MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
Home

Search Shorpy

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

Search results -- 30 results per page

Meet Crushy: 1936
... presumably Golden Spike is the analog of Canada Dry, while Buffalo Rock is a Vernor's sort of drink? And to meet this Crushy (if that ... down in my art supply box with cobwebs all over it! Buffalo Rock lives! Still bottled (canned, actually...) in Birmingham: ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/05/2012 - 11:10pm -

March 1936. Savannah, Georgia. "Waterfront warehouses." Large-format nitrate negative by Walker Evans for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Peters Bottling CoAll I could find: 1950, Savannah City Directory, 116-118 West Bay Street. Older buildings are there, but not the ones pictured. Afternoon Sugar TimeWhen I was eight years old in the mid 1950's, I attended a two week long summer camp in the Irish Hills of Michigan. The camp did not have a camp store or PX. However, after the mandatory post lunch rest period each day, the cabin counselors would give you a red plastic bingo card chip and a metal washer. These would be traded in at the camp activity hall for an ice cold Orange Crush and a candy bar. Still love orange pop and chocolate to this day. I try to limit it to once a month. Later when I joined the Boy Scouts, the summer camps had PXs. A cherry Coke with a bag of salted peanuts poured in the cup was popular back then. Parsed Exceeding FineSo, presumably Golden Spike is the analog of Canada Dry, while Buffalo Rock is a Vernor's sort of drink? And to meet this Crushy (if that really _is_ his name), one slips in through the loading dock and makes for the employees' break room? I dialed 4332 for the answer to those and other queries, but apparently nobody's home. Crushy's familyAs you may have noticed, Crushy is a member of that popular Art Deco advertising art family I like to call the Ball Head Men. Two other examples below, courtesy Vintagraph. In recent years the Ball Head Men have enjoyed a revival of their careers and can now be seen on crosswalk signs and bathroom doors all over the world. Nucoa?Another beverage? A forerunner of YooHoo perhaps? Why am I surprised it never took off. [That's on the building next door, presumably a distribution depot for the Nucoa Butter Co., makers of the margarine. - tterrace] Truck BedsI love how the back of the delivery trucks seem to be designed to resemble a six-pack container for returnable bottles! Poster manThe very same year (a month ago in Shorpy time), Crushy / Ball Head Man pops up on a playhouse poster in New Orleans here. [In fact, he's the one in the lower left of my illustration below. - tterrace] Ball Head MenTterrace, I always called those folks "Speedball men," because they could easily be drawn using a certain Speedball drawing or lettering nib. I can't remember which nib, but it's probably down in my art supply box with cobwebs all over it! Buffalo Rock lives!Still bottled (canned, actually...) in Birmingham: http://www.buffalorock.com/products/gingerale.html A different ball headThe trademark of Bic pens and other products is the Bic Boy whose head was inspired by the ball inside of their ballpoint pens around 1960 when I worked there. He is a schoolboy holding a pen behind his back. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Walker Evans)
Embraceable Utica: 1910
... Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record, 1901. Buffalo Notes The old drug establishment at the corner of Genesee and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/21/2012 - 11:18am -

Utica, New York, circa 1910. "Genesee and Bleecker streets." Points of interest include the City Candy Kitchen, City National Bank, a streetcar control tower and the Commercial Travelers building seen in an earlier post. View full size. Busy Corner Drug StoreMedicine bottles from Sullivan & Slauson Busy Corner Drug Store have become collectables. Ricks Bottle Room has more info and photos. Maybe someone else sees it but I'm having trouble figuring out what is Embraceable about the photo. American Druggist and Pharmaceutical Record, 1901. Buffalo Notes The old drug establishment at the corner of Genesee and Lafayette streets. Utica, for a number of years known as McMillan's drug store, has been secured by Daniel J. Sullivan and John G. Slauson, and will be run under the firm name of Sullivan & Slauson. The members of the new firm are well known and popular. Mr. Sullivan was for years employed by John H. Sheehan & Co., and later by W. A. Teachout, but recently had charge of the prescription department of Crazier W. Hurlburt's drug store. He is a graduate of the New York College of Pharmacy. Mr. Slanson was for nine years employed by Howarth & Ballard as a prescription clerk. It is the intention of the new firm to remodel the store. Lyrical title It could be associated with a Holiday. Parked at BusycornerIt looks to me as if "Busy Corner" is a compound word on the sign (not positive because a pole obscures the "C" of "corner"). If so, a neat turn that gives the sign even more character. I noticed the little carriage parked ahead of the car in this transitional period from horse-and-buggy to internal combustion. I like the fastidious lady sitting in the back seat so she doesn't have to dirty her petticoats clambering over the wheel, while her husband sits in front ready to drive whenever the other passenger comes out of the store. I assume he's her husband and not a hired chauffeur because he isn't uniformed, but maybe that's not typical of the period. This is an upper class lady, I think, because the horses are a matched pair (same color and size). Is she reading a book to pass the time, or just looking for something in her purse? Take me awayWhat a fabulous photo. I love seeing the women and children out on the street enjoying life. BusyThe lady in the carriage (under the barber shop windows) seems very focused on something in her hands. I wonder: could she be downloading Scott Joplin's "Solace" to her iPhone? Man on the streetThe man at the far right side of the picture is asking himself the age old question "Does my breath stink?" ObservationsWith the greatest respect I find I have to disagree with other posters. On closer inspection it would seem that the gentleman in front is wearing a uniform and therefore likely to be the chauffeur to the lady in the carriage. I would like to suggest that we are waiting for "Sir" who must be in the bank. It will also become obvious that madam is actually checking her text messages (no earphone leads)! I can't recall seeing the "screens" hanging round horses like this before. Dare I suggest that they maybe something of a "modesty blanket" that madame demands around her beautiful (and expensive) pair. [That's fly netting on the horse. Seen here in a number of posts. - Dave] Duly NotedThe Lady in the carriage is sitting behind her driver, she is not doing anything other than keeping the sun out of her eyes, hands folded upon her purse, possibly napping. Man with hand up on sidewalk, not smelling his breath, as the Lady to his right has placed her hand over part of her face, possibly neither wanting their photograph taken. Before Facial Recognition. Below the sign City Candy Kitchen appears to be a group of Girls with umbrellas and hats, possibly a school field trip. To the left of South Streetcar 65, that of a man on a bicycle. Note: Man in the Barber Chair & Barber. Also Block & Tackle rig, big hook hanging from roof of the Bank. (The Gallery, DPC, Streetcars, Utica)
Jack-Knife Bridge: 1905
Buffalo, New York, circa 1905. "Jack-Knife Bridge, City Ship Canal, foot of ... There's a lot of interesting history about the Buffalo grain industry here . And I should really get back to work. And ... rejoiced. Incredible Great to see more pictures of Buffalo in its prime. Atmosphere I love the way the photo captures the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/22/2012 - 10:39am -

Buffalo, New York, circa 1905. "Jack-Knife Bridge, City Ship Canal, foot of Michigan Street." Detroit Publishing Company glass negative. View full size. Wonderful mechanical artWhat a great photograph, I just got lost in it. And that bridge! The lifting design is amazing. Look at those rolling counterweights, articulated steam-powered lifting arms, and the beautifully engineered iron-work that contains it all. I love it! From Google Earth photo: this the bridge at the end of Michigan Street now. (yawn): http://www.panoramio.com/photo/12074755 Smoke all overI just wonder what it has been to live in a city that time while smoke was in one's nose all the time. Many of these old city photos seem to reveal an air pollution problem. But I would still be happy to make a visit back to those times! Toot, toot!What a great photo! You can almost smell the smoke and hear the tugboat's horn! First built in 1873, apparentlyThere's a lot of interesting history about the Buffalo grain industry here. And I should really get back to work. And LoSteampunks and boatnerds across the land rejoiced. IncredibleGreat to see more pictures of Buffalo in its prime. AtmosphereI love the way the photo captures the steam/smoke from the tug under the bridge. The steam/smoke is enveloping the left edge of the bridge. Very cool. Long goneThe bridge in the picture here is no longer in existence. The bridge shown in the picture from the comment entitled "Wonderful Mechanical Art" is the Michigan Street Bridge that crosses the Buffalo River, not the Buffalo Ship canal. Lil TootThis must be the tug Disney based his classic cartoon on. I wish I was the captainOf that steam tugboat. What a beautiful time trip I would make. Thanks again for this fantastic photo. Kellogg BuildingsSorry Breakfast Clubbers, the Kellogg A and B Buildings didn't store or manufacture Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies. Spencer Kellogg & Sons compounded oils (cooking, vegetable and castor among others) from linseed. Scuffy the Tugboat.A colorization candidate! These squat tugs are likely "low-profile" Great Lakes Towing and Salvage boats and were painted dark green on the hull with red deckhouse and white trim, often named for a U. S. state. Note the trident steam whistle. It must have produced a beautiful a sound. They were very powerful tugs for their size and some were steered with a whip-staff rather than a large wooden wheel. Also note the Erie Canal style barge tied up at the foot of the Kellogg warehouse. Smoke all overIn days past a photo with smoke in the air denoted prosperity and industry going full steam ahead towards the future. The smokier the more prosperous an area was. Connelly Bros. Ship ChandlersThe business in the lower left, Connelly Bros., was a ship chandlery which served the equipment, etc. needs of Great Lakes freighters coming and going from the port of Buffalo. It was founded by my great-grandfather John Connelly. He was born in Ireland in 1853 and emigrated to the US. He and his brothers got started as young men buying and selling (used, I think) rope around the mouth of the Erie Canal and the Buffalo harbor. I believe that between the chandlery and the bride was the dock of the fire boat. The Connelly Bros. building in the picture was destroyed in the late fifties when a freighter that was tied up for the winter up stream came loose and collided with the bridge. The bridge tower came down into the business and all was destroyed by the collision and possibly a resulting fire. I'm not sure if it was the same bridge or a later version. I think the fire boat in service now(the Edward Cotter?) is still tied up there. The business was moved to 43 Illinois St. which is right across from the parking structure at the HSBC Arena (now known as First Niagara). Due to the opening of the Welland canal and the decline of steel and manufacturing in Buffalo, ship traffic became greatly reduced in the 1960s-80s. My father, John Connelly Norwalk, was forced to close the business down in the mid 1980s after operating for over 3 generations within our family. Almost every member of my dad's family my age and older had a hand in working there at some point. If you look closely you can see people, possibly my relatives, out in front of the building along the docks. Thank you for this. It will make a fantastic family keepsake. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Buffalo NY, DPC)
City of Ottawa: 1907
... end to scrappers in 1945. Launched on June 20, 1871 at Buffalo for the Atlantic, Duluth & Pacific Company by Gibson & Craig ... iron passenger and freight vessels running between Buffalo and Duluth, the others the China and Japan. Beginning the next year ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/22/2018 - 11:21pm -

Cleveland circa 1907. "Steamer City of Ottawa entering Cuyahoga Creek." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. What is supporting that bridge?Was this photo somehow manipulated or am I just not seeing the bridge/ferry landing properly? The shadows do not look correct, nor does the water beneath it. Is the dark pile which is barely visible made of steel, and all that is bearing the weight? [It's a swing bridge in the open position. -tterrace] Thanks Dave...makes perfect sense now! I hadn't considered that it was pointing 90 degrees from its normal orientation :-) (even though I have a defunct center pivot one close by) The Name GameCity of Ottawa had a pretty long life on the lakes, a nearly went further. Christened the INDIA in 1871, she joined sister ships in service known as CHINA and the JAPAN. From the annals of the Toronto Maritime Society, these were no run of the mill steamers plying the Great Lakes. "...The passenger cabin of each was a veritable palace compared to other ships then operating. The staterooms opened off a long open passageway in which the dining tables were set at mealtimes. At the forward end of the cabin was the men's smoking room, while at the after end of the passenger area the cabin opened out into a spacious and luxuriously appointed ladies' cabin, complete with grand piano. The woodwork up to the level of the clerestory was varnished, while the deckhead was painted white. Woodcarvings were in evidence everywhere. The entire cabin was fitted with carpeting and an elegant companionway led down to the main deck where the purser's office was located. As usual for the period, bathroom facilities were not provided in the staterooms but each room did boast "running water" in that reservoirs mounted over the sinks were filled daily by the stewardesses and after that gravity did the rest. The galley was located on the main deck and the food (of excellent repute) was brought to the cabin by means of a primitive lift." Ironically, while she went by City of Ottawa renaming for most of her sailing days, the ship started as INDIA and ended that way as well, while being refitted for saltwater use during WWII. She was sent down the Mississippi River to New Orleans but deemed too old and unfit, was eventually laid up along Lake Ponchartrain, where it's believed she meet her end to scrappers in 1945. Launched on June 20, 1871 at Buffalofor the Atlantic, Duluth & Pacific Company by Gibson & Craig and the King Iron Works, the India was the first of a trio of state-of-the-art iron passenger and freight vessels running between Buffalo and Duluth, the others the China and Japan. Beginning the next year and for the next decade it ran for the Lake Superior Transit Company, allied with a pool of railroad-related steamship companies and after that with the Anchor Line, part of the Pennsylvania Rail Road. Sold in 1906 to the Montreal & Lake Erie Steamship Company, reflagged Canadian, repowered, and renamed the City of Ottawa, the vessel operated as the firm's name implies. Its passenger accommodations were removed in 1913 when Canada Steamship Lines Ltd. acquired the vessel and placed it in the package freight trade between Hamilton and Montreal. Laid up in 1926, the City of Ottawa was sold back into American registry briefly in 1928 and renamed India, and the next year back into Canadian registry for the Algoma Central Railway Company and renamed Sault Ste. Marie, running between Fort William and Toronto. In 1930 it again entered American registry and reverted again to the name India, cut down to a coal barge. Requisitioned by the Maritime Commission for war service in 1942, the India was brought down the Chicago River, Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers for a conversion that never occurred. The India was dismantled on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain in 1945. The William L. Scott was built at Buffalo in 1890 by the Union Dry Dock Company for that city's Hand & Johnson Tug Line. It was abandoned and dismantled in 1915, probably at Erie, Pennsylvania. Swing bridge?Never was a real fan of bridges that move. Really like them sitting still and anchored. Getting A LiftFor fans and non-fans of moving bridges, the current edition at or near that same spot is a rather impressive rail lift bridge, rather than swing version. Everything's up to date in Cleveland. Tugging at your heartThe tug WILLIAM L. SCOTT, built in 1890, was steam powered and of wood construction, weighing 54 gross tons, with dimensions of 67.9 x 17.4 x 10 feet. It was dismantled in 1915 at Union Dry Dock, Buffalo Shipbuilding. I suspect the boat may have been named for Pennsylvania congressman William Lawrence Scott (1828-1891). (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC)
Second Home: 1943
... bureau. The high school football game between Garner and Buffalo Center was called because of darkness after "driving snow" knocked out ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/08/2014 - 12:39pm -

