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Anytown, USA
... the location of this January 1940 photo of Durham, North Carolina, by Arthur Rothstein. "Aerial view of Xxxxx." Who'll be the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/20/2018 - 9:36pm -

        UPDATE: Commenter "Outside Food," a professor at Drexel University, was the first to identify the location of this January 1940 photo of Durham, North Carolina, by Arthur Rothstein.
"Aerial view of Xxxxx." Who'll be the first to tell us where we are? View full size.
I Think It Is . . .Durham, NC.  
Bull CityDurham North Carolina
Durham, NC"Durham, North Carolina [showing Post Office and theater]"
Rothstein, Arthur, 1915-1985, photographer.
1940 Jan.
Winston -SalemBut I could be wrong
Best GuessI'm going with Winston-Salem N.C.
Durham, NCPost Office Google-searchable; evidently department store's headquarters in Burlington.
Durham, North CarolinaHome of the Durham Tire Exchange. And Duke University, I believe.
Durham N.C.In the general area of 322 E. Chapel Hill St.

Got itDurham, NC
Durham, North CarolinaBy Carver, Currin, and Cozart's Big 4 tobacco warehouse. By the movie marquee, it's late 1939 or early 1940.
The Centers goneYou would be watching movies in Dhuram N.C.
Durham, NCPretty sure this is Durham, NC. I think the Liberty warehouses in the background have been turned into luxury condos.
Winston-SalemWinston-Salem North Carolina.  North Liberty and W. Fourth Street.
The Little HouseLooks like a town an hour or two east of me down 40 called Durham, but what is most interesting to me is the holdout house at left center that could have been the inspiration for the children's book The Little House!
Durham, NCThat corner is about a mile from my house.
Looks like Durham, NCEast Chapel Hill Street maybe.
Durham, NCI'm pretty certain this is Chapel Hilll Street in Durham NC.
LocationDurham, NC.
Durham, NCTobacco warehouses.
Durham, NChttp://www.opendurham.org/buildings/center-theater
I'm going to sayBased upon the tire place back behind the post office I'm going to say Durham, North Carolina
Tire RecappingUsing the name on the tire recapping  place  I'll opt for Durham North Carolina (and am prepared to be proven wrong !!)
Roaring Twenties and Furniture StoresDurham North Carolina.
Overlooking in front,
Huntley-Stockton-Hill Furniture Co.
307-309 East Chapel Hill Street
Durham, NCFrom the first picture on this page, it looks like Durham, NC.  The post office and furniture store are the same.
Durham, NCDurham, NC Chapel Hill Street. The Durham hotel is at the site of the Center Theatre, but maintains some of the same architectural spirit.
DurhamDurham North Carolina?
Durham, North CarolinaDurham, NC. Photographed January 1940 by Arthur Rothstein.
The locationThis photo was taken in Durham, North Carolina.  The giveaway was the Star Brick Warehouse.
Durham, North CarolinaLooking northeast from the Washington Duke Hotel, 1940 - East Chapel Hill St. is in the foreground. Tobacco warehouses cover the landscape north of Morgan St.
PS: I cheated and Googled.
Durham, NCGoogle search does a great job, doesn't it?  
We Are Landing In Durham NCMostly tobacco warehouses. (what else?)
Durham, NCPost office on East Chapel Hill Street -- still in use.
Deco brick Richmond, Indiana
Center Theater in Durham, NChttp://cinematreasures.org/theaters/25438
The Roaring TwentiesReleased in 1939.  Directed by Raoul Walsh.  One of three movies featuring both Cagney and Bogart.
SignageNot sure about the town, but the street is Priscilla Lane.
73 years later... I picked up a money order in that post office. 
(The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Movies)

Petersburg: 1864
August 1864. " Petersburg , North Carolina. Group at headquarters of the Provost Marshal Department." View full ... man on the far left wearing slippers? Union control of North Carolina.. Much of the eastern portion of North Carolina was under ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/31/2012 - 8:13pm -

August 1864. "Petersburg, North Carolina. Group at headquarters of the Provost Marshal Department." View full size. Wet collodion glass-plate negative, LOC.
Is the man on the far leftIs the man on the far left wearing slippers?
Union control of North Carolina..Much of the eastern portion of North Carolina was under federal control by this time. Some ports had fallen as early as 1862 but there were holdouts.  Wilmington was the last to fall in February of 1865.  
On the Porch RoofThere are two objects on the porch of the roof.  One looks like a window frame, but the other?  Anyone know what that is? 
Union?What a great shot.  Would North Carolina be under Union control by 1864?
Does anyone know the technical term for the concentric blur that grows at the edges of the picture?   It's not a depth of field effect.
Worse still. . . .Yanks.  
Petersburg: 1864great to see pictures of 150 years old and above.
Not a belt among them!I wish I knew more about who these guys were. Were they ex soldiers? Soldiers on leave? Locals?
There's a note of some kind attached to the top of the door. It'd be nice to zoom in on it, to see if we can read it.
HMM is them theHatfields or the McCoys?
A Drummer?The guy in the lower right corner looks like Levon Helm.
Hats offThe man sitting third from the left has his hat cocked in the perfect definition of "jaunty."
I'd have loved to have been in any bar or saloon that they all would have gone to.
"How do I get to the Susquehanna Hat Company?"
Not sure who they might be but here're some clues....The Provost Marshall's position was the 19th-century army's equivalent of military police - though there were no units specifically recognized as such - regular units were detailed for "provost duty" from time to time.  
The striking thing is that so few of them are in any semblance of a uniform. Most are in civilian dress.  Several as well seem a bit old to have been soldiers by this point in the war. By 1864 most enlistees were in their 20's or  younger. Also, few federal enlisted men of the era carried more than one change of clothes (usually just a shirt and pair of drawers). It doesn't seem likely they were soldiers.  
It's possible they were sutlers, merchants authorized to follow troops and provide those items not usually available from the Quartermaster. They typically had to have permission of the CO through the office of the Provost Marshal.
Stacy Keach?That dude with the boots seated in the middle looks a little like Stacy Keach, doesn't he?
that's Virgil Cainhe rode the Danville train, til Stoneman's calvary came and tore up the tracks again.
Is this Petersburg, NC or VA?I was born, raised, and lived most if my life in North Carolina, but I've never heard of a Petersburg.   Does anyone know if it existed at the time or is this just mis-labeled?   Petersburg, VA would make more sense.
[Petersburg, North Carolina according to the Library of Congress caption information. It's in Onslow County. - Dave]
PetersburgI'd say based on his expression, he can wear whatever the hell he wants on his feet, and there's not a damn thing you or anyone else can do about it. 
They look like a group of badasses. Those faces have stories to tell. 
Bounty HuntersThey tracked down deserters.
(The Gallery, Civil War)

Mount Olive, North Carolina: Late 1800's
... the late 1800's. The place is Duplin County, Mount Olive, North Carolina. The child in the center of the image is my great-grandmother. My ... 
 
Posted by DavidNC - 04/30/2010 - 9:07pm -

This image is from the late 1800's. The place is Duplin County, Mount Olive, North Carolina. The child in the center of the image is my great-grandmother. My great-great grandmother is on the far left. The house and farm was a wedding gift from her father. My great-great grandfather, who is on the far right, died soon after this photo was taken. The three daughters were raised by their mother.
My family still lives on this farm. I am the seventh generation to live here. View full size.
Mount OliveIn the late 1970's we sold the house. It was moved to a different location and remodeled.  I will ask the owners for a chance to photograph the house.
My parents asked if I had rather we keep the house for me to remodel when I grew up.  Sadly, I was much too young to appreciate the house when given the choice.
Then, and nowHow about a current photo, taken from the same vantage. Or even a series taken over the years.
This is what makes Shorpy shine!
Mount Olive againMy father's mother's family was from the Mount Olive-Dudley area.  Lewises, Martins, Hendersons.  Thank you for sharing.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)

Vacation Wagon: 1964
... the latter. We'd sing sometimes. It was 12 hours from north Georgia near the North Carolina line to south Georgia, near the Florida line, where my grandmother ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/31/2022 - 1:09am -

        Our annual salute to the start of vacation road-trip season, first posted here 15 years ago. Everyone buckled in? Let's go!
"Great Falls, Montana. Return after 3 weeks Vacation. June 27, 1964." This Kodachrome of a 1960 Chevrolet Parkwood station wagon is from a box of slides found on eBay. View full size.
family trips in those carsI also spent some hot days in a car like that on the way to the grandparents. My mother flattened the second seat, put a mattress on the floor and loaded three of us and the stuff in on top of it, us and the stuff equally loose and not tied down. We whined and fought and slept our way to Cape Cod from southern NJ. My father always "had to work" (they were her parents), so she did the drive alone, I think maybe 12 or 16 hours? Seemed like forever. 
NostalgicThese people still had a bright future ahead of them, full of great hopes for the days to come. They hadn't gone to the Moon yet, and to them, by 2007 we'd have personal helicopters and robots would run everything. The possibility of the President being indicted for a crime was unthinkable. My job as a web designer hadn't even been invented yet.
The lawn looks like it's literally astroturf. Were the colors really like that, or is it an effect of the kodachrome?
Holy cow! We had a 59 chevyHoly cow! We had a 59 chevy stationwagon back in the day. Does this bring back memories. We would drive to Florida from Virginia a two day trip usually in the heat of the summer to visit grandparents. Five children two parents no ac. Damn!
[This is a 1960 Chevrolet. - Dave]
DeflectorsDoes anybody know/remember what the deflectors left and right of the rear window were for? These may have been an aftermarket item.
It is amazing how well the colors in this slide are preserved after almost 50 years. It looks like Kodachrome all right, including the telltale blue cast in the shadows
The Astroturf look......to my eye, seems to come from the little flowers (or toadstools?) that are in the lawn. At the smaller image size, they look like specular reflections, making it seem like the grass is shiny.
[The white flowers are clover. - Dave]
1964As I remember it, this was less than a year after the assassination of JFK, there were race riots in the south and we (I was 14) were all starting to question attitudes towards women, blacks, hispanics, homosexuals and the culture we had grown up with. One of the more minor cultural things was the importance of your front lawn.
50 years?I was born in 1964, and trust me, it hasn't been 50 years since then, yet.... ;)
Re:DeflectorsThe deflectors on either side of the rear window were intended to blow air across the rear window to prevent snow from accumulating.  A similar deflector is often fitted along the roof on station wagons from the 60s on.  I think they were usually a factory or dealer option in later years, but I really don't know specifically about this model or when they might have first been used.
OK, 40 years.Sorry, I was too vexed on the year of manufacture of the car.
I remember that someone in our street had the sedan version of this Chevy. Like any 8 year old, I was fascinated by the winged tail and the panorama windshield. You didn't see many of these in Europe around 1960; everbody, including my father, was driving Volkswagen Beetles. (He later had a new Ford Mustang 1964 1/2 , with a 289 ci V8 and a four speed box, rally pack and (optional) front discs, which I found very impressive at the time. A real gas guzzler by European standards.
Family TrucksterThis is probably what Clark Griswold's dad took the family on vacation in. It's a 1960 Chevy, and I'm guessing it's a Kingswood model. The Brookwood was the more stripped down model and I think the "full dresser" was called a Nomad. This one isn't completely chromed-out and it has the small, dog-dish hubcaps so I'm thinking it's the middle of the line model.
I think the rear air deflectors also helped keep exhaust gas from entering the rear passenger compartment when the vehicle was moving with the tailgate window was lowered. Though it doesn't look like there's room for anybody in the third row of seats for this trip. With the window up they also helped keep the rear glass clear of snow and dust.  
These are Parents of the Year......in my book. Can you imagine going across country now without all of the luxuries and Wendy's and portable DVD players and Nintendo and cell phones and credit cards?
These parents did it all the HARD way...and I'll bet they made a lot of memories that summer!
My jaw droppedOnce again the red stationwagon family blows me away.  The color composition here is perfect.  
Chevy ParkwoodThis is a 1960 Chevrolet Parkwood.  Parkwoods and Kingswoods both use Bel Air trim (mid-level). The Kingswood, a nine-passenger wagon, has the third-row rear-facing seat, and two steps on the rear bumper (one on each end just outside of where the tailgate would come down). Less obvious is that all Kingswoods have power tailgate windows, an option on the other Chevrolet wagons.
I still drive a '59 ChevyI recommend owning one. In 2000 We took the ultimate road trip with mine from near the Canadian border in Washington State through the desert to Las Vegas and back up through California and Oregon. There really is nothing like seeing the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet. Cruising the Strip in Vegas was a blast. We might as well have been driving a space ship with the reactions we got. Sadly, these Chevrolets were mostly scrapped and very few survive.
60 ChevySadly, the third row seat had not been invented as of yet and the deflectors were used to deflect air into the rear of the stationwagon at slower speeds. I may not be an expert but I'm old enough to have ridden and slept in the back section of a folded down stationwagon.  We didn't know about SUV's yet.
Chevy WagonChevy's Parkwood and Kingswood wagons could both be had with a third-row seat.  And back then, for the record - wagons WERE the "SUVs" of the day!
[According to the 1960 Chevrolet sales brochure, only the Kingswood was available with third-row seating. The International Travelall and Chevy Suburban Carryall were two of the SUVs of the day.  - Dave]
The luggage rackis something you don't see anymore. It hung on the wall of the garage when not in use. Once my dad, who was in a big hurry, didn't secure the tarp on top properly...
We played car games, like Alphabet, Road Bingo, and License Plates, read books, colored,sang songs and squabbled. You took your chances with local restaurants. We hadn't got used to entertainment on demand, so we didn't miss it.
And to Dave Faris: It's the film. I once assured my daughter that colors when I was a kid were the same as today. "The Fifties," she said, in her narrator's voice, "were an oddly-hued decade."
Slide ConversionHow does one convert slides to digital photos? Any website links or advice?
[You'd use a film scanner. I used a Nikon 4000 ED for this one. - Dave]

