s. Fireman Frank was George Lemont, a hip SF deejay who stepped into the role after the original Fireman, a roly-poly avuncular gent more in the style of a kids' TV host, dropped dead. Lemont's humor appealed as much to adults as well as kids; you could hear the studio crew guffawing off-camera at things that went over our heads. Between cartoons, Lemont brought out his cast of puppets, including robot Dynamo Dudley, the beret-wearing, bop-talking Scat the Cat and best of all, Karl the Karrot. Karl, as you can see, was a sort of proto-beatnik, literally a carrot with a pair of shades. His dialog consisted entirely of "blubble-lubble-lubble" while he thrashed about, chlorophyl topknot flailing. At home, we were all in convulsions on the floor. Original Fireman FrankI remember watching the jolly chubby Fireman Frank. One day he was gone. I wondered what happen to him. Does anyone know his name? Fireman Frank FanThis is cool. I loved afternoons and Saturdays with Fireman Frank on the tube. It killed me how Fireman Frank broke himself up waving around a limp Karl the Karrot - where Karl would stare out blankly, bobbling up and down as Frank tried to contain his hysterics below while snorting in a vain attempt to conceal his own amusement. Fireman FrankHey, my cousin, best friend and I were on that show. We just loved it. When he interviewed the peanut galery (that was on Firman Frank I think) He asked my cousin, who had swiped her mom's hat to wear there, to show her profile so that the audience could see her hat. She of course did not know what that meant, so she took it off and gave it to him. It was funny to me because when she got home she got into trouble for taking the hat. I of course was happy she had gotten scolded as she was a very pretty girl and was always the center of attention. I was just a messy little tomboy that just went along for the ride. Thanks for the memories. Local live kid showsmust have been a national staple. In Texas, we had Mr. Peppermint in Fort Worth, Uncle Jay and his sidekick Packer Jack, an old prospector, in Austin and Cap'n Jack (I think) in San Antonio. Even tiny KCEN in Temple had their own guy, who could draw a picture from a kid's scrawl. We went for my brother's birthday, ca. 1959/1960. Local Kids ShowsThe Lincoln, Nebraska area had Sheriff Bill and Silent Orv (who was silent because they'd have to pay him more if he spoke). Later on, I learned television directing on the last live "Romper Room" in the country - never knew what might happen with a roomful of pre-schoolers on live TV. Fireman Frank FanTo add to the Fireman Frank archive: Dynamo Dudley's mother (or mother-in-law) was a can of nails that would be grabbed and rattled whenever it seemed necessary. Yahoo! At Last...he's alive!!!I have vivid memories of Karl the Karrot...one of my all time favorite TV characters. I have been asking people "Do you ever remember watching a show in the 50's with Karl the Karrot who just bobbled his head around and went...blblblblblblblbl blblblblb blblbl?" No one remembered and I was beginning to think I'd made it up! Thank you for bringing Karl (and that cool button) back to me...I shall forward this page to the zillion people who thought I was just having another acid flash!! Holy Karrot juice!Never thought I'd find a person who had seen that show. I remember the carrot losing his "vigor" over the week and being pretty limp on Friday to be revitalized on Monday. I have the button also. (After 50-some years) Fireman FrankI was on Fireman Frank with the greatest young comedienne of her time, Westlake Stephie, age 7. It was a fun show. Fireman Frank againWatched it everyday it with on. The thing I remember most was, Fireman Frank said "we don't like Lima beans," and I still don't like them. Rhode Island RedI, too, loved Fireman Frank. Wasn't Rhode Island Red one of his characters, too? The limp Karl the Karrot, wobbling around by Friday afternoon, was something we all looked forward to. Thanks for bringing back these wonderful memories. Too bad there aren't any witty kids' shows today. And I think the Peanut Gallery was Howdy Doody (with Buffalo Bob Smith) and not part of Fireman Frank. Karlotta Karrot During those years of childhood in San Francisco there were truly great kids' shows. Fireman Frank was without question the best. I remember Karl's girlfriend Karlotta, who spoke in the same type of oogle pattern that Karl used. By the way does anybody remember during Christmas time when Happy Holly of the Whitehouse department store called Santa? Love Karl the KarrotKids' shows in the '50s were great. I loved Fireman Frank and Karl the Karrot. My absolute favorite though was the Banana Man on Captain Kangaroo! Banana ManI never saw Karl the Karrot (we had The Old Rebel and Cowboy Fred and Captain Five at various times), but The Banana Man was my absolute, all-time favorite too. If you never saw his act, it's hard to imagine what it was like. Here is a website, somewhat disorganized, with a lot of info: http://facweb.furman.edu/~rbryson/BananaMan/index.html The "Sam Levine" and "History" links are the best, but it's all interesting (to absolute fans anyway). Py-O-My was the sponsorI remember having to put up with Frank while babysitting my little sister after school before the folks got home (I was a teenager then) and the sponsor for a while was Py-O-My (kind of like Betty Crocker) dessert and pudding mix. Rumor was that the original Fireman Frank partook too much of Py-O-My and dropped dead of blocked arteries. I remember a couple of guys in our neighborhood and I set up a FF-like puppet show one summer to earn money to buy Superman and other comics by charging a nickel to the little kids who wanted to watch. One guy's older sister made a "Scat the Cat"-type sock puppet while I had fun cutting and pasting pieces of cardboard together to make a Dynamo Dudley. I remember one kid's mom getting upset because he has swiped the only two carrots in the house to make Karl (In those days two carrots went into the stew). We made enough to make our local grocer happy to sell those horrible old comic books. Fond RekollektionsI remember the Karl the Karrot episode where he had a fight with Rocky Mashed Potato. I loved Scat the Cat,with his band-aid on one of his cheeks. Rhode Island Red the giant rooster puppet, with a wing that would pop up like it was pointing while he said, "He went thataway!" then break into a silly laugh while his head went up & down. Wish someone can find the name of the original Fireman Frank...just for memories and recognition for him. Fireman Frank ShowThat was a great show; a classic 50's kids show. Can't forget Skipper Sedley who became "Sir Sedley" for whatever reason. Also "Mayor Art"; "Bozo The Clown"; "Captain Satellite" and on a national level, "Howdy Doody" and "The Micky Mouse Club" These were all basically afternoon and Saturday shows. The essential 50's morning children's show was of course, "Captain Kangaroo" with the classic serial Cartoon "Tom Terrific".. Frank and Karl! Oh yeah!Great memories. Loved Fireman Frank and Karl too. I remember Karl getting more wilted every day. And I do remember Happy Holly at Xmas time. This is the first time I have heard anyone else mention Happy. Those were great days for kids' shows. I had the TV pretty much to myself as my parents and older sisters had not acquired the habit of watching very much. I have been trying to find video snips of some of those old shows but they are rare. Loved Fireman Frank!Fireman Frank used to show "The Little Rascals" as well as cartoons. Plus he demonstrated how to make chocolate milk with Bosco. His puppets were hilarious. Scat the Cat had been in fights and had a rough voice. I think robot Dynamo Dudley talked in gibberish like Karl the Karrot. I had a Dynamo Dudley Club Card at one time. The funniest puppet was Rhode Island Red, the rooster. My mother would come into the room and laugh. I would love to see photos or kinescopes of that show. Where is this stuff? THE DAY KARL "DIED" !The "Fireman Frank Show" with Lemont was the best kids program ever and Karl The Karrot was special. Karl was a real carrot and noticably "age" or wilt every day due to the hot studio lights. I clearly remember Karl breaking off in Lemont's hand during their dialogue and Lemont saying something like: "Ah kids; Karl is hurt but will be back like new soon. And of course Karl returned as a fresh new carrot for the next show. I'll never forget the shock of Karl's "accident" and "relief" at seeing him back better than ever for the next show! My kids thought I was making this story up when shared during their youth. Thanks for the super comments. Fireman FrankSeveral commenters have asked about the first Fireman Frank, the one who George Lemont