January 1943. "Freight train operations on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa. The caboose is the conductor's second home. He always uses the same one and many conductors cook and sleep there while waiting for trains to take back from division points." Medium format nitrate negative by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size. "Stormy" and brake tests."Stormy" Kromer was the inventor's name, the hat was a Kromer Blizzard Cap. The last one my wife bought for me was made in China, so I don't buy them anymore. There used to be a pair of hand (lantern) signals in the rulebook to handle brake tests: Rule 12(f), the lamp swung horizontally over the head was the signal for the engineer to apply the brakes for the test, Rule 12(g), the lamp held at arm's length overhead was the signal to release. If all was well and the pressure recovered at the caboose, the next signal would be the "highball", otherwise someone would start walking the train to find the problem. Classy RV-ingWouldn't it be great to have an RV these days that looked more like that than the generic, mundane look most modern RVs have? I suppose one could refit an RV to look like this, but the weight of the wood paneling might be a problem, not to mention the weight of the woodstove. One can dream, however unrealistic one's dreams might be. The Modern CabooseIn Canada at least there are still uses for cabooses. Mainly they're used on short switching runs where one or two cars are dropped off and or picked up at a specific shipper. I suspect that this is a time saving measure since it would be inefficient to keep moving the ETD (FRED) to the new end car, and it poor electronic brain might not be able to cope with a movement that temporarily splits the train in the middle. Lots of factors killed Cabeesemost already mentioned, but there were a large number of workers comp incidents that arose in a people transporter located a mile back of slack action on a freight train. One of the best ways to improve safety is to eliminate the need to expose workers to the danger in the first place. So this was a big improvement. Cheesecake, though, is something to be missed. Comforting memoriesAs a young boy in Maine my brother and I would watch the trains go by and count the cars. It was a thrill to wave to the conductor. My grandfather, an old railroad man, introduced us to a conductor friend of his and we even got a quick look inside a caboose. A dream come true for a young railroad fan. Proper pinupsSome tasty cheesecake here. Contemporary girls a la Sundblom and Elvgren along with some smaller older pieces. I Miss the CabooseNice man cave. September snowThe graffiti is correct; it did indeed snow in Illinois and Iowa on Friday, September 25, 1942 - up to two inches (in Iowa Falls). Newspapers the next morning reported that this was the first September snowfall in Des Moines in the history of the weather bureau. The high school football game between Garner and Buffalo Center was called because of darkness after "driving snow" knocked out six lights. Wall CandyI worked on a railroad for 36 years and the cabooses never were allowed to look like that. Years ago the caboose was assigned to the Conductor for each trip he made so it was decorated it the way he wanted it. I rode these for many years until they were replaced with a flashing rear end device. FRED Back in the day!It would have been nice to be there. Caboose LoreWhatever happened to cabooses? Were they stopped as a cost-saving measure, or was the conductor no longer needed on freight trains? They were a "natural" ending to trains as they looked so different from the other cars. When they passed you knew that it was OK to cross the crossing. Now freight trains just end and it is sad. Part of the fun with trains was waving at the caboose. Quite often, the conductor or whoever was in it would wave back. Cabeese and conductorsThough the cabeese have been replaced, not so the conductors. Their office has been moved into the cab of the locomotive..Conductors are actually in charge of the train, not as ususlly believed, the engineers. Engineers run the locomotives and the conductors tell them where to pick up and drop off freight cars. I prefer the caboose to the Freds that are used now. The Freds not only have a flashing light, but they radio air pressure and other information to the engineer, but the conductor is usually a nice friendly guy, much more than the Freds, A Place to HangI feel sorry for the modern conductor and brakeman. They used to have a home away from home at the end of the train but now only have a seat in the lead locomotive or a seat in the empty slave locomotives. Get a load of the CabooseGet a load of the caboose on the broad on the wall of the caboose. LOL (Am I the only one to post this obviouse joke?) A glimpse of the cabooseFrom "I Like Trains" by Fred Eaglesmith Sixteen miles from Arkadelphia right near the Texas border traffic was stopped at a railway crossing I took it to the shoulder I stoked the kettle I put it to the metal I shook the gravel loose I missed the train but I was happy with a glimpse of the caboose (chorus) cause I like trains I like fast trains I like trains that call out through the rain I like trains I like sad trains I like trains that whisper your name I was born on a greyhound bus my Momma was a diesel engine They tried to put me behind the wheel but I wouldn't let them You should have seen the look in their eyes and how it turned to tears when I finally told them I wanna be an engineer Now you think I've got someone new but darlin' that ain't true I could never love another woman besides you It's not some dewy-eyed darlin' darlin' that's gonna drive you insane But anymore I'd be listenin' for the sound of a big ol' train (chorus) cause I like trains I like fast trains I like trains that call out through the rain I like trains I like sad trains I like trains that whisper your name Cabeese have always intrigued meThanks for the view of life inside a caboose, I have always been fascinated with them. After reading Lectrogeek's link about the demise of the caboose I learned quite a bit of info about trains that I just took for granted before reading the link. The link's explanation of the features of the FRED device does bring up one question though. Before the days of computers and the prevalence of two-way radios from the back of the train to the front, how did the engineer get all of the air pressure and movement information from the conductor? Stormy Kromer!I spy an actual Stormy Kromer hat hanging on a peg! Still made in Michigan, originally designed by Stormy's wife from a baseball cap and made to stay on a railroad engineer's head no matter how windy. Technology overtook them.Renaissanceman asked "Whatever happened to cabooses?" Technology, in the form of flashing end-of-train devices (acronym is FRED, I think) and computerised detection for when the rear end passes critical points (signals, switches, etc) replaced the need for a man at the back. Home sweet home!Except for the slack action when a long train started up, I'm sure. Note the stout rod holding the potbelly stove down to the floor. And here is an explanation for why we no longer have cabeese. MemoriesMy brother forwarded this shot to me and boy do I love it. Our father was a conductor on the C&NWRR and the photo brought back so many wonderful memories of my childhood. As a railroading family, my father would periodically take me to the yard with him to work. One of the highlights of the trip was reaching for the curved handrail on the side of the caboose and let the train's passing movement pull you up for the ride. Once on-board, I loved climbing up to the copula for a bird’s eye view (usually it would be a trip to Proviso Yard where I could be handed off to see my uncle, grandfather or a cousin). Thank you for any train picsMy Grandfather, whom I adored, worked on the Erie Lackawanna from the early 1910's to the late 1960's. Any old pics of the great train days are so appreciated. Thank you. I find it interestingwith the cheesecake motif that in the upper left hand of this photo (near the stove pipe) there's a picture of what appears to be a mother consoling a child. Penny for his thoughts.Pipe smoker is wearing a Stormy Kromer as well. I wonder what he's thinking? How long will the war last? How long till he sees his son again? How long till lunch? How long is it gonna take this photographer to get his shot? The end of the endTwo innovations contributed to the end of the caboose. Roller bearings on the freight cars meant the guy in the cupola didn't have to watch for "hot-boxes" from the earlier cotton-waste oil-saturated bearing packing. The advent of the walkie-talkie meant communication between the engineer and the guy on the ground taking care of the switching. Not Politically CorrectPersonalized cabooses like this started dying off probably by the 1950s when most large railroads and the unions agreed to use "pooled" cabooses where the caboose stayed with the train and only the crews changed. Today it is totally politically incorrect to post lewd photos or drawings like those in the photo. If doing such today does not get you fired, it will certainly cause you to have to attend Diversity and Sensitivity Training Sessions. Oh yeah, most jokes are strictly off limits, too. The railroad is a changed place these days. It's all in the detailsAnd what a wealth of details in this photo! Like the splatter on the side of the cabinet just above the waste basket. Probably from tobacco juice, or possibly empty beer cans? Neither of which would fly in today's railroad workplace, according to several of the comments. And the guy with the pipe would probably be out of a job as well. And what's up with the rolling pin hanging on the wall? Maybe to roll out a few pancakes for cooking on the stove when they got hungry? The print of the mother and child on the left looks like it has been hanging there since the caboose was built. And, echoing several of the other comments, I miss the caboose and the waving conductor. I still remember that as a kid, and this was back in the 1970s. Outstanding photo and keep up the great work. Politically Correct PinupIt's in the eye of the beholder. Working on the railroadI come from a railroad family. My grandfather had 50 years on the job, as did my father. I haven't seen the interior of many caboose cars but I did not see any decorated like this one. My dad used the downtime to study his safety rules for the next level of exam, necessary for promotion, not looking at nekkid women. Men were paid on time in grade status, but to promote you had to take a test and wait for an opening. Railroading was a serious job, the company took safety very seriously as did the men, particularily the brakemen because they would be out there on the track swinging the lantern to guide the engineer on his back-up as well as to switch the track. Never would alcohol be on the job, not ever. It would not be tolerated by the company, nor by the men whose lives were at stake. My dad smoked cigarettes, as did his father. Everyone smoked cigarettes and since it was not an issue like it is today, I cannot image that it wasn't allowed in the caboose. My dad quit railroading in the 1980s saying he was quitting because the new men coming in did not care--they were not interested in learning the job the right way, just "get it done quick, rest, play cards, and get my pay". It hurt him to see this low standard of work ethic, as it did other men. Sad commentary on progress, is it not. We loved seeing the trains pass--ran from our play when we heard the whistle blow just to wave, first at the engineer who would sound the horn for us, and then at the caboose where the men would wave back. it was especially nice if it was our dad in the caboose. Dining carI assume the "Dining Car in opposite direction" sign is a joke? If so, very clever. Afterlife of CabeeseA friend of ours, who has a stand of sugar maple trees and a hobby sugaring operation, got a retired Canadian National caboose (red, of course) with the idea of using it as a warming hut during the sap boiling. He paid some nominal price, and it was delivered to his site on a flatbed truck. He'd determined how high the caboose should be mounted -- you get the caboose only, not the wheels -- and he'd prepared a foundation for it that would place it at the actual height of a operational caboose. To get the thing off the truck an into place, he rented a crane and operator at something like $100/hour (this was three decades ago). Well, it took the crane operator four hours to get that caboose off the truck and onto the foundation! Yes, it all worked out OK, and yes, there's a red CN caboose sitting in a southern Ontario stand of maples. But that "freebie" caboose ended up costing a whole lot more. Air on the BrakesAccording to the air brake gage on the back wall there is air on the train so the caboose is hooked up (coupled) to the train. I wonder who's cut out head is pinned to the lower left door window? (The Gallery, Jack Delano, Railroads)
BPL: 1908
Buffalo, New York, circa 1908. "Buffalo Public Library, Lafayette Square." (Beware browsing bison!) 8x10 inch ... library was Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz . (The Gallery, Buffalo NY, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/19/2022 - 8:54pm -

Buffalo, New York, circa 1908. "Buffalo Public Library, Lafayette Square." (Beware browsing bison!) 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Replaced in 1964This sturdy, Romanesque structure was replaced in 1964 with an international style structure. The new library has features the old one probably lacked, like handicap access. But you're still on your own finding a parking spot. The Hotel Lafayette, at right in 1908, is still there. Swing to your left if you want to admire a building with Flower Power. Rolling StonesThe '60s were a cruel decade for Romanesque on the Niagara Frontier. 1890-1968 Re: ReplacedYeah, the mansion was replaced by the mid-Twentieth Century eyesore. and the new one does have things that the old one didn't, like a leaky roof, and drafts in the winter. One set of things that it doesn't have any more are the fantastic collection of books that they once had. About thirty years ago, they started discarding them in favor of the newer "politically correct" pieces. I used to love to go to the old Grosvenor Mansion and spend a day there when I was a kid. By the time that I was old enough to go into the adult sections, they were gone. Thanks for the photo. Detail!Amazing roof work. It looks so ... Minecraft. DemolishedIt shows how American cities did have beautiful buildings once, but were easily torn down. Luckily, this has generally not been the case in Europe. WhyWhy would they replace the original library with that ? Ready for my closeupI was looking for something else and spotted this. And now we know the architect of this impressive library was Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz. (The Gallery, Buffalo NY, Cars, Trucks, Buses, DPC)
River City: 1900
Buffalo, New York, circa 1900. "Buffalo River and elevators, foot of Main Street." 8x10 inch dry plate glass ... was the flour milling capitol back at that date, but Buffalo was its big rival. Eventually, by about 1930, Buffalo became the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/22/2017 - 8:39am -

Buffalo, New York, circa 1900. "Buffalo River and elevators, foot of Main Street." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. A Great PhotographI have spent more time studying this anonymous photo than any I have seen on Shorpy--and I've seen them all. It is an amazing composition. The range of tones and textures, the surface of the river, smoke, steam and clouds, the weathered dock and coal in the foreground. Those elevators look like sets for a Fritz Lang film. And the overall oppressiveness. A great photograph. Flour millingMinneapolis was the flour milling capitol back at that date, but Buffalo was its big rival. Eventually, by about 1930, Buffalo became the biggest flour producer, largely due to shipping costs and a special political deal to allow Canadian wheat to be milled "in bond" in the US and passed on to European markets, which gave Buffalo a clear cost advantage. Reimagined grain silosToday, a few of the old grain silos have been painted as Labatt's beer cans. Labatt's, a popular Canadian pilsener, is imported via the Peace Bridge between Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ontario, I believe. The import arm of the brewery is located in Buffalo. The repainted silos are a tribute to what is arguably western NY's most popular beer. You just have to see it to believe it! Also, you can tour the silos now, and even go up inside one. This is not for those afraid of heights (like me), something the tour operator stresses. One silo is used on occasion for recording music. There are also companies in the area that rent out kayaks, canoes, water boards, and water bikes so one can paddle in the Erie Canal and Buffalo River to investigate the silos, and returning wildlife. A great job has been done on the Buffalo waterfront, there is ice skating in the winter, there are new restaurants, breweries, and many wildlife habitats recreated from what was once a polluted wasteland. The City of Buffalo has a lot to be proud of for once. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Buffalo NY, DPC)
Appleton: 1962
... Iroquois beer So we're probably somewhere in New York. Buffalo? [I could really go for a six-pack of Pontiacs right about now. - ... Tavern. Where the heck is it? Iroquois beer was brewed in Buffalo & Dunkirk NY and also in Ohio at various times but not in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/04/2017 - 5:11pm -

UPDATE: It took only a few minutes for you to pinpoint the location to Appleton, Wisconsin. Well done! This is one of the Janet & Kermy Kodachromes, labeled "Wisconsin plane trip 1962." The slide was processed in October 1962. A 35mm Kodachrome from the Shorpy archives that I scanned last night. Where are we, and when? See the comments for your answers. View full size. Why are downtowns desolate nowadays?Comparing the photo from 1962 to Google Street View, it is jarring how desolate the downtown feels. The older photo seemed to pack in SO MANY more stores, so much more texture, and of course, so many more people and cars. Lots of photos on this site, when compared to modern day, feel the same. I suppose I know some of the answers, but it still jumps out at me. [Shopping centers, for one. - tterrace] Iroquois beerSo we're probably somewhere in New York. Buffalo? [I could really go for a six-pack of Pontiacs right about now. - Dave] Amarica's Dairyland@bobstothfang- You would be correct. The phrase America's Dairyland has been on all Wisconsin standard automobile plates since 1940. TuslerI think there was a Tusler Pontiac in Appleton, WI. 1960Newest car in the photo is the 1960 Chevy parked on right foreground. Just a guessI'd say early 1960s Atlanta. AppletonThat is Appleton, Wisconsin. That's cool!No comment in particular other than I love these photos that capture a place in time. Love it. Appleton, WisconsinAt back, the H.C. Prange Department Store was at 126 West College Avenue Appleton, Wisconsin. It opened in 1946. View Larger Map Is this the place?Might this be Appleton, Wisconsin? Downtown AppletonDowntown Appleton, WI; looking west along College Avenue between Morrison and Oneida. View Larger Map Lightning-quickI am impressed! Appleton, Wisconsin, is correct. This is one of the Janet & Kermy Kodachromes, labeled "Wisconsin plane trip 1962." The slide was processed in October 1962. Appleton200 block of East College, Appleton, Wisconsin I'll take an educated guessI am betting that we are looking south on the main street in Appleton, WI in the very early '60s. Based on the following clues -- Tusler Pontiac sign Tusler Motor Company (Google) Burton Tusler (Google) The vintage of the cars Jimos Hat Cleaners (Google) "Andy Jimos, who had a hat cleaning business on the main street for 65 years…from 1927 to 1982"... The license plates are tough to see, but they might say "America's Dairyland" on the bottom. [Other clews below. - Dave] 217 east college Appleton WIGreenen dry goods is pretty conclusive. There are a lot of changes but the red brick building with beige points is still there. But here's the most perplexing question of allWhy does Jimos Hat Cleaners have a Coca-Cola logo on its sign? Far CarsFrom the left: 1961 Chevy, 1955 Chevy Nomad, yellow 1959 Ford, 1962 Ford, another 1959 Ford, blue 1962 Ford, 1960 Mercury. AALThe large building on the far right with the "A.A.L" on it is the headquarters of the Aid Association for Lutherans (now Thrivent). I've had a life insurance policy with them since my parents bought it when I was two months old (March 1962). Dave:aren't clews the lower part of a sail? [Maybe you need to get out more! - Dave] Iroquois BeerI spent an hour or more looking for Iroquois Beer but only found Schlitz on top of Dick's Tavern. Where the heck is it? Iroquois beer was brewed in Buffalo & Dunkirk NY and also in Ohio at various times but not in Wisconsin, "diloretta" anything further to add? Thanks for the reason to hunt this pic. [I think Diloretta was confusing Chief Pontiac with the Iroquois mascot. - Dave] Desolate DowntownsThis looks to be one of those towns that tried to buck the trend by putting the shopping center/mall downtown. These almost always failed. Nowadays malls are becoming ghost towns, and the new trend is toward "town centers" combining stores, housing and office buildings in order to try to recreate the downtown experience. The circle of life. Things that pass; things that remainThe things that have passed: Pontiac, Mercury, Oldsmobile, F.W.Woolworth. The things that have remained (so far): Chevrolet, Ford, Singer, Coca-Cola, Dutch Boy, Smirnoff, Sears (although who would have guessed Sears would be owned by K-Mart?). Others that have passedTo add to mpcdsp's list, H.C. Prange (department stores) and AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans), the two tall buildings on the right. Both Appleton mainstays were bought out or merged and renamed. Clue about clewIn Greek Mythology "clew" refers to the ball of thread used by Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth to escape the Minotaur - becomes clue in American usage. 1957 Olds From IllinoisCheck out the robin's egg blue 1957 Oldsmobile sitting under the MARX clock. He's a visitor from Illinois. I distinctly remember the dark orange plates with white numerals, even though I was 12 years old at the time. Ahhhh, good times. No cell phones, no computers, kids got exercise outdoors playing and we were the most prosperous nation in the world. The only thing we had to worry about was the Russians! Grandpa following DadA nostalgia trip for me,as my grandfather had a purple '59 Olds and my Dad a red '59 Chevy Bel Air at the time this photo was taken. My brother and I would stand on the floor behind the old man and watch him drive (no car seats, or even seatbelts, then). The cars are all as familiar to me as today's cars, except for that Nomad (good eye, Dave). I don't remember ever seeing one till later when they were big with street rodders and surfers. Blue carThe blue car under the MARX clock is a '55-'56 Buick, not a '57 Oldsmobile. I owned a '57 Olds back in 1962. They have a 3 piece rear window and oval tailights. My hometownI lived in Appleton from 1969 to 1995. You can see the AAL building and Zuelke building. Gibson Motors used to be here on College Avenue also. My father bought his brand new 1974 Chevy Malibu here. Up the street a little farther was the movie theater where I first saw Star Wars in 1977. I was 9 years old. When I got my drivers license, in the mid-'80s, I used to "cruise the ave" as they used to say, looking for girls. What memories. Thank you for the post. (ShorpyBlog, The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Kermy Kodachromes)
Big Annimated Show: 1911
Circa 1911. "Main Street, Buffalo, N.Y." Our idiosyncratically spelled title comes from the marquee at ... is the same view from September of 2022 (The Gallery, Buffalo NY, DPC, Movies, Stores & Markets) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/20/2017 - 11:36pm -

Circa 1911. "Main Street, Buffalo, N.Y." Our idiosyncratically spelled title comes from the marquee at the Hippodrome. Now playing: The Revenue Man and the Girl. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. "Make no little plans"said Daniel Burnham, the architect of the magnificent Italian Renaissance Ellicott Square Building in the center of the picture. Recently restored (except for the missing terracotta cornice and lion heads), at the time of this picture it had been relegated to only being the second largest office building in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellicott_Square_Building Hippodrome TheatreAccording to Wikipedia, Shea's Hippodrome theatre was opened in 1914 at 580 Main St. [This Hippodrome isn't Shea's Hippodrome, which looked like this. -tterrace] An early DW Griffith film"The Revenue Man And The Girl" was released on 9/25/1911. One of the players was a young Mabel Normand. It was filmed in the wilds of New Jersey! Michael Shea's Hippodrome did not open until 1914. Afterwards, this theater at 263 Main St., was then known as the Little Hippodrome. It closed in 1962 and was razed shortly after. +111Below is the same view from September of 2022 (The Gallery, Buffalo NY, DPC, Movies, Stores & Markets)
Winter Crossing: 1900
... Road Skytop observation cars aboard. Recently scrapped in Buffalo. I frequently went down to watch Lansdowne and an even older ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2012 - 3:18pm -