Family TrucksterWe had a green Ford station wagon, not nearly as nice as this, and with our family of six, it was a masochistic experience to take family vacations. Every summer we said that's it, we will never do this again, until the following summer when we did it again. The best part was arriving home again, but I will say that NOT having DVD's and high tech electronic gadgets forced the kids to look out the window and they gained incredible geographic knowledge from seeing the U.S. I could truthfully call these annual trips "purgatory on wheels." 
Road TripMost all of my long-distance car trips were connected with moving as my father was in the USAF. In August 1954, after being in the UK 2½ years, we got in our in our '53 Chevy coupe and went from New York City to the SF Bay Area, mostly along US 40.  Entertainment consisted of looking at the scenery and checking off the towns on the free roadmaps that the service stations provided in each state. Iy being the pre-Interstate era, one did go thru many towns back then! (Excepting on the PA Turnpike) Burma-Shave signs relieved the boredom in the rural areas. We had a car radio (AM only, of course), but for some reason I can only recall it being used while crossing the salt flats west of Salt Lake City.
Westward HoIn 1951 our family, my wife, son and daughter, living in Detroit, started taking trips to Cheney, Washington, to visit my WW2 buddy. All on old state highways, no air conditioner, 4½ hours to get through Chicago and the kids loved it. Took these trips out west to the 1970s. We still go west to see my buddy and my daughter in Seattle and we enjoy crossing Nebraska on old U.S. 30. It is a treat to be off of I-80.
Nostalgia Ain't What it Used to BeDon't look at this picture and pine for the old days.
Change the car to a green Olds Vista Cruiser and that's us in 1969.  Back then, dads bought a new station wagon to kick off the summer vacation. Dads don't buy an SUV today for that reason.
Without repeating some of the horrors already mentioned below, there was the additional joy of Mom sending back a Coca Cola bottle for one of her sons to use in lieu of a loo.  If the girls had to go, we had to pull over.  Not so with the boys.  
Watching mom backhand-fling a Coke bottle out her window, filled with fluid far different that what was originally intended, and seeing it bounce and spill along the shoulder as we whizzed along at 75 mph (pun intended), that's about the fondest vacation memory at least from the car perspective. 
Today with the daughter hooked up to a video iPod and the sons enjoying their PSP, it's a pleasure to drive for distances.  Back then, we didn't play License Plates.  We played Punch Buggy and Slug Bug, etc.  Fistfight games.  
Let's go!I loved car trips, and I never had DVD players and Nintendo. I watched the scenery and kept a travel diary. those were some of the greatest times of my life.
Road TrripWe had to make do with pillows & blankets. A mattress would have made it actually comfortable. I don't know if Dad didn't have the imagination for that, or just not the money. I suspect the latter.
We'd sing sometimes. It was 12 hours from north Georgia near the North Carolina line to south Georgia, near the Florida line, where my grandmother lived.  
I see the moon; the moon sees me.
The moon sees the one that I want to see ...
Thanks for the memoriesMy folks had the four-door sedan version of this car, in sky blue & white. My mom  used to have a station wagon, don't remember what kind, but it was memorable for its pushbutton transmission on the dash instead of a gearshift! However my favorite "finned" car was our family's Buick Invicta. Now that was a car!
Third Row SeatsFords had third-row seats in 1955. I'm pretty sure Chevy had them by 1958 at least. Chevy didn't offer woodgrain sides until '65. 
Sunday ridesWe had that same car, only in light blue.
No seat belts or infant seats for us! We'd put my baby  sister in one of those deathtrap baby seats that hooked over the front seat and off we went!
What a picture!This picture takes me back almost 40 years to the road trips our family did during summer holidays when I was a little boy. It feels like I myself am stretching my legs after coming home. The colours, the moment -- one of my  favorite pictures in Shorpy. 
My Favorite Car was a 1960 Chevrolet Impala 2-dr hardtop. Bluish gray with white segment on the side, red and white interior. The first car my wife and I bought. Paid $1750 for it used in 1962. We made some wonderful trips in that car.
Re:  Family TrucksterJust saw this item on TV yesterday about a real family named Griswold that had their station wagon modded to look like the Family Truckster from National Lampoon's Vacation movie for their trip to Disney World.
http://tinyurl.com/plo5kub
See the USA in Your ChevroletFor our family, it was a 1962 Buick Invicta wagon.  Huge car designed for doing massive mileage on the interstates and that's what we did -- six or seven hundred miles a day from Indiana to the Rockies for our annual vacation.
Procedure for Accessing the Cargo AreaWe had one of these when I was a kid as well.  Ours was a silver gray color.  See the chrome disk on the trunk door?  Upon arriving at destination, here's what you had to do:
1) Put trunk key in center slot (separate keys for ignition and trunk back then)
2) Open flap (as seen in photo)
3) Rotate flap several times till rear window is fully down
4) Reach in and grab handle to drop tailgate
Simple, huh?
Looking at old red carsmakes my elbows hurt! Seemed like some of those old single stage paints, reds in particular, had to be waxed every two weeks to keep them looking decent. The widespread adoption of clearcoat finishes in the late 80's to mid 90's freed modern kids from the dreaded frequent waxing chore, thereby giving them the leisure time to start the video gaming revolution...
As Long AsThis isn't really the "End of the Road"! That's a scary title for all the Shorpy Faithful.
3 Adults + 7 Children =1000 mile round trip to see grandma. 
We kids didn't mind a bit. 
Seat belts?I don't think you heard "Everybody all buckled up?" all that much in '64. I'm not sure of the exact dates, but if you had seatbelts back then, you bought them at a discount store or an auto parts store like Western Auto or J. C. Whitney, and they were lap belts only. Three point seat belts didn't come along for several more years, if I recall correctly, and it wasn't until the government mandated new cars with ignition interlocks in the 1970's that "real men" started to actually use them.
Back then, we used to spend our vacations camping, so the car was packed to the gills, including the center of the back seat. My sister and I each got little cubbyholes next to the doors, with just room enough to sit for the trip to northern Wisconsin. My dad drove a two tone green '55 Oldsmobile Delta 88. I saw a picture of that car a few months ago, and as soon as I did, I started remembering a surprising amount of detail about the car's details. It was handed down to me when I went off to college in '64.
Seat beltsbobdog19006 is correct in that seat belts were not standard equipment in 1960.  However, they had been available as a dealer-installed option since the 50s.  By 1966, they were standard in all Chevys, and by 1968, they were federally mandated.
I spent many a happy hour on family roadtrips in our '68 Ford wagon, nestled in the narrow gap between the second row and the rear-facing third-row seat, no seat belt, of course.  Neither did my siblings in the third row.  
Service StickersI remember those stickers that service stations or car dealers put on the inside edge of the driver's door when you got your car serviced. This Chevrolet has two. 
Our road trip rigWe had a '76 Chevy Beauville van, a ho-hum light brown rather than red, which made up for the lack of chrome spears with its cavernous interior: two bucket seats in front for Mom and Dad, two bench seats, and a homemade plywood bed. Strangely, all that space wasn't enough to prevent sibling quarrels.
The best story of this van was the return trip of its maiden voyage, when my uncle, who owned a small niche-market manufacturing firm, talked my dad into towing a piece of equipment from South Texas to a parking lot near Chicago, where we would deliver it to his customer from Wisconsin. We quickly got used to being asked at every single hotel, gas station, and rest stop, exactly what was the three-wheeled contraption with the hydraulically-actuated vertical roller-chain conveyor with teeth.
The looks on everyone's faces when my dad told them it was a grave-digging machine: Priceless!
Curtains?Every August for years we travelled from Birmingham to Cincinnati for a week of visiting my parents' relatives. Before our last such trip in '69, we went through a black-and-white '57 Plymouth Savoy, a metallic-beige '63 Ford Country Sedan wagon (the one without wood on the sides) and a '67 Olds VistaCruiser. I'd love to have that VistaCruiser back today. Ours was burgundy red and my dad put red stripe Tiger Paw tires on it. Imagine a 442 station wagon.
As for Shorpy's '60 Chevy wagon, I only just noticed the homemade or aftermarket side curtains, with vertical stripes of brown, gold and red to compliment the bright red car.
Thanks, Dave, for showing us this photo again... and including all the original comments, too. Great to relive all the great summer vacation stories with everyone!
Re: deflectorsIn the days before the rear window wiper on a station wagon, some folks put these on and the deflected air current would help to clean off that window to a degree. Not having either, within a mile that rear hatch would be almost impossible to see through. Been there, done that and got the tee-shirt.
This does bring back memoriesWe had a similar station wagon, but it was salmon (or was it mauve, or ecru?) colored with a white top (I think).  It had a 460 a/c (four windows down while traveling sixty miles per hour, some times 560 with the rear tailgate window down).  I remember taking a trip from Mississippi to Six Flags over Texas on U.S. Highway 82 (two lane most of the way) in Summer, 1964.  The back seats were folded down, and the four of us kids had pillows, blankets, books, and board games to pass the time. It was replaced soon after with a 1965 Ford Country Squire Wagon with a/c, and fake wood paneling on the side.  Instead of a rear facing bench seat, it had two small seats on either side that faced each each other. 
Memories of summer tripsWe also lived in Montana back then, and our family truckster in the 1960s was a 1963 Rambler Classic station wagon. (Yes, I suffered greatly for it among my friends.) That's what I learned to drive, and we ranged all over the western US and Canada in it.
Before that, however, we traveled in a 1949 Studebaker Land Cruiser 4-door sedan, which my dad (both inventive and frugal) had outfitted with a set of three back seats that, when covered with the mattress from our roll-away bed, filled the back seat and trunk area with a very passable sleeping unit. That's where I spent most of my time on our travels. At other times, I would climb over the front seatback into the front bench seat between my parents. That's where I was on August 5, 1962, when we were preparing to leave Crescent City, CA, and heard on the radio that Marilyn Monroe had died. 
Deflector's actual purposeWas to break the "vacuum" the "wall" that was the rear of that wagon created which would suck exhaust into the car if that rear window was open even a little bit. The fresh air, the snowless/cleaner rear window were merely bonuses...
Buckle up?A 1960 Chevy wagon probably didn't have seat belts unless the owner installed them.  The kids in the back were pretty much free range as long as they didn't make too much noise.  Lots of people piled the stuff on the roof and put a mattress in the back for the kids.
It was a great way to go and most of us survived.
[Seat belts were optional on all 1960 Chevrolets. - Dave]
Car playgroundMy folks had a Ford wagon of that era.  No seatbelts.  Folks put a mattress in the back.  Became our playground on long trips.  We had no desire to "sit" in a seat.
Miss station wagonsI miss station wagons. I prefer them to the SUVs that replaced them.
I also miss the bold bright colors that cars use to come in. 
No SquattingLooking at all the stuff already loaded, I'm surprised the back of this wagon isn't dragging on the ground. In fact it's sitting pretty level. I wonder if dad had overload springs installed?
We've had one built for you.To BillyB: Station wagon suspensions were designed with the idea that they would have to haul some combination of eight people and their luggage, so they did OK when loaded down.  They *were* softer than contemporary pickup trucks, so the back end of the station wagon wouldn't bounce all over if there were only one or two people in it.  Especially at the time of this photo, gas was 25 cents a gallon and would be that price forever, so the factory didn't mind spending a little extra weight on a beefier suspension.
Also, most of the really heavy luggage went on the roof rack, which was fairly close to being in the middle of the wheelbase.  The back-back, behind the rear seat, tended to contain lighter things, like blankets, pillows, the picnic basket, and - as the trip progressed - bags of souvenirs.  If Dad wanted to use the inside rear-view mirror, you couldn't stack stuff much higher than the seats, anyway.
Source: I rode in the back of a '79 Oldsmobile wagon every summer from '79 to '87.  I think the longest trip we took in it was from Kansas City to Washington, DC and back.
WagonsWe had a 1956 Ford wagon, then '61 Mercury wagon, finally a (I think) 1964 Ford wagon. 
I remember one year with the Mercury, my mom ran low on gas.  We were up in the mountains in a resort town.  To get to the gas station, she had to reverse up hills, turn around for the downhills, turn around again for going up the next hill.  What a ride.
Another time, 1965, we were in a typhoon in the current wagon.  There were eleven of us in it.  Another wild ride driving on a road along the bay.  Waves washing over us, my mom hugging the middle of the road (there was an island we could not get across).
Wagons were great.
The 283 V-8with its 170 gross horsepower is not going to have much highway passing reserve with all that weight.  Cross-flags over the V on the tailgate would have indicated one of several 348's which would have given more than enough reserve.  That car is 58 years old but properly equipped could have kept pace with most cars on the road today in equal comfort.  A 58 year old car in 1960 by comparison was barely even recognizable as such it was so rudimentary by comparison to the 1960 version in its looks and capabilities.  The same comparisons held true in all other realms of life comparing 1960 to 1902--homes, conveniences, dress, you name it.  Virtually any of those later areas are not that significantly different from their 1960 versions.
Those deflectors... were supposed to keep dust off the back window
Nikon CoolscanI am having a problem with mine. Can you recommend a place that can repair them.
[There aren't any. Try buying them used on eBay. - Dave]
283 V8Although I agree that a 348 engine would have been a better choice for this station wagon. The 170hp 283 was the base V8 engine with just a single two barrel carburetor.  The next option up was also a 283 but with a four barrel which the above wagon may have had, which would have given it a little more passing power.
Koolscan softwareDave. What software program do you use with your 4000?  As it seems the program that came with it is only works for Microsoft VISTA.
[I use the NikonScan software that came with the scanner, on a Windows 10 workstation. To install the software on a modern operating system, you have to disable Driver Signature Enforcement. And it's Coolscan, with a C. - Dave]
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Kodachromes 1, Travel & Vacation)

622 North Carolina Avenue S.E., 2008
622 North Carolina Ave S.E., in the Eastern Market District of Capitol Hill, Washington ... 
 
Posted by stanton_square - 08/01/2008 - 10:47am -

622 North Carolina Ave S.E., in the Eastern Market District of Capitol Hill, Washington DC.  As seen in 2008, for comparison with 1926 photo.  Note the round window, a feature relatively unique in Capitol Hill row-houses.  Most, if not all, of the houses in the 1926 photo remain but unfortunately trees and shrubs prevent a good overall street-view comparison. 
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)

Duplin County, Mount Olive, North Carolina
This is a picture of my great-great-grandfather's home, believed to have been taken in the late 1800s. The man on horseback is believed to be my great-grandfather. Some of the people pictured are neighbors. We had to have the house torn down in t ... 
 
Posted by DavidNC - 04/27/2011 - 2:33pm -

This is a picture of my great-great-grandfather's home, believed to have been taken in the late 1800s. The man on horseback is believed to be my great-grandfather. Some of the people pictured are neighbors.  We had to have the house torn down in the 1970s after it was heavily damaged by lightning. View full size.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)

Fountain Service: 1942
... American History. It's from the Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, which a six-month sit-in desegregated in 1960. Wow, This is a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/22/2022 - 2:40pm -

July 1942. Washington, D.C. "People's Drug store lunch counter on G Street N.W. at noon." Acetate negative by Marjory Collins for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Floor SlatsMy family owned and ran a restaurant (opened 1934) and I spent many hours traversing those type of boards you see behind the counter.  Though rubber mats are the norm and the preferred nowadays, those slats nailed or screwed to 2x4's were really better...the wood gave and cushioned when walked on.  Also, spillage and pieces of food that dropped to the floor beneath the slats (usually) kept the walkway from getting too slippery.  Rubber mats can't do this.  At the end of the night the boards are pulled up, scrubbed and the floor cleaned beneath them.  A lot of bars, at least in the south, still use them today.
Amazing!Most Shorpy pics of lunch counters and the like look staged - all clean and set up, ready to go. This is great to see a 1940s lunch counter in action! Dropped oranges, rags, dirty dishes and all! It FEELS real!
Busy placeBut I would sure feel uncomfortable with a line a people at my back watching me eat, waiting for me to finish.
Not All People's DrugstoreAfrican Americans made up 28% of the population of D.C. in the 1940 Census, but I don't see a Black face in the photograph. A quick search online turns up reports of sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in the city in the 1940s and 1950s. 
Bird's eye viewof the duckboards.
What's leftWhen I moved to the Washington area in 1981, the People's Drug Store in my neighborhood had a lunch counter, not unlike this one though smaller and curved. The lunch counter vanished within a few years, and now the drug store is a CVS.
Alexandria, Virginia, where the People's chain was based, has a place called The People's Drug (or The Peoples Drug, they can't seem to decide) for "fine food and cocktails."
As far as I know, the only drugstore lunch counter in the District of Columbia today is in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. It's from the Woolworth's in Greensboro, North Carolina, which a six-month sit-in desegregated in 1960.
Wow, This is a Wonderful Photo!Thanks for posting this one. The angle looking down onto the action is a real rarity for an indoor shot. There is so much visual information on offer here. And with the one exception of the young lady in the middle left of the frame (and possibly the young man down at the left edge of the frame), no one seems aware of the photographer at work above them. I look forward to lots of reporting from the detail-minded Shorpy community.
You Gonna Eat That?An establishment still exists near the University Of Minnesota Minneapolis campus named Al's Breakfast. In business continually since 1950, the building is only 10 feet wide including cooking and eating areas. Due to the tiny space, guests must first stand in line along the building's back wall as they wait for others to finish their meals. It is common for diners to be instructed to move down the counter to allow newly seated customers to be seated together. Veterans of Al's are used to the instruction and diners may be re-seated several times during the course of a meal.
Generations of poor U of M students have worked and been nourished there.
Don't mind me.  But hurry up!I agree with denverlev.  I had exactly the same thought on first glance at this photo.  What a bizarre setup, to pick a spot behind a diner and stand there while they eat.  And my next thought was about the "grocery store line effect", where I always seem to pick the "wrong" line at the grocery store (although self-scan has largely eliminated this issue).  How frustrating it would be to choose to stand behind the guy who takes forever to eat, then mulls over the dessert choices, then bickers over the bill, then takes forever to pay it, etc. etc., all while you watch the patrons in the seats next to you come and go and come and go.  I couldn't do it.  I'm so glad that at some point between July 1942 and today we came up with the concept of the hostess stand.
One more thing.  Is the floor behind the counter designed to maximize the effort required to keep it clean?!  Geez.  And I think the server at the top is fishing out a coin that she dropped.
Clean Up On Aisle 1Is what the waitress at the top of the picture is doing.
I guess being busy at a lunch counter will always mean a broken plate or two (or three, or four).
The person with the plates behind the crouching waitress looks a little annoyed too.
Not All People?  In all fairness, keep in mind this is G Street N.W., nowhere near the predominantly Black neighborhoods of the time.  I'm sure that local drugstores there were often frequented by a mixture of races.
I didn't know... that Sean Penn was THAT old!
Where to wait ?I guess from above it looks worse then from where you're enjoying your meal. I mean, you can't see the people waiting behind you, can you.  Wonder if the lunch-time regulars used special tactics to decide behind which stool/patron to wait. 
That girl fourth from the bottom, near the Coca-Cola dispenser, is she going to eat all those buns (or cakes) ?
YIKES ! !I never noticed the people waiting behind the seated customers, was this the busiest lunch counter in the  world??
I just now noted the people waiting behind the seated customers, was this the
busiest lunch counter in the world??
Dynamic photoGreat angle, almost lurid.  And so much activity.  I feel for that waitress at the far end who’s squatting down to pick up a mess.  Can’t be easy on the greasy duckboards.  And at first I wondered what was the suspended circular device in the upper left with the blur around it until – duh! – it occurred to me that it’s a ceiling fan, in motion.
No smoking? Dont see any ash trays or cigarettes. Always was someone next to me smoking. Can almost hear the sound of dishs clanging around. Watcha gonna have, hun?
Are you done yet?I appreciate the caption simply says lunch counter at noon, cause there is no break in this lunch break.  There is likely more pressure at this lunch counter than at their jobs.  I don't see many watches, but I'm sure everyone is keeping track of the time.
Have a cookie, or a sandwich?Those little square cellophane wrapped items on the stand at the bottom of the picture, and the round ones nearby - are they stacks of cookies or pre-made sandwiches? Can't zoom in enough to tell or read the writing on them. There's another stack at the far end by the second Coke dispenser.
[Nabisco "NAB" Raisin Fruit Biscuits, some LANCO fig bars, etc. - Dave]

No SmokingDuring a time when everyone smoked, and it was allowed pretty much everywhere, I don't see any ashtrays or anyone smoking.  Maybe there's no time to have a smoke after lunch with so many people waiting for your seat.
All for oneIs that woman near the Coke fountain really going to eat all those cinnamon rolls by herself? I don't see them anywhere else on the counter, so I assume they must all be for her. That looks like a diabetic coma waiting to happen.
Milk for lunchI'm a bit surprised at all the lunch patrons drinking milk with their meal. I suppose today most would be drinking sodas. And in 1942 there's not an obese person in sight at this counter. 
To me, mystery iswhere in the world photographer anchored himself to make this dramatic view and composition?
[The mezzanine. - Dave]
An ad, or your lying feet ??So who are you going to believe when it comes to deciding what's "excellent"?