took over from. I just came across a post on a forum from someone who remembers, and the guy's name was apparently Frank Smith. So now we also know where the Frank came from. Fireman Frank 1955-57Coming to the SF Bay Area and getting our first TV in April 1955 I only recall the latter (thin) Fireman Frank (with his weekday nightly KRON show after the early evening news and a longer one on Saturday afternoons with a drawing contest that I submitted to a few times). Captain Fortune had an early Sat morn one on KPIX, with the stock intro showing a bunch of kids running up to a large Victorian-looking house on a hill. One of CF's standard features was to have one of the guests make some scrawl on a large drawing pad and then ask him to turn it into a specific item. KPIX also had a late afternoon (pre-news) Deputy Dave featuring, of course, western films (vs cartoons). It seemed like that they all had Bosco as a sponsor (using a milk carton that had its brand obscured). He once had a contest for an (outboard) power boat - awarded for the best name for it. An acquaintance of my father won with "DD5" for Deputy Dave (Channel) 5! The arrival of the Mickey Mouse Club on ABC (KGO) in October 1955 provided some stiff competition for some of these locally-originated afternoon kid shows. The San Antonio show mentioned earlier was Captain Gus on KENS in the afternoons http://www.dmd52.net/blast.html feauring mostly Popeye and Three Stooges fare, at least during the few seasons of its 2-decade + run that it had my attention. Before Fireman FrankGeorge Lemont was to kids as Don Sherwood was to the adults. I remember his predecessor, Frank Smith, but George had a show before Fireman Frank. He was called Uncle George and would draw caricatures and cartoon pictures. He used clever cross-hatch shading on his drawings and would call them "the downtown treatment." I loved his puppets, but he reached a new height with the introduction of Karl the Karrot! Great days of kids' TV back then: Kris Kuts (the felt shapes), Deputy Dave Allen, Captain Fortune (Who's that knocking on my barrel?), Mayor Art, Crusader Rabbit (voice done by a lady from Petaluma, I'm told)and Captain Satellite (I remember seeing his first telecast on that NEW channel, KTVU). Del Courtney and Tony Petucci (Ralph Manza), Sandy (The moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free) Spellman, Fran O'Brien, Sherwood's minions, Bobby Troop, George Cerutti, Julie London, and Ronnie Schell. Great times. Rad CarrotThat is a mighty rad carrot with a hairy nose and wild hair. No wonder why he had some major kid appeal. The 50's Bay Area Christmas While reminiscing about Fireman Frank and Captain Fortune, each Christmas, I always recall with grand fondness those early television trips to the North Pole escorted by the magic elf, Happy Hollie. "Happy Hollie calling Santa Claus at the North Pole... come in, Santa!" I believe it was brought to you by either "The White House", or "City of Paris". You could always be assured there'd be one commercial by "Mission Pac"... fruit packages for mail delivery to east coast friends. "No gift so bright, so gay, so right, send a Mission Pac on its way" Fireman FrankI'm so happy to learn there are others that have fond memories of Fireman Frank / Uncle George! Remember how he'd have the puppets refer to him as "skinny-in-the pit"? I would crack up when he'd tell the kids to be sure to send in for his one-way yoyo while just dropping a stringless yoyo. The lady who voiced Crusader RabbitHer name was Lucille Bliss, and she also did Smurfette. But legendary to me is the fact she waited tables on the side, and a deejay from KSAN recognized her voice, and asked her to come into the station and record the doomsday alerts. "This is a test - this is only a test. In the event of an actual alert, " etc. In the voice of Crusader Rabbit! This included (I assume) the real kiss your butt goodbye warning, in the event of nuclear war! Man- would I love to hear a copy of this. Jay Ward with Art Alexander created the Rabbit here in Berkeley, eventually moving to LA for production. You can read all about it in The Moose That Roared, by Keith Scott. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Curiosities, tterrapix)
Mass Transit: 1910
... paragraphs about the old station house. I used the station daily during the renovation, and the work they did was remarkable. Ashcan ... the same location October 2018. By the way the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is archived for free online access: https://bklyn.newspapers.com/ ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/14/2020 - 1:25pm -

        A better-quality version of an image first posted here in 2008. Brooklyn, N.Y., circa 1910. "Atlantic Avenue subway entrance." Plus an elevated railway and streetcar tracks. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Rock and FultonLooks like the poster for the Brighton Beach Music Hall (which later became a Yiddish theater) is advertising William Rock and Maude Fulton. They were apparently heading the bill written about here in the Aug. 7, 1910, New York Times. Still StandingThe subway entrance in the foreground is still there. The elevated and the railroad terminal building are not. The Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street subway station is home to (If I remember correctly) nine subway lines. The LIRR still has its terminus at Flatbush Avenue. Because of the great mass transit, this is the site where the NJ Nets are building their new arena. The surface traffic is horrendous now. That's why the neighborhood is pretty much against building the arena. BreezyI would think that those open-sided cars get a little breezy. Then and NowThe tracks are gone and the Long Island RR Building in the back was transformed into a mall. The small building on the Island that says "Atlantic Avenue" is still there. My son lives around the corner. I'll take a picture and post it for everyone to see. Love the open-sided subway cars!Can we assume these cars ran aboveground at all times? You couldn't go underground in these cars. Or you could.....but you'd need hosing down at the end of the ride. NYC TransitI used to ride these cars as a kid. The transportation system in NYC was so far superior before 1940, at a nickel a pop for over 40 years, that people today cannot even imagine how easily, safely, and pleasantly it was back then. To El and BackJune 1, 1940, was when the City of New York took over the trolleys, elevated railways and subways of the BMT and began the abandonments. The Fifth Avenue El, the Fulton Street El, Fulton Street trolleys, Gates Avenue trolleys and Putnam Halsey cars ran their last on May 30. Both Els were torn down the summer of 1941. Atlantic AvenueThe subway entrance is still there, but it's no longer in use as such. The MTA renovated it when it expanded and refurbished the Atlantic Avenue subway station, but because the entrance is on a traffic island in the middle of a very busy intersection, you can no longer use it to enter the station. Instead, it now serves as a skylight for the underground station. There's a spot in the station where you can stand about 20 or 30 feet underneath the old station house, look up, and see it directly above you, hollowed out and streaming light into the station. If I still lived in Brooklyn, I'd get a photo. You can see it here, photographed from Flatbush Avenue: View Larger Map The mall that 9:26 AT refers to you would be behind you in this shot. I tried to get a Google Map image from the vantage point of the 1910 photo, but a large truck was between the Google Map camera and the old station entrance. I believe the 1910 image was photographed from roughly where the PC Richard currently stands. There's a much better view of the current state of the old entrance here, in a photo from April of this year: http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?82823 You can also see it, boarded over and in disrepair, in this 1997 photo: http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?426 Finally, the New York Times has a good article from 2003 about the renovation of the Atlantic Avenue station, including a couple of paragraphs about the old station house. I used the station daily during the renovation, and the work they did was remarkable. Ashcan schoolThe Ashcan school of artists was known for painting New York street scenes similar to this. John Sloan's famous and, in this writer's opinion, beautiful painting, Six O'Clock, Winter, painted in 1912, may have been painted at this station or a similar one in the city. Open platform El carsAfter the Malbone Street wreck in 1918, wooden cars were banned from the subways. Open-platform wooden cars continued to be used on the Els in Brooklyn