Circa 1900. "Detroit River. Car ferry Michigan Central entering slip." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Who's with me?Winter break on the Detroit River! Frigid WonderThis is just a beautiful photo, of an otherwise thoroughly utilitarian scene, just barely romanticized by having train cars and a paddlewheeler as subject matter. The texture in the broken ice at foreground, the impressionistic smoke, and mist in the distance -- Wow. Brr.I'm getting frostbite just looking at this picture. All aboardI see the three sets of tracks, but would like to see the actual way they load and unload the box cars. I bet the guy smoking the pipe could have told us. Extraordinary!This is an extraordinarily beautiful photo. The black and white textures are remarkable. I can feel the cold air and hear the ice crunching as the ferry drifts in. The ghostliness of the image is echoed in the misty distant skylines, and the whole is anchored by the two figures. What a composition! SkylineDoes anyone know if the ferry is pulling into Detroit or Windsor? Any clue from the church in the distance? Interesting weatherCloudy, with a 100% chance of thumbprints! Link & PinThe center car seems to be fitted with a link & pin coupling. The Railroad Safety Appliance Act took effect in 1900 outlawing these hand crushers on railroads engaged in interstate commerce. Absolutely wonderful!As a person who lived in Archangelsk city, I used to see a scenes like this many many times. I feel the atmosphere, I even can feel a smell of it. Wonderful! Just great! "Michigan Central"This seems to be the same sidewheeler design as in the previous shot of a car ferry, the "Transport." The names (hard to see) are stenciled on a signboard over the wheelhouse. A ferry wonderland"The Great Lakes Car Ferries" by George Woodman Hilton has another photo of the Michigan Central on page 35. Best. Photo. Ever.I've been reading Shorpy regularly since sometime in '07 when I saw a link on either Boing Boing or Neatorama. This is abso-freakin-lutely the Best. Photo. Ever. Bless you, and keep doing what you do. Over the riverAt about this time, my grandmother may have been on a sleigh on the frozen river, on the way back to Windsor from Detroit, smuggling back cotton socks. She would have been 10 years old. Such was the family story. Great photoI am so impressed with the high contrast in the sky. If it were not clearly labeled as a scan directly from the negative, I would have assumed this was a print which had received a lot of attention in the darkroom. This image is one of Shorpy's all time greats. [All of the images on this site are adjusted for contrast in Photoshop. - Dave] 57 summers laterBelow is a scan of a 35 mm Kodachrome slide showing this same rail car ferry yard as it looked on July 6, 1957. The photo was taken from the deck of the Ambassador Bridge and its viewpoint is 180 degrees from that of the 1900 photo (the bridge was built during 1927-1929). View full size. The church steeple seen in the distance on the 1900 photo is located in Windsor, Ontario. Here's a photo of it taken from the bridge deck just seconds prior to the one of the rail car ferry yard in Detroit. Jules VerneyUntil you focus in on the rail cars, and the pictures resolves into the recognizable, there's a kind of Victorian Future-Shock quality to it. Frozen in timeThe sharpness of the broken crystal shards could kill a man, they stand pointed end up, ready to cut a careless worker or walker, like razor-edged beveled glass. Two men are seen, yet each is lost in their own solitary thoughts. Possibly thinking "damn, it's cold." Final departureIt looks like they are taking boxcars full of the damned over the river Styx. The church might be in WindsorIt looks very much like Our Lady of the Assumption Church near the foot of Huron Church Rd. It is still there, presently in the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge. If so, the view is downstream. Detroit RiverThis is the Detroit side. The river flows extremely fast, and the ferry docks were set up so the boats always entered dock facing upstream. Michigan Central was built in 1884 by Detroit Dry Dock in Wyandotte, while Transport was built there in 1880. Both were cut down to barges by the 1930's. A nearly identical boat, Lansdowne of 1884, survived in steam until 1970 for CN/Grand Trunk, until she blew a cylinder head (I remember the shock among the Detroit trainwatching community at the time). Her long survival was due to the limited size of the RR tunnels under the river, which couldn't handle hi-cubes and other large cars. Lansdowne then became a floating restaurant, with two Milwaukee Road Skytop observation cars aboard. Recently scrapped in Buffalo. I frequently went down to watch Lansdowne and an even older propeller ferry in the days of no security, "Sure, just be careful!" WindsorI live in Amherstburg, about 20 miles downriver from Windsor. I love these photos of the Detroit River. Great StuffI love these pictures of the Detroit River railroad ferries. My grandfather worked on these boats when he first came to Detroit from Pennsylvania in 1919. I remember watching them shuttle across the river during my childhood in the '60s and '70s. Does anyone know what that factory on the right is? Is it the Michigan Peninsular Car Co. (aka American Car & Foundry)? It seems to be in basically the right place on the west side of Detroit. My great-grandfather, on the other side, worked there. Building a ModelI'm building a 1/87 model of the train ferry Windsor, and these pictures and diagrams have proven to be invaluable. Thanks, Terry Jolliffe Belle River, Ontario (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
This Won't Hurt a Bit: 1937
... A search yielded a paint company based out of Buffalo, NY that could be a possibility. Gimme gimme Shock Treatment! ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/23/2012 - 6:18pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1937. "Children's Hospital Rotary." Who can tell us what's going on here? Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Apprehension"Ve hav vays uf making you talk!" This is what happens... to boys who lose their socks. Wild GuessThe closest thing I can think of is that it is a precursor to an EKG. Can hardly wait for what the students of old medical techniques come up with. What's going onAncient dialysis machine? EKGIt's probably an electrocardiograph. He appears to have electrodes attached to his wrist and ankle. There should be at least one more attached to his chest, under his shirt. The part of the device to the nurse's left looks like a film recorder, which would be used to record the waveform. ElectrocardiogramThis is what it might be, although a bit unnerving for a child! Take it from a nurseThis looks like they are checking this child's extent of paralysis due to polio. You actually have a point... with the sock comment. It appears that the boy has something strapped to each wrist as well as to his left ankle, though not his right. So it would appear that his single sock status actually serves some sort of purpose. What this could actually be, however, I have no idea. Early ECGThis is amazing to me... I've never seen a picture like this. The boy looks like he is getting an electrocardiogram. But I can't say for sure because again, I've never seen equipment like this. Diathermy GeneratorMaybe a diathermy generator. Or a myograph. Whatever it is, it's made by Cambridge Instruments. Poor kidLooks like the very definition of "scared stiff." Flux capacitor1.21 gW. Polio testing I had it when I was 5 years (in 1952) old and this is similar, as much as I can recall, of what I went through. Cambridge ElectrocardiographSimilar to the one here. Amazing that last month I walked around for a day with a monitor the size of a pack of cigarettes (probably not the best analogy) that recorded my thousands of heartbeats. [I think we have a winner! The kid may have had rheumatic fever. - Dave] Who wants a drumstick?I saw the caption real quick in my peripheral vision and thought it said Children's Hospital Rotisserie. Talk about a double-take. EKG sounds rightThe machinery is quite a blast from an engineer's perspective. This thing would have been called an oscillograph. The light source is the item at the left end, then some optics to make a small spot, then there must be a galvanometer to move a mirror that moves the spot of light across the slit that the roll of what I assume is photographic paper is exposed through. There's a drive belt with a flywheel to move the paper past the slit at a controlled rate. The Tungar box below is a rectifier to power the electronics (Tungar is a rectifier tube brand that I've heard of - Tung-Sol perhaps?). I assume that there is a vacuum tube amplifier to boost the feeble pulse signal to drive the galvanometer. [Not quite. The "Tungar" box is General Electric battery charger. - Dave] Assault and BatteryI think they're trying to jump-start the poor kid. OperatorIf you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again... Shocking electrical adventuresAmazing that they would put a boy that large in a crib. He barely fits. But that seems to be the least of his worries. One can hope this boy was a model used in a photo session, to promote the device, and not a real patient. [That's a hospital bed. - Dave] The String Galvanometer ElectrocardiographHere the principle of the device is explained in greater detail: http://www.hrsonline.org/News/ep-history/timeline/1920s.cfm YardstickI noticed the small piece of a yardstick we can see on the floor - looks like it says McDougall-Butler. A search yielded a paint company based out of Buffalo, NY that could be a possibility. Gimme gimme Shock Treatment!Poor kid. An Early ECGThis is a very early ECG machine. The electrodes are strapped to the child's wrists and left ankle in a standard setup. Even earlier (say 30 years before) when electrodes weren't available, there were baths of salt water to put one's hands and foot into. The equipment used a "string galvanometer" which vibrated with the heartbeat; the tracing was recorded on film stock, developed, printed, and pasted onto cardboard. --Retired cardiologist Yes, Nurse RatchedI will never, ever jump on the bed again. Nursing capsNurses no longer wear nursing caps. The nurse in the photo shows why: they got tired of the caps constantly falling off the back of their heads. EKGI am an anesthesiologist and thus I use an EKG every day in my work. Thus I immediately recognized this as an early EKG. It requires an electrode on the right arm, left arm, and the left leg in order to "see" the heart electrical currents from different directions. His sock is off is to be able to put the electrode on the ankle. We know now that they could just as well have put it further up on his leg and left the sock on. Interesting photograph. We know it is not electroconvulsive therapy because ECT is done on the head and not on the limbs, ECT was first done in Italy by Cerletti and Bini in 1938, a year after the photo was made. CappedThat's one reason nurses no longer wear caps- the others are that they always got tangled in the privacy drapes and were ultimately unsanitary because they could never really be cleaned well. Still have my cap, but haven't worn it since graduation! Banzai!We're sending him to the 8th Dimension. Watch out for Lectroids. Same Socks? Same Kid?https://www.shorpy.com/node/6116?size=_original He must have talked dirty to Dr. Eleanor Hunt. [Both kids are wearing striped socks. But with different stripes. Different kids, too. - Dave] Scary!If I saw a contraption as scary looking as this as a kid I'd have leaped off that bed and taken off pronto. Poor kid. Too funnyI had an unfortunate stay at Children's Hospital in the very early 80s and I swear they might have still been using those same cribs. This photo sparked a memory I hadn't recalled in years and years; when I first got there, they'd put me in a crib just like this. I was five years old. A very nice nurse saw me and said, "Oh, you're a big girl, you shouldn't be in a crib. Let's get you into a big girl bed." A minor kindness that made me feel much better in the midst of a very bad illness. (The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Medicine)
Jersey Scouts: 1926
... at a meeting in Memorial Continental Hall . Silver Buffalo awards for distinguished service to boyhood will be presented. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/18/2021 - 10:55pm -

Washington, D.C., 1926. "Atlantic City Boy Scouts on Ellipse." National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. View full size. EaglesI count six Eagle Scouts (maybe seven?) and two Life Scouts. A good group. May Day, 1926Can't be certain if this article refers to same event, but there seem to be many other scouts in the background. Washington Post, May 1, 1926 Scout Movement Aids World Peace, Leader Declares President to Speak at Rally on Ellipse The national council of the Boy Scouts of America yesterday opened its sixteenth annual meeting in the Willard hotel. Lieut Gen. Sir Robert Baden-Powell, "chief scout of the work," was the principal speaker of the day ... Program for Today A scout rally will be held in the afternoon on the Ellipse, under the direction of William C. Wessel, assistant to the national camp director, and Scout Executive Edward D. Shaw, of Washington. The scouts will be addressed by President Coolidge and Sir Robert tonight at a meeting in Memorial Continental Hall. Silver Buffalo awards for distinguished service to boyhood will be presented. (The Gallery, Boy Scouts, D.C., Natl Photo)
Karl the Karrot: 1955
... And I think the Peanut Gallery was Howdy Doody (with Buffalo Bob Smith) and not part of Fireman Frank. Karlotta Karrot ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/22/2011 - 4:52pm -

This button was a promotional piece about 1-3/4" in diameter, given out by shoe stores on the purchase of a pair of Keds, one of the sponsors of the daily kids' show "Fireman Frank" broadcast by KRON-TV in San Francisco during the mid-50s. Fireman Frank was George Lemont, a hip SF deejay who stepped into the role after the original Fireman, a roly-poly avuncular gent more in the style of a kids' TV host, dropped dead. Lemont's humor appealed as much to adults as well as kids; you could hear the studio crew guffawing off-camera at things that went over our heads. Between cartoons, Lemont brought out his cast of puppets, including robot Dynamo Dudley, the beret-wearing, bop-talking Scat the Cat and best of all, Karl the Karrot. Karl, as you can see, was a sort of proto-beatnik, literally a carrot with a pair of shades. His dialog consisted entirely of "blubble-lubble-lubble" while he thrashed about, chlorophyl topknot flailing. At home, we were all in convulsions on the floor. Original Fireman FrankI remember watching the jolly chubby Fireman Frank. One day he was gone. I wondered what happen to him. Does anyone know his name? Fireman Frank FanThis is cool. I loved afternoons and Saturdays with Fireman Frank on the tube. It killed me how Fireman Frank broke himself up waving around a limp Karl the Karrot - where Karl would stare out blankly, bobbling up and down as Frank tried to contain his hysterics below while snorting in a vain attempt to conceal his own amusement. Fireman FrankHey, my cousin, best friend and I were on that show. We just loved it. When he interviewed the peanut galery (that was on Firman Frank I think) He asked my cousin, who had swiped her mom's hat to wear there, to show her profile so that the audience could see her hat. She of course did not know what that meant, so she took it off and gave it to him. It was funny to me because when she got home she got into trouble for taking the hat. I of course was happy she had gotten scolded as she was a very pretty girl and was always the center of attention. I was just a messy little tomboy that just went along for the ride. Thanks for the memories. Local live kid showsmust have been a national staple. In Texas, we had Mr. Peppermint in Fort Worth, Uncle Jay and his sidekick Packer Jack, an old prospector, in Austin and Cap'n Jack (I think) in San Antonio. Even tiny KCEN in Temple had their own guy, who could draw a picture from a kid's scrawl. We went for my brother's birthday, ca. 1959/1960. Local Kids ShowsThe Lincoln, Nebraska area had Sheriff Bill and Silent Orv (who was silent because they'd have to pay him more if he spoke). Later on, I learned television directing on the last live "Romper Room" in the country - never knew what might happen with a roomful of pre-schoolers on live TV. Fireman Frank FanTo add to the Fireman Frank archive: Dynamo Dudley's mother (or mother-in-law) was a can of nails that would be grabbed and rattled whenever it seemed necessary. Yahoo! At Last...he's alive!!!I have vivid memories of Karl the Karrot...one of my all time favorite TV characters. I have been asking people "Do you ever remember watching a show in the 50's with Karl the Karrot who just bobbled his head around and went...blblblblblblblbl blblblblb blblbl?" No one remembered and I was beginning to think I'd made it up! Thank you for bringing Karl (and that cool button) back to me...I shall forward this page to the zillion people who thought I was just having another acid flash!! Holy Karrot juice!Never thought I'd find a person who had seen that show. I remember the carrot losing his "vigor" over the week and being pretty limp on Friday to be revitalized on Monday. I have the button also. (After 50-some years) Fireman FrankI was on Fireman Frank with the greatest young comedienne of her time, Westlake Stephie, age 7. It was a fun show. Fireman Frank againWatched it everyday it with on. The thing I remember most was, Fireman Frank said "we don't like Lima beans," and I still don't like them. Rhode Island RedI, too, loved Fireman Frank. Wasn't Rhode Island Red one of his characters, too? The limp Karl the Karrot, wobbling around by Friday afternoon, was something we all looked forward to. Thanks for bringing back these wonderful memories. Too bad there aren't any witty kids' shows today. And I think the Peanut Gallery was Howdy Doody (with Buffalo Bob Smith) and not part of Fireman Frank. Karlotta Karrot During those years of childhood in San Francisco there were truly great kids' shows. Fireman Frank was without question the best. I remember Karl's girlfriend Karlotta, who spoke in the same type of oogle pattern that Karl used. By the way does anybody remember during Christmas time when Happy Holly of the Whitehouse department store called Santa? Love Karl the KarrotKids' shows in the '50s were great. I loved Fireman Frank and Karl the Karrot. My absolute favorite though was the Banana Man on Captain Kangaroo! Banana ManI never saw Karl the Karrot (we had The Old Rebel and Cowboy Fred and Captain Five at various times), but The Banana Man was my absolute, all-time favorite too. If you never saw his act, it's hard to imagine what it was like. Here is a website, somewhat disorganized, with a lot of info: http://facweb.furman.edu/~rbryson/BananaMan/index.html The "Sam Levine" and "History" links are the best, but it's all interesting (to absolute fans anyway). Py-O-My was the sponsorI remember having to put up with Frank while babysitting my little sister after school before the folks got home (I was a teenager then) and the sponsor for a while was Py-O-My (kind of like Betty Crocker) dessert and pudding mix. Rumor was that the original Fireman Frank partook too much of Py-O-My and dropped dead of blocked arteries. I remember a couple of guys in our neighborhood and I set up a FF-like puppet show one summer to earn money to buy Superman and other comics by charging a nickel to the little kids who wanted to watch. One guy's older sister made a "Scat the Cat"-type sock puppet while I had fun cutting and pasting pieces of cardboard together to make a Dynamo Dudley. I remember one kid's mom getting upset because he has swiped the only two carrots in the house to make Karl (In those days two carrots went into the stew). We made enough to make our local grocer happy to sell those horrible old comic books. Fond RekollektionsI remember the Karl the Karrot episode where he had a fight with Rocky Mashed Potato. I loved Scat the Cat,with his band-aid on one of his cheeks. Rhode Island Red the giant rooster puppet, with a wing that would pop up like it was pointing while he said, "He went thataway!" then break into a silly laugh while his head went up & down. Wish someone can find the name of the original Fireman Frank...just for memories and recognition for him. Fireman Frank ShowThat was a great show; a classic 50's kids show. Can't forget Skipper Sedley who became "Sir Sedley" for whatever reason. Also "Mayor Art"; "Bozo The Clown"; "Captain Satellite" and on a national level, "Howdy Doody" and "The Micky Mouse Club" These were all basically afternoon and Saturday shows. The essential 50's morning children's show was of course, "Captain Kangaroo" with the classic serial Cartoon "Tom Terrific".. Frank and Karl! Oh yeah!Great memories. Loved Fireman Frank and Karl too. I remember Karl getting more wilted every day. And I do remember Happy Holly at Xmas time. This is the first time I have heard anyone else mention Happy. Those were great days for kids' shows. I had the TV pretty much to myself as my parents and older sisters had not acquired the habit of watching very much. I have been trying to find video snips of some of those old shows but they are rare. Loved Fireman Frank!Fireman Frank used to show "The Little Rascals" as well as cartoons. Plus he demonstrated how to make chocolate milk with Bosco. His puppets were hilarious. Scat the Cat had been in fights and had a rough voice. I think robot Dynamo Dudley talked in gibberish like Karl the Karrot. I had a Dynamo Dudley Club Card at one time. The funniest puppet was Rhode Island Red, the rooster. My mother would come into the room and laugh. I would love to see photos or kinescopes of that show. Where is this stuff? THE DAY KARL "DIED" !The "Fireman Frank Show" with Lemont was the best kids program ever and Karl The Karrot was special. Karl was a real carrot and noticably "age" or wilt every day due to the hot studio lights. I clearly remember Karl breaking off in Lemont's hand during their dialogue and Lemont saying something like: "Ah kids; Karl is hurt but will be back like new soon. And of course Karl returned as a fresh new carrot for the next show. I'll never forget the shock of Karl's "accident" and "relief" at seeing him back better than ever for the next show! My kids thought I was making this story up when shared during their youth. Thanks for the super comments. Fireman FrankSeveral commenters have asked about the first Fireman Frank, the one who George Lemont took over from. I just came across a post on a forum from someone who remembers, and the guy's name was apparently Frank Smith. So now we also know where the Frank came from. Fireman Frank 1955-57Coming to the SF Bay Area and getting our first TV in April 1955 I only recall the latter (thin) Fireman Frank (with his weekday nightly KRON show after the early evening news and a longer one on Saturday afternoons with a drawing contest that I submitted to a few times). Captain Fortune had an early Sat morn one on KPIX, with the stock intro showing a bunch of kids running up to a large Victorian-looking house on a hill. One of CF's standard features was to have one of the guests make some scrawl on a large drawing pad and then ask him to turn it into a specific item. KPIX also had a late afternoon (pre-news) Deputy Dave featuring, of course, western films (vs cartoons). It seemed like that they all had Bosco as a sponsor (using a milk carton that had its brand obscured). He once had a contest for an (outboard) power boat - awarded for the best name for it. An acquaintance of my father won with "DD5" for Deputy Dave (Channel) 5! The arrival of the Mickey Mouse Club on ABC (KGO) in October 1955 provided some stiff competition for some of these locally-originated afternoon kid shows. The San Antonio show mentioned earlier was Captain Gus on KENS in the afternoons http://www.dmd52.net/blast.html feauring mostly Popeye and Three Stooges fare, at least during the few seasons of its 2-decade + run that it had my attention. Before Fireman FrankGeorge Lemont was to kids as Don Sherwood was to the adults. I remember his predecessor, Frank Smith, but George had a show before Fireman Frank. He was called Uncle George and would draw caricatures and cartoon pictures. He used clever cross-hatch shading on his drawings and would call them "the downtown treatment." I loved his puppets, but he reached a new height with the introduction of Karl the Karrot! Great days of kids' TV back then: Kris Kuts (the felt shapes), Deputy Dave Allen, Captain Fortune (Who's that knocking on my barrel?), Mayor Art, Crusader Rabbit (voice done by a lady from Petaluma, I'm told)and Captain Satellite (I remember seeing his first telecast on that NEW channel, KTVU). Del Courtney and Tony Petucci (Ralph Manza), Sandy (The moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free) Spellman, Fran O'Brien, Sherwood's minions, Bobby Troop, George Cerutti, Julie London, and Ronnie Schell. Great times. Rad CarrotThat is a mighty rad carrot with a hairy nose and wild hair. No wonder why he had some major kid appeal. The 50's Bay Area Christmas While reminiscing about Fireman Frank and Captain Fortune, each Christmas, I always recall with grand fondness those early television trips to the North Pole escorted by the magic elf, Happy Hollie. "Happy Hollie calling Santa Claus at the North Pole... come in, Santa!" I believe it was brought to you by either "The White House", or "City of Paris". You could always be assured there'd be one commercial by "Mission Pac"... fruit packages for mail delivery to east coast friends. "No gift so bright, so gay, so right, send a Mission Pac on its way" Fireman FrankI'm so happy to learn there are others that have fond memories of Fireman Frank / Uncle George! Remember how he'd have the puppets refer to him as "skinny-in-the pit"? I would crack up when he'd tell the kids to be sure to send in for his one-way yoyo while just dropping a stringless yoyo. The lady who voiced Crusader RabbitHer name was Lucille Bliss, and she also did Smurfette. But legendary to me is the fact she waited tables on the side, and a deejay from KSAN recognized her voice, and asked her to come into the station and record the doomsday alerts. "This is a test - this is only a test. In the event of an actual alert, " etc. In the voice of Crusader Rabbit! This included (I assume) the real kiss your butt goodbye warning, in the event of nuclear war! Man- would I love to hear a copy of this. Jay Ward with Art Alexander created the Rabbit here in Berkeley, eventually moving to LA for production. You can read all about it in The Moose That Roared, by Keith Scott. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Curiosities, tterrapix)
Super Carrier Christmas: 1957
... I will readily admit I was bigger fan of Winky Dink and Buffalo Bob who was great fun with his buddy Howdy Doody. Sticking Point ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/07/2013 - 9:43am -

