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Main Street: 1910
... of livers being used. Oil thus obtained has a strong fish odor, is repulsive to the taste and stomach, and has done much to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/06/2010 - 4:14am -

August 1910. "Main Street, Gloucester, Massachusetts." The sidewalks and signage of a century ago. Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. It Takes a ManThe following is one of about a dozen letters in a section entitled "Women Clerks." While the men admit that women "add tone" to a hardware store and may be good at selling Kitchen Furnishings, women were deemed poorly equipped to properly clerk a hardware store in small-town 1910 America. Hardware Dealers' Magazine, Vol 33, 1910 Takes a Man to Sell High Priced Cutlery We have had considerable experience with women clerks and it is our opinion that while a lady clerk is all right for passing out goods that are called for, it takes a man to sell high priced cutlery. We employ three sales ladies in the summer season, but if the business would stand it would replace them with men. Lady clerks, however, are very useful about the store in keeping showcases and shelves in shape and keeping the store neat. Charles J. Gray. Gloucester, Mass. Reminds me of a town where I lived.Turn around and you'll bump into a dentist. Seek, and ye shall ...It reminds me of a page from Highlights Magazine. Find the sailboat. Find the shoe. Find the giant shotgun. Tailor madeStrangely the tailor's shop is on the right side of the street and the sewing machine is above the hardware on the left. Singer in the windowCheck the open sewing machine in the upper left hand corner--probably a Singer. It's more than likely been moved by now. Two hardware stores steps from each other. Charles J. Gray and L.E. Andrews & Co. still manage to differentiate themselves, though. Gray looks to have a broader selection, but I believe I'd look for the construction materials, etc. at Andrews. But this was back when American still made and sold things. Not so much, anymore, unfortunately. [That's a misperception. What country is the No. 1 producer of manufactured goods on Planet Earth? The U.S. of A. - Dave] Main and HancockIt's lost something over the years, and I don't just mean the giant shotgun and the giant shoe! View Larger Map Clang, clang, clang, went the trolleyOK, I understand that only the most wealthy residents had cars in 1910, and most town people would have rented, not owned a horse and carriage, if they needed to use one. Again, it was only the wealthiest of town dwellers, or country folks, who could have a stable or carriage house on their property. Someone living in the apartments above these stores could not. But where was the money to support a trolley system, with its cars, tracks, and employees, in a medium sized town? Was the cost of labor so meager that towns could afford this? Or is this actually a train line coming from a large urban area, such as Boston, which did the staffing, and it just passed through this, and other towns? I just don't understand how this train line kept solvent. (Perhaps because of some factors that existed in 1910, that stopped existing between then, and whenever this train line was taken out). [I think the question would be how much of the operating costs were covered by fares. Did most streetcar and interurban systems turn a profit? Was ownership generally public or private? - Dave] The Demise of Main StreetsJust about everything on this entire block, with the exception of travel tickets and custom-tailoring, can be acquired at Walmart or Target supercenters, all under one roof, in most of the country today. I know they do have medical walk-in clinics too, but probably not dentists. I used to find it a treat to go "downtown" with a parent and stop at the various shops to get our necessities, usually ending with a fun finale at the five and ten where candy and cookies were displayed in glass bins and sold by the ounce and weighed and bagged by an immaculate "waitress-looking" lady. Somehow buying everything prefabricated in hermetically sealed packaging off a hanging display rack is just not the same. But then again, I'm older than most living human beans, so I may be the only one who still remembers that. Time marches on. Commuter Rail PricesFor all our nostalgia over public transit in the early 20th century, commuter rail fares seem consistently high. A $1.20 roundtrip to Boston is about $27 in today's dollars, but now it only costs $14.50. Seaside Shoes, Low TideSo, this is the store where I would go to get appropriate shoes for my frolic at the seaside. I wonder what the Low Tide things are. Now, where