until 1958, when the last of the "BU" El cars ran on Myrtle Avenue. The IRT ran wood open platform El cars in Manhattan and the Bronx until the early 1950s. In 1938 the "Q" class El cars had steel ends added to enclose the open platforms of 1903 wood El cars; they were used on the Flushing line for the 1939 World's Fair. After that the "Q" cars ran on the Third Avenue El in Manhattan and the Bronx before finishing out their days on Myrtle Avenue in 1969. Open platform El cars were typical of rapid transit from the 1870s through the mid teens. They were labor intensive, with a conductor needed between every two cars. A nicer timeI live not far from here, and this photo is so much nicer than what it is today -- a mall with trash and insane traffic. Makes me wish I was there back in 1910. Polka dots and moonbeamsI'd love to make the acquaintance of the lovely lady in polka dots. And, check out the lady's amazing hat! Fashion ForwardThe lovely lady in the polka dot dress must just have gotten back from Paris, as she is wearing the latest Paul Poiret inspired hobble skirt/pagoda tunic, with a Japanese- bridal style hat. All of the other ladies in the photo, with full flared skirts, blousson bodices, and huge, but very lightweight picture hats will be following her style by next Spring, at the latest. Famous time travelers caught on glass Now it can be told: many celebrities were also, in fact, secret travelers through time. Although I am not at liberty to disclose their methods, I am permitted to point out a few well known faces. On the far left, we see W.C. Fields, wearing false whiskers, attempting to look casual. Moving right, we see a stylish Brian Donlevy striking a pose as he boldly looks directly at the camera. Just behind the policeman on the right is a young Gary Cooper, who is not quite as tall as he would be later in life. The young lady in the au courant outfit is lovely Laura La Plante. And now we come to the true master of time travel, Charles Durning, who is both the policeman on the right *and* the man in the white hat, on the other side of the pole, with his back to his policeman self. Take the "A" train.Unlike the other els mentioned, the Fulton Street el (in the picture) had been replaced by a subway before being torn down. Through service to Manhattan at last. Yes, the "A" train. "Circa 1910" indeedThere's no "circa" about it given that the "3 Eagles" newsstand is displaying the Aug 6, 1910, issues of The Saturday Evening Post . My old stomping groundsBefore my transfer to Garden City. View of the same location October 2018. By the way the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is archived for free online access: https://bklyn.newspapers.com/ About the policemen's hatsAccording to the Internet (so it must be true), the New York City police wore "custodian helmets," grey for summer and blue for winter, from 1880 to 1912. (The Gallery, DPC, NYC, Railroads, Streetcars)
Public Square, Cleveland: 1907
... size. Memories I waited for the Number 20 bus daily 1972 through 1976 while a schoolboy across the street from this fine ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/17/2012 - 10:33pm -

Cleveland, Ohio, circa 1907. "Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, Public Square." This Civil War monument was dedicated July 4, 1894. Panorama made from two 8x10 glass negatives. Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Memories I waited for the Number 20 bus daily 1972 through 1976 while a schoolboy across the street from this fine monument. The local men who served in the Civil War have their names displayed on the walls on the inside. [One commenter speculated that the monument housed public toilets. - Dave] ComplexThat is an impressive piece of work. Anyone know what was housed in the base of the monument? And, yes, that bicycle looks really lonely just standing there. Details, details.Love the sprinklers, and am curious who would leave a brand new bike just sitting there unlocked. Things to comeNote the harness company sign in the upper left, and, in the streets below, a few examples of the machines that would be the death of that industry. Public vs. individualAlways amazing, how much public transport one can see in these old photos, and how little private transport (shank's mare excluded). Obesity was not much of a problem then and even portly people got up and down stairs well, I suppose. Fascinating picture.Do you know if it was shot from one camera at different times or two cameras simultaneously? If it was a single camera I'm curious if some of the people, and particularly some of the trolleys and carriages appear in both photos? [The exposures were not made simultaneously. Below, the individual plates and their Photoshop marriage. Note the visitor at the base of the monument, present only in the lefthand image, and the difference in the height of the shadows on the wall. - Dave] Below, an initial and not very satisfactory attempt. Drugs/dentistPresumably, one pops upstairs for some of Marshall's cut rate drugs after one has been to the "painless" dentistry below? And after that, off to the church across the road to pray for the pain to go away. Same scene 50 years onHere's an interesting view my father took of the same area in the late 1950s. Floral emblemsI assume the artwork carved into the vegetation around the monument are some type of unit insignias? I notice one for the Corps of Engineers and another for the Signal Corps. ViewpointThe camera is on the southeast corner of Public Square. You can see the edge of the old May Co. building on the left edge of the picture. The location of the Terminal Tower complex would be where the Stein Cafe is in the photo. Signs of the timesThe old street scenes have several things in common. Signs for painless dentistry, cigars and cut rate drugs. Remembering going to the dentist starting about 1950 I have to question the painless statement. InsideThe monument houses a small museum. The photos were taken from the southeast. The Terminal Tower is to the southwest. A great tribute to Ohio's Civil War VetsThat is an amazing monument! When you compare the white objects (dresses/lamp globes) to the white stripes in the American Flag, the air pollution of the day is evident. Old Glory even looks weighted down. Fortunately, it still remains a great monument. I want to go see it. It has its own website: http://soldiersandsailors.com/ Re: Floral EmblemsIf you look closely, the same emblems are carved in the upper portion of the base of the monument. These are the symbols of the different elements of the Union Army 1861-1865. [You can see a close-up here. - Dave] You'll shoot your eye out!Ah yes, The Higbee Company (left) forerunner of the iconic Higbee's department store (in nearby Terminal Tower), perhaps best known for its appearance in Jean Shepherd's "A Christmas Story" (1983), where young Ralphie drools over a Red Ryder carbine-action Range Model (etc., etc.) BB gun in the window. Statue of "Liberty"When I was a boy, an older friend of our family gave me a tour of this monument and told me that the statue on top was "Liberty" and was deliberately placed facing north with sword unsheathed because, in the years after the Civil War, there was some ill-will with Canada and even some fear that Canada would consider "invading" America and the Cleveland citizens put her up as a warning. Never sure if that was a true story (and have never been able to find a historical reference to it) but that's how I heard it more than 50 years ago. THANK YOU!!Thank you very much for sharing this photo. I have a collection of 4 photos from about the same time (very low quality), that were passed down through ancestors and I was having trouble identifying. Then I came across your photo that has the same Stein Cafe and King Harness signs. This helped me identify the angle and roughly date my photographs. I am enclosing a scaled down version here. Thanks again for sharing. (Panoramas, Civil War, Cleveland, DPC, Streetcars)
From All of Us: 1921
... Shorpy on TV I did a double-take during last night's Daily Show with Jon Stewart. An altered version of this photo appeared during a ... Either it's a remarkable coincidence or someone at the Daily Show is reading Shorpy. (The Gallery, Christmas, D.C., Kids, Natl ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/29/2014 - 1:44pm -