"Christmas 1957" is the label on this slide from the Kermy and Janet Kodachromes, taken at their house in Baltimore. Gifts include a Revell model aircraft carrier and something called the Shopping Center Game. View full size. Fun for ALL Non-Toxicsays one gift, and I wonder if he really completed that aircraft carrier with its 23,000 parts. Revell aircraft carrier modelSome time in the mid-sixties, I put together an aircraft carrier model like that, though not so large. The icing on the cake was gluing the dozens of tiny aircraft to the deck. (I had two younger brothers, so everything had to be glued down.) Loot aplentyThe two additional Revell boxes promise many happy hours inhaling glue fumes. And a pair of spiffy red boots in the bargain! Shopping Center gameI bought that at an estate sale a couple years back. There are some pictures of it here. U.S.S ForrestalI built the U.S.S. Forrestal a few years later, about 1961. I still have a few of the aircraft from the deck. 1 co-workers brother was killed in the tragic Forrestal fire in 1967. Patrick Wentzel Parkersburg, WV More than an inhalant hazardThat glue would make a crater in the dining room table (whilst assembling a Lockheed Constellation). Followed by a brief lecture from my father. I suspect that he was not without sin. BTW, I crewed in Neptunes. I never knew that they made a model of that critter. A product of the Burbank Iron Works. One point two million rivets in tight formation. b-ballWe had that basketball game-- the ball was a ping pong ball, if I recall correctly, and it shot off the cardboard floor of the game via a lever....fun!! The helicopter that wasn'tHiding underneath the Forrestal box is another for a Piasecki H-16 Transporter helicopter. The model never made it to full production after the second prototype crashed during evaluation by the Air Force. Unfortunately, I can't see enough of the third box to identify the model. B-24 LiberatorThe Revell model under the carrier B-24The third model is a B-24 Liberator. I remember building that same model carrieras well as the helicopter kit beneath it. Brings back vivid memories of those days, with scattered kit parts and the pungent smell of Revell glue (readily sold to kids back then) permeating my bedroom. How I never got high, nor developed an affinity for that glue stuff, amazes me to this day. The chemicals probably killed off a few brain cells along the way, but boy, those kits were fun and launched your imagination! The third modelis the box scale (about 1/92 in this case) Revell B-24 Liberator. I have lusted mightily for that one for some years. Ah, nostalgia! All these kits command prices far in excess of what Kermy's folks had to lay out. One dealer (known for high prices) lists the Forrestal at over $200. Nostalgia at a price. Revell models on the sceneThere are a total of five Revell model boxes visible here. The other model kit hiding below the USS Forrestal carrier kit's box is a B-24 Liberator. There's the Piasecki H-16 helicopter kit and behind the boy there's a couple more models: an A3D Skywarrior model on top and a P2V-7 Neptune model below it. Images of all these boxes can be found here. Kermyalways got the coolest stuff for Christmas! The bookis Sand Dune Pony by Troy Nesbit. Lucky Kermy!Not only did Kermy (who appears to be a year or so older than I am) get some nifty gifts, I envied anyone who could put those models together nicely. God knows I tried, but my models looked thrown together. That's because they were; I wanted to do them in an hour. Some of my friends would have great model airplanes hanging on fishing line from their bedroom ceilings; that was so cool!!! I remember reading the Sand Dune Pony book, though I preferred the Hardy Boys or Tom Swift, Junior. Kermy's shirt is pretty stylin', too! That lucky old Kermy!!! My ForrestalCame 2 years and one week later, I think, on my 10th birthday. You Rang My BellIn the pile on the right I see Miss Frances and her bell on a box of something good from Ding Dong School, a popular TV program when I was a lad in the 1950s. I will readily admit I was bigger fan of Winky Dink and Buffalo Bob who was great fun with his buddy Howdy Doody. Sticking PointI built that B-24 model sometime in the '50s. Revell kits had great detail and lots of little parts. But the most difficult part was keeping the glue from fogging the clear plastic pieces. I was seldom successful at that. Painstakingy painting the pilot was a useless effort when the canopy became a blurry mess. Composite CarrierI too had an aircraft carrier kit; mine was the USS Bon Homme Richard. I kept it for many years and modified it often by adding various vehicles and armaments from other models. Miss Revlon!!!!I would have sold my then five-year-old soul for that platinum-pony-tailed Miss Revlon doll lying atop her box beside the red boots. Kool KermyWith his button down collar AND blue suede shoes Kermy must have been stylin' in '57! FIVE Models for Christmas! Jackpot!I remember building my very first Revell model kit, carefully, lovingly gluing ever tiny piece in place, patiently waiting for it to dry. Then it occurred to me: "Oh, you paint it first . . ." U.S.S. ForrestalI know that girls aren't supposed to be interested in model kits, but as a kid, I was. I bought the U.S.S. Forrestal kit and put it together. I've often wondered what my mother did with it when we moved? A Betsy McCall dollis lurking in the background on the right. Partially hidden by the tree and the basketball game is a rather substantial collection of magazines, newspapers, and phone book or two. Could this indicate an early effort at recycling in '57? [Not if it was like the typical accumulations that could be found at this time around our house 3000 miles to the west. Like ours, it appears to contain at least one mail-order catalog (Wards in our case). Quite possibly Kermy, like me, would eventually have to be torn away from his toys, kicking and screaming, to deal with it. -tterrace] ValuesThe value of mint, unopened model kits can be amazing. If I'd known, I would have bought two of each kit I ever built, but, sadly, only realized this fact 65 years too late. A company called Pocher made 1/8 scale, museum quality models of famous cars; their sealed, unopened kits are like finding gold and they were expensive new. A Model ChildI had that Forrestal and many others by Revell and AirFix. The few I took to decorate my first college apartment are all that remained, after, much to my dismay, my parents gave away the rest from my old room at home. If they weren't turning over in their graves from the recent earthquakes directly under the cemetery where they're buried, they certainly would be anyway--to know I've spent a good part of my inheritance from them paying $200 a whack to replace those models. Figured I'd put them together on snowy winter evenings of my second childhood (and it's snowing right now). What I hadn't figured on is old eyes. They're all still in their boxes. Nevertheless, they make me happy. Kodachrome, enough said!I love this image! Ok first off its a Kodachrome, enough said. But I love the tinsel on the tree. Yes real tinsel that you cannot get anymore. Secondly look at the those glass beads on the tree, we have strands of those on our dinning room tree which has all vintage glass figural ornaments of all different sizes, shapes and colors. Now for the toys! As a boy I would have loved for that ship. I can remember Christmas morning in the late 1970's opening my presents from Santa. I was so excited to find an X-Wing Fighter, Tie Fighter and so forth. I have been capturing our family memories on slide film for years and continue to do so to tis day. I will continue to do so until there is no slide film left on the planet and then I will quietly put my camera away. I attached a photo taken on Christmas Eve in 2006 of our boys. Every Christmas Eve the Elves make deliveries of treats to the neighbors. That B-24!First model I ever built was that same B-24, summer of 1955, when I was 8. I learned the hard way that you REALLY have to refer to the directions when you build those babies. It came out a total mess. I spent THOUSANDS of happy hours as a kid building models by Revell, Aurora, Lindbergh Line, etc., etc. Another thing kids of today seem to have missed out on. U.S.S. Forrestal in Cannes, FranceU.S.S. Forrestal (and Saratoga) were part of the Sixth Fleet. As a child I used to visit the French Rivièra, around Christmas and New Year during several years in the late fifties and early sixties of the former century. The visit of the Sixth Fleet used to be one of the highlights for me and my brother in those days. One of our favourite tours was "rounding" the aircraft carrier by pedalo! During Christmas and New Year there used to be a fair in Cannes, I joined many a ride with an American Navy Sailor in the autoscooter: they liked to share the ride with a young European boy, and we liked to get it for free from an American Sailor. You may have a look at: A few mementos of Forrestal times . . . (Boats & Bridges, Christmas, Kermy Kodachromes)
Owego: 1901
... would operate over the Erie's tracks from Binghamton to Buffalo, thus abandoning the trackage seen in this picture. (The Gallery, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/28/2022 - 10:39pm -

Tioga County, New York, circa 1901. "General view -- Owego, N.Y., and Susquehanna River." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size. Where's the People?Here's the bridge, here's the steeple. If you're looking for the people, they might all be at Kenyon's for the savin's. Owego forwardThis isn't quite the view, but anything closer to the original is blocked by trees. The bridge is different, but it still seems to be using the original piers. The tracks have been replaced by a state road, NY-96. Right down the road!Owego is a quant little town with a lot of hidden gems. The bridge was rebuilt about 20 years back and is architectually beautiful. Thanks for sharing this photo! Ticket to ride?Did we miss the train or is it pulling into the station? Hmmmm... Thank goodness!We've avoided another Menomonie, Wisconsin. To remove confusion, in 1813 the (I assume state) legislature had the towns of Owego and Tioga switch names so Owego village would be in the same-named town. We have no knot to untangle here. Mom still lives hereShe grew up in the area and still lives in Owego. I visit a few times a year. Lovely town with lots of original buildings and architecture. Most of the building shown are still there. Owego RailroadsThe tracks very visible in this view were of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. Also running through the town was the Erie Railroad, and those tracks are still present and in operation. The Erie's tracks ran some distance north and through the town itself, so not visible in this picture. In 1958, the Lackawanna and Erie came to an agreement where the Lackawanna would operate over the Erie's tracks from Binghamton to Buffalo, thus abandoning the trackage seen in this picture. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads, Small Towns)
Icemobile: 1905
... - Dave] The Lansdowne was towed from Erie to Buffalo in 2008 and broken up there that year. Life as a restaurant ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/02/2012 - 5:25pm -