can I buy a full length woolen swimsuit? Moneymaking tramsGloucester was the last city in Massachusetts to get a street railway (through the establishment in 1886 of the chartered Gloucester Street Railway Company). By 1910, streetcars in Gloucester (and many other towns and cities) had become part of the Bay State Railroad Co., a privately-owned corporation subject to state regulation. Its 1914 financial records (filed with the Commonwealth, shelved at Harvard's School of Government and now scanned into Google Books) show that the company received three dollars of operating revenue for every two dollars of operating expenses. Re: ProfitsMost trolley and interurban lines were not profitable, at least in the long run. Some briefly showed a profit, but that was very short lived. The Traction Industry (That's what it is generally called.) was the "dot com" of the turn of the last century. It went bust fast. A major amount of companies were in deep trouble by World War I and a great many went under in the Twenties, due to the availability of 'cheap' cars and better roads. The reference to "dot com" really is appropriate. Raising capital through stock offerings was fairly easy. Many local people were easily persuaded to keep buying stock, farmers often took stock in return for land for a right of way. And some companies were formed but never built a mile of track. But most cities saw the trolley line as a positive in that they had arrived as big time communities. Within several years, they wanted the tracks out of the streets. Trolleys were profitable for a whileResponding to the question posed in aenthal's comment, most city streetcar systems were profitable at the time this photo was made (1910). Virtually all were private enterprises which were expected to pay dividends to the investors, and often did. A typical hourly wage for a conductor or motorman was about 20 cents at this time; fares were almost universally 5 cents. Since streetcars were so widely used, it was not a problem to cover operating costs. Things started to change dramatically when the U.S. entered the "Great War" in 1917 and drastic inflation set in. Despite higher costs for labor, materials, etc., most cities (which controlled the franchises) resisted authorizing fare increases, often until well into the 1920s by which time profitability had evaporated. This was the decade that many systems, particularly the smaller ones, converted to cheaper bus operation. Interurbans were not generally as financially successful as city streetcars. Some did very well, especially those that carried freight and/or had a substantial commuter business, but many never managed to turn a profit. Barker's Shore Cod Liver Oil Canadian Journal of Medicine and Surgery, Volume 8, 1900 Barker's Shore Cod Liver Oil. This oil is taken from fresh livers of the codfish caught off the New England coast and brought in by fishermen every day. It is prepared at Gloucester, Mass., which is the largest fishing port in the United States. In preparing the oil the livers are all picked over and washed, only the healthy livers being used; the unhealthy livers are discarded and used in the manufacture of ordinary grades of cod liver oil. Barker's Shore Cod Liver Oil has a light straw color but little taste, and is as sweet as the best olive oil. The usual method of making cod liver oil is to allow the livers to accumulate from two to three days to two or three weeks before expressing the oil, all kinds of livers being used. Oil thus obtained has a strong fish odor, is repulsive to the taste and stomach, and has done much to discourage the use of cod liver oil. … Barker's Shore Cod Liver Oil is put up in six-ounce flint bottles and retails for twenty-five cents; wholesale price, two dollars per dozen. Address all correspondence to F.A Barker, Gloucester, Mass. Samples Sent on Application A really big shoeI only I could time-travel just long enough to grab that giant shoe and bring it back to 2010 with me. I am having the worst case of covetitis ever. I would love to live in a room filled with dozens of those old giant replicas of the merchants' actual products. New lease on life for the giant shotgun!Seven, eight years later, during the World War, the giant shotgun could be put into service as an antiaircraft gun, should any stray German zeppelins show up in the skies over Gloucester. Trolley or Folly? Here in Schenectady, NY, the Broadway trolleys were subsidized by General Electric, Whose base of ops was here for almost 100 years. They paid to bring their employees to work every day. Perhaps many other large industries carried the costs of operation for trolley service in some citys? How it looks todayTook a drive over to Gloucester and did my best to recreate the shot as it looks today. (The Gallery, DPC, Stores & Markets, Streetcars)