Washington, D.C. "Dickey Christmas tree, 1921." Our annual holiday card featuring the family of lawyer Raymond Dickey, who has a decade's worth of Christmases preserved in the archives of the National Photo Co. View full size. Different treesWow. It never ceases to amaze me how different Christmas trees looked back in the day. I don't mean the decorations, I mean the actual shape of the tree. Is it because they were just chopped from somewhere by the homeowners? Or maybe there is a species that has been developed for mass consumption today? I don't mean any disparagement on Mr. Dickey's tree because it looks like it was lovingly decorated, which is the whole idea. It's just that the shape is so strange to me and I've seen it in other pictures of that era that have been posted here that I'm curious. Conical ChristmasThis photo makes me wonder - When did the current "pointy triangle" Christmas tree become popular? Did a bill collector just enter the room?Again, a scrawny tree with no lights. Doesn't look like a happy family, and what could they be staring at? [Look again. There are lights all over this tree. - Dave] Perfection is relativeI've observed that in old photos of plain and poorly shaped women as well as poorly shaped Christmas trees, many viewers raise the subject of appearance. We had trees like this when I was young, usually because Dad always got one that was way too tall and we had to cut off to fit it in the room. We had one as recently as about 20 years ago that looked like a giant tumbleweed, rather shapeless and sparse. However, in defense of such trees, my son pointed out that such spareness of greenery made the ornaments much more important, visible and spotlighted the outstanding beauty of decorations such as these, while the lush, bushy trees often obscure the ornaments. I notice that this year there is a "Charlie Brown Tree" for sale which is basically a very sparse branch on a thin, wispy trunk with only one ornament on the single branch, as in the cartoon. As kids, we loved our skimpy, roundish, scanty Christmas tree (just as God made it) and found it magically beautiful. Perhaps growing up and becoming "sophisticated" makes us see faults instead of beauty? Just look at these magnificent ornaments. May your best ever Christmas holiday be exceeded this year. May Shorpy continue to gain fans and prosper. TriangularIt's spruces that are conical. This looks like pine. The smell of ChristmasAh, what wonderful holiday memories; the aroma of evergreen needles and Daddy's cigar smoke in my face. Reflections on an OrnamentDo you have a bigger version of the bauble above the girl's head? I'd love to see the rest of this room (and maybe the photographer?). Ornaments of days gone byChristmas tree shots like this always throw me into a temporal disconnect; these are the exact kind of ornaments I grew up with in the 1950s. And I'll bet this tree looked fantastic in color and in normal, rather than exploding flash powder light. Christmas VacationThis is definitely a Clark Griswold tree. I only wonder where cousin Eddie is. Modern Tree TastesThat tree is fabulous. I think back in the day, especially if you didn't live somewhere fairly close to a supply of ideal, cone-shaped firs or cedars, you pretty much settled for whatever healthy-looking pine or cedar-like tree you could find. Also, keep in mind that today's Christmas tree farms prune the trees every year to make sure they maintain the ideal cone shape. Let 'em run wild and they wouldn't be so perfect, and probably more sparsely limbed. When I was a kid ('70's), before there were any tree farms around, we would just go out in some of our or a relative's woods & find a young juniper & pull it out of the woods. Love this treeThis is more than a Christmas tree. This is Christmas tree as art installation. I love the fact that it nearly takes over the room and that there is room to breathe between the branches that allows the ornaments and ropes of glass balls to be draped and displayed in all their glory. This is the kind of tree my grandparents always had--very big and wide and decorated with the exact same ornaments. The only thing missing is Angel Hair (was it actually fiber glass?). My grandmother went through a big angel hair period before she moved on to tinsel. Too bad all the trees nowadays look exactly the same-perfectly shaped and boring, and too thick to truly decorate and dress to the nines. Alice Dickey ThompsonIts a bit hard to believe from this photo, but the teenager on the right, young Miss Alice Dickey, is destined to be the Editor and Publisher of Seventeen Magazine and Executive Editor of Glamour Magazine. I'm still hunting for a later photo of her. Some Links from the web: Time Magazine, 1949 Time Magazine, 1950 Women's periodicals in the United States: consumer magazines Washington Post, Apr 2, 1940 Rites for Raymond B. Dickey, Lawyer, to Be Held Tomorrow Funeral rites for Raymond B. Dickey, 62, dean of faculty of the Washington Chapter of the American Institute of Banking and a prominent attorney, will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Deal funeral home, 4812 Georgia avenue northwest. Burial will be in Cedar Hill Cemetery ... A native of Harpers Ferry, W. Va., Mr. Dickey was educated at Georgetown University where he was awarded an LL.D. degree in 1899 and his LL.M. the following year. At the time of his death he was general counsel for the Civilian Conservation Corps. For many years he taught the bills and notes course at the banking institute. With his son, J. Maxwell Dickey, he maintained offices in the National Press Building. He made his home at 1702 Kilbourne street northwest. ... Besides his son, J. Maxwell Dickey, he leaves his wife, Mrs. Rose M. Dickey; two other sons, Granville E., chief statistician of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Raymond D. Dickey, of Arlington County, a public relations counsel; and a daughter Mrs. Alice D. Thompson, of California and New York City, the editor of Glamour Magazine. According to the 1920 Census, those pictured here are: Raymond B., 43 Rose M., 40 Alice E., 13 John M., 9 Raymond R., 3 The census also lists an older son, Granville E., 18. [Note: ages are based on those listed in 1920 census plus one.] Boat Ornaments!I love the viking boat ornaments! I feel inspired to make some for my own tree. Charlie Brown Christmas treeI still get flack over this straggly tree, but it remains my favorite, because I took my three-year-old son into the woods and he helped me select cut, haul, erect and decorate it. Beautiful photo!I love this picture. The Christmas tree looks as though it's been lovingly decorated by everybody in the family without notions of "the perfect tree." As someone who is (not by choice) alone on Christmas, I wish I could join them! OrnamentalismI recognize quite a few of these glass ornaments from our own trees of my childhood. We had some of the Santa ones and quite a number of the various balls. As well as birds with the spun glass tails. My favorite was always the crane with the long neck and beak. They clipped onto the branch on a spring. Over the years we lost many of them and the last went when a friend, well known for his clumsiness) was helping put up the tree and sat on the box of ornaments. Who is that man in the ornament?Look at the silver ball over Alice's head. Looks like a man seated with a dog. Clouded PupilsWhy are the pupils of the two bottom kids clouded? Maybe the shutter speed was just slow enough to get a blink in there? [The "clouded" or "zombie" look is a characteristic of flash powder photography, where there was usually no mechanism for synchronizing the exposure and flash. The photo catches the subjects' eyes both open and closed because the exposure is slightly longer than it needs to be. With the advent of flashbulbs and electrical synchronization of shutter and flash, the exposure generally ends before the flash triggers the blink reflex. In the early days of "flashlight" photography, shutter speed wasn't a factor because there was no shutter, or the shutter wasn't used. The lens cap was removed from the camera, the flash was ignited, then the lens cap was replaced. - Dave] Beginning to See the LightsI think the "Viking boat ornament" may have been a balloon with a sail, as in a Jules Verne illustration. Thanks, Dave, I now see the lights—how could I have missed them? Buety is In the eye of the beholderI don't think there is such a thing as a bad looking Christmas tree. I am often amazed by comments made to the contrary. Nowadays so many times the word "tradition" leaves little to the imagination. Some of the most memorable Christmas trees of my past looked a lot less ornate than this tree by far but they were perfect on our eyes. Back in the early 60's we used to string cranberries and popcorn to put on our tree. [Something tells me you haven't seen Buety lately. - Dave] Good Luck!I think I've spotted the Christmas Pickle! "Village of the Damned," anyone?Even with an explanation, those kids are pretty creepy. Tree Full of HeirloomsLet's hope the kids of these kids are still putting the same beautiful ornamants on their trees this Christmas. Connections, connections...Alice probably edited the Glamour magazine seen hanging in the newsstand in last week's "Zines": https://www.shorpy.com/node/7233 It's amazing how things here are connected. I'll be darned. After reading the tip about Alice growing up to be an editor, I pulled out my trusty copy of Seventeen Magazine from November 1946 from my desk drawer (doesn't everyone have one stored there?)