(That the ad lists as a perk the possiblity of moving on to better paying positions may give the answer)
DC's "lost laws," later foundIn 1872 and 1873 the Legislative Assembly of the District of Columbia adopted ordinances providing that no restaurant keeper or proprietor could refuse to serve respectable and well-behaved persons, and prohibited refusals of service on the basis of race. color, or previous condition of servitude. But as Reconstruction gave way to a return to racist practices, those laws were largely forgotten - until the forties. In 1944, Ms. Pauli Murray, the top-ranked member of Howard University Law School's Class of 1944 (and the only woman in the class), rediscovered the laws and sparked a campaign to enforce them against segregated lunch counters within the District. Enforcement actions began in 1950, and convictions of the John R. Thompson Co. Inc. restaurant chain under the "lost laws" were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1953. 
https://historicsites.dcpreservation.org/items/show/971
There's a site reposting your photosThis photo is #23 in their series. I think all the other photos are yours as well.
https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/30-fascinating-photos-collected-fro...
[Welcome to the Internet! Just two of those (23, 28) are "our photos." Which are from the Library of Congress. - Dave]
(The Gallery, D.C., Eateries & Bars, Marjory Collins, PDS, Stores & Markets)

The Long View: 1902
Sapphire, North Carolina, circa 1902. "View from the Lodge on Mount Toxaway." Glass negative by ... up all those hills to reach that porch. Some South Carolina cousins Some South Carolina cousins of mine have a row of mountain ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/20/2012 - 10:48am -

Sapphire, North Carolina, circa 1902. "View from the Lodge on Mount Toxaway." Glass negative by William Henry Jackson, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
SapphireThe area around Sapphire and Toxaway is beautiful. My daddy's family were from that area and they would have been somewhere in the area when this picture was taken.
WiredI see they had telephone service here. But what about WiFi?
Ingmar Bergman visits the SmokiesWhat a striking, surreal photo -- the people look utterly without personality or energy. The woman in the rocker seems unable to even have the strength to flex her arms at the elbow. In 1902, people may have read this photo as a scene of people engaged in spiritual contemplation in the face of staggering natural beauty, but to my eyes, the people seem very isolated and bereft. I wouldn't be keen on spending a weekend at the cottage with that group.
John Ford was paying attentionIt's the opening, or the ending, of how many Westerns?
Purple mountain majestiesThis, I would have to say, is one of the most magnificent front yards I have seen. 
What a climbThat poor lady in the chair looks like she just had to climb up all those hills to reach that porch.
Some South Carolina cousinsSome South Carolina cousins of mine have a row of mountain houses no too far from Mount Toxaway.  The first house has been in the family since the 1880s.  When my dad was little, his elderly cousins recalled how in pre-automobile days the family would travel up there in the summer to escape the heat.  They basically moved the whole household via horse, wagon and carriage. Drove a cow or two up with them, took the chickens, etc.  It took them as much as a week to get up there, and they would visit friends & relations along the way as they went.
(The Gallery, DPC, Landscapes, W.H. Jackson)

Goliath & Goliath: 1942
December 1942. "Locomotives in the Chicago and North Western departure yard about to leave for Clinton, Iowa." Medium-format ... the Norfolk & Western 1218 arrive in Salisbury, North Carolina in 1989. I stood at the edge of the ballast of the track along with ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/12/2023 - 2:39pm -

December 1942. "Locomotives in the Chicago and North Western departure yard about to leave for Clinton, Iowa." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Switching dutiesEngine 2519, on left, listed as a road engine, wheel arrangement 2-8-2, C&NW J-A class, builder: Schenectady Locomotive works.
Engine 2637, on right, listed as switching type, wheel arrangement 0-8-0, C&NW M-4 class, number two in the (2636 was first). builder: Richmond Locomotive works.  Maybe it was pressed into road service at this time.  In addition to the wheel arrangement, this engine gives a clue to its switching role as you see the footboard on the front bumper of the engine, (instead of the 'cowcatcher' seen on #2519) where a switchman would stand as the engine moved around the yard and assembled the train cars from the yard into a train for a road engine to haul away. 
MassiveIf you've never been in the presence of mighty locomotives such as these, you don't realize how massive they are.  I went to see the Norfolk & Western 1218 arrive in Salisbury, North Carolina in 1989.  I stood at the edge of the ballast of the track along with many other people and had to look almost straight up to see how tall she was.  I've ridden behind the 1218 and the Southern 4501 in passenger cars with the windows down and boy did my face get dirty.  Good times.
Flags and markersNote the flags and marker lamps on the 2519.  The flags are dirty, but don't appear to be white which would denote an "extra" train (not shown in the timetable).  They are likely green, indicating that another section of this train will be following.  The lack of flags or markers on the 2637 suggest that it will not be leaving the yard, and is in fact engaged in switching duties, as noted by Steamin.
(The Gallery, Chicago, Jack Delano, Railroads)

The Men From UNC: 1940
October 1940. "University of North Carolina boys in their car at the Chapel Hill post office." Acetate negative by ... we could borrow a couple of photogenic UNC men. Carolina Blue I wish this photo was in color. I am guessing the word ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2019 - 7:57pm -

October 1940. "University of North Carolina boys in their car at the Chapel Hill post office." Acetate negative by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Now
Where's Betty and Veronica?Looks like Archie and Jughead are out for a spin in his jalopy.
1928 Ford PhaetonI always look for old photos of this model Ford; I have a restored one which I bought in 1995 here in Southern California. If I lived near Chapel Hill we could recreate the photo, providing we could borrow a couple of photogenic UNC men.
Carolina BlueI wish this photo was in color. I am guessing the word "Carolina" was painted that shade of blue. 
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, M.P. Wolcott)

Dry Dock: 1910
... warship pictures are fascinating. So this is the USS North Dakota, eh? BB-29, caught with her pants down, as it were. I know little ... various battleship classes circa 1910 shows only the South Carolina class (South Carolina, BB26 and Michigan, BB27) having this angled ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2012 - 2:03pm -

Circa 1910. "Brooklyn Navy Yard, dry dock No. 4." The battleship is unidentified, but probably not for long. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size.
"Pocket Battleship"These vintage warship pictures are fascinating. So this is the USS North Dakota, eh? BB-29, caught with her pants down, as it were. I know little about old battleships, but to my eye this one appears kind of small. Looking at the turrets and gun muzzles in particular, plus the apparent overall size. Since my knowledge is limited I would have guessed this to be a heavy cruiser. I wonder what its dimensions were? Back in my PA days I used to visit the USS Olympia in Philly. I loved the lavish wood paneling in the wardroom and the brass fixtures in the engine room. And I've always liked the "reverse" bow profile of those turn of the century ships. Great stuff!
BattleshipsThis ship is either the Delaware, BB-28, or the North Dakota, BB-29. The distinguishing characteristic is the arrangement of the cage masts and funnels: in the order mast-funnel-mast-funnel. Also, the secondary battery is located in casements on the second deck along the sides of the ship.
North DakotaIt could very well be the USS North Dakota, BB-29. According to Wikipedia it suffered an oil-tank explosion and subsequent fire, and this could be a photo of it being refitted and fixed up after said incident.
USS North DakotaThis is the USS North Dakota. She and her sister-ship, USS Delaware, had a second funnel behind the mainmast while the next two dreadnoughts in the US Navy, USS Florida and USS Utah, had two funnels inside of the masts.
The USS North Dakota also had three stripes on the second funnel whereas the USS Delaware only had two.
I'm still trying to ID the pre-dreadnought docked beyond the warehouse.
USS FloridaThis could be the USS Florida (BB30) which was launched in May of 1910.  The USS New York (BB34) and USS Arizona  (BB39) were launched subsequently in 1912 and 1915, respectively.
[This ship looks like it's been around the block a few times. - Dave]
Or around the Horn a few times.  I should've noticed that.
Sisters, Not Twins Delaware and North Dakota looked the same from the outside, but the former had reciprocating engines and the latter had turbines.  Reciprocating engines had better fuel econmy in this period (before reduction gears) while turbines were less vibration prone and could produce more power in the same volume.  In this case the engines seem to have been rated the same and therefore the piston engines' better efficiency seemed to make them an obvious choice, leading to a few later US battleships being engined with recips.  The British converted to turbines in Dreadnought (1906) and never looked back.
NoDakLooks like USS North Dakota (BB-29) to me.
Brooklyn Navy Yard 2011 I took this photo yesterday from the same spot as the original.  There have been crews here attempting to clean up the area around this dry dock and make it into more of an attraction.  The water hasn't been drained for years, but the dry dock on the other side of the building on the left (featured in a previous post) is one of the oldest active dry docks in the country. The Navy Yards is an amazing place to work and to visit.  Tours are offered every weekend and it's a great thing to check out if you are in the NYC area.

Delaware Class BBChecking through the photos I could find, I believe this is either the Delaware (BB28, launched February, 1909, commissioned April, 1910) or North Dakota (BB29, November, 1908, April, 1910).  One identifier to me were the low mounted casement 5 inch guns.
Also of interest and something I had not seen before is the large below water port towards the bow.  This I believe is the starboard 21 inch torpedo tube.
USS Delaware/USS North DakotaI think it's either the Delaware (BB-28) or the North Dakota (BB-29).  The bridge and forecastle match the Delaware class.  They were both commissioned in April 1910 and went on a cruise to Europe that November, so it could be either.
Can anyone identify the battleship in the right background?
The other battleshipLooking at the photo I notice that the turret does not have the squared, boxy look turrets have in other classes but rather angle upwards from gun ports to the rear of the turret. 
Looking at photos of the various battleship classes circa 1910 shows only the South Carolina class (South Carolina, BB26 and Michigan, BB27) having this angled turret armor.  
The South Carolina class was the first to have the cage type masts and also the first to superimpose the turrets, ie, putting a turret directly behind and above the other changing battleship appearance to what we are most familar with.
An Amazing PictureI have been through many dry docks in my military service but this amazing on many aspects. One being the year and the size of the ship. Modernization and technology was starting to take effect as we know it.
Dry docking 1910 and 2011 -- not much difference.
Whoa! That's a lot of bricks!
Fire damageThe USS North Dakota was at the Brooklyn Navy Yard at least twice in 1910 - in June and again in October.  On September 8, 1910, an oil explosion on board killed three sailors, and put the ship at risk.  Six members of the crew were awarded Medals of Honor for their heroism in the immediate aftermath of the explosion.  
And today it looks likeIt just so happens I took a tour of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard a few months ago. I believe that this is either the same dry dock or the one next to it. The "innards" cranes, tracks, etc... have been replaced over time.
Additional photos of the dry dock in its present state are here.
UmmmIf this is the Brooklyn Navy Yard, why is th Williamsburg Bridge on the LEFT?  Shouldn't it be on the right?  Or has the yard shrunk about a mile in intervening years?
[The camera is facing northeast into Wallabout Bay, and the bridge is where you'd expect it to be -- straight ahead and a little to the left. - Dave]
Ship in the right backgroundThe shape of the turret makes me think it could be a Pennsylvania/Tennessee class armored cruiser, not a battleship.
Hard to tell.
Navy Yard tenant nowI have a studio overlooking this dry dock.  It is no longer in use and there are cranes surrounding it that must have been added after this photo.  My studio is in the building to in the left of the photo second floor 5th and 6th window from the end.  
The Navy YardShortly after September 11, 2001, I looked at some warehouse space in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The guy that was showing me around had bought the property shortly before. One of the features that he thought might impress me was that it was bomb proof. It seems the Navy built the 6 story structure as an ammo depot during WW2.
AvastIt looks like this modern metal marvel has two old school crow's nests.
The question not answeredWhy are there no identifying markers on the bow? Was it typical not to mark the ships? 
Details First the Crow's Nests are probably just that. Remember these ships didn't have radar, so the only way to detect any other ship or objects in the water was visually and the best place to detect things visually is not from the bridge but from the highest point on the ship, in this case the top of the cage mast. You'd send lookouts up, and either have high powered binoculars up there already or send them up with them.
As far as identifying markings on the bow, the don't appear to be in use during this period, at least not in the U.S. Navy. In fact I don't believe they were in use for battleships at the time of Pearl Harbor. I'm given to understand that they'd have their names on the stern in brass letters, but that was pretty much the only obvious identification from off the ship.
Battleship in backgroundMy first guess was way off base.  Especially since there is only one aft turret. I'm glad now that one did not get posted. 
With one aft turret, two gun positions near the stern (the boxy squares) and a gap between the upgrade cage mast and the rear stack, this is a Connecticut class battleship.  I notice a band at the top of the rear stack, and assume this is an identifier but I did not see a photo to pinpoint which of the six ships this might be. 
Dakota or Delaware The USS North Dakota had a large open chock built into the side of the ship behind the hawse pipe.  The Delaware did not. This is the Delaware.  The ship in the background is a Connecticut class battleship. 
Cannons - still in use in 1910?Even with the turret mounted big guns, a bit of old school Naval design seems to have remained in place; are those cannon sticking out the sides??
re: Cannons - still in use in 1910?The guns on the side are the ship's secondary armament. In this case they are fourteen 5" guns in casemates. The guns were placed there to deal with smaller ships close in - like destroyers or torpedo boats - that the main battery couldn't depress low enough to hit. 
I love Shorpy commentsI always learn something when I read through the comments and I especially enjoy the lack of trolling. Even when someone is corrected it is usually done with manners and grace.
Additional reason to identify ship as DELAWAREIn looking at photos of DELAWARE and NORTH DAKOTA while in this configuration at navsource.org, I spotted an additional reason to identify the ship as DELAWARE. A close look shows that the pole mast atop the after cage mast is mounted on the *forward* side of the mast on DELAWARE and on the *aft* side on NORTH DAKOTA. This ship appears to have the pole on the fore side, hence more likely to be DELAWARE. Funnel stripes can vary from year to year so are not as reliable by themselves.
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, NYC)

U.S.S. Onondaga: 1864
... USS Monitor, which went down in a storm off the coast of North Carolina. Fenders The objects hanging over the side of the small boat(s) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 5:20pm -