Circa 1905. "Grand Trunk car ferry crossing the Detroit River in winter." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Pullman carsSome interesting information and illustrations here. Seems there are examples at his museum, and a few in other countries. Titanic Worries!"What was that, Hon? You want me to sit with you in the rail car? No thanks. I think I'll just stay out here in the lifeboat if you don't mind." Just Chillin' on the VerandaBut what a smoke screen those poor passengers had to endure. I wonder what sort of sturdy craft the photographer was perched on in order to "get the shot." The hardy occupants of the coach nearest the camera had apparently already weathered a nasty storm on the rails; that car's frosted like a wedding cake! [The "sturdy craft" was land. - Dave] ExtraordinaryWhat a captivating and dramatic riverscape. Maybe the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are heading out on another adventure? VestibulesNice shot of the railroad ferries that plied many waters on the Great Lakes. Similar ships were used, for instance, on the Straits of Mackinac for decades. The picture is a great illustration of one of the real innovations in passenger cars - vestibules at the ends of the cars that allowed passengers to move from car to car through the train while it was in motion. Better yet, the photo shows the car on the left with the earlier, so-called open vestibule (still had some open platform) while the car on the right was the newer, fully-closed vestibule. Not only did the vestibules make moving between cars easier but the Pullman Company (which invented and patented them) tried to convince passengers that they strengthened the cars in the event of a collision. The tighter coupling was said to prevent the cars from telescoping into one another. This had been a real problem in the old open-platform cars. It was such a great idea that the designs were quickly knocked off by the other passenger car companies and it became the standard of the industry. Thanks DaveI am planning on building a model of the Lansdowne and the definition on this photo shows detail I have not seen before. The Lansdowne was built in 1884 for the Grand Trunk Railway. She was powered by a pair of horizontal low pressure engines working at 55 psi, until some engineer forgot to drain one on startup in 1971 and blew the cylinder head off it, instantly converting it to a barge. She was pushed by a tug for a few years then laid up and converted to a restaurant on the Detroit waterfront. Her hulk still rests partially submerged in Erie, PA. Being a sidewheeler with each paddle capable of independent operation, she was considered a very good ice boat. RivetedJust what I was thinking, Jeff! Very steampunk looking. Great shot. Here's How It WorksThe couple on the Stern may be setting the scene for a film to be made some 90 years later. The Director electing to use a younger pair and move them to the front of the ship, many of the cast and the movie itself would eventually win Oscars and VHS tapes would be handed out to purchasers of Happy Meals. The Addams Family at SeaLooking at those wheelhouses, I don't think I've ever seen a ship built with a mansard roof. ParticulatesThe lack of pollution control back in the day is startling. The amount of thick black smoke would certainly not be tolerated today. It would take several more years until emission control standards would be adopted. [Several more decades! - Dave] The Lansdownewas towed from Erie to Buffalo in 2008 and broken up there that year. Life as a restaurantPictures of the Lansdowne as a floating restaurant on the Detroit waterfront are hard to come by (see below). She lost one side wheel and a pair of funnels, and had a steel structure built on top with two old railroad observation cars at one end. The interiors (and exteriors) were just cheap 1980s ersatz "luxury," with little connection or even acknowledgment of her Victorian past. It could have been built on any old barge and been the same. By the end of its restaurant career, it was dirty, poorly managed and had awful food. Photo SourceTry as I might I can not locate this image on the LOC site. Did you obtain it from them? I'd like to play with the full size Tiff copy they usually have on the site. [It's here. You can find these by searching LOC for the filename (for this one, "4a15742" -- right-click on the Shorpy image, choose "properties" or "view image info") - Dave] Restaurant Observation CarsThe observation cars on the photo of the Lansdowne as a restaurant photo that bigguy1960 posted are a pair of Milwaukee Road Skytop Observation Cars that were built in 1949 when they re-equipped their Hiawatha trains. Ten of these were built, six in the original design with the extended skypod observation area and four with a shortened skypod; the latter class are the cars on the Lansdowne. They were withdrawn from service in 1970. Apparently the railcars were undamaged when the Lansdowne sank at Erie, but couldn't be salvaged intact and were each cut into three pieces. There was reportedly an effort underway to salvage them to make one complete car out of the two but I have no knowledge of whether this was carried out. Update: To answer swissarch's question, several of the ten Skytop cars have survived. One that I know of for sure, Cedar Rapids, is operational and sometimes used on excursions. She would be a true sister of the cars on the Lansdowne. The car is owned by a group called "Friends of 261" and can even be rented for whatever reason. At least two other cars Coffee Creek and Dell Rapids either still exist or are in the process of being restored. ExtraThat's what I'd pay to ride in one of those Obervation Cars. It must have been truly exciting to be in one of those thundering along at about 80 mph, watching the world rush by. Shame they're lost; were any saved? Spectacular shotQuestion for the boat engineers. It seems that a lot of the inland vessels back then used paddlewheels. What is the advantage of a paddlewheel over a screw? Why were they so popular then and not now? And why are some sidewheelers and some sternwheelers? Postcard based on the photographFound on the Web. [Very nice -- it looks like a watercolor. - Dave] (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)
Anvil Chorus: 1905
... right under the triangular fume hood on the right. Buffalo Forge may well have made all three tools, in addition to the forges ... another high school. http://www.anvilfire.com/bookrev/buffalo/p256_det.htm Old Skill Blacksmithing is an old skill but that ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/22/2012 - 9:30pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1905-1910. "McKinley School shop." Side note: The McKinley track team was called the Blacksmiths. Harris & Ewing. View full size. Surprisingly clean!For a blacksmith shop. Someone needs to pick up the L square though. Preparing the students of today ... ... for the careers of yesteryear! Reminds me of Junior HS in the early 1970s and a course called Industrial Arts, which taught some useful things. But it also had a segment on typesetting (!) That was probably the equivalent of learning blacksmithing on the eve of the automotive age. For some schools......today is yesterday, it would seem. About 30 years ago, our newspaper converted to "cold type," a paste-up, photographic and offset printing process that was the bee's knees then, but obsolete now. Our local area community college sent us an "intern" that summer who was majoring in hot-lead Linotype operation. We sure chuckled, and he was flabbergasted. Just the other day, my grandson began making a wooden goblet in "shop." I'm willing to bet the community college he might attend is teaching newspaper paste-up right about now, while its graduates will be faced with desktop publishing, Internet technology, and the probable demise of paper-based newspapers as we know them. Can you say CO poisoning?I see about 6 coal fired forges with not much ventilation other than a few open windows. Maybe the contraption on the back wall is some kind of vent system? Hardly yesteryear!Blacksmithing is a fantastic way to introduce students to metal, its properties and possibilities. It is one of the great "DIY" skills. Plus, understanding the history of an art is always beneficial, and hands-on, practical exposure, when possible, is best. Kids today are lucky if they have access to a forge at school. My friend the blacksmithSending this to anvilbikes.com, I know he'll appreciate it. Well VentilatedEach forge has its own hood and vent. Clang, clangWow, imagine the racket in this room! No ear (or eye!) protection in those days... On reading the title, my first thought was of David Lang percussion solo of that name. Only after I Googled "Anvil Chorus" did I realize the phrase was better known from Verdi's Il Trovatore. I'm happy I got to work in a metal shop for a time a few years ago when I lost my software job. It was some of the most satisfying work I've done... Nothing wrong with "old" technologyThe comments on industrial arts strike close to home. In junior high school (now renamed "middle school") my shop class included setting type by hand. Sure, learning paste-up today would leave you baffled when facing a computer... except that paste-up is the analogue to computer layout, just as cold type was the analogue to hot lead. But it's probably a pied type tray that steered me into graphic design. There's no reason not to learn something because it ain't the newest and "bestest." Most often, learning the foundations of your craft helps makes you better at present-day applications (and a heckuvalot more appreciative of new tools). And let's not forget that using old technology can give you a niche in a crowded market. How else would you explain handmade paper, successful letter press publishers, or The Woodwright's Shop? Steve Miller Someplace near the crossroads of America Shop classWow, it's a high school shop class and not a single bong is being made. Times sure have changed! Fantastic detail!As for ventilation, you can just see the edge of the roof vent, basically a skylight. The big motor at the back center is the blower -- the snail direction is blowing down into the floor. You can see a pipe coming up from the floor to the forge, right below the arm of the blurry boy on the extreme near left. I'm not familiar with that pattern forge, but that hood isn't just for decoration. The other motor at the back also appears to run a blower, appears to exhaust up like a chimney, and has a hood attached. I'm assuming, then, the small blower blows the forge, the larger one draws through the forge hoods as an exhaust. The exhaust motor -- a variable speed DC according to the wall controls -- also drives a short lineshaft. There's a power hammer on the left end (below the clock and anchor), a pedestal grinder behind the boy with his hands on his hips (note the larger drive pulley to increase the driven spindle speed) and a small drill press seen right under the triangular fume hood on the right. Buffalo Forge may well have made all three tools, in addition to the forges themselves. Anyone notice the boy looking into the room through the double doors at the back left? Fantastic description by DocNAnd a view of the forges in more detail at another high school. http://www.anvilfire.com/bookrev/buffalo/p256_det.htm Old SkillBlacksmithing is an old skill but that doesn't mean it's a dead skill. Think of these guys next time you buy a set of wrought iron railings for stairs or a custom design gate for your yard. These are the skills that make those things. LightingI LOVE the lights hanging in the foreground! They look like they have an electric bulb, but they're clearly modeled like a gas lamp. [They are gas lamps. - Dave] (The Gallery, D.C., Education, Schools, Harris + Ewing)
Happy Hollow: 1901
... were reintroduced in 1981 and now number about 500 in the Buffalo National River area. Not so fast... This photo really feels ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/10/2015 - 9:02am -

Hot Springs, Arkansas, circa 1901. "McLeod's cabin, Happy Hollow." A further note: "Possibly associated with Norman E. McLeod, photographer, and menagerie." 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Following along this line of photgraphyWere the stuffed (ex-live) horses in a bucking or rearing position at western destinations. They always seemed so "moth-eaten" as well. Maybe taxidermy wasn't what it is now. Thank goodnessI was more than a bit suspect of the signage, but that stuffed animal really gave me a turn. I am new at this old photography thing and should remember contrived pictures have probably been around as long as cameras. I really love this site. More on NormCheck out “Hot Springs, Arkansas,” page 102 and following. And roll out the barrel...Barrel staves work really well when building a barrel, but not so great making shingles....? Cocked and locked.Looks like his gun is ready to fire yet again. This all looks a bit contrived. If this were real, he'd probably not be able to spell at all, let alone poorly. Over the "Mune"Love the turn of the century equivalent of duct tape on the rifle stock. Fooled for a second Had to look twice to realize that this was one of those prop scenes built so that tourist dollars could be captured in Hot Springs National Park. It was one of the most popular destinations early in the 20th century. Funny that Norman used an elk instead of a deer for his prop, though. Elk became extinct in Arkansas in about 1850. They were reintroduced in 1981 and now number about 500 in the Buffalo National River area. Not so fast...This photo really feels staged to me. The crude spellings of "Arkansaw" and "Muneshine" are a little much and if a cabin were truly as crude as this it would be a lot deeper in the woods (and not along this decently improved road). The clincher though was this "hunter's" trophy. That's an elk not a deer. Eastern Elk haven't been in Arkansas since the 1830's. Goodness.What a big flag you have! Happy Hollow?The buck doesn't look too happy. Shootin at some foodWell the next thing you know ole Jed's a millionare. Elk in Arkansas in 1901?!According to this website http://www.agfc.com/hunting/elk/elk_info.aspx Eastern elk weren't found in Arkansas after the 1840's and western elk weren't reintroduced until 1933. Did this fellow shoot "bigfoot" with his Trapdoor Springfield? Hee Haw 1.0Norm McLeod's Happy Hollow was kind of the Dollywood of its day. Big on cornpone "hillbilly" humor. A Razorback's Pride of PlaceThat's "Arkansaw" to you, boy! I don't buy itNever mind the hokey misspelled signs written in chalk, with no chinking or daubing that cabin clearly was not in use. But, the forlorn animal sure looks to me as if it is a taxidermically preserved antique, plopped over on its side for the heroic photo. Such theatric, photographic fakery was already in place in 1901, and long before that time, no doubt. Happy HollowPronounced "holler." So, when's lunch? Poor elkHis horns are coming unscrewed! Another mystery solvedHere's a photo from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas entry on Happy Hollow showing the same cabin, dead elk, and a few other props including what appears to be a stuffed bear (or should it be "b'ar"?). The latter is also just barely visible in the Shorpy photo, lying inside the doorway behind the butt of the rifle. It Really Is True...There IS one born every minute. Boaring....Personally, I'd have posed with the wild boar that's lying just inside the doorway... or both... (it COULD be a bear, too... little hard to tell from just the moth-eaten nose). Probably the one seen, here: http://baberfamilytree.org/Albums/Images/happyhollow.jpg (Billy Bob Thornton was born in Hot Springs, AK, which may 'splain a few things...) Nice Rack!...on that elk. I couldn't resist. How often can you say "Nice rack!" nowadays and not get into trouble? That darn Elk!I think the elk is lying just in front of the cabin in the photo posted by John Martini. A couple of years ago, I accidentally found myself just a little too close to an elk (luckily a female or I wouldn't be here now) and trust me when I tell you that you don't want to be too close to an elk (aka wapiti), male or female, accidentally or otherwise. I came away with a lot less blood, broken hands and some major bruising and was the talk of the nearby hospital. Elk != deerThat looks more like a deer in the photo posted by John Martini. It's much smaller and the antlers are different. (The Gallery, DPC, Hot Springs, Rural America)
The Only Way to Fly: 1965
... young ladies passing out four-packs of Salems in downtown Buffalo. I had to laugh watching some of the folks making a circuit of the ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 10/06/2015 - 6:42pm -

My friend's folks stretch out and light up on a nice, comfy flight from San Francisco to Hawaii in 1965. Someone borrowed their Kodak Instamatic for this 126 Kodachrome slide. View full size. How it used to beBack in the day when you could actually sit comfortably in a coach seat. Bet the meal was pretty good too. King and Queens!When I flew for American Airlines in the 1970s we were given strict orders to "Treat passengers as if they were Kings and Queens!" "Make their travel a wonderful experience they will always remember being special." Stewardesses were weighed once a week with unannounced flight inspections to see that we were up to AA's hgh standards and especially checked to see we were wearing beautifully applied nail polish with matching color lipstick! The airlines have certainly come long way and not for the better, unless you are among the one percent few who can enjoy First Class. I have zero doubt...Some sharp-eyed Shorpist will identify this plane from just the window shape and bit of engine visibile... And it's a Tiparillo, of course!Should a gentleman...? Not a 707Assuming this was a United flight, UAL was a big DC8 customer but did eventually buy the Boeing 720, a shorter range derivative of the 707. I'll vote for this being a "Diesel 8." Boeing 707Date of flight and small entry of engine argues for a Boeing 707, active between 1958 and 1979. I Say 707Both the DC-8 and the 707 had varous engines and most engines of the time had a similar look. However, interior photos of both planes show the DC-8 had much more space between the windows than the 707 and in tis photo the windows are closer together, leading me to believe this is indeed a 707. No need to bring your ownIn those days, the airlines actually GAVE you cigarettes as part of the service. (No doubt supplied by the ever-alert tobacco companies.) I recall small flip-top boxes of four. Security What Security?Those were the days when you could just casually walk through the gate without a ticket, board the plane, and escort your friends to their seat, then snap their picture before the plane took off. Same way we used to do it on ocean liners ... remember when they used to call out the warning 'all ashore whose going ashore'? Oh! For the Legroom!I'll pass on the smokes, but give me the legroom. At 6'5", it's difficult to enjoy flying today. I do remember when it was an enjoyable experience. I flew to the midwest from Kennedy on United, the same year this picture was taken. Although I was a little shorter then, the space, food and service was wonderful. They even put a mini 2 pack of Viceroys on my food tray, just in case I wanted to light one up -- at the tender age of 15. A Dress up occasionNote, too, how nicely dressed these passengers were. I remember well feeling that I should be dressed for air travel as if I were going to an important appointment. I'm sure this lady had a pair of nice gloves with her. Imagine wearing a jacket and tie to fly to Hawaii today! And, of course, we passengers were treated as valued guests in return. Dress-upI personally brought Bermudas-style dress to the Hawaii routes in 1968. Four-packsCan someone say how those four-packs of cigarettes were distributed other than as airline giveaways? Were they sold in stores? I Googled for info and didn't see anything, other that in the U.S., cigarette packs must now contain at least 20 cigarettes. My dad was a commercial pilot, not an airline pilot, but he always had those four-packs in his airplanes and I'd sneak a few for my use until he caught me at it. Seems to me they were always Parliaments, Viceroys, or Lucky Strikes. Pan AmDC-8 windows were larger than these (about 17 by 21 inches, says the ad) and were spaced 40 inches center to center. So it's a 707, which I guess means Pan Am, unless the passengers were continuing beyond HNL to Australia on QANTAS. Three Pan Am flights a day from SFO to HNL in 1965, or more in the summer-- the 0900 departure continued west to New York. 126 CameraMy 126 camera always took great pictures. It was especially good at taking low light shots, like neon signs at dusk, while still nicely rendering the building they were attached to. Wish I still had it. Travel in the 1950sWhether our family took a train or flew, we had to wear our best clothes. Here is our family arriving at the Essendon Aerodrome in Melbourne, Australia, in October of 1958. We had just left Canada, and my father's new position with the Ford Motor Company of Australia was to introduce the Ford Falcon. I am wearing the striped jacket and tie, and Mum is giving her best regal wave, with white gloves on, of course! Four-Packs Pt. 2While serving in Vietnam, K-Rations often had 4 packs of cigarettes in them. If you didn't smoke you could trade them to a smoker buddy for his fruit. From what I have read the same was true in WWII and Korea as well. GI Four PacksThe other primary customers were the many Viet Nam era troops. These four packs were included in each box of C Rations (MREs of the day). We used to trade them for preferable brands, and used to practically assault non-smokers to get theirs! Often they would trade their smokes for the piece of chocolate that was included in each ration. A Different 707The four-packs of cigarettes were also in the flight lunches provided on the T29 (twin engine Convair) navigator trainer that Air Training Command flew as a shuttle between its Hq and DC. We called the flight the "707" because it took seven hours and seven minutes one way. One compensation was that you got to stay at Bolling AFB and ride the launch to the Pentagon, at least until Sen. Proxmire put the kibosh on that. More on 4 pack distribution.As a teenager visiting downtown Chicago I often encountered young women passing out 4 packs of cigarettes to pedestrians. The earliest I recall this happening was when I was 16 years old in 1972. They would give you 2 or 3 packs if you asked. With 80% fewer smokesFour packs of cigarettes were common packed in K and later C and MCI rations up until 1975. Coffin NailsIn the 1960s I garaged my car in public lot in the Bronx. I met a fellow there that worked as a salesman for a tobacco distributor. He passed those 4 pack samples out to his better customers. They came in cartons that held 50 4 packs. That was the equivalent of regular carton of smokes. I think a pack sold for about 40 cents at that time, a carton would be $4 and I would pay the guy $2 for the 200 cigs. Re: Four PacksThose four-cigarette packs were comps given away by the tobacco companies. I remember back when I was still working, they had four young ladies passing out four-packs of Salems in downtown Buffalo. I had to laugh watching some of the folks making a circuit of the intersection, trying to score a couple of free packs of smokes. One thing not mentioned was the mini bottles (glass, not plastic) of different kinds of whiskey handed out by the stews as well. On my flight home from the military in 1966, there were five of us aboard a Fokker F.28.The stewardess gave me a half a dozen bottles of Seven Crown to say thanks for my service. I still have one bottle left. Re: That Different 707Yup, went through USAF navigator school (James Connally AFB, Waco) on those things. They had a unique odor inside, a result of many, many student navigators tossing their cookies in bumpy Texas air. You mightfeel a little nuts wearing a suit on a flight to Hawaii, but you'd look cool anyway in your Ray-Ban Wayfarers. Definitely a Pan Am 707-320From the cabin wall pattern and seat materials this is definitely a Pan Am 707. Back when flying was a treat, not a chore. Gone and ForgottenIn addition to the DC-8 and Boeing 707, the Convair 880 by General Dynamics plied the early Jet Age skies. My first flightMy first flight was from San Francisco to Chicago to attend Graduate School. I remember the cigarettes and thought "WOW"!. I also remember the light coming on in the bathroom to return to my seat. I didn't know what was happening and was scared silly! Air Sickeness ExpressMy first 20 years flying, I was very often sick, due to having to breathe people's cigarette smoke! When non-smoking sections came along, it helped, some, but not enough, especially if my non-smoking seat bordered the smoking section. Coincidentally, San Fransisco to Hawaii was the first air trip I ever took, back in 1970. Dad had recently returned from Vietnam and we were on our way to his new duty station of Camp Smith, on Oahu. All dressed upBack in 1961 my parents were taking a trip from Idlewild; I can still hear my mother saying to my dad, "Give me the keys to the car - I don't have a thing to wear on the plane." (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)
Castle Inn: 1908
Circa 1908. "Castle Inn at Buffalo, New York." The former residence of Millard Fillmore. 8x10 inch glass ... no sir, not on my watch. Bummer no longer here From Buffalo's historical site: 1831 - Original house on the site: Albert H. ... the Statler Towers) Funeral Having grown up near Buffalo, there were many of these similarly-dismal old-style buildings. We ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/12/2012 - 3:43am -

Circa 1908. "Castle Inn at Buffalo, New York." The former residence of Millard Fillmore. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. WonderfulWhat a superb hodge-podge of a building. So much going on, bet the drawings would be incredible. And they sure made sure you didn't walk on the grass, no sir, not on my watch. Bummer no longer hereFrom Buffalo's historical site: 1831 - Original house on the site: Albert H. Tracey House 1853 - Second house: John Hollister House 1858 - House purchased by Millard Fillmore 1881 - Fillmore House converted into Hotel Fillmore 1901 - Hotel Fillmore converted into Castle Inn 1919 - Castle Inn razed in to make way for Hotel Statler (in 2002, the Statler Towers) FuneralHaving grown up near Buffalo, there were many of these similarly-dismal old-style buildings. We absolutely hated them, referring to them as 'Funeral'. Millard Fillmore HouseThe history of the land from the History of Buffalo website here. Statler and FillmoreI grew up in Buffalo and loved the architecture there. All of it, even the dismal funerals. Here's a link to a site that shows the Castle Inn in context. The first image on this page gives a good sense what it was like. (The Gallery, Buffalo NY, DPC)
Perfect Hash: 1941
... (a small village some twenty or thirty miles east of Buffalo) that converted old passenger train cars into these diners and supplied ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/02/2022 - 11:44am -