...and sure enough, there she was! What a cool connection. Tree FarmingI'm not sure how long Christmas tree farming has been a business, but I suspect it wasn't during this family's lifetime. These days it can be profitable business, but while it isn't exactly regulated, with rules as to the sort of trees that can be grown, there are preferred types. According to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the preferred types are White Pine, White Spruce, Scots Pine, Balsam Fir, Blue Spruce and Fraser Fir. The trees are pruned for shape and to increase foliage density. I suspect that none of this happened to this tree. Someone probably just went out into the woods and cut down the scraggly runt trees that didn't look like they'd ever amount to anything went it came to lumbering. Then they shipped them off to the city where they'd cost a pretty penny to the buyers and supplement the lumber company's bottom line. I'm guessing these folks got the best of what was available and were damned pleased to get it. Not only does he smoke in the house,but he can't put it down for the Christmas photo. I am assuming that the Dickey family had these made but didn't send them out in Christmas cards ...after all the invention of the refrigerator magnet was decades in the future. Old Clothes?This is one of those photos you can look at in hi-def and notice more and more. This family is obviously prosperous -- it's a huge tree and elaborately decorated, if not in the current shape fashion,also note the train set-so WTH- Mom's in her oldest skirt with stuff crammed in her pocket,junior has holes in his stockings and something safety-pinned to the front of his shirt and the future glamour editor looks decidedly unglamorous. Even given the limitations of flash photography at the time, these people don't look happy,and even in 1921 people had plenty of experience with Kodaks and snapshots and knew how to smile for a picture. Here Mom looks deranged, Dad looks like he's threatening the terrified looking child on his knee, and the two older kids look like they can't wait to get out of there. Merry Christmas! Shorpy on TVI did a double-take during last night's Daily Show with Jon Stewart. An altered version of this photo appeared during a segment entitled Obama's Socialist Christmas Ornament Program. Either it's a remarkable coincidence or someone at the Daily Show is reading Shorpy. (The Gallery, Christmas, D.C., Kids, Natl Photo, The Dickeys)
Newport News: 1941
... routes which included the shipyard stops as part of their daily routes. Staggering shifts like that was the only way they could get ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/07/2020 - 3:53pm -

March 1941. Newport News, Virginia. "Shipyard workers going home at 4 p.m." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Huntington Cafe The street appears to be Washington Avenue. According to an ad in a 1940 edition of the local newspaper, the Huntington Cafe was located at 3600½ Washington Ave. In the ad, the restaurant was looking to hire a waitress. Nary a woman to be seen!I don't see any women yard workers in this pre-WWII scene. That would change during the war. https://www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/women/wartime/ww2.htm N.N.S.& D.D.Co. The Shipyard - Newport News Shipyard & Dry Dock Co.- has been a definitive workplace of generations of local (and not quite local) families since the end of the 19th century. My stepfather began working there as a full time employee just after WWII, when he graduated from 4 years at the Apprentice School in 1950, through the auspices of the GI Bill, and became a Piping Designer in the Submarine Division. He was a part of the development of the nuclear submarines from day one. Hyman G. Rickover was a seemingly permanent fixture of that section, ruling with an iron will. Stories about him were regular parts of every day's dinner table conversation! Dad worked there until his Union went on strike in the late 70's/early 80's and never went OFF strike. He continued working for another company who was a contractor for the shipyard for a long time, until he retired. He passed away this past spring. Asbestosis was a major player in his passing, after spending decades in that shipbuilding environment, making frequent journeys from his office space to the outside buildings where "mock ups" were located, and actual construction in the dry docks took place, where there was little to no breathing protection provided or even acknowledged in those many early years. He recieved legal asbestosis "benefits" from various class action law suits, but in the end, no amount of money could repair the damage inflicted by those incredibly tiny, dangerous fibers that permanently scarred his lungs. His father - my paternal grandfather - had worked there, beginning in the Sail Shop, in the late 1920's, which was actually after sails were no longer part of ships, but handled all the textile components of ships, and the yard itself. He fabricated upholstery on ships and subs, awnings on buildings, and other items. He retired in 1968. He has three sisters, two of whom married men who would become permanent employees of the shipyard through their retirement. The other one was associated through shipyard contractors. I have numerous cousins, brothers, nephews, and many school friends who either have worked for the Yard in all its incarnations, ownership, changes, etc., and still do, or have done. One uncle gave his all, who was an official photographer for the Yard, when he had a sudden heart attack during lunch with coworkers in a little cafe across the street from the yard, and didn't go home again. In the 1960's, taking Dad to work across town from as far as Denbigh so Mom could have the one car on Fridays so she could do all her shopping is something I will always remember. Being part of all that craziness of early morning traffic and back again for the madness of afternoon shift change, with the thousands of cars from everywhere, and what seemed like hundreds of charter busses from as far as North Carolina transporting the employees on their way in and on their way home again seemed to be just another normal day. The shipyard has been a permanent fixture of most of my early life, from the age of 6, until I married at 19, and moved away to the Midwest at 20, in 1977. It still continues to move on as it provides submarines and aircraft carriers for the U.S. Navy, as well as numerous other projects that keep "the yard" humming. (Original 7/2/2020) Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.In the 1940s A&P was at the height of its success - so much so that it was charged with antitrust violations. Because of management mistakes, it started sliding in the 1950s and disappeared in 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Atlantic_%26_Pacific_Tea_Company Eight O'ClockThe A&P is gone, but I still drink Eight O'Clock coffee. "No Pedestrian Traffic"A 1940 newspaper want-ad for a waitress position at the Huntington Cafe (lower left) gives an address of 3600½ Washington Avenue, which means Vachon was standing near the intersection of Washington and 37th Street, facing south. There is still a gate to the shipyard at that corner, but "no pedestrian traffic" signs in place of crowds of workers headed south at shift change. Today, there are acres of surface parking lots behind Vachon's location. Many women - just not in sight here!