1864. "James River, Virginia. Monitor U.S.S. Onondaga; soldiers in rowboat. From photographs of the Federal Navy, and seaborne expeditions against the Atlantic Coast of the Confederacy." Wet plate glass negative. View full size.
HangersDoes anyone know what the three objects hanging over the side of the boat are?
Appropriate HeadgearFor once, someone's wearing a boater in a boat. . . .
Low in the water.It would not take much to swamp this ship. Questions? Why were they built to ride so low? What is in those little bags tied next to the oars on the sides of the rowboat? I suspect the older man with the pipe at the stern using a rough stick is acting as a rudder. Interesting snapshot of life!
How Low Can You Go?Not a lot of freeboard on the good ship Onondaga.
[The Onondaga was, as noted in the caption, a monitor or ironclad. - Dave]
historical shipI looked the Ol' Onondaga up and she had quite a history. She was built in New York and sent to Virginia where she saw several important engagements. She was decommissioned in 1865 and sold to the French navy and refitted with rifled cannons of just over 9 inch. Replacing the 8 in smooth bore guns of American vintage. She was scrapped in 1902. Pretty impressive!
Buffers-low in  the  waterMonitors  were  built very  low  in  the  water in order to  present  as little  as  possible of a target  to an enemy gunner.   They  were  very  useful  in  inland  waterways,  on  the  open  seas,  in  any  bad  weather,  they  would  be  in  serious  danger.
My  guess  on  the  three  bags  on  the  launch is  they  are  buffers  to  keep  the  wood  of  the  boat's    side  from  getting  banged  up  when  it  is  up  against  a  wharf  or  another  vessel  in  wavy  water
BumpersThose, probably leather, bags over the rowboat's side are fenders/bumpers meant to protect the sides of ships when docking.  Today we use plastic fenders which are plastic and much larger (shaped like a serious hot dog).
Ride So LowMonitors were river craft essentially floating gun platforms.  They are not ships in the normal sense.  Their freeboard (distance between the main deck and water line) was very small so they would present less of a target to opposition fire.  Heavily armored above the main deck, they could withstand direct hits from the guns of the day without serious injury.
Boat FendersThe small round objects hanging over the side are boat fenders, used to prevent damage to the rails when the boat is moored alongside something like a dock or the Onondaga. These are probably made of leather, and if they contain anything, it's probably more leather padding or perhaps a disk of soft wood.
According to Wikipedia ....The good ship Onondaga was built in 1864, near the end of the Civil War and was sold to France after the war. She continued in service in the French Navy until 1903. 
The delivery cruise to France must have been terrifying.
Interestinghttp://americancivilwar.com/tcwn/civil_war/Navy_Ships/USS_onandaga.html
Across the waves.The Onondaga was sold to France after the war.  How did they deliver it?  Surely they didn't sail her!
OnandagaThe bags on the longboats are probably bumpers, designed to keep the boat from being damaged when at a dock, or tied up alongside a ship with a low freeboard.
Monitors were designed by Ericsson to sit low in the water to improve stability by bringing the mass of the turret down, and to make them a far more difficult target to hit. The hull was protected by the water and it was hard to strike below the waterline. This made them maneuverable and hard to hit but could make them very unseaworthy in bad weather. Monitor - Ericsson's original "cheesebox on a raft" sank off Cape Hatteras in a 1862. Other monitors were designed to be more seaworthy. Onondaga hull was built entirely of iron rather than wood like earlier monitors.
As for Onondaga, she was sold back to her builder in 1867 and then sold to the French where she served as a coastal defense ship. She was scrapped by the French in 1904, making her the longest lived of the Civil War monitors.
Those hanging thingies ...look like bumpers to me.  They are all at the right height.
Low FreeboardThe very low freeboard on this (and every other) monitor was designed to make the ship very hard for another ship to hit with cannon fire. 
When the monitors were "cleared for action", everything but the turrets were stripped down and stored or thrown overboard. The rigging and life boats were eliminated, and the ship was steered from a small armored box only a few feet high. Even the funnel (chimney) was dismantled so that only a small stub protruded from the deck so as to present the smallest target possible.
Monitors worked fairly well in protected estuaries, bays, and navigable rivers, but monitors were notoriously poor sea-going ships. Many foundered and were lost, often with all hands, in heavy seas. 
In every other nation, the monitors were regarded as a design fluke and were not widely copied. The U.S., however, continued to use monitors well into the 1880s and beyond....mostly because Congress refused to fund a modern navy. 
Does anyone know what the three objects hanging over the side ofThey are fenders.
Why so low?Why were they built to ride so low?
To make a small target. Great in battle. Not so good at sea, as the original USS Monitor proved.
What is in those little bags tied next to the oars?
I was curious about that, too. I couldn't Google up an answer, but my guess is simple oarlocks. Place the oar in the slot, then flop the weighted line over the shaft.
The high-tech nature of the civil war continually surprises. Even though it was still a time of cavalry and slavery, there were also ironclads, telegraphy, balloons, Gatling guns and railroads.
Freeboard or Lack Thereof...If you look up the U.S.S. Onondaga on Google you will find that after the war it was decommissioned and then transferred to the French navy. With so little freeboard how did they get it to France?
I can understand the low freeboard patrolling the coastal rivers, but even there it probably had to enter the Atlantic to get from the northern ports to the southern ports. 
How dey do dat?
Could the three objectsCould the three objects hanging over the side be fenders?  That is:  padding for when the bout bangs alongside the mother ship?  
Lil' bagsThose little bags are in fact bumpers to protect the side of the row boat from damage.
FendersThey be fenders to protect the boat's planking when coming alongside I should think.
Those wooden things on theThose wooden things on the side of the boats are most likely to prevent scuffing and other damage, when the boat is moored. Unfortunately I have no idea, what is the proper English word for those. these days they are made of plastic, and resembles big, straight sausages....
Hanging ObjectsI think they are cushions, to keep the side of the boat from banging directly against the side of another vessell when boarding, disembarking etc.
FendersBoat fenders, that is, is what the little bags are.
Hangers maybeI'm thinking those are clean drinking water for the rowers.
I'd suspect the guy to theI'd suspect the guy to the left of the guy smoking a pipe is the one who actually has a hand on the tiller.  As far as the three objects handing over the starboard gunwale, they might be fenders, although they do seem small.
As far as the freeboard goes, it is very low in the water.  The Monitors were susceptible to being swapped as evidenced by the original USS Monitor, which went down in a storm off the coast of North Carolina.
FendersThe objects hanging over the side of the small boat(s) are probably fenders, meant to keep the painted wood from grinding against the edge of the larger boat - which would be particularly punishing given the low iron deck of the Monitors.
Hangers@GeezerNYC
Bumpers
Nautical KnowledgeThe hanging things on the boat are fenders, aka bumpers, that prevent rubbing and damage when alongside other boats and docks. They are still required gear for boats of all sizes, though of different design.
The gent with the pipe is probably putting his stick in the water. The tiller is more likely in the hands of the soldier in the aft. The boats in the background have rudders and tillers, so this should one as well. 
Barrier?In the background, are those sunken ships forming a barrier?
I'd rudder not bump, if you don't mind.Following exhaustive research efforts, our crack Civil War historical artifacts team members have reached a somewhat tenuous conclusion. After sometimes heated discussions, it has been narrowly decided that the device held by the pipe smoking gentleman in the above photo should be rightfully placed under the "P.S." category of 19th century naval devices. In layman's terms the P.S. would simply designate this instrument as a "pushoff stick." Either that, or the man was an utterly misguided landlubber with a proclivity in providing great mirth to the more nautically savant.
In regard to the mysterious pouch-like objects hanging from the sides of the launch, the less than timorous artifacts team has proffered the suggestion that these would likely be called bumpers in today's parlance. Please note that our team does take all our suggestions quite lightly.
On monitors and freeboardsMonitors, throughout their history (Roughly the U.S. Civil War to WWII), were built to be coastal ships. A large freeboard (which means more ship to build, and a larger target) was not necessary because the ships were never intended to leave inland waterways or shallow coasts. This also worked well with U.S. foreign policy which was more concerned with its own waters. I'm sure many people are familiar with the story of U.S.S. Monitor (the original monitor) which was swamped and sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras. 
Monitor FactoidsThe "monitor" was a radical new warship design by engineer John Ericsson during the US Civll War. The standard high-sided wooden warship with its "broadside" of guns was still designed for sail power and to repel boarders. He conceived a fully mechanized ironclad "ship-killer" that presented a much smaller target and had several much larger guns housed in heavily armored rotating turrets. This proved quite deadly against wooden ships especially in breaking through blockades. Although not totally seaworthy, most waves washed harmlessly over the low deck. The concept gradually evolved to larger more seaworthy battleships with "real" armor-plated hulls, but the large, turret mounted guns became the new standard. The "canteens" alongside the rowboat are fenders to keep its hull from scraping against the sides of the ship. 
IDing the ObjectsThe things hanging over the side of the boat are called bumpers, buoys, or fenders.  They're to stop the sides from hitting and scraping other boats and docks.
Hangers...Id say these are used to draw wather from boat. Sorry for my poor enlish :/
The Objectsare bumpers.  Coiled rope inside tarred leather to keep from scratching the boat or the ship.  Much like the rubber ones we have today.
She was a river monitorRiver monitors were not designed with high freeboard because it was needed. They were not supposed to put to sea, and the lower the freeboard the better because it made less of a target. HTH
Re:HangersMy best guess is they are bumpers to protect the wooden sides of the rowboat when
along side a ship or wharf.
Notice the other rowboats pictured have them as well. What I see here is the
bumpers were fitted for the average ship or dock and the ironclad, being so low
in the water, caused the scraping and damage to side of this rowboat below the
bumpers.
Built low for a reasonWonderful photo!
One of the ideas behind the Union's ironclads (called "Monitors" after the archetype U.S.S. Monitor) was that if little sticks above the water, there is little to effectively shoot at.  Hence, the only things that are exposed are the (heavily armored) revolving gun turret(s).  Note that this ship has two revolving turrets, in contrast to the U.S.S. Monitor, which just had one.  Needless to say, though, these monitors were not the greatest thing to be used in rough open seas -- that's how the U.S.S. Monitor was lost.
The Confederates took an entirely different approach (as with the C.S.S. Virginia, née Merrimack).  Their ironclad vessels were heavily armored structures built upon traditional wooden hulls. Because most of the Confederate ship stuck out of the water, it would have to employ a lot more armor plating which added weight and made it much less manueverable and less able to be employed in shallow areas.
Low FreeboardIndeed, as earlier comments note, this monitor has unusually low freeboard (not sure if they all did; certainly, all monitors had relatively low freeboard compared to "normal" ships.)  The function of this feature was to reduce the target area that could be hit by shellfire, both to make hits less likely and to reduce the weight of armor required to cover the vertical side. (The deck was also lightly armored, since the technology of directing long range fire made a plunging, high angle hit very unlikely; the deck armor was enough to deflect a glancing hit whose angle of fall was only a few degrees).
What was neglected in this design compromise was the fact that there was hardly any reserve buoyancy...a leak too big for the pumps to control would result in the deck edge going under and the ship sinking in a rather short time...and in fact, this happened to the Monitor herself on an open ocean passage on the last day of 1862.
The objects dangling over the rail on the boats (both the manned boat in the foreground and the empty boats tied up to the ship) are probably fenders, although they look rather small for the purpose.  Needless to say, protecting the side of a small, lightly built wooden boat coming alongside a vessel armored with iron was quite important.
Re: Hangers (@GeezerNYC)I'd think that the objects on the boat are fenders, to keep the boat from banging into docks or the ship.
MonitorThe Monitor-class ironclads like that in this photo were designed to offer as little a target to Confederate artillery as possible; most of their hull was kept below water, and practically the only structures above it were the chimney (those were steam-powered ships) and two revolving, armored turrets. 
The most famous of these ships, the U.S.S. Monitor (which gave its name to this class of vessels) took part in the first battle between "ironclads", or ships made or covered on metal, which took place on march 9, 1862, and is known as the Battle of Hampton Road. 
Quoting from an excellent article on Wikipedia: "...While the design of Monitor was well-suited for river combat, her low freeboard and heavy turret made her highly unseaworthy in rough waters. This feature probably led to the early loss of the original Monitor, which foundered during a heavy storm. Swamped by high waves while under tow by Rhode Island, she sank on December 31, 1862 in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 16 of 62 crewmen were lost in the storm."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monitor
Rubber Baby Buggy Boat BumpersMy guess on the 3 objects hanging off the side of the rowboat (and visible on some of the other rowboats in the photo) is that they are "Boat Bumpers" a.k.a. "Dock Fenders". These prevent the side of the boat from coming in direct contact with another boat or the dock when the boat is tied up.
FendersI took those things hanging from the gunwale of all the small boats in the photo to be fenders, used as a cushioning bumper when tied up against a dock or another hull. Modern versions:
http://tinyurl.com/m4jgzu
Somehow it crossed the Atlantic!According to Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Onondaga_(1864)
after it was decommissioned in 1865 it was sold to the
French navy and here's a photo of it in Brest
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cc/USS_Onondaga_60211.jpg
I can't imagine it out in the Atlantic, even on a very calm day!
objects on side of boatThey look like typical boat bumpers of the small variety..
Hangers Answer?Ballast, or bumpers. 
It's a monitorYes, it would be easy to swamp this ship- it was designed for inlets and calm waters; it is a double turreted descendent of the Monitor- the famous ironclad that did battle with the Merrimack/Virginia. It sits so low in the water so as to be an extremely difficult target. The turrets, along with relatively petite size allowed the monitor vessels to be extremely maneuverable and effective- although the crew had qualms with living below the waterline- which is why there are so many canopies on deck. Johan Eriksson, the designer of the original Monitor was one of the first developers of the propeller, and on his signature ship he patented hundreds of brilliant inventions from a then state-of-the-art ventilation system, to the rotating gun turret, and the first operable marine toilet.
HangersCould be to scoop out water eh?
three objects"Does anyone know what the three objects hanging over the side of the boat are?"
Bumpers.
Re: Hangers, et al.The 3 little bags visible near the oars are the Civil War-era version of fenders.  They were generally filled with corncobs or sawdust and served as spacers to prevent the wooden boat from brushing against the ironclad and becoming damaged.  
Of more interest is the canvas coverings over parts of the ironclad.  These signify that the monitor is in Union-held waters as they would never be used where there was a risk of battle.  Ironclads were just that, iron plates laid over a wooden hull and still vulnerable to fire.
The Answer: Fenders!The bag-shaped objects are fenders, or as you land-lubbers would say, bumpers. You hang them over the side to save your paint job when you're tied up to the dock or to a ship. I'm guessing they're made of leather or rubber.
The Onondaga sits low in the water to decrease her vulnerability to enemy artillery fire -- by design, not by accident.
Re: U.S.S. Onondagathose little thingys are bumpers for pulling next to a stell ship with a wooden boat. This was definitly a 'Lessons Learned' device
From a River Far Far Away . . .The two circular towers that have awnings on them - they remind me of Jabba the Hutt's sail barge in Return of the Jedi.  I'm just saying.
Monitor designThe design of the USS Monitor and follow-on ships such as the Onondaga were revolutionary for the time.  The idea of mounting one or two guns in a rotating turret versus rows of guns along the sides of a ship enabled monitors to bring more accurate firepower to bear more quickly, and most importantly, independently of the direction of the ship's travel.  While some earlier ships had turreted weapons, I believe the USS Monitor was the first to rely on its turret as its only weapons station.  
Monitors were low to the water to provide a smaller silhouette for the enemy gunners.  Most shipboard cannons at the time would have had rather low, flat trajectories, which would have slammed into the sides of opposing ships rather than higher trajectories which would have sent plunging fire through the decks.  Obviously a ship that sat lower in the water would have presented a much more difficult target for other ships--it practically didn't have sides to hit!  It also made them difficult to see--in the days before submarines, these were the original stealth ships. 
These ships were generally designed to work in what are now called "littoral" operations, close to shore, in bays or rivers.  In those environments, heavy sea states that would cause a problem with the low freeboard design were not a major concern.  Riverboat steamers had similarly low freeboards.  
As for the items hanging along the gunwales of the rowboat, the look like bumpers to protect the rowboat and its mothership from bouncing off one another.  Today they're a rubbery plastic, but I don't know what they would have been back then, maybe cork inside a waxed canvas bag?  
Re: Hangers>Hangers
>Submitted by GeezerNYC on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 10:29pm.
>Does anyone know what the three objects hanging over the >side of the boat are?
They look to be bumpers. All the boats in the background have them, or some form of them, too.
Low in the waterTo answer Woodchopper's question, Monitors (originally intended for harbor defense as floating batteries) were designed to expose as little of the ship above the waterline to minimize the target available to enemy gunners.  With less to see, there is less to hit.
While naval architecture changed over the years, this design is coming back into vogue with naval designers in examples like the DD(X) programs.
BumpersUpon reading ALL the comments and not finding a clue and after a thorough and painstaking research I have come to the conclusion that those three objects hanging over the side of the boat are bumpers! 
Now hold down the applause. You can thank me later.
More if you haven't googled yet...http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/onondaga.htm
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Civil War)

Lucky Ducks: 1927
... Dipping a hat in a horse trough is a crime in Mayberry, North Carolina. Eugenia's Poetry Eugenia won a poetry contest in the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/09/2018 - 4:25pm -

April 21, 1927. "Do ducks swim? Misses Eugenia Dunbar and Mary Moose." The main focus here is of course the horse trough, once a common item of street furniture in many big cities. National Photo glass negative. View full size.
Ducks in a RowMiss Eugenia sure is lovely, no denying, but Miss Mary looks like a better time on a 1927 Saturday night. 
Bathtub GinnyGreat photo.  It sums up the dissipation of the 1920s just about as well as can be done.
Absolutely Gorgeous!The girl on the left is STUNNING! Man I'm hooked on this website!
Puts Marilyn to shameI am captivated by Miss Dunbar's feminine charms; her beauty is that of Pallas Athena and Venus together.
The TroughPutting aside the obvious va-va-voom comments for the cutie on the left, I'd like to ask about the trough. (God I must be getting old!) Did someone have to fill these daily? (I'm guessing the Fire Dept.) It looks like there's a compartment on the end, maybe for ice to melt slowly through the day? It's strange to think that may have been someone's job once.
[These were plumbed and self-filling, with what looks like a covered float valve at the far end. - Dave]
Wow!Two beautiful women, especially Miss Dunbar. You mean there are ducks in the picture?
Fun FactDipping a hat in a horse trough is a crime in Mayberry, North Carolina.
Eugenia's PoetryEugenia won a poetry contest in the Washington Post.  I can't find any other information about her.   The listed home address, at 1755 P NW, was close to Dupont Circle.  The curved curbstones in the photo suggest that might be where the photo was taken.



Life's Stage.
(Winner of $1 Prize.)

The dance is on, and the dancers
     Drift out in the hall
As leaves are blown by the west wind
     In autumn after they fall.
Some look o'erjoyed and carefree
     And smile and laugh as they talk
While others look overburdened and careworn
     Like a withered rose on the walk.
The music begins and the joyous
     Float into the lands of dreams.
And the sad shake their sorrowing heads and say:
     "Life is not what it seems."
Why be so withered and careworn,
     Thinking only upon your sorrow;
Why not join in life's little play
     And think not yet of tomorrow?
So let's help build this wonderful stage,
     Let's aid in this great erection,
And let each actor in life's game
     Play his part to perfection
Eugenia Dunbar (17)
1755 P street northwest.