October 1941. "Scenes in the Finger Lakes region. This diner depends on the 'truckers' for its trade. Near Cortland, New York." The Riverside Diner, offering bunks for bros, booths for babes and knuckle sandwiches for photographers. Acetate negative by John Collier. View full size. About these DinersThere used to be a place in Clarence (a small village some twenty or thirty miles east of Buffalo) that converted old passenger train cars into these diners and supplied a number of towns in New York State and northern Pennsylvania. They had a siding that ran up to the building to load them onto flatcars for delivery to other towns along the line. After the company folded, they sold the structures to Erie County, which relocated one of its Highway Division maintenance barns there. As a surveyor for the County, I worked out of there for a number of years. Tales of the Coal TruckMy late mother-in-law, who hailed from anthracite country, used to regale us with the story that she and her siblings had to walk two miles to and from school (both ways uphill, of course) in all weathers, unless they "could get a ride on a coal truck." I wonder if this was one of them. I'm suspiciousand maybe too cynical. This is a diner, not a truck stop. Why is a diner recruiting ladies to come inside also offering free bunks to truck drivers? bobzyerunkl, point taken. But if she climbs into a free bunk with a truck driver, she's no lady either. I'm inThey had me at The Home Of Perfect Food. Social gracesBooths for ladies. Tables for ladies. If she sits at the counter with the truck drivers, she's no lady. Those Were The Days (?)While stationed with the Air Force in Niagara Falls, NY in the 60s, I drove a coal truck part time much like this one (we didn’t have much to do on AF duty). Like this one: beat-up, under-powered and once you got it rolling, a real bear to stop, my old Ford truck got the job done, and helped keep part of “The Falls” warm through those cold Upstate NY winters! Tioughnioga River in the Back YardI'm pretty sure this diner was on U.S. Route 11, just north of Cortland and just south of Homer. The coal truck is pointed north, toward Tully, Lafayette, and Syracuse, about 35 miles away. The valley bottom is so flat that the river used to flood a lot in this area. I suspect those are riverbank willow trees behind the diner. The Tioughnioga flows south and joins the Chenango River, which flows into the Susquehanna near Binghamton; so this diner is in the northernmost headwaters of Chesapeake Bay. Cortland was the home of Brockway Trucks, and was called "The Crown City" because its elevation is the highest of New York State's 62 cities. Homer, Cortland County's prettiest village, billed itself as "The Homeville of David Harum," the fictional horse trader. Better have a second job ...I would imagine the "ladies" depend on the truckers, too. Truck ID"D" series International (Harvester) circa 1938-1939 Former LifeThe step on the near corner of the lower roof (above the Public Telephone sign) makes me think that this is a former electric streetcar with the front platform chopped off. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Eateries & Bars, John Collier, Small Towns)
The New Chevrolet: 1957
... parking lot to stage this photo? Wood Block Ford's Buffalo Stamping Plant in Buffalo, New York, also has a wood block floor. At least it did have when I ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/06/2014 - 12:53pm -

October 1957. "Assembly line with 1958 Chevrolets." 35mm Kodachrome by Phillip Harrington, one of 1,200 photos taken for the Look magazine assignment "GM's 50 Years of Men, Money and Motors." View full size. Rain test?The first two vehicles are all wet, and maybe the third. The rest are too far out of focus to tell. Is there some sort of "rain test" along the assembly line? Or did they just bring these cars in from a wet parking lot to stage this photo? Wood BlockFord's Buffalo Stamping Plant in Buffalo, New York, also has a wood block floor. At least it did have when I retired, after 31 years, 2003. New For "58Mr Mel, I had a Impala the same color as your convertible in '79 at the age of 17. Purchased from "the little white hair old lady" in Burbank for $400.00. 283, two barrel carb,oil bath air cleaner, a cast iron "Powerglide transmission. Sold it to a buddy for $200.00, still regret it to this day. A few months later I bought a '48 Oldsmobile "76 Dynamic Cruiser" for $700.00. But missed my '58 Impala. I like all year Chevies and everybody has there favorites. As the former owner of a '58 Olds "98" the Chevy was conservative. But this is what I love about Shorpy, these types of photos of a time that was, and never to be again. PS... I'll drive off the line in that wagon right now. lol SerendipityThis design was originally to have debuted in the '57 model year. When tooling problems surfaced, the '56 was hastily face-lifted and became the '57 model -- now venerated by many collectors as the most desirable Chevy ever -- while this design was pushed ahead to become the '58, a model generally held in much less aesthetic esteem. [I question the accuracy of this narrative. - Dave] This is a story I've read about in several sources, but the only ready reference I have is Wikipedia, which generally corroborates the story. A more reputable reference awaits my opening more book boxes, so barring a savior somewhere out there in Shorpyland, I guess I'll just have to endure the scorn of your skepticism. Classic!I will take that first blue one. North TarrytownCould this be the old GM assembly plant just north of New York City? The cobble stone floor indicates an older facility. 58 ChevyI'd take anyone of those. I'm thinking the 1958 model (dual headlights) wasn't as desirable as the 1957 model but they still look awfully good. How I miss the days...Back when cars had real color. The top, upper body, and lower body were all different, not to mention ample chrome accents to add even more eye appeal. Today's cars are monochromatic blobs. Even the bumpers are just part of the body, with the same color. Harley's follyThe 1958 GM line was the beginning of the end for Harley Earl. He had been the golden boy of the design department since the 20's, but the '58 models seemed proof that he had lost his mojo. By '59 he was gone, to be replaced by Bill Mitchell. OrangeCould the curious orange band at the top of the photo be a strip of gel placed in front of the lens to diminish the glare of the fluorescents? Mr Mel aka Mr LuckyI bought a new '58 Impala Convertible while I was still in the Army. It cost $2600. The downpayment was my '51 Chevy 4 door Deluxe. The payments were $72 monthly. My father made the payments until I came home and started making enough to handle them. He was one great guy. The attached a 1959 photo, is of my then new girlfriend and now my wife of 53 years, sitting on the boot covering the downed top. Wood floorsThe floor is wood blocks placed on end so the grain shows and sealed. Kind of like industrial butcher block. I've seen it in WWII vintage factory floors. There is concrete under it. HubcapsThe hubcaps were usually stored in the trunk until final delivery by the dealer. Could this have been an exception here just for the Look magazine photographer? There is a rack containing cardboard kick panels next to the station wagon. Seems a bit late in the line to be installing them. I hope you will post more photos from this series. The cobblestone floorIs more likely wood block, common in auto plants of the era. By the way, I'll take the ragtop. Color ErrorI can recall tri-tone colors on the cars of the '50s, but I believe the 'turquoise' top on the wagon is actually white and colored by a film processing error. Note that the red paint surrounding the side windows is considerably bluer near the top. [The red and blue appear come from strips of colored gel positioned a few inches in front of the lens, thus the soft edges - note the gradient on the cardboard carton. -tterrace] That's possible, or the effect could have been added while making the print. It's a good rule in photography to get a clean image first and modify it in the darkroom - or these days, in the computer. [This isn't a print, but a direct scan of the 35mm Kodachrome slide. -tterrace] I stand corrected. Mine is greenI drive a two-tone green Brookwood wagon, like the orange and white one in the center of the photo. Its condition is not nearly that nice, but it behaves well enough for a 55 year old car. Orange & turquoiseThat station wagon would blend in perfectly at Howard Johnson. 57 vs 58Well, I must be in the minority. I would sooo much more want a 1958 (especially the new Impala!) than a 1957. Yeah, the GM 58's were Harley Earl's swan song, but what a swan song. Almost baroque with detail, dripping chrome, lavish interiors.... the pinnacle of late 50's auto design to my eyes.I know Bill Mitchell's cars sold better, but to me, he didn't hit his stride until 1963. [I agree with you about the '58. -tterrace] Wow. A '58 Nomad.The Nomad shown has a C-series paint code (two-tone, roof and lower molding area same color), in Cay Coral and Arctic White. We don't know if it's a V-8 (1800 series)or a 6 cylinder (1700 series), but we know it weighed roughly 3700 lbs and cost approx $2800 (factory price, BTW). It was produced in 11 different plants, so it's really impossible to tell if it's Tarrytown, NY or not - without seeing the VIN number, of course. There were 42 different combinations of engine-trans-carb you could order. The engines were the 6 cyl (235HP), a V-8 (283HP) and V-8(348HP). Trans were 3-speed, 4-speed, power glide, turbo-glide and overdrive. Carbs were 2 bbl, 4 bbl, and fuel injection - and the very rare engine that came with 3 two-barrel carbs. Those are pieces of wood on end for the floor. Here in Detroit, all of the old auto plants (the ones still standing anyway) have this flooring. I was just in the old Cadillac Stamping Plant in Detroit on Connor at Gratiot, and the floor is really amazing in itself. Almost 100 years of grease and oil have soaked into that floor. If the walls could talk. [The wagon is a Brookwood, not a Nomad. -tterrace] Factory TourThis takes me back as an 8-year-old in June/July ,1958, Flint Mich. where we were on vacation from Quebec visiting Dad's cousins. My father took me on a tour offered by GM of the Chevrolet assembly plant there and I was awed by the sight of bare frames to finished Impalas in 90 minutes, coming off the line every 90 seconds. That was the "high tech" of the era. I also remember returning to Dad's 56 Chev after the tour in a downpour, only to find a flat tire. Engines & PaintThe comment on the engines was incorrect, "235" is cu. in. Not horsepower, the same goes for the other two V8's also. Someone commented on '50's tricolor cars, GM did not do this, Chrysler Corp. was most apt to paint the three color schemes. My father bought a '58 BelAire, very nice car. 1958 Chevrolet was a 'one year only' design, must have cost them a fortune to produce this design for such a short time, they must have been making a TON of money in those days. Mr Mel sure had a beautiful Impala and girlfriend! The first two cars are Sierra Gold and Desert Sand, I think. The top of the wagon is the same shade as the bottom. (not light blue) The one year 1958Dave, I too question the accuracy of the '57 being a last minute replacement. It would just not be possible on short notice to get all the tooling and parts in place, and the '57 was seriously different from the '56 - fenders, grille, bumpers, trim, it could not have been pulled together quickly. The short life of the '58 model was likely due to Chrysler's new 'Forward Look' styling introduced in 1957. In fact it was Chrysler who dumped a whole design and moved ahead to what they had planned for a few years later. The '57 GM cars looked very stodgy compared to the long, low, yet light-looking Chrysler products. They looked like they could fly (almost). GM moved very quickly and probably left behind their 58 designs which might have been the basis of the next couple of model years at least. Sort of a shame, the 58 Chevy was a really beautiful car. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Detroit Photos, Factories, Phillip Harrington)
Joe Cooler: 1942
... in the glass tray is a pack of tilapia, chicken breasts, buffalo sausage and a pound of butter. In the freezer box along with cubes ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/23/2012 - 3:40pm -

February 1942. "Ask the man who repairs one, and he'll tell you to turn the freeze control back to normal after quick-freezing ice-cubes or ice cream. If you leave it on high, foods will freeze and you'll waste electric current." Medium-format nitrate negative by Ann Rosener, Office of War Information. View full size. The Iceman ComethWhat a lucky and well-heeled family in 1942 during the war years to have a fridge. I didn't know anybody on our street who had a refrigerator. We all had iceboxes and waited for the iceman to walk up the steps with a block of ice every week. It wasn't until after the war in the fifties before many families could afford to buy a fridge. Did everybody have a fridge in the early forties or were we just poor? Well groomed!Joe is sporting the finest example of comb furrows I have ever seen. Defrosting!Oh my goodness! Every time I look at one of those old fridges, even tho they look cool, I can only think of the ordeal of defrosting them, especially in the summer, when it's so hot and muggy! Peekaboo!I think that rascal likes what he sees. I want that shirt!Great shirt. Love the satin-face pinstripes. Even the collar would still work. But I don't think I'd roll the sleeves all the way up to the shoulder. FreezerThis brings back memories, for sure. I wonder how many of today's young housewives have interacted with a freezer as small as those old refrigerators featured. Step 1: Open doorYes, your refrigerator experience just isn't complete without a thorough mansplanation ... That fridge!My wife and I just bought a fridge very like this one — a GE from 1946. We got it to supplement our GE Monitor Top from 1934. You'd be surprised — defrosting them isn't that bad at all. Seems like in the past the process was to empty out the fridge entirely to do it. That's totally unnecessary. We just put a pan under the evaporator and turn the fridge off for a couple hours. The fridge warms enough for the ice to basically fall off the evaporator, but still stays cool enough to keep the food safe. Then you just wipe down the evaporator and turn it back on. Easy. It's a small price to pay for the pleasure of using these beautiful examples of American craftsmanship. They truly don't make them like this anymore! The Ice ManUm, yeah. Repairman is not so much looking at what he's meant to be repairing. I can't imagine turning the freezer DOWN after the ice is frozen... I guess people only used ice intermittently? Shallow Freeze"Ice cubes OR ice cream" is right. The freezer is too small to do both at once. With most current refrigerators, the freezer compartment volume alone exceeds what the Mrs. had in total back in '42. And today's freezers self-defrost. As a kid, that was my job. I always spilled the hot water on me, the floor, everything. Ugh. 40's IceboxDon't get paranoid, Doreen. We had an icebox in the 40's, and the ice man would come regularly to put a block of ice in it. The ice was in the back of his open bed truck covered with a tarp. He would haul it out with huge tongs and tote it on his back into the house. So clean and handsomeWhat an orderly fridge with those covered glass refrigerator dishes, what a well-dressed happy "repairman" and neat, wholesome housewife, both looking so happy to be doing what they are doing in life. This is a feel-good picture that makes an old fossil wish he could go back there and visit a spell. Yes, WW2 was on, but people seemed to have a lot more personal dignity and appreciated everything they had. Butter and eggs were rationed, among other things, but the more kids you had, the more stuff you could get so I would guess this pretty lady had dependents. You can't help but like these people. Thank you Shorpy for the nostalgic trip back to 1942. DefrigerationWe had one like it back in the '50s. One day my mother was using a knife to "get something out" of the freezer and punched a hole in the coils. I think they carried ammonia or something like it. We also got a new fridge that day. Metal ice traysThose metal ice trays were the worst. Man, I could NEVER get those things to work properly. It was either run some water over them or use a small hammer and gently "coax" out those pesky cubes. I wouldn't mind having a few around for old times' sake, though. Bigger than a BritboxAfter having lived a year in London, I can assure you that this refrigerator is still larger than most in Britain. The ice man, part II Seeing this photo reminds me of that old play on words: "Every husband has his wife but the ice man has his pick." If you're under a certain age it won't make any sense. If you're older than that, it's pretty funny! More Fridge Advice>> Ask the man who repairs one, and he'll tell you to turn the freeze control back to normal after quick-freezing ice-cubes or ice cream. Also, shut the door and chat elsewhere. My fridge!Or close to it, anyway. I bought a 1947 GE model ND-8-DC back in the early '80s and it's still chugging along nicely. I had to have the cold control replaced about ten years ago and I replaced the gasket a few years later. My freezer is slightly bigger - it has one more shelf and it came with four metal ice trays. (When I was a kid we called those trays "fishbones" because of the way the inserts were articulated.) The enameled fruit and vegetable bins have glass tops and there's a wire basket for butter and cheese under the top shelf. And Jazznocracy, this is the easiest refrigerator to defrost! I turn it off, open the door and point a fan at the freezer. Dry, cool air is the secret. The ice just drops into a pan. 5, 10, 15, 25Regarding old iceboxes, when you needed ice you put a sign in the window telling the iceman what size block you needed -- a cardboard placard with "5," "10," "15" and "25" written on it, indicating pounds. Placed with the amount you wanted in the "up" position. My friends and I, all of us in the 3-5 year age range, enjoyed picking up the slivers from the floor of the ice wagon, on those hot summer days. The slivers came from the ice man using his pick to split off the proper-sized chunk. IceboxesFor those of you who had iceboxes, do you remember how big the ice block was, and how long did it last? Just curious. Cougarssure looked different in 1942. Young guys, however, have that certain timeless look. Same now as then. Somehow...He reminds me of Eddie Haskell. Fark fodderThis is totally going to get Farked, I think, but Farked or not, I like this shot. Mrs. Hausfrau's head tilt is an example of textbook overacting, but the young man's smile seems genuine enough and is certainly pleasant. He looks like he's about to put his arm around her shoulder and call her "Ma." Those covered glass containers in the fridge are lovely. 'Twas once upon a time, just before Tupper and his ware come on the scene. I apologize in advance but....this is a blonde joke waiting to happen. [Or a gray-haired housewife joke. - Dave] Caption"Wait a minute...you're not from Verizon!" Butter and eggsEggs were not rationed in the United States and butter was not rationed until December 1942. (How many of us remember our mothers breaking the capsule of orange food coloring and mixing it into the margarine?) Mighty miteI inherited my aunt's 1939 General Electric refrigerator that she got as a new bride. Looks and runs like new. Do not underestimate the might of that little freezer. It's called planning. I have the original entertainment booklet that tells you how to plan a sit-down dinner party for 14. What others failed to mention is that there is a glass tray under the freezer unit and anything you place in it freezes rock hard. The booklet explains how to start making your ice for the glass tray in advance. How much frozen ice cream, mousse, or sherbet you need to make, where to chill the ice cream dishes, place your cold drinks, salads etc. Today people have a freezer the size of Manhattan and can only produce instant micro nuke-and-puke dinners. I just looked in my freezer and it contains 48 ice cubes in trays, ice cream made two hours ago, in the glass tray is a pack of tilapia, chicken breasts, buffalo sausage and a pound of butter. In the freezer box along with cubes and ice cream is bag of peas, box of spinach, mixed vegetables a large can of frozen punch mix, with room for few more boxes or bags of vegetables. In this house we are never out of ice or something good in the freezer. Running on sulfur dioxide gas, the most thermo efficient coolant known. If this one ever dies I will be on eBay in a heartbeat seeking another refrigerator from the 30s 40s or 50s. No more frost-frees for me. Frost-free units use four times as much electricity as these older units do. Yep, they sure do not make 'em like that anymore. Private CoolerHow many more weeks after this photo was taken before Joe Cooler, able-bodied young advertising model, got that smile wiped off his face by a drill sergeant? The Old Ice BoxWe didn't order ice by the pound from "Tony the Ice Man." It was ordered by the price; a 10-cent piece on weekdays and a 15-cent piece on weekends. "Be sure and empty the basin under the icebox and keep the door shut before the baby's milk goes sour" was the daily warning. (The Gallery, Ann Rosener, Kitchens etc., WW2)
Old King Coal: 1900
... Says Phoebe Snow about to go upon a trip to Buffalo, "My gown stays white from morn till night upon the Road of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 6:29pm -