(EDITED to remove typo. ORIGINALLY posted a few years ago.) This photo just doesn't show the right building or gate for all the women employees to be making their way out of the buildings to go home. There were/are different buildings where the white collar workers - management, secretaries, administrative assistants/private secretaries, file clerks, the typing pools, other clerical workers, etc. - had the offices where they did their vital work, and design divisions had their facilities, working in large open office spaces where their drafting desks and other equipment was kept, and where they did their work everyday, Monday through Friday. Not a computer to be found, or even a pocket calculator. Yet. I'm sure there were all the IBM, other bookkeeping and office machines were being used to the utmost, keeping up with the work of production, repair, refitting, calculating contracts, payrolls for all the thousands of workers, and so forth though! My dad's "tools of the trade" were drafting pens and pencils and slide rules, and all the other drafting tools needed for his work, calculating and drawing to the nth degree the placement and bend of every pipe and conduit for his assignment at the time, on submarines. There were plenty of ladies working in those office spaces too. And, not every category of worker worked the same shift everyday. Production workers down in the yard, such as these men shown, worked one of three standard shifts, days, evenings, graveyards, and a five day shift out of any given seven days. My uncle worked in the welding shops, five evenings a week, always getting home about 11:45PM. My aunt always had his "dinner" waiting for him when he got home. I used to spend weekends there with my cousins as a kid when I could, and he was usually not home at least one evening until quite late. "QUIET" while he was sleeping during the early part of the day was an unbreakable house rule! The office workers worked the standard 9-5, Monday through Friday's, where the production personnel worked 7-3, 3-11, or 11-7, part of seven days a week. And there were also the Apprentice School students, who worked their time in the school proper for their four or more years, just like any other college program, but also worked in the yard itself, or in the design divisions, or whatever other division coincided with their area of interest or focus, as part of their training as well. Their schedules were always a mystery! And there were also the predictable city bus routes which included the shipyard stops as part of their daily routes. Staggering shifts like that was the only way they could get a handle on the amazing traffic tidalwaves that were part of getting people to work and back home again everyday. There are (or at least there were) specific parking areas near the buildings down in the yard where they were working, and surface lots for the use of specific classes of workers close by the buildings where they worked. (The Gallery, John Vachon, WW2)
Streets of Baltimore: 1906
... years as a messenger in Baltimore and always wondered what daily life looked like back then. Now I know: Less crackheads, more horses. ... to say I didn't relish slowly roving foot by foot over the daily routine going on in the streets and the bay. Great photo to bring that ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/29/2018 - 10:36am -

Baltimore, Maryland, circa 1906. "The Continental Building." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. The more things change...It's remarkable that all the buildings shown on Baltimore Street and the first four complete buildings on the cross-street (Calvert) exist largely unaltered today. CuriousWho knew that cranes wore shoes and cats wore clothes in 1906? Still standingThis is very cool! I walk by this building and the dark little one behind it every day on my way to work. This is the intersection of Baltimore & Calvert Streets. Continental OpDashiell Hammett worked in the Continental building in the 1920s, when he was an op of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. In this photo you can see the two large gilded birds presiding over the entrance, as well as smaller versions marking the second floor level in the large windows. These birds are indeed what dreams were made of--they are gilded falcons. Still ThereIt's now known as One Calvert Plaza, and looks like it's in great shape still! I'm amazed that it held the title of tallest building for 10 years. Calvert StreetCalvert Street with no cars -- I have dreams like this sometimes. I spent a couple of years as a messenger in Baltimore and always wondered what daily life looked like back then. Now I know: Less crackheads, more horses. Going UpThis photo really lights up the people who love to see how those early industrial age buildings were built from inside out. The marvel is what those men achieved with such rudimentary tools and machinery. Their pace was indeed slow (and dangerous) by our modern standards, but one look at that simplistic boom and pulley rig that they were using tells you all you need to know. The other bonus in this photo is the building being demolished at the bottom. Gives you a good view of an even older building and the way it was put together. Not to say I didn't relish slowly roving foot by foot over the daily routine going on in the streets and the bay. Great photo to bring that era alive. A challenge for Shorpy photo detectivesWhat is visible across the street, reflected in the windows? I have no idea what the right answer is, and this might be too tough, but have at it! Here is the best detail I found. Recent HistoryI love these pictures ... the ruins (not under construction, not being torn down) in the lower right corner are most likely what was left after the Great Baltimore Fire, which was only two years before this was taken. Here's a comment about the Continental Building from http://www.kilduffs.com/Buildings.html "It was build in 1901 as the Continental Trust Building. Daniel H. Burnham & Co. were the architects. The building was at the hottest point of the 1904 fire and totally consumed. However, the steel frame survived, allowing the existing structure to be rebuilt." AlterationsThe Continental has lost most of its fancy cornice at the roof. The small buildings to the east seem hardly changed. The building under construction in 1906 now looks to be under refurbishment. "The Block" - East Baltimore StreetThe comment below about East Baltimore Street reminded me of traveling down to this area, popularly known as "The Block" while in the Army in the 60's, stationed at nearby Fort Holabird. Army commanders warned us to never go down to "The Block" alone as too many soldiers were mugged and rolled for their money by the local denizens and bar girls. The primo location was the beautiful "Gaiety" burlesque house, though long past its prime by then. Stripper Blaze Starr had a bar there as well. Thanks for reminding me of that.I understand the area was cleaned up and assume the Gaiety building is no more. Coming SoonThe pervasive United Cigar Store. East Baltimore StreetEast Baltimore Street and its immediate neighborhood including Fayette Street had become a "Sin City" by the early 1950's, where burlesque theatres, porno shops and raucous nightclubs had sprung up. To college-age boys from MD, PA and nearby DE back in those times, a run down to that neighborhood was a popular destination for revelry. That's all gone by now, I think. What a proThe photographer was a real pro at architectural photography. Not only is the exposure and composition near perfect but he has avoided the "perspective effect", i.e. convergence vertical lines, by being high enough that he could point his camera at the horizon and still cover the building from top to bottom. Notice in the photo provided by Rusty, Still There, that the camera was tilted upward to get some of the upper portion of the building and the vertical lines have an unnatural converging effect. Tilt-shift photography>> The photographer was a real pro at architectural photography. Not only is the exposure and composition near perfect but he has avoided the "perspective effect", i.e. convergence vertical lines, by being high enough that he could point his camera at the horizon and still cover the building from top to bottom. The reason the sides of the building are parallel doesn't have anything to do with how high the camera was. The photographer used a view camera, which allows one to tilt the camera up and at the same time tilt the lens board and glass negative back to align with the building, thus keeping the perspective correct. Gayety Burlesque, Blaze Starr and the Power Plant View Larger Map The old Gayety Burlesque building mentioned below is still there and lives on as Larry Flynt's Hustler Club. Blaze Starr's 2 O'Clock club is still there too but last I heard she sold out her share years ago. The infamous "Block" during its heyday spanned at least three blocks of E Baltimore street and was the scene of a impromptu celebration march when the Orioles won the 1966 World Series. I and thousands of other marched up and down the Block until 2 in the morning. Nowadays The Block truly is just a block within walking distance of City Hall. In the background the four stacks of the power house are visible. Today it is an entertainment complex but when this piture was taken it supplied power to Baltimore's electric streetcars. http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=2531 The demolished building on the right was probably a victim of the 1904 fire which gutted downtown Baltimore but it cleared ground for a new Baltimore. View Larger Map (The Gallery, Baltimore, DPC)