Washington Post, Sep 26, 1926

A Great ShotWOW -- Then as now, a photographer will use any pretense to photograph a beautiful woman! Re the horse trough, in the late forties and early fifties there were still horses hauling goods around D.C., and these cast iron troughs were all over the downtown area.
Lor' luv a duck!These are a pair of nice-looking birds!
Where's the SPCA?Ya daft preeverts!  Everyone's looking at the girls and not the poor ducks with ropes tied around their necks!
Ms EugeniaNo question here, Eugenia is a timeless knockout.
"Nanny"Sometimes it's hard to get a decent guideline as to how old a person truly is from these older photos, but this one hits just right.
My wife's grandmother, Nanny, is about to turn 100 at the end of March (yes, there will be a big party); my daughter will be turning 18 in June.  It just so happens that Miss Mary and Miss Eugenia here would be the same age as Nanny, give or take a few months, having been born in 1909, as these two were.  They are at the same age in this photo, roughly, as my daughter.
Those are a couple of cuties, all right, but they both might, like Nanny, have now over 80 descendants.
But as cute as they both were, I bet they had some fun times for the next two and a half years, with no lack of male attention during that era of copious money and speakeasy gin.
Duck on a leashThose are some strict leash laws! I wish Toronto had a law like that. Nothing is worse than trying to walk down a street and having your ankles accosted by ducks amok.
I haven't seen a horse trough in years. The city tore out the last ones back in the early 90s near St. Lawrence Market when the condo dwellers complained about hobos bathing in them.
In love with a ghostMiss Eugenia Dunbar, wow! I think I am in love. Born in the wrong time. Does anyone else have any info on her?
[She rhymed. - Dave]
Big Ol' LoveShe's a spitting image of Jeanne Tripplehorn, or vice versa.
QuackedWhat I see here are four real "flappers." Nice. Thanks.
What time of year is this?I notice the attractive young ladies have coats and it appears the wind is blowing but the two younger girls in the back are wearing sundresses.
The trough reminds me of my paternal grandfather.  He drove horse drawn beer wagons for many years because not for tradition; his brother-in-law owned the warehouse and he was a drunken Irishman.  My other grandfather was a railroad conductor, luckily I caught the train bug and not the drinking bug.
There is so much to notice about our history in everyday photographs.  Thank you for cleaning up and sharing these unique glimpses into history but also allowing us to comment.   
If you subtract everything ...from this photo except Miss Eugenia - dressed just as she is - it looks like a photo of a young woman taken only yesterday. I have seen my own 30+ year old daughter-in-law dressed nearly identically, and the hair style is in no way dated. Now that is rare in a photo that is 80 years old.
A new dimensionBeautiful and talented, our Miss Dunbar was. I think it's interesting to see another dimension of someone who was never a celebrity (not that I'm aware of, anyway), but just a regular person. Do you think she imagined that a poem she penned for a newspaper contest to win a dollar would be read 80-odd years later? Not Dickinson, but pretty darn good for a 17-year-old. There's some really good imagery there in the first stanza. It is certainly better than anything I might have composed when I was 17.
Of course, one now wonders what sort of hidden talents did her friend Mary have?
Eugenia and MaryEugenia Dunbar, born April 18, 1909, died September 13, 2000, Pasadena California.  Eugenia was living somewhere in Wisconsin during the mid 1930s or early 1940s.
Mary Moose: This might not be her, but it could be.  Mary Moose, born April 27, 1909, died sometime in January, 1981 in Tennessee.  That Mary fits a lot of the patterns, but she was both born in Tennessee, was again living in Tennessee in the late 1930s-1940s period, and died there.
If that's not our Mary, then I think her name is slightly misspelled, and it's actually Mary MUSE, born November 20, 1908 (in Northern Virginia), died (still in Arlington, Virginia), July 27, 1998.  She seems to have lived most of her life in the DC area.
[After these girls got married, which seems likely, they'd have different names. Which is the reason it's hard to dig up reliable information about women when all you have to go on is a maiden name. Dunbar and Moose are mostly likely the married names of Pasadena Eugenia and Tennessee Mary. - Dave]
Eugenia and Mary againDave, I looked them up by their birth names. This was the only Eugenia Dunbar that came up, so I'm pretty confident in that one.
[Where was Eugenia born? - Dave]
Right for meIt looks like I am the only one more smitten by the girl on the right.
A real ringer - MaryIf I didn't know better, I'd swear that Mary Moose above was the woman I dated for nearly 2 years at the beginning of this decade.
Her name was Marie - she was 24 years old when we started dating, 5' 3", about 110 pounds, short light auburn hair, big piercing blue/gray eyes and identical features to Ms. Moose. Shoot, they even dress(ed) the same when stepping out.
What a jaw dropper seeing this picture - Marie passed away from throat cancer at the age of 29 in late 2007.
Just a touchingly timeless image, at least for me. Thanks again for the wonderful work, Dave.
Eugenia DunbarI also found Eugenia Dunbar's Pasadena death record, so I immediately requested the obit from the Pasadena library. They said it takes three weeks. Who knows, maybe she didn't get married, or otherwise kept her maiden name. I am hoping the obit will confirm whether she's the one. 
From ducks to flamingos?The Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal of April 21, 1999 each had an obit for a Eugenia Dunbar McCall, age 95. Obviously I don't know if she's the same person, but "she was a retired Flamingo Hilton showroom waitress of more than 30 years." 
Somehow I can picture this Eugenia ending up at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. 
Birds of a FeatherEugenia is too young to have been the Flamingo dancer. If she was 17 in September 1926, she was born in 1908 or 1909. Your showgirl was born in 1904, and I don't believe any showgirl would add five years when telling her age!
Lucky Ducks Take 2I found another photograph of Misses Dunbar and Moose here.
The second picture was taken just before or after the one here on Shorpy; their poses (including those of the ducks) have barely changed. What has changed is that both ladies are looking into camera with rather sultry expressions – oh you kid(s)!
It is interesting that the quality of this second picture is far poorer than Shorpy’s standard (it’s fuzzy with too much contrast) despite the site’s rather pleasing magnifying feature. It just goes to remind me what an outstanding site Shorpy is – cheers Dave!
[That image was made from a print, as opposed to ours, which comes from the original negative. - Dave]
Wow, and double wowI wouldn't mind a date with either one of these beauties, although I'm kind of partial to Eugenia. Pick her up in the old Essex for a malt at the corner drug store, a couple of hours at a dance (maybe the one mentioned in her poem?), and then down to the local motion picture palace to catch the latest Clara Bow movie.
Eugenia DunbarThis is Joe Manning. A few weeks ago, I requested the obituary for a Eugenia Dunbar, who died in Pasadena, CA, and was born in 1909. Bad news. The obit is not available. The only other scrap of info is this: In the 1920 census, there is a Rossie Dunbar, born in 1909 in North Carolina, attending the Industrial Home School in Washington, DC. That's the only Dunbar, born about 1909, in the 1920 DC Census. Anybody got any ideas?
Eugenia graduatesIn the June 23, 1923, Washington Post, Eugenia is listed as graduating from the Peabody-Hilton School to Eastern High.
Photographer?Does anyone know who the photographer was?
[The National Photo Service. - Dave]
Dupont Circle / Leiter MansionThanks to research by Wikipedia user AgnosticPreachersKid, we can confirm the location is definitely the east side of Dupont Circle. The building in the background is the left side of the Leiter mansion, which until 1947 stood at the northeast corner of the circle. It's now the site of the Dupont Plaza Hotel, formerly known as Jurys Washington Hotel. Links: photo of the mansion exterior · blog post about the mansion · blog post about the site · Levi Leiter bio @ Wikipedia.
I suspect the streets have been widened since 1927; Google Street View today seems to show a narrower sidewalk at the location where the ladies would've been positioned:
View Larger Map
The sidewalks on Sheridan Circle, a few blocks away, are twice as wide, and more closely resemble the one in the photo. But there's no denying the photo was taken at Dupont Circle; too many details match up - tree branches, railed fence, fence column, balcony, position of street lamp; the shrubs were missing in 1927, but that's about it.
Olivia Eugenia "Gena" Dunbar Snell (1909-1967)Many thanks to Erin Blakemore, professional genealogist Shanna Jones, and Gena's nephew Edward H. Dunbar, Jr. and his mom for their assistance with this research! I'd love to be able to say "Gena loved to..." but unfortunately, Edward Jr. says the relatives who could've filled in the gaps in her biography and told us more about her life & interests have all died.
Olivia Eugenia "Gena" Dunbar was born in Augusta, Georgia, on March 25, 1909, to William M. Dunbar Jr. and Carrie Eugenia Johnson. Gena was the first of six children (three boys and three girls), none of whom are living now. She turned 18 just one month before the photo was taken. Her youngest sibling, Edward, was about two years old at the time of the photo. He died at age 83 at the end of 2008, a mere two weeks before the photo was posted on Shorpy. Gena's mom, Carrie, was from a well-respected family in Gainesville, Georgia. Carrie's father, Fletcher Marcellus Johnson Sr. (1858-1914), was a judge, and her mother, Elizabeth Eugenia Sullivan (1861-1893), was a college professor. This branch of the Dunbar family was from Richmond County, Georgia (Augusta area), and nearby Barnwell & Edgefield counties, S.C.
In the mid-1920s, Gena's parents had temporarily settled in Washington, D.C., where William was working as a Maxwell House coffee salesman. Gena's nephew, Edward H. Dunbar Jr., says, "I was told that part of his job was the introduction of an 'instant' coffee product ... an endeavor which did not meet with success at that time," but concedes "I don't know about the accuracy of this. My father, who had a genuine interest in family history, also could exercise a rather impish sense of humor from time to time." His mother, though, confirms the story. Instant coffee existed but didn't really catch on until after World War 2.
Gena eventually married William Edward Snell (b. Sept. 21, 1905), whose family was from Gwinnett County near Atlanta, home to Snellville. Thereafter, Gena was known as Gena or Eugenia D. Snell. On May 19, 1932, she gave birth to their only son, William Edward "Bo" Snell, Jr., who eventually graduated from the University of Georgia and became a lawyer. 
Gena's mom died at age 69 on June 5, 1955, in Augusta. Gena's husband died in Cobb County (Marietta area) at age 56 on Dec. 22, 1961. Gena herself died in Atlanta at age 58 on Nov. 17, 1967. Her son Bo died in Bar Harbor, Maine, at age 63 on Feb. 26, 1995.
Melancollic StrangerBy lucky I get into this site, found this photo and suddenly I feel rarely sad and ... small (pequeño). I don't know how to explain, I don't even speak english very well. And is just this picture, I was captivated by it, it's so clear, so close. And then I see that date, and is so hard for me to accept that everything is gone, that she is not there, right know, with that smile. I'm not even suppose to be here, doing this, there is so much work to do, however I can't help my self, I needed to write this.
Duck speed on landIt just struck me as funny that these girls have leashes on the ducklings. Back on the farm I would often see our two ducks waddling toward the barn, as I set out to get the cow and take her into the barn to milk her.  By the time I was headed back to the house with the milk, or about 20 minutes later, the ducks would have waddled about five yards.  Had those ducklings decided to make a run for it, I don't think the girls would have had much trouble catching them!
SHE IS MY TWINOkay, the girl on the left looks just like me, it's crazy! 
Quacking another Mystery.The ducks are named "Diddles" (Dunbar) and Tommie (Moose), according to the caption from Acme Newspictures.
(The Gallery, Bizarre, Animals, D.C., Natl Photo, Pretty Girls)

Ranges and Latrobes: 1901
... us, and what do we see? The pouring spout, of course. North Carolina Paleolithic Pickup Trucks We had two of those two-wheeled carts in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/25/2020 - 4:53pm -

Washington, D.C., 1901. "View of 13th Street N.W., west side, looking south from H Street." One-stop shopping for all your cooking and heating needs, as well as a trifecta of sidewalk bread lockers. 5x7 inch glass negative, D.C. Street Survey Collection.  View full size.
Ranges & LatrobesCould someone explain the meaning of those words?
[Click here ! - Dave]
Roofing & Spouting &c.At first I read "pouting," that didn't make sense, but "spouting" does! Dictionary says it is used in midland U.S. with the meaning of "guttering", Wiktionary thinks it's only used in Australia and New Zealand. Roofing will be clear. A Latrobe I found being a Baltimore Heater. Thanks to Dave's tip to use Wiktionary we now also may know the meaning of the mentioned "ranges," as being a cooking apparatus, or more specifically a large cooking stove with many hotplates. And let there now also be a Baltimore Range! Look below for the 1914 prices.
Latrobe Followup for DaveI followed your link in Papa Bear's post and I now know what a Latrobe is.
Do you have any images that show a Latrobe in use in a fireplace?
[Click here! - Dave]
Child's CigarAlways good to see cigars offered to Children.
Latrobe Definitionla-trōb′, n. a form of stove set into a fireplace, heating the room by radiation, and the rooms above by hot air—from I. Latrobe of Baltimore.
The Doctor's LatrobePicture a Dalek standing in a fireplace. Pretty much what it looks like
Out with the spoutAfter reading Alex's comment, I want to point out that contrary to what Wicktionary might say, "spout" is in use far beyond the borders of Australia and New Zealand. Generations of school children will tell you about the itsy-bitsy spider that climbs up the waterspout only to be washed out by the rain ... so it climbs up the spout again. 
And let me spout off about the oversized teapot that's sticking out over the sidewalk between the first two buildings. It's facing us, and what do we see? The pouring spout, of course.
North Carolina Paleolithic Pickup TrucksWe had two of those two-wheeled carts in my dad’s barn in NE NC till the '90s. Kind of a flatbed of its day. I’m reminded of the small three-cylinder Japanese trucks that have shallow beds with fold-down sides.
Fin de siècle fashionsOkay I may be cheating a little with use of that particular fancy French term, this photo having been taken at the beginning of the twentieth century rather than the end of the nineteenth, but I have to say that in movies set at the turn of the century, I've always loved the outfits -- particularly the long gored skirts that swing so beguilingly at the ankles as a lady briskly walks. The fetching lass ambulating down the sidewalk is really working hers. 
(The Gallery, D.C., D.C. Street Survey, Stores & Markets)

Pop Kola: 1939
July 1939. Gordonton, North Carolina. "Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note kerosene pump on ... current state of the store. And there's nothing like a "Carolina Blue" sky! I wonder what a building inspector would say about ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/28/2022 - 1:00pm -

July 1939. Gordonton, North Carolina. "Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note kerosene pump on the right and the gasoline pump on the left. Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof. Negro men sitting on the porch. Brother of store owner stands in doorway." Our second look at this establishment, seen here two years ago. 4x5 nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Dental SnuffThat sign is the only one that survives according to Google. All of those other signs are gone. See the comment "Improvements" below. Maybe the "American Pickers" added some of those to their collection.
Smoke 'em if ya got 'emI guess since no one is actually pumping gasoline at the moment, it's OK to be smoking.  Somehow these folks are not quite as sophisticated as the gents in the cigarette ads.
Priceless junkI'll bet the "American Pickers" guys would love to just step into that shot and start spreading the cash around. It's everything they dream about.
ImprovementsSince 1939, they've painted the sky blue. Click for more.

Cannot Live on Bread AloneMust also have soda pop and tobacco products.  Curious that nothing else is advertised and that 71 years later those two evil items seem to be the root of all health problems.  We must be slow learners.
Orphaned ShoeThere it is!  Lower right, under the porch.
Not under the porchIt's a damn shame that there's no hound dog sleeping down there!
Gas PumpAppears to be a Fry Model 117.
Immortalized in FloridaIf I'm not mistaken, this scene was almost completely duplicated as a stage set for "The American Adventure" show at EPCOT Center. The gents in the show are or were audio animatronics robots who spoke for a few minutes about the Depression and how not many people would pay 18 cents a gallon for gas. Is this show still in place?
American AdventureAnnoying Disney Fan, I was thinking the same thing. The show is indeed still there. The banjo player strums and sings, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" FDR comes over the radio and says, "the only thing we have to fear..."
On the LevelI suspect the store owner believed his "unfinished timber posts" added to the rustic charm of his establishment - he obviously could have used plain timbers. The stone supports for the porch have been artfully built up to keep the porch level, so he cared about maintaining appearances. 
Note to Dave: I am very protective about the quality of your wonderful web site, and I appreciate the necessity for advertising support. However a fine line is crossed when ads expand out of their sidebar location and obscure half the page, as the Jack in the Box ad did tonight. Making the reader reach up and close the ad is cheesy and impertinent. 
This Shack in the Present DayThat store in Gordonton has been documented in the present day!

I like the previous shorpy picture betterIn the last picture they were just talking amongst themselves. This one most of them have turned to look at the Camera. It just looses something now.
Chicken catching or "catchin"I revisited this picture and now see what I missed before. There is a chicken crate barely visible under the left side of the building. I went to high school one year in a small town in the south. On Friday nights sometimes chicken farmers would come to town and  pick up boys and men to work the chicken houses. The workers would run around and catch the chickens in the houses, throw them in crates like the one shown. They would load them on the trucks for market. They say some of the good catchers could grab 4 to 6 chickens by the feet with one hand. 
Bell BottomsDid anyone else notice the boy under the coke sign wearing the trousers from an old Navy blue uniform. The suspenders are a classy touch, but probably more a necessity than a fashion statement.
Great PictureThis is really a great picture. It captures so much in one shot.
Thanks, tipster,for posting the photos by panorino of the current state of the store.  And there's nothing like a "Carolina Blue" sky!
I wonderwhat a building inspector would say about those deck supports. And yet it seems to have worked, since it's still standing.
Navy uniformI wore those navy 13 button trousers for thirteen years and I'd bet that the pants pictured are not navy trousers. If I recall correctly, there was a civilian "style" during those years that resembles what is shown.
SupportLooking at the state of the place now, I'd have thought those rocks and tree stumps were added later on as support as the place started to fall down and need maintenance. But nope - looks like they were there all along, piled just like that! 
Clicking on the previous post is totally worth it, by the way. I LOVE the characters photoshopped in! So cool.
Pop Kola cap and a quarterIn 1939 in Corpus Christi, Texas you could take a ride in a Ford Trimotor for 25 cents and a Pop Kola bottle cap. I took such a ride in 1939. This is the first reference to Pop Kola that I have seen in 70 years. Thanks for making my day.
Now that's marketing.Pop Kola.  So when Yankees come down and ask for a "pop" you can give them one.
"Pop Kola.  People ask for it by name.  Even when they don't mean to."
What did they sell?I am looking at signs on stores like this and think that they didn't sell anything except cola and cigarets.
ColorizedClick to enlarge.
[Wow!! I made this into a a separate post here. - Dave]

(The Gallery, Dorothea Lange, Gas Stations, Rural America, Stores & Markets)

High Society: 1960
... February: Greensboro, NC -- four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University begin a sit-in at a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/25/2023 - 2:45pm -

June 18, 1960. "Rowing, Harvard-Yale Regatta. Crew race at New London, Connecticut." Man overboard! 35mm Kodachrome slide by Toni Frissell. View full size.
Pinch Me!"I must be dreaming"
Shipshape and Camel fashionIt appears the Captain doesn't mind getting a little ash on his yacht. 
Tom?I'm getting a Talented Mr. Ripley vibe here.
UnfilteredI guess it’s less gross to flick an unfiltered butt into the ocean than a cigarette with a filter.  Since Shorpy is a wholesome family site, I won’t say what we used to call unfiltered smokes.
1960 in reviewHere is a list of 1960 events and births.  A few which stand out to me include:
February: Greensboro, NC -- four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter.
March: The United States announces that 3,500 American soldiers will be sent to Vietnam.
April: The United States launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1.
June: A smoking hot, shirtless man doesn't mind having his lack of body fat admired by a woman on a yacht during Harvard-Yale Regatta, New London, Connecticut.
July: Following the admission of the State of Hawaii as the 50th state in August 1959, the new (and current) 50-star Flag of the United States is first officially flown over Philadelphia.
August: The newly named Beatles begin a 48-night residency at the Indra Club in Hamburg, West Germany.
Let me just ... oh my!She's trouble! Pieces of ice on her finger aside, she might be having a moment inspired by her second (more likely third or fourth) G&T, and the day watching the races. She's sizing up the evening's potential as only her circumstances allow ... she'll meet everyone for dinner at a select spot, and certainly grab a seat next to him. Lively conversation to follow above the linen, with perhaps more exploration below deck. Those Vassar women --
[If they were all laid end to end ... - Dave]
Privileged WorldI grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in the 1970s in Groton, which is the land you can see in this picture.  These people might as well have been on the dark side of the moon to me.  I heard about the regatta yearly in the papers, but it just wasn't anything of significance to lower middle-class folk.  
Gold Star Memorial BridgeI`ve personally been over it a few times, fantastic structure(s). The original span was "twinned" in 1973, and now carries northbound I-95 traffic.
New London's BridgesJudging by location of the Gold Star Bridge and the Thames River Bridge in this photo, the Versatile is just off the shore of the US Coast Guard Academy.  Both the Gold Star and Thames River Bridges are still there and very busy.  The Gold Star Bridge where Interstate 95 crosses the Thames River is now a two-span bridge having the southbound span added on in 1973.  The Thames River Bridge is owned by Amtrak and was converted from a bascule bridge to a vertical-lift bridge in 2008.
(The Gallery, Kodachromes, Boats & Bridges, Toni Frissell)

Chez Heinz: 1936
... like this today! By the way -- I grew up in a community in North Carolina where there were lots of houses equivalent to this. Living like ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/14/2023 - 6:00pm -

January 1936. "Negro house in New Orleans, Louisiana." 8x10 inch nitrate negative by Walker Evans for the U.S. Resettlement Administration. View full size.
Somebody didn't want their picture takenThere's a man on the front porch in a rocker facing the building. Shy or in time out?
Or maybeOr maybe he doesn't like staring into the sun.
Look closelyYou'll see that more than one person has their back to the camera. There is even one hiding behind the pillar on the left side. I think it's pretty obvious they don't want their picture taken.
BeliefsSome people have religious beliefs that do not allow them to be photographed. This would not be uncommon for this area and era.
I think you are missing the obviousIf you look closer you will see that the women at the bottom left is blurry as she is going into the house while being talked to by her friend. The man may simply just be avoiding the heat of the noonday sun. The children are all looking out on the porch to the right. Even though it is true that many Amish believed that if your picture is taken then your soul is "trapped" or taken away, I doubt this is the case here. Just a slice of life. People just going about living at the time.
Perhaps It is None of thoseIt could simply be a slice of life. The distance from the house. The blurry woman as she is going into the house on the left while her friend stops to say something. Also look at the children. They are looking out. The man simply may be just too hot facing the noon sun. 
Porch SittingBeing from this area and state, porch sitting is quite a common occurence. You will frequently find people just sitting on their porch watching passersby. If you don't have a porch, a nice shade tree will work just as well. It is a real good day when a friend drops by to sit and drink coffee, tea, etc. and have a game of cards. As far as religious belief, the Amish religion is not something we see in our area. However in New Orleans there is alot of Voodoo practiced. I do not believe that this is the case here, however just someone who does not like to have their picture taken. My father-in-law is one of those people. If you bring out a camera, he will leave the room before you have a chance to photograph him. This can make for very frustrating holiday's especially when you are trying to preserve memories for your children. Also makes it hard when preparing obituaries once the person dies. You often see very old photos of the deceased in our papers.
It's about povertyIf I lived in a house like this, I might be resentful about someone wanting to take a picture of it. Let's hope that people are not still living like this today! By the way -- I grew up in a community in North Carolina where there were lots of houses equivalent to this.
Living like this todayYou obviously haven't taken a trip to the inner city of some of America's larger cities. This house is in good condition compared to some that I have seen in urban America. America still has many people living in poverty.
(The Gallery, New Orleans, Walker Evans)

Law and Order: 1918
... again been resurrected in 2009. They're being built in North Carolina and they're a pretty sweet looking ride, but time will tell if it's a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/24/2014 - 8:57pm -

New York. May 16, 1918. "Police machine gun." 5x7 glass neg. View full size.
They're not so toughJust wait till they meet up with The Rat Patrol!
RoboCop, 1918 StyleI'll bet those unruly crowds dispersed in a heartbeat when THAT came buzzing around the corner!
Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat!Why did this police department need such heavy firepower? At first, I thought, "bootleggers!," but Prohibition didn't start until the following year.