Scranton, Pennsylvania, circa 1900. "Delaware, Lackawanna and Western R.R. yards." Dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Sooty CityThe pollution is truly impressive. Was this progress? A Breath of Fresh AirNot to be found at this time and place. The old king is NOT dead! Long live the king!Coal-burning locomotives are making a comeback in Britain! Brand-new steam loco rescues passengers when electric trains are paralyzed by snow: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8428097.stm Phoebe Snow's RoadThe Delaware Lackawanna Western was famous for its advertising campaign featuring a character called Phoebe Snow, a 1900s period lady dressed in white, which touted the cleanliness of the line's trains because of the fuel they burned (and which the company mined): Says Phoebe Snow about to go upon a trip to Buffalo, "My gown stays white from morn till night upon the Road of Anthracite." Progress Indeed!Yes, this was progress! Because without crawling first, we would have never developed the clean energy technologies of today. Don't forget that before coal, we burned wood, and just about deforested the entire Eastern seaboard. SteamtownI believe this is the site of the present day Steamtown. The coal ramp is now the site of the pedestrian walkway to the nearby Steamtown Mall, to the right. I make the trip there at least once a year, so I'll have to compare my photographs with this one. Everyone whines about the "pollution" in this photograph, but this country was built with the help of "Old King Coal." Old Mother HubbardThe style of locomotive at the right in the picture (808, 812, 811, and a couple farther right) is called a 'Mother Hubbard' -- the cab is at the middle of the boiler with just a small, dangerous platform for the fireman, because the loco used a very wide firebox. "In the summer the engineer roasted, in the winter the fireman froze" was a period quote. The picture is from the Willard Library. Historic ScrantonI believe the structure with the missile-like turret off in the distance is the Scranton Municipal Building. Scranton has a number of gorgeous old buildings that escaped the wrecking ball. I lived there in the early '80s, too late to enjoy the boom times of King Coal (and too soon to work at Dunder-Mifflin). Great job, Shorpy, on this imageI found this on the LOC website and grabbed the 170mb TIFF scan. You-all have done a truly impressive job sharpening and extracting the content of the image from what's on the LOC website! NotesThere's a couple interesting things in this picture. First you're facing the "coach" yard, where passenger trains were made up. Looking at those cars, on the far left you can see a handful of wooden open end cars, as well as that curious round roofed structure in the middle of the yard. That looks to be a caboose, in particular a short wooden "coupla" [cupola?] free caboose. Would have dated from the 1800s. There's a couple more of those in that yard. Perhaps the most interesting thing is the locomotive at the head of the short freight. It looks like it's a tank engine of some sort, probably more likely a porter 0-4-4. Mother HubbardsThose locomotives are more properly known as Camelbacks. There was no communication between the engineer up in the cab, and the fireman down below. There were stories of the firemen having enough of the heat on a tough trip and jumping off to walk home. The engineer never knew it until the pressure dropped and he had to go see why. (The Gallery, DPC, Railroads, Scranton)
Inaugural Umbrellas: 1901
... whose inauguration was being celebrated would lie dead in Buffalo, shot by the Anarchist Leon Czolgosz. The Village Anyone else ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 12:22pm -

March 4, 1901. "President William McKinley second inaugural parade, Pennsylvania Avenue." Brady-Handy Collection glass negative. View full size. Precision Umbrella Drill Team Rules!Complete with snappy white top hats (the Doo Dah Parade is calling, gentlemen!) And if that's The Washington Post building in the background, maybe they're the (well informed) destination for the impressive array of phone lines above the buildings on the left. Hopefully the men perched atop the other phone pole aren't disrupting calls! Just funWhat a whimsical sight, from the umbrellas, to the white top hats, to the dog in the street. Can you think of any inaugural parade in the last fifty years that was as much fun? Friends ForeverIs that a pickpocket in action left foreground? MulletDid anyone else notice the fashion-forward hairdo on one member of the umbrella drill team? Takes GutsThere are at least 2 men sitting on top of a telephone or light pole and a few more about halfway down. I hope they all got down safely. DisneyesqueIt looks like it was staged by Walt Disney and great fun to be in and to watch. One of the aspects of "the good old days" that is actually true: no fears of disruption or calamity. A celebration of Liberty. No dames allowed?Virtually no women visible in the ranks of the spectators. What's that about? [There are dozens of women in this picture. - Dave] What goes up must come... Wait, what?Again and again, we see photos on Shorpy that feature people fearlessly leaning out 6th-floor windows, cramming onto roofs, perched on mile-high balconies and swinging from the tops of fifty-foot poles. Makes me think the apple fell on Isaac Newton much later...say, the 1940s. Pride ParadeThe umbrella corps would do San Francisco proud. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Where's Waldo......can you find at least one man who is uncovered (not wearing a hat)? I think I can see a couple. I find it heartening to see such enthusiasm for the workings of democracy. I suppose a cynic would say that it was a time when the people were starved for entertainment and would turn out for any dog and pony show, especially if given a few hours off. To me, in a time when the media weren't so pervasive, it was probably important that the democratic process was proved to have been completed. A Prelude>> One of the aspects of 'the good old days' that is actually true: no fears of disruption or calamity. That's a rather ironic statement considering that slightly less than 6 months later the man whose inauguration was being celebrated would lie dead in Buffalo, shot by the Anarchist Leon Czolgosz. The VillageAnyone else see the umbrellas and capes and think of The Prisoner? Short TermMcKinley, the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected, would be assassinated six months later. His vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, would succeed him. Number 2I thought of The Prisoner too. Short Time in OfficeFrom the date of this photo, President McKinley would have but a little more than six months in office; losing his life to a madman's bullet on September 14th. His VP - Teddy Roosevelt would become the 26th President. I agree that this looks to be a much more enjoyable inaugural parade than we've seen of late. I doubt that any of these marchers would be thrown out of their organization because they dared look at the President. Social ProprietyOnce past the Umbrella Drill Team, one is impressed that onlookers are free to line buildings, windows and parapets. Although there is some police presence, it appears nobody really expects this important ceremony to be disrupted by protests or violence. No longer a safe assumption in these security-conscious days! Still, the price of this social stability seems to have been a rigid sense of "proper" dress and public decorum. One might wish to stroll down lovely Tremont Street in 1906 Boston, but imagine having to dress up like this just to go out! Those onlookers would be scandalized by at least 75 percent of today's ordinary public activities (Kids running around! Unsupervised teenage couples! Boisterous music!), not to mention our scandalously revealing comfortable clothing. Mullet?I haven't been able to spot a mullet hairdo, but if JeffK is referring to the second umbrellist from the right in the first row, what looks like long hair in back is actually the bottom corner of the cape on the guy behind. Ka Pow !Which one is the Penguin ? Parade, si! Vote, no!I appreciate Stevie's comments on democratic spectacles. I feel that kind of nostalgia, too. But before getting too carried away with that kind of enthusiasm, I would like to note that most of the spectators frozen in the year 1901 by this photo were unable to vote for either of the major presidential tickets (McKinley / Roosevelt or Bryan / Stevenson). Nor for that matter could they cast a ballots for Wooley, Debs, Barker, Maloney or any of the other presidential candidate who managed to get himself steamrolled by the Republicans in 1900. Why? I assume that most of the people in the photo lived in DC. Any of them alive in 1964 would have been enfranchised by the 23rd Amendment (1961), and so could have voted for President in 1964--finally. That's not to mention that no woman in the photo could have voted in 1900. The 19th Amendment wasn't ratified until 1920. For that matter, it would have been unlikely that any of the African American males who were in town that day from Virginia or Maryland had been permitted to vote in their own districts. So when we celebrate our democratic heritage, let's also remember how far we've come. [Whether the women in this photo could vote depended on where they lived -- suffrage was granted by the individual states and territories (starting with Wyoming, in 1859) long before passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. By 1917, women in 16 states plus Alaska already had the vote. - Dave] (Dave, I appreciate your comments as well. I think I was looking at the forest, and you, at the trees. Just a couple things. First, Wyoming was admitted to the Union in 1869, and its constitution did enfranchise women. Second, a number of states did allow complete women's suffrage by 1915--not surprisingly, they were nearly all western states with Progressive traditions, save New York. (Differences from one state to another encouraged by our federal system must always be taken into account.) But in other states, even when they did enjoy the vote, the right to vote was not extended to women in all kinds of elections. This was the case in both Maryland and Virginia in 1901. Third, there were localized instances of women being extended suffrage rights in the US before the Civil War, but those rights were very specialized. As I recall, in some states, women could vote if they were widowed and owned property above a certain value. Finally, all African American males should have been enfranchsed after the passage of 15th Amendment in 1871. The odd thing is that, by and large, the women's suffrage movement of the 19th and 20th Centuries avoided taking black suffrage on board with their own cause. Thanks again for both the entertainment you provide here, and the chance to blog about the occasional arcane, forgotten, or obscure issue.) Dig that flag!Tthe flag in this photo is by far the coolest historical flag I think I've ever seen; I never realized that we went back, briefly, to the old circle constellation style for a brief period at the very beginning of the 20th century. Dang! Never seen a flag like that!Parade flag with stars inside a circle of stars -- anyone know if or when that was an official flag? Dressing up to go outOne might wish to stroll down lovely Tremont Street in 1906 Boston, but imagine having to dress up like this just to go out! I once lived in a house built in the 1890s that had not had the privilege of being remodeled in the intervening century. Each closet was outfitted with precisely three hooks: One for Sunday, one for Monday through Saturday, and one for overalls. Dressing up was surprisingly less onerous than you'd think when you owned precisely three suits of clothes. The smell, despite the presence of numerous laundries, was another issue entirely. Sweat, wool, tobacco, macassar oil, and lilac water is a powerful combination. Every time I see a Shorpy crowd photo from 1890-1910, the smell overwhelms me. Suffrage in VirginiaArnnman writes about women's suffrage: "But in other states, even when they did enjoy the vote, the right to vote was not extended to women in all kinds of elections. This was the case in both Maryland and Virginia in 1901." I don't think this was the case in Virginia at all. Women here did not get the right to vote until three-fourths of the states ratified the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. However, even then, Virginia refused to ratify until 1952. Encyclopedia Virginia's entry on the subject can be found here: http://staging.encyclopediavirginia.org/Woman_Suffrage_in_Virginia If we got this history wrong, please let us know. Washington Post buildingNear the middle of the photo you can see the top of the Washington Post building (located at 1339 E St. NW, according to the Post website). The Post still uses the same font for its masthead. America's Choice Bike ShopAnyone have any idea what the name of the bike shop with the awning is? I would love to know if there was once a frame-builder in DC. ["America's Choice" was President McKinley. This was the R.M. Dobbins bike shop at 1425 Pennsylvania Avenue. - Dave] The PrisonerThat was my first thought. Actually, I have thought about the show in a number of instances with the photos from this era. This one, though, was the one that REALLY did it for me. Re: Never seen a flag like thatThere was no such thing as an "official" American flag until President Taft standardized the design in 1912. This flag design was as official as any other with the correct number of stars on it. It would appear to be the forerunner for Wayne Whipple's flag. See the pdf chart of US Flags at http://www.vexman.net/ (The Gallery, D.C., Politics)
Three Indians: 1915
... there the route across county is via New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Davenport, Des Moines, Omaha, Cheyenne, Salt Lake ... Utica, Syracuse, Rochester to: July 20: 12:45 AM, Buffalo, New York to Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Bryan, South Bend, Chicago, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/06/2013 - 11:57am -

Washington, D.C., July 1915. "Motorcycle team, relay to Frisco." Frank S. Long, F.L. Leishear (whose Indian store we saw here) and Josiah McL. Seabrook. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. California, screamin'They sure did take a circuitous route (NYC and then way up to Albany). The stretch from Reno down into Sacramento must have kept the lads awake with fear if that lap's bikes had no front brakes either. The first time I drove from Reno to Sacramento - and this was on a road they could not dream of, I-80 - one item that caught my eye was a sign, "Caution. Downgrades next 40 miles." Light fantasticThe one smart enough to put the light on his bike will win it for them. Gold mineThe guys from "Pickers" must be drooling. Maybe they could find out who these men are and see if their families have these bikes behind the barn. Safety first!At least for the fellow with the tossled hair. He has on his protective gloves! Rudimentary brakes.Emergency stops much have been pretty exciting on those old bikes- I don't think they even had front brakes. No stoppies for them! Nice!I've been sitting here soaking up this picture. Just fabulous! Great shot, great clothes, great bikes! Wish I could go for a ride with them. Thanks again Dave. Handsome BravesBeautiful bikes! These have many, many similarities to this amazingly restored model, snapped last spring in Charlotte, North Carolina. They may be a bit newer, with kick starter, no leg-power pedals, skirted fender, hand-grip clutch, an electric headlamp on the rear bike (as opposed to Prest-o-Lite [acetylene]), and "soft-tail" rear suspension. I guess any of this could have been optional equipment. DatingI believe that the date of this photo is probably 1916 and not 1926. The Indians pictured appear to be 1915 models. I believe that 1915 was the last year of the inlet over exhaust engine (which these bikes have)and the first year of the kick starter. [You are close -- the year is 1915. - Dave] World's Fastest IndianWhen you see these bikes it really is incredible that Burt Munro took a similar model, a 1920 Scout, modified it and drove it to several land speed records. In 1967, with his engine punched out to 58 cu.in. (950cc) he set a class record of 183.586 mph. To qualify he made a one-way run of 190.07 mph, the fastest ever officially recorded speed on an Indian. The hogs of their dayLaugh at the funny horn if you like, but those bikes are Indian "standards" with 1,000-cc engines. Too bad they didn't add front brakes until 1928. Murder Inc.Maybe these fellas were part of the traveling team of hit-men for Murder Inc. They sure look like they want to kill something. a-OO-gah!Although the braking wouldn't be the greatest, at least they'd be able to clear a path with a mighty squeeze of the horn. Silent RIt was Shorpy that taught me that these are "Motocycles." 119 Hours to FriscoWashington Post, July 18, 1915. RELAY RACE TOMORROW Motorcyclists to Carry Message From Capital to Pacific. START FROM WHITE HOUSE Three Washington Men Will Cover the First Lap, From This City to Baltimore -- Expect to Make Cross-Continent Run in 119 Hours -- Secretary of War to Start Riders. With all arrangements for the transcontinental motorcycle relay race completed, the riders for the first lap of the long journey await the starter's word. The start will be made from the White House at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. They will carry a message from the President to the officials of the Panama-Pacific exposition at San Francisco. The Washington team, which will cover the first lap, will be composed of Frank S. Long, F.L. Leishear, and J. McL. Seabrook, mounted on Indian motorcycles. These men will carry the message from here to Baltimore, where another team will take it up and carry it over the second lap which ends in Philadelphia. From there the route across county is via New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, Davenport, Des Moines, Omaha, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Reno and Sacramento to San Francisco. Fast Time Is Scheduled. On account of the absence of the President, the message will be handed to the riders by Secretary of War Garrison. It is due on the Pacific coast 119 hours after leaving Washington. The riders in the Eastern part of the country will have little difficulty in keeping up with the schedule on account of the good roads, but some of the Western relays are more than 200 miles in length. The longest lap will be between Elko and Fenley, Nev. This stretch is 274 miles long. One of the purposes of this relay is to demonstrate the utility of the motorcycle for military use. The relay is intended to show that the motorcycle is capable of delivering messages under all conditions of road and weather. There will not be one minute from the time the message leaves Washington until it is delivered to the officials of the exposition that it is not moving, day and night, rain or shine. The motorcyclists of this country have been as one volunteering their services as dispatch bearers, and it has been a task for John L. Donovan, chairman of the competition committee of the Federation of American Motorcyclists and manager of the relay, to select the riders. HornyThe furthestmost bike from us has an electric horn, but the others have the bulb variety; I'm guessing it was an optional extra or later add-on. Also interesting to note that heavy cardigans seemed to be the outer garment of choice for moto-cyclists at this time. I wonder when and why the black leather jacket took over. Front SuspensionIt's called a trailing link suspension as the arm pivots ahead of the axel axle. Not too common at all. I believe some early BMWs used this type for awhile as well. In All It's Its GloryHere is a picture of a restored bike that is exactly like the ones in the picture. Note the kick start is on the left side and there is no gear shift to the left of the tank. Apparently slightly later models had the space occupied by the kick start mechanism replaced with a transmission that included a gear shift from it to the left side of the gas tank. Front SuspensionThe Indian front suspension was designed so there was caster to the wheels. According to the old guys I knew 60 years ago, this caster made for very secure handling and less tendency to high speed wobble. You haven't lived until you have experienced a case of high speed wobble!!! UnpunctualThe messages were delivered 36 hours late according to the article below from The Salt Lake Tribune from July 26, 1915. Research indicates that the riders were trying to show that taking a dispatch on a motorcycle across the country would be faster than placing the same message on a train. As originally scheduled, the race would have gone through Sacramento during the national Federation of American Motorcyclists (FAM) convention in Sacramento, but this did not happen because of the belated arrival of the dispatch rider. The FAM was the organization behind the race. All riders were asked to conduct a rehearsal ride on July 11th. The purpose of riding in teams of three was to ensure that if something happened to the primary rider or his motorcycle another rider would be immediately available to continue the mission to San Francisco. Of the three riders pictured here, Seabrook punctured a tire before reaching Baltimore, and he dropped out; Long ran into a pile of rocks in Baltimore, and he was injured; so Leishear became the only man to make it to the first transfer point. By Bryan, Ohio, near the Indiana border, the racers were five and a half hours late because of rains and bad roads. By the time the riders reached Chicago they were 12 hours behind schedule. Some time was made up on the way to Moline, Illinois as the deficit was reduced to just eight and a half hours upon arriving there, and seven hours at Des Moines, Iowa. In Nebraska the lead rider had an accident, but the other riders were far behind him. Consequently, by Rock Springs, Wyoming the riders were 19 hours behind their scheduled arrival, and at Ogden, Utah 18 hours overdue. I did not find where the other 18 hours were lost, but many sources mention the 36 hour late arrival. The official route, dates, and times as originally scheduled were shown in the Ogden Standard (Ogden, Utah) on July 17, 1915. Note the earlier start time than what actually took place. July 19: 6:00 AM, Washington. D.C. to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Poughkeepsie, Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester to: July 20: 12:45 AM, Buffalo, New York to Erie, Cleveland, Toledo, Bryan, South Bend, Chicago, Sterling, Davenport to: July 21: 3:15 AM, Victor, Iowa to Walnut, Omaha, Columbus, Kearney, North Platte, Julesburg to: July 22: 3:15 AM, Cheyenne, Wyoming to Pine Ridge Station, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Evanston, Salt Lake City, Ogden to: July 23: 12:45 AM, Kelton, Utah to Cobre, Elko, Rye Patch Station, Battle Mountain, Tenley, Reno, Colfax, Sacramento, Tracy, to San Francisco. (The Gallery, D.C., Motorcycles, Natl Photo, Sports)
Seeandbee: 1912
... Early on in WWII, the Seeandbee (along with the Greater Buffalo) were purchased by the Navy and converted into the world's only ... and Seeandbee stood for "C&B" -- Cleveland & Buffalo, the railroad that owned her. Sidewheeler to carrier In WW II ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/12/2012 - 6:07am -