The Squeaky Wheel: 1924
... pulled the finest "varnish" on the fastest schedules. Daily they raced the New York Central class J Hudsons between New York City and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 11:41am -

Washington, D.C., June 1924. "Congressman John C. Schafer of Wisconsin." Who seems to have been something of a railfan. National Photo Co. View full size. Size DID Matter!This photo shows how massive steam locomotives got before they were eclipsed by internal combustion (notably diesel-fired) technology. Locomotives couldn't get much bigger than what's shown here because of tunnel clearances and the like. Diesels presented greater thermal efficiency, allowing smaller engines to perform a prescribed level of work. There's a lesson here. While conventional wisdom demands that we drill our way out of today's fuel supply shortages, the scientific community pursues a paradigm shift in motive technology not unlike the steam to diesel conversion. This includes not only alternative fuels, but alternative materials that reduce vehicle weight without compromising strength. Speaking of size...He must have a massive bundle of rasta dreds under that hat! Lightweight Locos?The implication by Chollisr that it would be desirable to reduce locomotive weight is incorrect. The function of a locomotive is to haul passengers/freight. The pulling ability of a locomotive is proportional to locomotive weight, wheel - track friction, and locomotive torque. Everything else being equal, reducing weight reduces pulling ability. Railroad manJohn Charles Schafer, Republican, WW I veteran, was a former locomotive engineer for the Chicago, Northwestern Railroad and member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen. Elected to congress at the age of 29, he would have been 31 at the time of this photo. While in Washington he lived at 800 North Carolina Avenue SE. Schafer weighs 200 pounds and clings to the ancient idea that tobacco was made to "chaw." He practices at it on or off the floor of the House. He has a magnificent pair of lungs and, after he delivers a speech in the House, acoustics experts have to be called in to make repairs. They call Schafer the "Firpo of the House." He is at his best when he is thundering against prohibition. Washington Post, Nov 8, 1931 Locomotive BreadthWhat amazes me most about old steam locomotives like this is their size and their massive construction: you know, really thick plates, exposed rivets, lots of pipes and tubes running all the length of the locomotive, gargantuan pistons and rods, wheels bigger than a man. I wasn't lucky enough to ever have a ride on a train pulled by one of those; that would be like making a childhood dream come true. Of course, it would be better if I could step in the cab and pull the whistle cord; who didn't want to do that as a kid? Too bad the only examples of steam locomotives I can see where I live are stored away in museums, and then in a very improper (and I would say disgraced) state of preservation: the two or three locos stand idle on some length of dead track, outdoors, exposed to rain, sun, and the corrosive atmosphere of Mexico City. Last time I checked those, I could even spot some small plants growing among the boiler plates, in places where corrosion had made the rivets disappear. It was a pity - those locos are not only beautiful, they are also historical, since they used to pull the Presidential train in days gone by. Sometimes I wish there was a better culture of preservation down here. Anywho, Shorpy provides us again with a very interesting picture, something really worth a thousand words. Motive Power Writ LargeActually, my comments about weight-to-power ratios were focused on all forms of motive power that we use in everyday life. That includes things like sport utility vehicles (SUVs). The "utility" is puzzling: the larger the vehicle, the more power is required to move it (and the fuel that it carries). The horsepower required to move the vehicle itself increasingly dwarfs the power needed to move its passengers. A point is reached when people start serving their machines, instead of the other way around. Diesel enginesDiesel engines do not drive trains nowdays -- electricity does. The modern locomotives we all see pulling trains today utilize electric motive power. The diesel engines merely turn the generators which provide the electricity to drive the engines. A direct link from a diesel engine to the drive wheels would require a transmission and differential. Electric motive power requires none. This is why you will never hear a locomotive shift gears like a semi. And Miguel: Someday, if you visit the United States, you will find several places with live steam engines still working. One of my favorites is near Baraboo Wisconsin, where each year their coal-fired Baldwin locomotive hauls a train load of circus wagons to Milwaukee for an annual parade. Chaw vs. CigarSchafer may cling to the ancient idea that tobacco was made to chaw, but that appears to be a cigar in the hand that holds the oil can. Having restored a small (0-4-0 saddle tank with slope back tender) steam locomotive, I can testify that a steam engine is the closest thing to a living machine there is. A diesel doesn't even come close. Operational Steam LocomotivesMy goodness, Miguel, how I wish I could transport you to experience one of these living, breathing behemoths – you’re right, there’s nothing like them! It does seem Mexico has few operational steam locomotives, as seen in this list of survivors. However, if you ever chance a visit to the US, there are a great many more operational steamers of all shapes and sizes. I agree with your observation that static locomotive displays, no matter how well-cared for, cannot match those actually under steam. In my mind, steam locomotives are multisensory experiences unmatched by just about anything else. Imagine yourself on a damp, cool fall morning. In the distance a whistle faintly wails, calling out to anyone within earshot. Above the trees a plume of smoke and steam begins to appear and the chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff of steam exhausting from engines slowly becomes recognizable. Soon the glow of a single large, yellow headlight appears from around the bend. Louder and louder and louder the sound climaxes as the ground shakes from the locomotive's tremendous weight rolling over the rails. Instinctively, you take a few steps back as rapidly turning wheels and gleaming side rods suddenly flash by and you catch a brief glimpse of the firebox conflagration that makes this all possible. The thunderous noise of the locomotive rapidly gives way to the gentle click-clack click-clack of passenger car wheels traveling over rail joints and the lingering scent of coal smoke and steam oil hangs in the air as the train fades into the distance… Sigh ... pretty amazing stuff for a big chunk of iron that boils water, I think. Some folks are pretty captivated by this stuff and have dedicated their lives to steam preservation and operation. Knowledge shared by steam-era railroaders like Congressman Schafer is utilized by a relatively small but dedicated force of young people diligently working to keep steam alive for this and future generations. So please, by all means, seek out these places toiling to keep steam alive and support them by buying tickets and riding behind a working piece of history! I'll step off my soapbox now. Thanks for listening. Small piston, top rightWhat does that small piston above right of the greaser do? I don't recall seeing anything like that in Finnish locomotives. Or maybe there are, but located differently. -- Cheers, Jari from Finland A big sighOh, how I remember these monsters. As I approach 70 at a more rapid pace than I like, the times shown here and into the '50s still hold a treasured place. If I were blindfolded with earplugs right now, I could immediately tell you if a steam locomotive went past. That smell of hot oil, cinders and soot are unforgettable. One of my fondest memories is from a night my uncle, a B&O dispatcher, allowed me to hold up train orders a mere couple of feet away as one of these monsters roared past. Finnish TrainsJari, You should go find a Finnish train and take a photo for comparison. It shouldn't be difficult to find a well-preserved example, since Finnish trains last nice. (Dave - sorry about this "frowned-upon second post of the day" but I couldn't resist the pun) Goober Pea Small piston may be I don't doubt that someone will know exactly what it is but going by its position it looks as if it might be a servo to ease the driver's movement of the regulator or the reversing gear. He would be a long long way from the sharp end and I'd imagine there would