Red ScareThis was at the height of Red Scare when it seemed to certain Justice Dept. people that the Bolsheviks were going to try to take over America next.
[The Red Scare was in the 1940s and 1950s. What prompted this was the outbreak of World War I and fears of German saboteurs. - Dave]
Firepower, candlepowerI hope they did their shooting in the daytime. That kerosene headlamp wouldn't have been have been much good at night. Other interesting features of the Indian include an extremely primitive speedometer running off the front wheel hub (it looks like an afterthought), and an exposed clutch, just behind the driver's boot.
There was an attempt to revive the Indian brand in California in the 1990's, but the company went under after making just a few bikes... based on much later models than this one, of course.
Potato DiggerI think that is an 1895 Browning "potato digger"
Third Liberty LoanCheck out the poster in the background.

MountedThe machine gun is mounted on a sidecar, right? The tripod looks a little tall, the machine gunner will have to stand to use the sights.
But you know when the policeman says "pull over," you better do it quick! 
After WWII think "Tipster" is referring to the Red Scare in this country as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. This photo was taken before that occurred.
Two things.One, they better get some earplugs.
Two, I need one of those on my motorcycle. Believe me.
RecoilI can only imagine the kick that monster would inflict on the rider and the sidecar!
A ChoiceI think the Indian motorcycle is more interesting than the machine gun. However the gunner appears to be very focused, almost like he's looking for an excuse to fire.
Colt-Browning Tater DiggerColt-Browning machine gun
Stuffed ShirtWhat is that jammed into the jacket of the cop walking behind the motorcycle? A very low-slung bulletproof vest? A canned ham? Half of a skateboard? Please, someone tell me there's an explanation.
Indian MotorcyclesThe Indian Brand has once again been resurrected in 2009. They're being built in North Carolina and they're a pretty sweet looking ride, but time will tell if it's a successful reboot of the brand.
AhoyPut these guys on a ship, and dare the pirates to even look like they're going to board.
Shoe fetishO.K. I admit it. One of my favorite things about this blog and the photos are the fab boots and shoes these folks were wearing.
Right handedIndian motorcycles' twist-grip throttle was on the left side. Because most people are right-handed the cops could shoot and ride. 
The Canned HamThat lump in the background officer's coat is his sidearm, most likely a revolver in a full-flap holster. As per the earlier photo of the lady traffic cop: https://www.shorpy.com/node/5864
Must have!This is the most useful motorcycle accessory I've ever seen.  Every bike should have one.  
Manhole coverFor some reason, I continue to be impressed that the manhole covers from a century or more ago look essentially the same as those today. So many other practical things are very different from today, but not those.
I'd give a mint for one of thoseI wonder if a version of this contraption sits in a museum anywhere? This is a pretty radical law enforcement solution even back in those "uncivilized" days... Maybe it was related to the end of WWI? What might be the legitimate reason for arming motorcycle guys with something like this?
[See the newspaper clipping below. - Dave]
The whole setup seems a bit unwieldy however and machine guns are notoriously inaccurate in an ideal staging.  This would be especially true when you're on a bouncy motorcycle sidecar on 1918 city streets possible getting shot at by somebody while the scared driver swerves wildly to avoid bullets. I prefer the M203 version with my Harley!
Cash box?Any idea what the little "treasure chest" on top of/attached to the gas tanks is for?
Maybe..doughnuts?
Tool bagI was looking at an Indian Big Twin at a motorcycle museum and if memory servers, that's the tool bag on top of the tank.
Throttle GripThe idea that Indians used left hand throttles so the cops could shoot while riding ia a myth. There was no standardization of controls back then. Indian used a left hand throttle because that's the way they always did it. Harleys used a right hand throttle and just as many police departments used them as those that preferred Indians. The Hollywood image of a cop, riding at breakneck speed on his bike, guns ablazin', is silly.
Red ScareActually there was an earlier "Red Scare" which ran from 1917 to 1920.  As a Teaching Assistant in gradual school (25 years ago) I lectured on this subject.  This earlier Red Scare was involved with the fear of a Bolshevik-like revolution being imported into America.  Fifth Columnists were seen almost under every rock. Union organizers, socialist activists, civil rights proponents, suffragettes, pacifists, Jewish immigrants, German Immigrants, and anyone remotely critical of the government were all suspects.
(The Gallery, G.G. Bain, Motorcycles, NYC)

Testing Their Wings (Detail)
October 10, 1902. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. "Start of a glide; Wilbur in motion at left holding one end of glider ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/22/2023 - 5:36pm -

October 10, 1902. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. "Start of a glide; Wilbur in motion at left holding one end of glider (rebuilt with single vertical rudder), Orville lying prone in machine, and Dan Tate at right." 5x7 dry-plate glass negative attributed to the Wright Brothers. View full size. This is a cleaned-up detail from the post above.
Wright GliderThe two men are holding the apparatus and pilot up with one hand each, so can we suppose that there was already some lift provided by the wind? Secondly, this structure is pretty strong if it can support the pilot from the two ends only, and without apparent bending.
The GliderIt's flying, the two men are just keeping it straight and level.  The wind accelerated up the dunes strongly enough that the thing basically flew itself at walking speed, much the same as a seagull simply spreading its wings to become airborne and then floating (and climbing!) without seeming to move. Ground speed - zero. Airspeed - 20 knots.
Look at the puffs of sand at Orville's feet blown back. And his tie, too. 
(The Gallery, Aviation, Wright Brothers)

The Joyners: 1956
July 1956. Greenville, North Carolina. "Segregationist tobacco sharecropper Marshall Joyner and family ... where I got it from!! I guess this is where my North Carolina-bred dad got the idea that EVERYTHING needed to have A-1 Sauce ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/24/2008 - 4:27am -

July 1956. Greenville, North Carolina. "Segregationist tobacco sharecropper Marshall Joyner and family bowing heads in prayer before dinner." Color transparency by Margaret Bourke-White, Life photo archive. View full size.
YummyMmm, turnip greens. Potato salad. And I bet anything that's some good sweet tea by god. I'd love to share dinner with these folks but I'm black so...I guess not. 
Kids' thought balloonEscape. Escape. ESCAAAPE.
Product PlacementA-1 steak sauce and French's Worcestershire sauce still readily recognizable. 
THAT'S where I got it from!!I guess this is where my North Carolina-bred dad got the idea that EVERYTHING needed to have A-1 Sauce slathered over it. I had to leave home to get away from THAT notion. Did you folks konw that steaks actually had a flavor of their own?? Weird, huh? Sorry, family flashbacks today.
Life in the SouthIf one examines the Life editorials, articles and irate letters from the magazine's Southern readers during that era it's easy to conclude that its reporters and photographers were very often strongly resented whenever they appeared in that region. More than once they were accused of posing as doing a "sympathetic" story only to have it appear in print as quite otherwise.
Margaret Bourke-WhiteI've been lost in Bourke-White's photographs since the Life archive went up four days ago. Her images on Google present a staggering, sprawling document of the Depression, WWII, and the birth of the Post-War era, not just in the US but around the globe. I do believe you have found the only assignment on which she used color.
[She took some color photos in South Africa. It's hard to say without a bit of digging. The number of results returned for any query seems to be limited to 200. In any case we'll be seeing more of her work from this assignment. - Dave]
The labelI wonder what the context was that the "segregationist" label was significant.  It's as if some rare species has been captured on film.
[Margaret Bourke-White took hundreds of photos contrasting the lives of what seem to be two white families and their black counterparts for this 1956 assignment on segregation in the South. Probably just about any white family she picked would have fit the bill. I don't imagine there were many pro-integration white North Carolina tobacco farmers in 1956. - Dave]
Curtains With NostalgiaI summered many many times in the early 1960's in Craven County and know this scene well. I *was* that kid with the thought balloon mentioned below. Anyone notice the vaguely nostalgic room and interior pastiches done in 50's cartoon style on the cloth for the window curtains? Odd retro yet non-retro approach to nostalgia. Mom's control of the scene is very evident. She even matches the canister set.
Almost All the Colors of the RainbowGoodness, the colors just ...shriek at you. The sky and fields outside the window even are so bright. It's like a Technicolor life. (As long as the colors aren't too brown.)
The good sideWell this is not the norm today. Most families never eat together at the same time. There was a study done that showed that families that ate together were much stronger, and the kids are less likely to do drugs and get into trouble. My family (wife and four children) still eat together and (gasp) pray before our meals. 
On the TableDo my eyes deceive me, or is that pickled okra and hush puppies?  And bacon?  But who ever heard of eating greens without buttermilk?
1956The armed services were desegregated in 1952 and then the major struggle for integration really begun. In 1956, the writing was on the wall. What exactly were they praying for?
[The usual things, I'd imagine. - Dave]
The Way We WereThis amazing photo pretty much captures the essence of an American family in the 50's, regardless of their geographic locale or politics.  Most middle class families were very much united in this way, eating meals together, praying together, sharing jobs -- as obviously Dad worked hard, Mom took care of all the domestic chores, the kids were good students, clean-cut and had chores, and God was acknowledged, regardless of which God they worshiped.  Aside from the derogatory word "segregationist" every creed, race or religion definitely had prejudices, it was a factor just evolving into integration.  If we throw out the label, this depicted an idyllic family scene. If only families could have preserved this "all for one, one for all" togetherness, most youngsters would be so much happier today.  I am amazed at how so many of our current generation's kids really feel as though nobody cares about them and feel they don't fit in anywhere.  We are all products of the values instilled in us while we were kids. These kids had security.  They also had good healthy food, lots of vegetables and accountability.
[There's nothing necessarily derogatory about the word "segregationist." It describes people who favor segregation of the races. - Dave]
1956 ReduxActually Truman ordered the desgregation of the armed forces in 1948, with the last "colored" unit being ended in 1951 or 1952. Brown v. Board of Education was 1954, but Little Rock didn't happen until 1957. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began in December 1955 and didn't end officially until December 1956. The writing may have been on the wall, but the struggle was only just beginning, and people like Marshall Joyner probably still thought they could win. 
Re: 1956They're obviously praying for the missing buttermilk.
Also, I'm pretty sure that people who worship a god still acknowledge that god even as we speak.
My grandadparents' house.I'm only 31 years old. But this was the way I grew up in rural Tennessee. Both grandparents had smallish houses in a semi-rural area. The kitchens was where you ate, the walls and trim were coated with extremely shiny, oil-based paint, and all the appliances were of the chrome and white porcelain enamel variety, complete with 1950's emblems. One was a scary looking roaster device. The cabinets were all honey colored plywood.
 To this day, I haven't had Southern food done right compared to Grandmother's. I live in California now and there's a few places that claim to have "true Southern cooking." Not so. Typical meals at Grandmother's included various overcooked vegetables soaked in butter. Carrots, green beans cooked with bacon bits and onions, extremely tender roast beef cooked with potatoes and broth, as well as large quantities of canned things like homemade pickles, beets, and jelly. For dessert it was banana ("nanner") pudding.
 The yard was similar: little concrete critters like a donkey pulling a cart as well as several whitewashed tractor tires for planters. Pretty cool idea as they were indestructible and could be hit by the 60's era Sears riding mower that I still actually have.
I agree, sitting down at the table is something you don't see a lot anymore. I'm not sure if children were necessarily happier though. My grandparents were strict people. Stern might be a better word. No work on Sundays since it was the Sabbath. That, and if I cussed (which was hard to avoid since Granddad cussed profusely), I got a nice "whuppin."
Segregate the Condiments!They've got the salt and pepper cozied right up to the sugar bowl and the A-1 and Worcestershire sauce. 
Greenville is the seat of Pitt County, which voted 54% to 46% to integrate the White House a couple of weeks ago. Wonder how the Joyner kids (now in their 60's) voted?
I spy something red.Can anybody guess what Ma's favorite color might be?  Red countertops, red dress, red seat backs, red canisters, red salt and pepper shakers, red over the paper towel holder, red accents on the curtains, red stripes on Junior (which I bet Ma picked out the fabric that she then sewed up into that shirt) and I think something's red in the sink.
SegregationistThe term is indeed derogatory.  It connotes a decidedly low view of fellow mankind while self-aggrandizing his own superiority.
I doubt I'd want to break bread with any segregationist.  I prefer not to tolerate the intolerant.  Takes too much energy best devoted to other endeavors.
[You're confusing "derogatory" with "condemnable" or "something we disapprove of." Derogatory would be something like "redneck cracker." - Dave]
Margaret's Little Joke?What a great name for segregationists - the Joyners! 
Surely Margaret and her team had a jolly sense of humour...
Segregation is the context.Segregation is the theme of the article for which this picture was originally taken - its context. If the article had been about Catholicism or Socialism, the title would have been "Catholic family" or "Socialist family."
And they thought Blacks were inhumanThere is no amount of white-washing you can do to present people like this as anything other than ignorant, insufferable humans. Just because they are praying does not absolve them from the misery and suffering they propagated. I love the South dearly, but there are still a lot of people down there just like this.
[If you were a white person in South Carolina in 1956, you'd probably think just like these people did. This is generally the kind of comment I zap right away. Moral judgment, retroactive righteous indignation -- so tedious. And if you really were around back then fighting the good fight down South, I congratulate you on your superior moral virtue. But you've already done that. - Dave]
I Didn't Think This WayYou are wrong, Dave.  Not everybody thought the way this man did, in that place, at that time.
[I didn't say everyone thought that way. I said the odds are that if you were white, you'd be a segregationist. - Dave]
Re: The Way We WereI guess I'm too simplistic, but when I looked at that picture, I did not see anything negative, though I'm sure that just as any other time in our history there is much to be mentioned about the period that can be seen as negative.
What I saw was much of what was mentioned in The Way We Were post. I saw a family sitting together for dinner, praying (even in their own imperfection -- just like us! hey!) and this all brought back many wonderful memories of times such as these.
Were we perfect? Was the world perfect? Heck no! But, compared to the way things are today, it makes me long for a time such as this again. Family. Where did it go?
I love seeing your pictures! Takes me back to some better days, as far as I'm concerned.
A Different TimeThe segregationist context aside - and it was indefensible - this photo shows what I miss about this time, when I was 4.  These people are not wealthy, not even really middle-class, yet their house has been upgraded as much as possible, given its cheap construction (evidenced by the matchboard walls).  A carpenter has built kitchen cabinets that emulate the expensive ones seen in magazines of the time, and a Formica countertop and a drop-in sink add sanitary features the house wouldn't have had when new.  The table setting is modest, with oilcloth for a tablecloth, but the dishes are 1956-fashionable, with all the silverware matching and laid according to Emily Post. Mrs. Joyner has raided the nearest Woolworth's to add fashion to her kitchen with her red Lustro-Ware canisters and some curtains she probably made herself, considering how well they fit the window.  The women have permanents that were very possibly done at home; everyone is clean and pressed.  We are well rid of segregation, but I wish we could get the simple dignity of homes like this back.  
Why was " segregationist" neededWhy was "segregationist" needed in the picture?  These types of words are usually added to cause and stir debate and alot of anger.  We really know nothing about this family, at least I do not.  What facts do we know about them that would make them any different then any other white middle class family living during that time in that part of the nation?  I feel the word is used to demonize these people, when in truth, have they committed a proven crime?  Can they defend themselves against your accusations?  It also allows atheists another reason to mock God.  These sort of debates usually turn into God bashing and hatred towards those who choose to pray and beleive in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Plenty of people of all races could be called segregationists, then and today.
[The caption dates from 1956. The word was used because the photo was taken to illustrate a magazine article on segregation. Hello? - Dave]
Eat up before the bombs fallIt is easy to view the family scene here as representative of good times long gone -- the family gathered around the dinner table saying grace at a table heaped with home-cooked food, rather than a present-day scene of Mom and Dad sitting down to microwave dinners while the kids head out the door to do whatever they do when they're out of sight of mom and dad.  Let us bear in mind that behind the Ozzie and Harriet scenes like these, the 1950s (as I saw them as a kid about the age of the boy in the photo) were an era of stress and uncertainty - changing racial attitudes and aspirations that would have been unsettling for  this Southern family of the mid-fifties, and the omnipresent fear that the evident prosperity of  the time would vanish in multiple atomic fireballs resulting from nuclear  war with the Soviet Union.  I know that thought was eating at my consciousness each time I sat down to a hot, home-cooked meal. The past is not a paradise folks - it's just another imperfect world with different imperfections. 
Justin TimeThat's Justin Timberlake's dad at the end of the table, on the verge of tears, praying for a talented son, to take him away from all of this.
MemoriesI'm sure at that time, there was segregation on everyones mind everywhere in the US.  
Yes we did live a simple life then, before media became dominate in our lives.
I was stationed at Gunter AFB, Montgomery, Ala for 3 mos in the summer of 1955 and back to Maxwell AFB, Montgomery in 1958.  Blacks and whites did not mingle then, segregation was in full swing.  I had a friend of a different color then myself and we wouldn't dare drive off base together.  
I like things the way they are today, we could have shared downtown Montgomery or even the Mardi Gras together.  My wife and I were married on base, he came to the wedding but could not visit us off base.
(Kitchens etc., LIFE, Margaret Bourke-White)

Newport News: 1941
... 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 ... 
 