November 9, 1912. Wyandotte, Michigan. "Steamer Seeandbee on the ways just before the launch." 8x10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Strange fateShe became in 1942 the USS Wolverine (IX-64), a converted training carrier. The only one of two sidewheeler carriers ever. It Wasn't Finished YetThey must have finished it off while it was in the water. Here's what it looked like finished. Seeandbee's Future AccomplishmentsEarly on in WWII, the Seeandbee (along with the Greater Buffalo) were purchased by the Navy and converted into the world's only freshwater, coal-fired, paddlewheel aircraft carriers (The USS Wolverine and the Uss Sable, respectively), for training pilots. Both were scrapped at the end of the war. The Namewas selected by contest, and Seeandbee stood for "C&B" -- Cleveland & Buffalo, the railroad that owned her. Sidewheeler to carrierIn WW II the Seandbee was converted to the USS Wolverine, a training carrier (or "unclassified miscellaneous auxiliary", acto the navy). One GHW Bush qualified for carrier duty on her sister training ship, the USS Sable. TensionIt must be a really tense time, standing there, just waiting for someone to give the signal and see this marvelous ship slide into the water. And float [hopefully]. I like the lady in the lower right corner with the babe in arms, I'd step back a bit further if I were her, just in case. All together now, on the count of three:So when it is time to launch it do all of those guys under the ship knock out their respective support poles and then duck quickly between the rails that it uses to slide sideways into the water? What happens if one or more of the poles are not cooperative about knocking loose or someone misses the three count? Sounds to me like an occupation that life insurance companies would certainly shy away from. I must be missing something, there must be a better way. Please enlighten us Shorpy. No Ducking RequiredIf I'm not mistaken, the poles aren't pulled out from under the hull at launch. The ship and the support poles are all resting upon those topmost inclined planks, and it's the planks which are being held in place from the other side. Their anchorage is removed, and the whole system, ship, poles and planks, slides off. Splash Zone?A new launch looks like a popular spectacle, but I wonder if the front rows, close to the near side of the ways, is a Shamu-style splash zone! "Please leave all Kodaks and radio equipment in your automobiles, as the management cannot be responsible for damages!" Honeymoon and TailhookMy late friend graduated from the US Naval Acadmedy in 1941 and married, spending his honeymoon on a SeeandBee voyage. He then became a Naval Air Pilot and practiced carrier landings and take-offs from the same ship renamed the USS Wolverine. Certainly he and his wife were one couple of maybe a few who could have ever claimed to have spent their honeymoon on an aircraft carrier. Proto-taggingAll you commenters from last week: the railroad car in the foreground appears to have some sort of pre-spray paint graffiti on it, including what looks like a stylized letter "T". Old wheelI like the flatcars wheel - forged with the year 1888. Also, when they launch ships like this, how do they / DO they recover the wood rigging that slides into the water? Does it sink? Float? Flat car wheelThat wheel has been cast, not forged. The number is probably a serial number. More freight car wheels !Freight car wheels are forged not cast as they are made of steel and turned to the final dimensions. The 1888 is the year of manufacture as railroads like to keep track of how long things last and for the past hundred years or so it has been required by the Feds.( retired railroad machinist) Fire SafetyThe Seeandbee represented a step forward in providing fire detection and suppression built into the vessel. Perhaps that, along with large size, made her a suitable candidate for conversion to an aircraft carrier. While steam-driven side-wheel paddlers were approaching their final days when the Seeandbee was launched, it was still considered by some to be superior propulsion system for maneuverability and passage through ice. Safety Engineering, Vol. 26, November, 1913. A New Era in Steamship Equipment At last a steamship company has constructed a vessel in which the fire peril has been considered as important as length, breadth and comfort. There has recently been launched the largest and most costly passenger ship on inland waters—the "Seeandbee"—built by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company, and owned by the Cleveland and Buffalo Transportation Company. This vessel plies between Cleveland and Detroit. The "Seeandbee" is 500 feet in length and has sleeping accommodations for 1.500 passengers. In the design and equipment of this vessel, nothing in the way of comfort has been omitted. A new element of safety has been introduced. Contrary to the almost universal rule of steamship construction, the owners of the "Seeandbee" have afforded protection against fire for the passengers. The Aero Fire Alarm Company, New York, has equipped the ship throughout with the Aero Automatic Fire Alarm System. Sprinklers have been installed. How many passenger-carrying steamships carry such protection against fire? Examples have been frequent recently of the terrible destruction which fire accomplishes when it appears on a vessel unequipped to speedily detect and extinguish fire outbreaks. Thousands of lives are jeopardized each day on board firetrap ships, the owners of which refuse to consider seriously the grave danger to life from the fire peril which exists in their vessels. The Cleveland & Buffalo Transportation Company has set an example in providing for the safety of passengers, which can well be followed by other steamship owners. The "Seeandbee" represents a great step forward in steamship construction. The Aero Automatic Fire Alarm System consists of a fine copper tube which is extended in loops throughout the entire ship. Both ends of these loops are returned to a cabinet, which, on one end, contains a sensitive diaphragm, which moves sufficiently to touch an electrical contact point on the occasion of fire breaking out in the ship. Fire causes a rapid rise of temperature, and thus the air in the tube expands and so operates the diaphragm. The other end of the circuit terminates in a testing valve, which is opened at the time of testing into an air pump, by which pressure is created in the tube similar to fire pressure, causing the diaphragm on the other end to make the electric contact and carries out in exact manner the operation of the system in the event of an actual fire. … More on RR wheelsThose wheels are cast. The date of manufacture is included in serial numbers today per AAR regulations. I don`t know if that was true in 1888. All wheels made in North America today are cast except for the following manufacturer. http://www.standardsteel.com/history.html Forged wheels are required for passenger service and some freight cars. Most cast wheels today have the serial numbers on the back plate raised above the surface. Forged wheels have numbers stamped into the back hub or rim face. Retired wheel machinist. Last word on RR wheels?All the previous posts are partially correct in their own way. The wheel in question is almost undoubtedly a cast wheel. The raised lettering is a clue. The 1888 is also undoubtedly the date of manufacture. Railroad car wheels are currently manufactured both by forging and by casting. I believe that cast wheels comprise a larger segment of the new wheel market, due to lower cost. These are cast STEEL wheels, not cast iron, manufactured in highly automated facilities. However, a wheel cast in 1888 is most likely a cast IRON wheel. The real visual ID on these are the cast-in cooling ribs on the reverse side. More than anyone likely wanted to know about a minor detail in the foreground! John G (former RR Car Dept. Manager) Where's WaldoI think I have found him and his twin brother wearing identical knit caps in the front, near the water, to the right of center. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC)
Launch Party: 1905
... it. She will be fitted out as soon as possible. Buffalo Evening News Friday, September 1, 1905 FRANK J. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 7:16pm -

September 2, 1905. St. Clair, Michigan. "Launch of steamer Frank J. Hecker." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. CinematicI think this picture ranks among my very favorite here at Shorpy. What a majestic image with such movement, I feel as if the ship is going to coast right through my computer screen. Ladies Who LaunchGet all their clothes wet. Looks pretty cold for this very same day 105 years ago. 3-D would be nice. 3-D ... pfffftWe're always talking here on Shorpy about how we'd like to go back in time into one of the scenes photographed, but ... I really really want to go back in this one and be one of those people getting a front row seat for this! It must have been simply overpowering. Just looking at the photo gives me goosebumps. Wonderful MovementIt's wonderful how frozen in place yet full of motion this pic is. Beautiful. Or.."Let's do launch" 1905-1961LAUNCH OF A NEW STEAMER. -- The new Gilchrist Transportation Company steamer FRANK J. HECKER, building at the St. Clair yards of the Great Lakes Engineering Works, will be launched tomorrow, and a number of prominent marine men will be on hand to witness it. She will be fitted out as soon as possible. Buffalo Evening News Friday, September 1, 1905 FRANK J. HECKER, U. S. 202475, bulk carrier. Renamed PERSEUS 1913, foundered about 90 miles NNW of Fayal, Atlantic Ocean, after breaking away from the tug ENGLISHMAN while in tow for scrapping at Genoa, Italy; September 21, 1961. Record of Great Lakes Engineering Works, St. Clair (Michigan) Yard RudderlesslessNice way to show the answer to that previous post about the rudder when a ship is launched sideways. Perfect. Wow ...That's exactly why I love old cameras and classic photography! WOW!What a photograph..... and I DO mean photograph!!! WhoFantastical photograph!!! Who was the camera person? They should be praised. re: WowAs exciting as it might be to stand there watching the launch, it surely wouldn't compare with what was experienced by the half dozen fellows seen standing on the stern deck! Quite a shotIt would have taken skill and maybe a bit of luck to have captured this shot. 8x10 view cameras don't have a burst mode. BravoLike the guy said before me, WOW!!! What a photograph. It is exactly what I said when I first glanced at the picture. Textbook "capture" of the moment. Great find, Dave! EPB An Instant ClassicA very nice capture. This is the type of photograph I love and look forward to seeing here at Shorpy. Thank you! Hang on!White knuckles on the taffrail. RivetingI'm just a landlubber and maybe I'm not seeing things right but it appears to me that the plates on the lower levels are welded while the ones on the higher levels are riveted or bolted together. Is that a standard in shipbuilding and if so,why? Are welded seems easier to make watertight and if so, why not weld the rest of them,too? Oh. My. God.Magnificent, just magnificent. This shot was taken for a postcard printing company? Has anyone located any actual postcards made from this photo? Those two children standing on the viewing deck were probably telling the story of this event to their grandchildren in 1975. The sweep of the girl's heavy plait tells you everything about the excitement, the awe, and the thrill of that moment. Could any sight have ever equaled this - at least one from the hand of man? Take that,James Cameron! Colonel HeckerI had to Google Frank J. Hecker (1846-1927). Interesting guy - and what a mansion (still standing) he built in Detroit! iPhotoHow come 105 years later the camera images on my "high end" phone come nothing near this? re: iPhotoI think it has to do with your entire phone being 1/5 the size of this photo's original negative. The phone's sensor probably has less than 1/1000th the imaging area. But the older camera won't stream video or tweet. "Small, fast, cheap: Pick two" and they gave us the first two. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC)
PGH: 1905
... On the right of the bridge you can see a sign for "Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad" I think that may be the old ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/15/2012 - 4:15pm -

1905. "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Mount Washington." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Mon Incline, Smithfield St Bridge, P&LE to either sideWe're probably on the Monongahela Incline, looking at the Smithfield St Bridge with the P&LE Station to the immediate left. Some of the buildings on the far river bank, to the left of the bridge, are still standing, and we've seen them in other Shorpy photos. On the right of the bridge you can see a sign for "Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad" I think that may be the old B&O station. On the right on the near bank, those are 'team tracks' for the P&LE, where local freight would be loaded onto wagons by teamsters (hence the name 'team track'). There's a flat car with what looks like marble or granite spotted by the stiff leg derrick on the far right, and closer to the river there's a wagon being loaded from what I'm pretty sure is a 'beer car', an insulated car like a reefer that does not have ice hatches. The barrels in the wagon would reinforce that view :-) To the left of that car, note the C&O car on the adjoining track with a noticeable dip. That car needs to have its truss rods tightened. Fill 'er Up!Looks like water being pumped into the open-top structure in the rail yard. I guess it got some natural fill from Mother Nature whenever it rained. Hellwith its hat off. PGH 2011Here is a very recent night view from a different location on Mount Washington. This one is for Train Lovers.The four-lane road to the left, crossing the Monongahela River, is Smithfield Street. The lovely masonry arches are still there by Google Earth Streetview (the lower tier anyway). Also still there is the 12 story building on the far side of the river, to the right of Smithfield. It looks like there were two railway passenger stations, one on either side of the river. The building in the lower left, with the two-level roadway access is still there too. The sign out front calls it "The Landmark Building" with address "One Station Square". The station across the river is gone, as are the tracks on that side. There are still two tracks parallel the river on the near side which probably belong to the CSX Railway (At least there are current pictures of CSX trains on these tracks.) CSX predecessor roads include Chesapeake & Ohio and Baltimore & Ohio, so perhaps the still-extant station building belonged to one of those. I really get a kick out of pictures of old towns, and old railway infrastructure. There seems to be many more pictures of locomotives, some trains, but few views of yards, stations, etc. Asthmatics BewareClicking on the "view full size" button might cause you to need your inhaler! Also still standing.. The courthouse!Also still standing is the magnificent Allegheny County Courthouse, designed in 1883 by Henry Hobson Richardson, built between 1884-1888. It's the humungous stone building near the top of the image, just to the right of the center. I've never seen it standing so proud; the march of progress has surrounded it with taller buildings that make its presence less profound. I'm sure there's significance to the fact that it has no smokestack billowing puffy steam/smoke. Off-site heating? Government holiday? Thermal inertia? StunningSo many landmarks to pick out. This is one I'll come back to over and over. I can almost see my office building from there, but it's just a tad too far away. ContrastThe railway cars and those tracks look like a very elaborate train set and across the river, the smog and smoke in the air serves to hide most of the visible city. Based on the plumes of smoke the wind during the shot seems to have been from this side of the river. Maybe the photographer waited for just the right moment. Steam.Quite a few buildings have a plume of white steam coming from a funnel-shaped exhaust, often located on the chimney stack, where the coal-fired smoke would exit. Is this an early form of pollution control? If it is, the air quality is still pretty grim. Or maybe it would have been even worse without the steam treatment. Since steam heat was common at this time the vents could just be excess steam escaping from the heating system. But it seems unusual to have such a vent arrangement like that. Did Pittsburgh have a central steam plant that delivered steam to buildings downtown? That might be the answer. [What is the coal heating? Boilers. Which are the source of the vapor. - Dave] Pittsburgh TodayIt's such a clean, beautiful city. What a change. Los Angeles, 2019 A.D.Heads down when those flying police cars buzz just overhead. Ahead of its timeIn the foreground and to the right of the flatcar load of stone is a rarity for 1905. The P&LE coal car is steel, rather than wood. Steel cars of any type were just starting to appear on the nation's railroads at this time. The extra deep bottom side sill on that car was totally unnecessary, however the earliest steel cars were built that way because some railroads initially didn't trust the steel and so overbuilt. The small freight yard in the foreground is an excellent example of a "team track." Customers were notified by the railroad their load had arrived (or empty car spotted for loading) and the customer would send a crew with wagon down to work the car, as seen being done here. Team tracks allowed businesses without their own rail siding to use a railroad's service, and allowed firms with limited capacity rail sidings or desire to use other carriers to move their freight. Most towns, even small ones, had at least a team track. Big cities had a number of team yards like this one. Pittsburgh Steam ExplainedThe boilers placed in these buildings usually served a variety of applications at once. Each application may have required different steam pressures and/or temperatures. So a boiler would be configured to generate steam for the biggest load. To serve a smaller thermal demand, steam would be branched off the main distribution line and the throughput would be “stepped down” by simply venting the excess steam, which is what you see here. Thermally wasteful? Sure. But fuel was cheap then. [On a more basic level: The large buildings here would have used boilers (mostly coal-fired) for steam heat and hot water. Hence the many vapor clouds in skyline photos from the era. - Dave] Sentimental JourneyThe night before Amtrak took over rail passenger service I took the last westbound B&O Capitol Limited to Pittsburgh, repeating a trip I'd taken more than a dozen times as a kid. As they had for decades, the B&O used this station which the P&LE kept in immaculate condition. I remember walking up the grand staircase with the shining brass handrails, and out that door to the bridge. It looked the same, with streetcars still running on the right side. There was even a steamboat -- a dinner boat -- tied up where the two are in this photo. As I walked over the bridge to get a better look, they cast off and chugged up the river. I truly felt I'd stepped into a time warp. PGH railroad cars Once again the old axiom is true: Every old railroad train picture has to have at least one Northern Pacific freight car in it! Wagon GaugeThe wagons traveling across the bridge are yet another rarely seen example of wagons having the same wheel gauge or width as railroads, or in this case, streetcars, 56½ inches or Standard Gauge. In close quarters like these, one set of wheels would eventually fall into the inside wheel flange groove while the other set of wheels rode just outside the rail. Certainly easy enough to pull to the side to get out, but usually one just "rode the rail". In cobble stone streets wagons commonly "rode the rails" as it was a smoother ride, while not literally on the rails, but just to one side. This width or gauge began with the Roman chariots fitting behind two horses and became standard down through the years. The beginning of railroads used horse drawn wagons or carts on wooden plank with the same gauge as the wagons previously. Early automobiles such as the model T also used the same width to run in the wagon ruts made before it. The wheel width is still in use as standard gauge. Sharpies!The radius curves there in the lower right in the yard are pretty tight. A few even has guard rails to aid the cars and locos around them. I wonder why kind of engine serviced this facility? 0-6-0? Probably nothing with a pilot wheel set unless they were very nimble. Green spaceA neatly manicured green space can be seen by the heating plant on the right side of the bridge; flower beds included. No doubt that was mowed with a "push" mower powered by muscle. Look at the golf green pattern; nice job. This was a common site on railway properties large and small. These were probably sacrificed due to cost cutting: pity. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Pittsburgh, Railroads)
Buffalobelisk: 1911
Buffalo, New York, circa 1911. "William McKinley monument, Niagara Square." ... way! this way! — Carl Sandburg, Slants at Buffalo Bryant & Stratton Business College In Providence RI ... money! Not on the spot McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo in 1901. Six years later, this monument was placed in front of City ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/20/2017 - 10:22am -

Buffalo, New York, circa 1911. "William McKinley monument, Niagara Square." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. A forefinger of stone, dreamed by a sculptor, points to the sky. It says: This way! this way! Four lions snore in stone at the corner of the shaft. They too are the dream of a sculptor. They too say: This way! this way! — Carl Sandburg, Slants at Buffalo Bryant & Stratton Business CollegeIn Providence RI they even had their own bank and money! Not on the spotMcKinley was assassinated in Buffalo in 1901. Six years later, this monument was placed in front of City Hall rather than at the site, which is now a median strip in a residential area. A bronze plaque was placed there in 1921. McKinley's native Ohio has two competing memorials, in Niles and Canton. (The Gallery, Buffalo NY, DPC)
« first‹ prev…2 [3]4…next ›last »
Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.