be lots of lost motion even through rigid rods and links. Woohoo! Got one right! Power ReverseThe small piston above Congressman Schafer's head is the "power reverse." On early steam locomotives, the valve gear was directly controlled by a "johnson bar" in the cab. This lever set the valve gear to forward/reverse and on some more modern engines controlled the cutoff or the length of the piston stroke that received steam. As engines and valve gear grew in size, so did the job of adjusting the johnson bar. Various screw drives and other controls were tried, and in the early 1900's steam power was harnessed through a piston to do the job. The Pennsy, being very conservative, was among the last to adopt the power reverse and many of its largest engines still used the arm-busting johnson bar at the time of the photo. Cylinder on the K4See that rod toward the right end of the picture, maybe 2 meters long, inclined upward left to right? To throw the engine into reverse the engineer needs to lift the back end of that rod until it's about horizontal; the cylinder you asked about is an air-powered piston to help him do that. My QuestionWhy is a U.S. congressman occupying himself with locomotive maintenance? [Mussolini wannabe? - Dave] Reverse PsychologyPower reverse gear was never widely used outside of North America, which is why it appears unusual to non-US viewers. Two great books of railroad photosMiguel - I would recommend "Steam, Steel and Stars" and "The Last Steam Railroad in America" by O. Winston Link. B&W photos of outstanding quality, documenting the Norfolk and Western in its last few years before converting from steam to diesel. Both available at the major online bookstores at a reasonable price. Thanks a lot for the tip!Thanks a lot for the tip and information! I had heard of such live steam trains in Britain - the National Railway Museum (http://www.nrm.org.uk/home/home.asp)runs several steam-powered trains on tracks around York, and I thought it would be one of the places I wanted to visit at least once in my lifetime. Now knowing that there are also places in the States where it is still possible to experience the wonders of riding a steam-powered train, I will certainly make sure to include them in my long list of beautiful and interesting places I want to visit sometime. Dave, you know what would be great, on this same subject? To see a good picture of a famous station like Grand Central in the days of steam locomotives; either a view from the street, or a picture of the hectic movement of people in the grand hall inside, or a view of the tracks, perhaps showing one of the famous express trains of the '20s or '30s... Man, I can almost hear those famous words, "All aboard! All aboard!!" [There's also the Steamtown National Historic Site in Pennsylvania. As for photos, we already have lots of pictures of steam-era train stations, including Grand Central. Click the "Railroads" link above any of the train photos. - Dave] Reminds me When I was a kid we went in a school trip to the National Railroad Museum here in Buenos Aires, where they have these steam locomotives (some of them from the XIXth century) and I can still remember how they were neatly exposed side by side. The thing that I clearly remember after almost 30 years is when we were walking in between them and how I was amazed at the enormous size of the wheels, and how I then had nightmares where I fell behind them and under the heavy machine. Looking forward to visit that museum again, after seeing this photo. Pennsy PowerCongressman Schafer is oiling the side rod on one of the finest steam passenger locomotives of all time, the Pennsylvania Railroad K4s. From the teens to the 1950s these engines pulled the finest "varnish" on the fastest schedules. Daily they raced the New York Central class J Hudsons between New York City and Chicago. Before electrification they handled the heavy traffic between NYC and DC. In the early 1950s it took three diesel units to replace one K4s. But replace them they did, because of the diesel's much lower maintenance costs. Wish we could see the number on the headlight, but whichever engine she was, she wears her Juniata builders plate proudly. CigaraptureCigars are superior nicotine conduits -- smoke 'em OR chew 'em. The nicotine buzz from a dead cigar resting on one's lips as saliva darkens and attends the tissues in one's mouth is intense. Congressional ZealotOn top of his other charming qualities, Schafer promoted an anti-semitic, fascist agenda. This phrase in the following account is particularly amusing: "He was easily emotionalized by the power of his own oratory." Schafer had fought every measure which tried to bolster the American defense and had proved himself an obstinate obstructionist to national defense. ... Washington newspapermen often refer to Schafer as "bullneck." When angered, which was often, his neck became red and "glowed like a stop-light." ... I met Schafer at his home and my impressions of him are indelible. He had once weighed 300 pounds, but was now a mere skeleton of 250 pounds - a huge, ferocious-looking fellow, with layers of fat bulging around his chin and neck, a shock of blond hair falling over his face. He had the appearance of a zealot about him. He was easily emotionalized by the power of his own oratory and as we talked, he got into the habit of swinging an enormous, club-like fist only a few inches from my face. I found Schafer no different from the "patriots" back home in his prophecy of Hitler victory and its natural consequences of a revolution here against Democracy. "What kind of revolution?" I asked. "The BLOODY kind," he roared. "There will be purges and Roosevelt will be cleaned right off the earth along with the Jews. We'll have a military dictatorship to save the country." He leaned toward me and his fist swung like a pendulum grazing my face. "How about the Constitution?" I asked. "Oh that? That'll be set aside temporarily until they get some law and order in this country. A revolution is no picnic." Under Cover - My Four Years In The Nazi Underworld Of America John Roy Carlson, 1943 PsssssstOddly contemplative stance and expression: is the engine speaking to the congressman? Could he be an iron horse whisperer? Steam Is Not DeadTwo engines of this class still exist. Number 1361 was removed from display near Altoona, Pa., in 1985 and restored to operating condition. You could have ridden behind her in the late 1980s. She is at Steamtown USA in need of another major overhaul. The only thing keeping her from the rails again is money, LOTS of money. A sister engine is on static display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, where on any sunny summer afternoon you can ride behind one of four operating steam locomotives. Thanks guysThanks for the info about the cylinder, everybody. In Finnish engines direction changer is indeed "non-assisted", as they are/were smaller and lighter than these US-behemoths. I do have a pics of a live Finnish HR1 taken in last summer. It made a stop here in Salo due to normal train traffic and really attracted a big crowd. Maybe I should post the best ones somewhere. Cheer: Jari Big WheelsI can't believe how big this locomotive's wheels are (or, how small the legislative representative from Wis. is). It would be interesting to see a contrasting image of a man standing next to the wheels of a modern train engine. Thanks for posting this great image. The K-4The K-4 Pacific in the photo isn't a particularly large locomotive for the time--it's slightly larger than average for a passenger locomotive, but the freight haulers of the day, as well as the modern steam locomotives to be built in the next few years, would dwarf her in size. Nevertheless, she is one of the greatest feats of railway mechanical engineering ever. Designed and first built in 1914, the class would eventually number 425 locomotives. The last one was retired in 1957. Drivers are eighty inches in diameter, a standard size for passenger service. Big Wheels keep on turnin'The wheels were large for a couple of reasons.....large drivers translated the smaller-diameter stroke of the connecting rods from the pistons into a lot of forward motion and ground covered for a given amount of energy. Plus, the larger driving wheels gave a smoother ride to passenger trains. Locomotives intended to pull freight had markedly smaller drivers. Massive?K4 Pacifics were marvelous passenger engines, but hardly anywhere the top end of steam size-wise. Drop by our museum in Sacramento and see the SP Cab Forward #4294 - that weighs at least three times what a K4 does. http://www.csrmf.org/doc.asp?id=162 (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Railroads)
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