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)

Requiem Aeternam: 1865
... knew these men as they were all part of the 53rd North Carolina Regiment, the sole unit in Fort Mahone. Handpicked men of the 53rd (of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/11/2011 - 11:51am -

April 1865. Petersburg, Virginia. "Dead Confederate soldier outside the walls of Fort Mahone." Wet plate glass negative, left half of stereo pair, by Thomas C. Roche. Civil War glass negative collection, Library of Congress. View full size. There's a soundtrack and slide show for these photos here.
RIPThank you for including this photo. It's such a big part of our history. This picture was not an easy one for me to look at, but I'm glad you posted it.
RIPThank you dear soldier for fighting for what you believe in, may you rest in peace... Amen
Civil War RequiemCobbled together by yours truly. (Music by Luigi Cherubini and a choir of angels.) Possibly the oldest video on YouTube.
Latin 101Thanks for the touching history and Latin lessons. A prayer for each soldier in the titles. Well done, as usual.
~mrs.djs
WOW!That video is deeply moving!  Thank you!!  I continue to be amazed at how much we can learn from photos of generations past.  I LOVE this site!!!
Beautiful, Haunting VideoThat's a beautiful video, Dave.  What piece of music is that?
[Cherubini Requiem in C Minor. - Dave]
He looks so youngand like a very handsome young man to have lost his life so early. Beautiful perfect music for the video. It should be part of an exhibit.
re: RIPTo Rob on Tuesday. It's really hard to me to say words like You did when I see this kind of photo. In moments like this I usually imagine that the very dead man who can be seen on the photo didn't actually care about the big idea and glorious reasons why he was send to fight.
I always rather see the crying mother and the empty house which was left after him. A man who was forcibly take out from his life to fight for his 'great' country in which he had the bad luck to be born.
Maybe that's because I'm from Europe, where the memories of the war on your house's yard are still living.
[Valid points. But bear in mind that without armed conflict, many of us would still be living under the various flavors of feudalism, slavery and dictatorship that even now characterize many places in the world. To paraphrase Tom Jefferson, Blood waters the tree of Liberty. War is, for better or worse, how the world sorts itself out. - Dave]
re: RIPTedus: I can totally understand where you are coming from, but you are making an assumption based on your current view point, not necessarily what actually happened. This young man could have been full of dreams to fight for what he beleived in and for the country that he was born in and supported. Who really knows but the immediate family/friends. I'm glad the Union won the war, but that doesn't diminish this man's service and sacrifice for his 'homeland'.
Dave: Thanks for saying what I feel in succinct terms. I think this country needed to go through the Civil War and that the country is better for it. Political discourse only goes so far and eventually both sides have nothing left to say to each other.
re: RIPJames on Tue: Perhaps you're right, and perhaps this young man believed in the idea he was fighting for. In fact, this would be the most 'optimistic' end of his sacrifice.
What often fascinates me in this site is that after seeing the same picture people show reactions 100% different than mine.
But still, it's your country and your history, so if you think that this must have happened - you're probably right.
To sum my whole opinion about the series of Secession War pictures: it's touching and showing the war as it always is. The fact that this images of this kind were made in every next war does not lead to believe in our learning from the history. But wat touches me most - is that this is the beginning of the entertainment industry - their scope of interest didn't change much! 
LWI don't understand why Europeans act so smug about war as if it's beneath them. European colonialism in Africa and South east Asia didn't end all that long ago. France was in Vietnam long before America was.  The IRA was still bombing things and the British were still repressing the Irish within my lifetime (I'm 26). It's not as if all of Europe hasn't had blood on its hands in the past 2 generations. The first gulf war was certainly warranted and various European countries aided in that. 
Maybe they don't teach history in European schools? Or maybe, like in Germany, they skip over or ignore some of the nasty bits...
Stealing from the dead?Looks like this fallen soldier's pockets have been turned inside-out. Apparently someone decided he no longer needed what was in them.
[As noted by Charlie in another post: "There were no 'dog tags' then and so the soldier would write his name and hometown on a scrap of paper and carry it in his pocket so his body could be identified if needed. You will see the turned out pockets on almost all the dead." - Dave]
Empty pocketsI wouldn't view his empty pockets as signs of someone nobly trying to identify him. If I recall my Civil War history correctly, Fort Mahone was carried in a rush by the Union Army, and the resulting gap in the Petersburg line caused Lee to rapidly abandon the defense of Richmond and flee west. Almost before his body turned cold it would have lain well behind the front lines, amongst the looters, stragglers, second-line troops and curious townsfolk.
Whoever went through his pockets was looking for money, rings, ammunition or what-have-you, but almost certainly not for an address of his next-of-kin. 
Civil WarriorsSadly, given that back then it was common practice for the wealthier American young men to pay poorer men to serve in the military in their place, it would be difficult to guarantee that anyone pictured gave his life for his beliefs. Even back then there were draft riots...
And remember that medical help was primitive, and many soldiers died of infection rather than directly of their wounds.
Check out Ambrose Bierce's work (his fiction & non-fiction war stories) for moving versions of what happened on the field. 
DetailsThe video is magnificent, it brought to my attention the remains of the paper cartridges at the firing positions.  I'm not sure why that is so arresting and brought such immediacy to the image. It's certainly not ephemera. Dave's comments are spot on as I see it. I understand the preference to talk not fight, especially when one's continent has been devastated several times over. However, some see an unwillingness to ever strike back as weakness and opportunity. 
Fort MahoneMy great-grandfather and great-uncle knew these men as they were all part of the 53rd North Carolina Regiment, the sole unit in Fort Mahone. Handpicked men of the 53rd (of which my great-grandfather was one) made the final assault at Petersburg in an attempt to break Grant's line.  This was against Fort Stedman, immediately in front of Fort Mahone. They initially succeeded, but reinforcements drove them back. These photographs were made the day after the 53rd evacuated the lines the night before to begin the retreat to Appomattox.(Only 83 were left at the surrender, of whom two were black.) Thank you for the wonderful video, and I shall pass it far and wide. Below may be of interest concerning this subject.
http://brocktownsend.forum5.com/viewtopic.php?t=43&mforum=brocktownsend
Letter from General Gordon to my great grandfather, at the end, mentions Hares Hill which was another name for Fort Stedman.
http://brocktownsend.forum5.com/viewtopic.php?t=49&mforum=brocktownsend
Confederate Memorial Day - 08/10/ 911 (My Grandfather & Mother)
As one can tell from my mother's comments, my family most definitely fought for hearth and home!
http://brocktownsend.forum5.com/viewtopic.php?t=46&mforum=brocktownsend
"This Is What He Meant - All Men Up, Erected By His Colored Friends." 
53rd Regiment, NC TroopsMr. Townsend's comments sent me to look at my copy of the regimental history. My great-grandfather was one of the men of the 53rd captured on April 1st or 2nd. (The history suggests April 1st, records say the 2nd.) It is eerie to think that this is a person my great-grandfather may have known 143 years ago.
53rd NCTracy:
Very interesting!  What company was your ancestor in and what was his name, if I'm not too inquisitive?
brocktownsend@gmail.com
[A note to Brock: If you register as a Shorpy member and then log in, you can contact Tracy directly by clicking on her username.  - Dave]
Died trying...Looked like he got it while trying to reload.
Sad  It hurts me to see some of the comments.  It makes no difference which side this boy was fighting for or how he got there.  I think most of these boys/men entered the service because they believed in the cause.  History tells us that most of the deaths in the civil war were from disease and infection.  
  This photo shows what these people had to deal with.  It makes no difference if he was reloading or not. (The ramrod is lying next to his weapon).  He is covered in mud and had to be miserable ... probably hungry and missing home.  The way he is lying would indicate that he lay there for a while knowing he was dying... alone and far from home.
  Thank you Dave.  We as a country need to be reminded how good we have it because of boys like this.
ForgetHow amazing that anyone from Europe can point fingers at the US for war policies.  When my father and nine uncles (two of which didin't return) fought in WWII, they sure didn't complain.  The current Europe wouldn't exist if it weren't for the U.S. but it's so easy to forget...until you need us again.
Notice that his pockets hadNotice that his pockets had been emptied.  Either the contents were taken to return to his next of kin or he had been pilfered.  Either way, it's a poor thing to know he had family and someone who loved him waiting for his return home
re: Civil War RequiemVery powerful presentation.
(The Gallery, Civil War, Thomas Roche)

41st Engineers: 1942
March 1942. Fort Bragg, North Carolina. "41st Engineers, at Negro camp, taking advanced training. Sergeant ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/02/2023 - 11:35am -

March 1942. Fort Bragg, North Carolina. "41st Engineers, at Negro camp, taking advanced training. Sergeant Franklin Williams, left, in jeep." Acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Foreign Information Service of the U.S. Office of the Coordinator of Information. View full size.
Bye bye M1917 HelmetThose WWI-era M1917 helmets weren't long for the world at the time of this photo.  They were about to be phased out for the brand, spankin' new M1 helmets whose new design had been approved the year before and production started immediately thereafter.  Just like Audie Murphy wore.
Jeep ID1941 Ford Blitz Buggy, which predates the final design with the stamped grille.
SnarlIt’s not Sergeant Franklin Williams I’d be worried about, but that guy in the back seat.  I can almost hear the low grrrrrr sound.
Lest we forgetNot to be confused with the 42nd Infantry Division, a division of the United States Army National Guard.
"During World War II, many African-Americans served in engineer general service regiments within a segregated Army. In theory, these units were “trained and equipped to undertake all types of general engineer work,” which usually entailed the construction and repair of roads, airfields, and bridges. In practice, several black regiments were ill-trained and not given proper equipment. Unfortunately, many of the white officers assigned to the black units were hostile to the men they were supposed to lead and assumed they could not be taught to operate machinery. Accordingly, the men of many black engineer units were given duties requiring little or no skill." https://www.usace.army.mil/About/History/Historical-Vignettes/Women-Mino...
See also https://americansoldierww2.org/topics/race-and-ethnicity and "United States Army in World War II, Special Studies, The Employment of Negro Troops, Center of Military History (see chapter 20) https://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/11-4/
(The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Cars, Trucks, Buses, WW2)

Good Gulf Gas, phone 262
... was a salesman for Atlantic Refining in the early 1960s in North Carolina. I have some photos of an Atlantic station grand opening that looks ... 
 
Posted by DoninVa - 04/06/2009 - 9:38am -

Grand opening of my father's Gulf Gas station in Gulfport, Ms, circa 1955. The family's 2-door Ford station wagon to the right of the building would make two cross-country Mississippi to California trips in a few years before we finally settled in The Promised Land of southern California. The clown's outfit was covered with Gulf embroidered patches and he has poorly made-up. I was about 7 at this time. View full size.
So which hurricanefinally put this station out of business?
The other promised landGulfport is now, to many, The other promised land.
2 door Fords were "Ranch Wagons", big open area in the back for us pre-seatbelt boomers to bounce around in. 
Great picture, thanks for sharing.
Sound RentalIt's good to know that that Rambler wagon is "sound"; I'd hate to think it was otherwise! I do like the term "sound"; no longer a familiar usage. Cool. 
[It's a "sound car" because of the giant bullhorn on top. - Dave]
Just Wonderin'I see a median strip--was this on U.S. 90?  If so, I passed by many times in those years, maybe even bought gas there in the late '50s and early '60s.
And I see only two bathroom doors.  Was there a third around back?  (Men, Women, and Colored.)
Torn DownJust last year a service station identical to the picture was torn down in my town.  I also heard on the news today that a service station built in 1933 was being moved so as to preserve it.  I missed where that station was located.
Sound Car For HireWe had a 53 Ford wagon too. I like the "Bathtub Nash" with extra added features -- a large paging horn and a roving billboard. For a moment I thought the service station also rented "sound" cars, until I saw the loudspeaker. Come one, come all, and join the fun!
Hi kids! I'm Gulfy!I don't suppose you have any close-up shots of the clown? Those would be priceless. A guy in Mississippi dressed as a clown, covered with Gulf patches. You can't make this stuff up.
Love that station design. Goober Pyle'd sell his mother to own a station like that. Minus the clown.
Nash wagonThe car with the sign Sound Car for Hire looks like a Nash. I would love to see what this looks like today.
How long...was the station there? Could it still have been there in the early Seventies?
If so, I think I might have bought gas there on one of my trips between east Texas and south Georgia; I typically diverted from the direct route just to see the countryside.
A Simpler TimeThat was a time when my friends and I, standing on a street corner, could identify the make, model, and year of every car that went by.  I can almost identify all the cars here except I can't see the details to get the years right.  The big dark fourdoor sedan reminds me of our family 1948 Plymouth Deluxe but I can't see the trim well enough to be sure of the year.  I loved that car.  I also got in a bad accident with it but I can honestly say it was not my fault.  My father then got a 1954 Plymouth Belvedere with a strange kind of breakdown-prone no-shift fluid drive whose proprietary name I can't recall.
Moving onWhen I was last in Gulfport, 1990 or so, the building was still there on Pass Road but had become a quick oil change place. My father and mother decided on California and we left Gulfport. I never learned the details of the business decisions to open the station and then leave it, but in California he found his niche selling Fords. We are descended from pioneer folk who in colonial times moved from Virginia to Georgia, and then on to Alabama and Mississippi; so, the trek to California was another step in the process. Perhaps curiously, I have spent most of my adult life in the South...but my favorite baseball team is the Angels.
Somewhere in the dusty archive is a photo of the clown and he was a truly amateur joey. Today we have guys with twirling signs and huge foam hands to entice us; an improvement in marketing?
1954 PlymouthThe transmission you're referring to was called Hy-Drive.
What Is It About Clownsthat is so scary?  I would drive clear of any clown in a gas station - especially this one.
HyDriveThe Plymouth scheme of combining a fluid clutch with a three speed manual transmission was called HyDrive.
Happy DaysI love this picture! My dad was a salesman for Atlantic Refining in the early 1960s in North Carolina. I have some photos of an Atlantic station grand opening that looks almost identical to this picture, right down to the clown!
I recall being scared of the clown as a 3-year old.  It was common then at grand openings to have a clown, helium balloons, the trianglar flag streamers (in primary colors like red, blue, green, etc) and a big stack of Coca-colas to give away with every fill-up.
Even after the hoopla died down, attendants in pressed uniforms washed your windshield and checked the oil and tires, at least until the first oil shock in '73 put an end to that luxury. 
What a great time to start a business!
City or country locationIt is hard to tell.  During my Greyhound driving years I would come upon a little cinder block gas station that still had the "Good Gulf" or "Chief" logo with the trademarked lettering styles over the garage bays in the deep rural South.  We had a Phillips 66 in our part of the county, part auto center (gas, service, etc), part convience store and part boyhood education (auto parts calendars).
Sound carsI remember the "Sound Cars." They would drive through your neighborhood and you would hear this deep voice saying something like "Come to Meyer's Department Store today for our pre-fourth of July sale, everything 25% off." The voice sounded like the voice of God on an old  Charlton Heston movie and it was so loud you could hear it all through the house. Usually the speaker would pause 30-45 seconds before repeating it again as he drove by slowly. Looking back on it, it was a bit eerie. I never heard them after the mid-60s, they probably were outlawed in most towns.
Where in Gulfport?Was the station on Highway 90 or on 49?
P-15It's definitely a P-15 sedan. I'm betting on '48. I've one in the garage and I'd know that shape anywhere.
An "After" PicIf you could remember the address, I could take a pic of whatever's there now for a before and after... I live right next door in Biloxi.
Gas Prices in 1955Can anyone zoom in on this to tell me how much per gallon regular gas was selling at this station? When I bought my first used car, a 3-toned two-door 1952 Pontiac Catalina. purchased off a lot in Port Arthur, Texas, not far from a big Gulf refinery there, I think the price of regular leaded was about 31 cents. A year later, in Plainfield NJ, the price was about the same, but the car had worn out completely by then. So my dad co-signed a loan and I bought a brand new, stripped down 1957 two-door Ford Fairlane in Delaware, which was a terrific car. 
FillerupIn 1955 we handed the attendant a dollar bill and he pumped about four gallons into our car.  And that came with a window wash and an oil check. Not long after, with the same car, we did the usual "fill it with oil and check the gas."
When gas was cheapMy dad owned a gas station & store around this time period & gas was around 25 cents a gallon. Those were the days, huh? And our city must have been bigger than this one - our phone number was 4 digits & I still remember them - 6621!
I have seen this building!I am from Gulfport and I believe I have seen this building just up from the port. I think is was 30th Avenue. My grampa used to paint all the signs around Gulfport. He went by the nickname Munch. Do you know who did the signs Don? Great to see this anyway! Thanks!
Have I been there?I think I may have gotten gas there...if its the one I am thinking of, its on the highway that runs parallel to the gulf of Mexico?  I stopped at a similar place on the coast about 5 years ago for gas.
BathroomYes to the question for Just Wonderin, there is a third bathroom around back. It has a very high ceiling and a window over the top of the door.
Gulfport Tire & Auto CareHello - we just bought the old Gulf Gas Station; other than an add-on to the side and read of the building this just as it was then. The address is 1606 Pass Road Gulfport, MS 39501. We will be posting new pictures of the building; we are in the middle of cleaning and painting now.  
Re: Gulfport Tire & Auto CareAs a preface to the "now" pictures, below is the Requisite Shorpy Google Streetview of the location.
View Larger Map
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Gas Stations)

The Squeaky Wheel: 1924
... time of this photo. While in Washington he lived at 800 North Carolina Avenue SE. Schafer weighs 200 pounds and clings to the ancient ... 
 
