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- Freeze Frame
- Texas Flyer wanted
- Just a Year Too Soon
- WWII -- Replacing men with women at the railroad crossing.
- Yes, Icing
- You kids drive me nuts!
- NOT An Easy Job
- I wonder
- Just add window boxes
- Icing Platform?
- Indiana Harbor Belt abides
- Freezing haze
- Corrections (for those who care)
- C&NW at Nelson
- Fallen Flags
- A dangerous job made worse
- Water Stop
- Passenger trains have right of way over freights?
- Coal
- Never ceases to amaze me.
- Still chuggin' (in model form)
- Great shot
- Westerly Breeze
- For the men, a trapeze
- Tickled
- Sense of loneliness ...
- 2 cents
- Charm City
- What an Outrage
- Brighton Park
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Flood Refugees: 1937
April 1937. "Flood refugee family in tent at Tent City near Shawneetown, Illinois." Photo by Russell Lee for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
Free Sewing Machine
That treadle is a “The Free” Sewing Machine, made in Rockford IL. The cabinet is unique to them. They cost around $65 new, and are exceptionally well engineered. The cabinet top has an automatic lift that raises the machine. Free also had an guarantee that gave the original owner a brand new replacement if the machine was destroyed by fire, flood, or accident. It’s no surprise to see it saved as a prized possession. The machines are a favorite with collectors and quilters today.
Treadle
My mother had one of those treadle sewing machines that very much resembled the one in the picture. I liked to sneak in and work the treadle by hand.
Sunday Funnies
Remember when the Sunday comics were this size instead of the present miniaturized version?
Important Things
Is that a toy motorcycle on the floor to the mother's right? The youngest has a doll. And mother saved her sewing machine (a major investment and a tool for further savings by making things). Today, after the family members, what would we save? Photo albums? Computer disks with photos?
Let there be music
There's also a cabinet Victrola in the right hand side of the photo next to the sewing machine.
Sewing machine
The treadle sewing machine behind the boys seated on the floor has features typical of models from the earlier part of the century (1900-1920); curved drawers and a drop-down head. When the hinged top was opened, a cable lift mechanism raised both the machine and front panel, to allow access for the operator's legs. Nearly every household had a sewing machine, which means that there were millions produced, and that their value today is negligible.
Sewing Machine?
Is that a sewing machine behind the two boys? I think so... it is interesting what people look to save when the flooding begins.
[Fancier than my mother's of similar vintage, interestingly. She was still using hers up into the 1970s. - tterrace]
Worth A Pretty Penny
A few items that would be of value today would be the sewing machine cabinet (holding the clock and lamp) and the Mickey Mouse shirt the little boy is wearing.
Castor Oil?
It looks like the bottle next to the Pet canned Milk might be Puretest Castor Oil.
It'll never happen
No matter how long they watch it, that pot will never boil.
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