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)

Tomato Salad: 1941
... in 1954. I grew up in places like Southern California, North Carolina, and Hawaii, where we spent many days at the beach and got sunburned ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 8:21pm -

Sunbathers at the city park swimming pool in Caldwell, Idaho. July 1941. The girls are rubbing olive oil on each other. View full size. Photograph by Russell Lee.
Bathing beautiesNow I remember why I started smoking.  It looks so glamorous.
[The girl is eating a Popsicle. What looks like a cigarette is actually sunlight on the boy's leg.  - Dave]
Bathing beautiesHow did the little guy get that job?
olive oilReminds me of an episode of Scrubs where JD uses Crisco instead of sunblock on his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. The punchline was: "Do you smell bacon?"
I was curious so I looked it up. It seems that olive oil doesn't really work as a sunblock. It's not without purpose, though -- it acts as a moisturizer, which you need after being in the sun for a while. And it makes you dream of Italy...
Innuendo?It really looks like the girl bending over is putting oil on the brunette's chest. She's actually dipping her hand in the oil though. Still......hot.
Scarlett Johansson's grandmotherIs that Scarlett Johansson's grandmother on the left?
Why yesIt is Scarlett Johansson's grandmother on the left and she is SMOKING!
And that brunette is HOT. 
Popsicle?I still can't see the popsicle, but the girl on the right appears to be holding her hair in place as she uses her teeth to spread open a bobbi pin to place in the waiting hair.
PopsicleLook harder ...

Nose ClipsAnyone else notice the dorky noseclips on the boy in the back?
Not a Popsicle, precisely . . .Actually, that looks much more like being a Fudgsicle, but hey, who's drooling?
Olive oil?!?That'sa spicy meataballa!
One morehttps://www.shorpy.com/node/1829
The photo is of the same kids when someone started handing out the Popsicles.
No sunblock back thenWhen I was a teen in the 70's we used baby oil instead of olive oil, but the intent wasn't to block the sun, it was to intensify it and get the maximum tanning we could, while forestalling any peeling. We didn't know about sun damage and melanoma. It was considered healthy-looking to have a nice, dark tan. Yikes! 
And the title of this one made me laugh. Naughty naughty! But so funny! 
BurnedI was born in 1954. I grew up in places like Southern California, North Carolina, and Hawaii, where we spent many days at the beach and got sunburned on a regular basis! Sunblocks didn't come along until the mid to late 70s. Before that, the manufacturers of suntan lotions claimed that it prevented sunburn, but it really just helped keep the skin from drying out as fast. I also remember people mixing baby oil and iodine, which supposedly helped the skin tan faster. I found that the main thing oil of any kind did was make the sand stick better. Yuck!
Oh, and I am sure the treat the girl is eating is indeed a fudgesicle!
(The Gallery, Pretty Girls, Russell Lee, Small Towns)

Granville County: 1939
July 1939. Granville County, North Carolina. "Tobacco people take it easy after their morning's work 'putting up' ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/19/2022 - 4:02pm -

July 1939. Granville County, North Carolina. "Tobacco people take it easy after their morning's work 'putting up' tobacco." Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. View full size.
Tobacco barnThose sticks propped up against the barn were used for tying tobacco leaves for curing in the barn. Today, when they are found, they are often turned into walking sticks. 
Never throw away what is still usefulNotice the horizontal boards to the right of the door; many of the black spots appear to be old nail holes from some previous use the boards had. Often even the nails would be straightened and reused. I remember doing that with my dad, decades ago when things were harder to come by, at least for us. I've never outgrown that attitude but few people I know still hold it.
[The dark spots are rust from the nails, which are still there. But yes, waste not, want not. - Dave]

Tobacco BarnInteresting - note the tobacco leaves strewn around in front of the barn door. Also notice the small size of the barn door - the better to keep the heat in during curing...same with the mud caulking between the boards...it's not there to keep the cold out of the barn - but to keep the heat in.  The sticks resting on the door and the one under the man's arm were used for hanging the tobacco leaves up in the rafters of the curing barn...which this obviously is.  The boy has a string in his mouth which is most likely from a spool used to tie the "hands" of tobacco to the sticks.  The tobacco would be bunched and tied into hands then strung onto the sticks.  The sticks would then be passed up by the crew and placed in the many rafters up in the barn.  The boy's job most likely would have been to be the one that climbed up to the upper part of the barn - receiving the sticks strung with tobacco and placing then in the rafters to cure by gas fire set on the floor underneath.
[Thanks for the info, Bowwow. Very interesting. These curing barns were old-school, fueled by wood fires instead of gas. Below: "Piles of wood for firing the tobacco barns and curing the tobacco." The wood is fed through small openings at the base of the barn. - Dave]

(The Gallery, Agriculture, Dorothea Lange, Kids, Rural America)

New Family: 1960
... a kid. There were quite a few, really, but that was in North Carolina and the beach was on the Marine Corps base! I didn't realize that most ... 
 
Posted by Tony W. - 09/17/2011 - 8:17pm -

This was taken in East L.A. in 1960. That's my aunt on the left; my grandma, who is pregnant with my dad, in the middle; and Grandpa on the right. View full size.
New look for the OldsGrandpa must have had the Rocket 88 repainted sometime between 1953 and 1960. It was white or of a light color in this black and white photo.
https://www.shorpy.com/node/6751
This car was one of the first that could take your breath away from 0 to 60 or if you put the pedal to the metal to pass while doing around 40 mph while it went into passing gear. It had a lot of horses under the hood for its day plus a new improved Hydra-Matic transmission.
I know because I used to go on trips with my grandmother who had one. She loved to prove that she could live up to the image of the old song "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena" even though she actually lived in Fullerton, which is at least 25 miles away.
H.R.Can we add Grandpa to the Handsome Rakes gallery?  He's distracting me enough to not figure out which make and model that car is!
[1953 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Coupe. - Dave]
No junk food = a flat stomach!I guess there wasn't a lot of junk food back then like today. Everyone looks healthy in the photograph!
DrooolllGreat shot of the entire family, but your Grandpa is worth a third (or fourth or fifth!) look. I remember him from your other photo.
Thank you, DarwinAnd Grandpa, thanks for contributing to the gene pool!
Yo, Tony!How ya' doin'?  Grandpa has a tough six-pack there and Grandma is a real "doll." So the aunt is one of their little siblings and your dad hasn't even arrived yet, right?  It is amazing that this photo looks so new and vibrant, just goes to prove that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  These were happy days we will never see again and I just want to confirm the words to the song "twas so good to be young then" ... a GREAT time in America and California.  I Love this picture and can relate to it as a contemporary of your grandparents. The color is particularly beautiful and just a note on Grandpa's flip-flops (which are still in style).  They used to cost 44 cents a pair at Long's drugstore.  Thanks for this blast from the past, sometimes we have to wonder how time went so fast.
I absolutely love her darling little maternity outfitIt sure looks better than the skin-tight t-shirts with herniated belly buttons poking through that we see today.
Changing attitudesTony W.'s generation must be the first one to have pictures of their grandparents in shorts or without shirts. 
Your Grandpa is radHe looks like he'll knife fight anyone who tries to mess with his family and win. 
DangGrandpa is hot.
SodadeIt's remind to me our parents ... so sweet.
SwoonI love that Grandpa doesn't wear too many shirts in his leisure time. Even if Grandpa weren't such a hottie, I'd say that's one good looking family!
NiceThose colors are so bright! Red, White and Blue with some Green!  And Grandpa is so handsome. Thanks for sharing. 
Wholesome MomentsTony, your photos have a way of capturing the human race. The family in this picture looks so "Donna Reed." On the other hand it does look rather James Dean. The toddler with the sunglasses steals the photo at one point, and the three other people, including your Dad in utero, show the bright summer day and all the colors, the attitude, and Dad's watchful eye on his glasses. The Bermuda grass lends homage to your great grandfather's knowledge of what grows best in So. Cal.
I would love to see more of your pix! Your a fine historian.
Keep up the excellent work.
No Shirt TheoryThe story was that many of the people who moved to southern California from the East were really only visiting. They treated it like a vacation, hence the relaxed and casual attire or lack thereof.
Rebel Without His ClothesVery James Dean-like.
If I were GrandmaI'd be hanging onto Grandpa too!
Cute GrandmaYour aunt is adorable too. But helloooo Grandpa!
BrawnyAny clothier who sold this guy a shirt should have been put right out of business.
The guys get Shorpy browsing categories like "Bathing Girls" and "Pretty Girls." It's a Man's World, and these hot fellas appear too infrequently for our side.
Six-Pack AbsWas he brought into such fine shape by the U.S. Army? 
Great people - great time - great pictureIs Grandpa still alive? And if so, what does he say to the echo?
Standard summer outfitYour aunt's sun suit must have been the standard in summerwear all over the country in the early 1960s. For a minute I thought that was a picture of me as a kid. 
So TrimGramps must've been a demon with the lawnmower. That grass looks like Astroturf. 
WowGrandpa is rockin' the chinos and flip flops.  Big time.
Yumms!Dang, I'd get pregnant just standing next to that hot hunk of man!
Tony's PhotographyI find Tony W's photos to be some of the most phenomenal transitions of time I have ever had the pleasure to peruse. I enjoy searching this website and looking to see whatever else this young gentleman has posted for our eyes to devour, digest and interpret. His mix of the past, present and future are so dynamic that he will go on in time and become a notorious dynamite figure in American History. Tony's family should be proud of the way he "puts himself out there"! A brave new world awaits Tony Wisneske, and those that follow will only continue to be awed, dazed and confused, and always leave with that wondrous feeling of "How did he do that"!? Rock on Mr. T.W.
6-pack before the term was coined!I have to agree that Grandpa, here, is pretty amazing! I remember seeing men built like him with their shirts off, back in the early 60s, when I was a kid.  There were quite a few, really, but that was in North Carolina and the beach was on the Marine Corps base! I didn't realize that most men didn't look like that until a few years later.  
East LAI have lived in East LA on Evergreen, and in the San Fernando Valley. This looks more like the SFV than ELA. The majority of the houses built in ELA are from the early part of the century. Maybe they lived in nearby Whittier where the homes were more modern and the terrain is flatter. Do you know what street this is?
[Tony W., who submitted the photo, replies: "The house was my great grandparents' house which I visited a lot as a kid. They have since passed away but here's the address: 649 Raywood Ave, Montebello Ca, 90640. If you go to Google street view you can see the lawns are still the same." - tterrace]
ELAOh, in Montebello that explains it. My intention was to just place the neighborhood having lived in East LA. Digging the picture way lots as I am Oldsmobile man myself (1958 Ninety Eight & 1948 76 Dynamic Cruiser). Thanks for your reply. 
(Member Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Handsome Rakes, Kids, Tonypix)

He Sleeps Where He Fell: 1864
... a member of Ewell's Corps, Ramseur's Brigade of the 4th North Carolina Regiment. It has another photo of the soldier taken facing his right ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2012 - 8:30am -

May 1864. "Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia. Dead Confederate soldier near Mrs. Alsop's house." Wet-plate glass negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan. Photos from Grant's Wilderness Campaign, May-June 1864. View full size.
War and PeaceWar does not determine who is right -- only who is left.
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
   -- Bertrand Russell
Important photoThough very sad and hard to look at for some people, pictures like this one are extremely important... expecially in today's sanitized society where people are shielded from what our brave soldiers do and risk.
They convey the price of war.
Brave soldierWilliam Frassanito's book "Grant and Lee" says there is evidence this soldier was a member of Ewell's Corps, Ramseur's Brigade of the 4th North Carolina Regiment. It has another photo of the soldier taken facing his right side across the rails on page 110. Years ago I read somewhere else that the soldier had been using rags to try and stop the blood flow from his wounds.
TragicDoesn't get anymore real than this. I hope he didn't suffer too much. RIP soldier.
Someone knew himSomeone's son, father, husband, brother.
CompassionLiving near the Vicksburg Memorial and knowing too much about the Civil War, I feel too much about that photo to say anything else, except that I'm so glad I found this site today, and may God bless all ya'll.
What price war?I've typed in quite a few versions of my feelings and thoughts after viewing this photo. Perhaps it is better simply put, it breaks my poor heart.
DisturbingI can't stand to look at pictures like this.  The things we do to each other are terrible.
Gut-shotShelby Foote pointed out these photos often show the solders' clothes pulled every which way. They were desperately looking to see where they had been hit -- if they were "gut-shot," they knew their lives were over.
PeaceA view from a tragic time in America's history.  Rest in peace dear soldier, your war is over.  
ImportantTragic and drastic though it is, this particular picture seems to have had some prominence for quite some time. It did figure in the exhibition (and catalog) of the 1955 photographic exhibition "The Family of Man" created by the Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition catalog of 1955 credits the picture to Mathew Brady, though.
Like it or notWar is how conflicting ideas are sorted out. It is why I am not someone else's property.
O'Sullivan or Brady?By 1864, Matthew Mathew Brady's eyesight was so poor that he rarely took photos himself, and almost never on battlefields. He employed over twenty photographers to do that work, among whom the best known are Timothy O'Sullivan and Alexander Gardner.
Here's what war is all aboutQuote from Confederate Cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest:
"War means fightin' and fightin' means killin'."
Nuff said.
(The Gallery, Civil War, Timothy O'Sullivan)

Pop Kola, Kolorized: 1939
July 1939. Gordonton, North Carolina. "Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note kerosene pump on ... the humor, the owner's dialogue, feeling the heat of a North Carolina summer, maybe hearing the cicadas buzzing, drinking cold soda, ... 
 
Posted by Hille - 09/20/2011 - 8:27am -

July 1939. Gordonton, North Carolina. "Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note kerosene pump on the right and the gasoline pump on the left. Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof. Negro men sitting on the porch. Brother of store owner stands in doorway." 4x5 negative by Dorothea Lange. Click here for the original B&W photo.  View full size.
Fact or fiction?Do I now look at this photo with a different eye, I'm sure some of the colours are spot on,  but I would think  it a bit of a stretch on those fellow's shirts.
[I don't think that verisimilitude was the goal here. One reason why it's so striking. - Dave]
Danger in ColorSomehow I never took note of the men smoking in such close proximity to the gas and kerosene pumps, but it really stands out to me in color.  Of course, if you escaped harm from any potential explosion, there was always the abundance of tobacco, one of the primary industries of NC.  It looks like they were going to have to build a bigger store just to support the competition in advertising for tobacco in its various forms.  I also like the way the mimosa branches in the upper left corner frame the picture in.
Thanks, DaveAnother trip to the olde Funk & Wagnall's to check the meaning of a word. "verisimilitude" indeed. This photo is extraordinary colourized.  Thank you, Hille, well done.
Big difference.That is truly awesome seeing all those signs color! That would be a sign collector's dream to stumble upon a cache like this.
Great job Hille.
Rock Solid?What really jumps out at me with the addition of color are the "supporting" rocks that are holding up the front deck. Seems like one or two rocks could easily slide out and send that peaceful bunch flying.
Ouch!I made deliveries to this store in the late 60's and this is just wrong.  Striking, but wrong.  If verisimilitude wasn't the goal, there should be a lot more pinks, purples and chartreuses in there -- it wouldn't look much more unreal than this does, but a lot more striking.
[Talk is cheap! - Dave]
Don't I know it.
Like the Wizard of OzI've always enjoyed looking at these colorized photos. It helps me visualize how the world would have actually appeared to the photographer. I ran across a similar photo and colorized it a while back and am blown away how mine looks similar in color selection as this picture. See attached.
Summer of '39Wouldn't y'all love to have lazed along with this carefree group on that idle July afternoon listening to the neighborly conversation, the humor, the owner's dialogue, feeling the heat of a North Carolina summer, maybe hearing the cicadas buzzing, drinking cold soda, smoking cigs and best of all, NO technology, iPhones, texting, or headphones.  People actually exchanging ideas, jokes, gossip, talking about their mates, perhaps discussing news about the Depression and the simmering war in Germany.  Maybe some '30s music with some static emanating from a radio back inside the store somewhere, "watching the Fords go by," as my Daddy used to say.  This was real leisure, my idea of the best kind of hanging out, an era gone forever.
Pure ArtI remember about half of the signage attached to the front wall. I can also remember the gas wars of the 50's when I pumped gasoline at 15.9 cents a gallon.
Beautiful job of coloring this photo, it's a shame the negative wasn't larger.
[The original is gigantic -- and even that's been downsized. - Dave]
Re: "Like the Wizard of Oz" submitted by skizmal"Like the Wizard of Oz" submitted by skizmal looks much more realistic to me. Those Chesterfield signs are just as I remember them, a very dark red, almost brown color. I'd love to see this photo larger.
What a difference colour makesI find that when I look at monochrome photos that were taken before colour photography was developed (pun intended!), after a while one gets to think of the pre-colour years as being totally colourless. Silly, I know, but that's the way the mind works.
So to see something like this -- and all the other colourizations presented here on Shorpy -- is really great. Thank you.
Re: Danger in ColorBased on my estimate (which probably isn't terribly accurate), I'd guess the guy on the left is about 6 feet away from the gasoline pump; and the guy on the right is about 3 feet away from the Kerosene pump.  Due to the explosive quality of gas vapors, I'd be more worried about the guy on the left.  Strangely enough, I still see people today; standing at a gas pump, puffing away.  And even worse, they put the pump handle back in the cradle, and screw the gas cap back on with the same hand that's holding the lit cigarette.  I figure that sooner or later, I'll be able to personally witness the next Darwin Award winner.
Uncriticisable!You have my utmost admiration!  Truly a task of incredible patience and attention to detail! 
Thanks for sharing this beautiful work!
Brown GasMy guess is that the color of the gas is too dark. Light amber would be more like it.
Just EnjoyWhy criticize! Just enjoy the picture as it is.  Colors are not the same to everyone. I can remember seeing scenes just like this in rural East Texas. Thank you for taking me back in time. Ahhhh, the memories. 
ColorGreat job on the color. The store reminds me of my grandparents' house in South Carolina. It was set on stones also.
Pop Kola:KolorizedThe Pop Kola titled pic is dead on, including the gasoline - if you've ever seen a large volume of leaded regular, you'd know that it looks much darker in quantity; there are at least 20, perhaps 25 gallons in that glass enclosure.  BTW, anyone notice the shoe underneath the kerosene pump? All those guys appear to have theirs on.
(ShorpyBlog, Colorized Photos, Stores & Markets)
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