Frigidaire: 1941
... fine, and it defrosts like a dream. It has four aluminum "fish bone" ice trays and three enameled fruit/veg/meat bins. Yes, I love my ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/31/2012 - 7:04pm -

July 1941. "Detroit, Michigan. Buying a refrigerator at the Crowley-Milner department store." Here we see Mr. Salesman explaining the ice maker, which employs a "tray." Large-format negative by Arthur S. Siegel. View full size. Better grab it, Ladies.It might be a few years before you get another chance. FreezerI don't think the tray or ice making was astounding to them. That's just the freezer compartment; the glass tray under it was for meats. My parents had one that looked like it that was still going strong 40 years later. The ideas of what sizes things should be have changed, and today's are not manual defrost (turn off, remove food, leave open and put towels around until the ice falls off the freezer compartment, which otherwise gets smaller and smaller as the ice accumulation gets bigger and bigger). OMG!127 bucks and change! Grandpa made $42.50 a week at the steel mill and Grandma thought they were rollin' in dough. "We put a dollar a day in the bank," she used to brag. NorgeMy parents bought a new Norge refrigerator in the early 1950's that looked very similar to the Norge model pictured. The bottom panel pulled out at an angle and was for "storage" -- not for food. (My mother kept folded up paper bags from the grocery store down there). If you needed to get to the compressor or the motor, it had to be moved out from the wall. On the few occasions we had to call the repairman, that was quite an ordeal as the thing weighed a ton! Another thing I recall was that the freezer had to be "defrosted" every week or two and that was an ordeal. Refrigerators of that period seemed to never wear out. When we got a new 1960's model (this time a GE), the old Norge went out in the garage for extra food storage. My parents moved when I was in college and they gave the old Norge away because they simply didn't want to move it. It was still running. Killing machineHow many children suffocated in these traps? I confess that I have a functioning 1950s era Westinghouse refrigerator/ice box in my basement but there are no children here. How Long Has It Been?Remember when refrigerator salesmen wore double-breasted suits? Never say DieWe have one in our basement that was there when we moved in in 1982. It is still running perfectly. Hope it's the Deluxe model...because in todays dollars that unit would cost you $2000. My aunt is still using a chest freezer they purchased back in the mid 1950s. Still works like a champ although it would be interesting to put a watt meter on the thing to see how much electricity the thing uses. So much to learnWhen the Salesman has finished explaining the technicalities of the 'tray', he then will have to move on to expounding on the complexities of the 'bulb' and 'door-switch'. Numbers of comedians here in England worked sketches around the selling of the notion that the 'bulb' really did switch off when the door was shut. Presumably, American comedians also ... My parents' Frigidaire performed sterling service for decades. It's long gone, but I still have its tray, identical to that in the picture. All aluminium, (as we spell it here ), beautiful mechanically, and solid as a battleship. Who'd retain the ice-cube tray post 'fridge-mortem' today? Six years later...General Electric came out with a refrigerator similar to the one to the right of the Frigidaire. Somebody bought one, took good care of it for many years, then sold it to a second-hand appliance store. In 1988 I went to that store and bought that 1947 GE fridge. It's still in my kitchen today. It looks great, it works just fine, and it defrosts like a dream. It has four aluminum "fish bone" ice trays and three enameled fruit/veg/meat bins. Yes, I love my refrigerator. Austere times, tough peopleAs it was they made do with a single tray of ice cubes at any one time ;-) And they were the privileged ones, having a power-operated fridge in the first place. I guess others had to chip off their cubes from 50-pound ice blocks. Remember whenMy mom made Ice box cakes in that tray, Mmmmm good FULL HOUSEThe ice trays, two pints of ice cream, and next weeks pork chops just about fills that freezer compartment. But this is so much better than the "ice box" of the previous generation. My Great Grandmother had a Norge like the one in the photo, although not until 1947. She had a bad experience with a previous unit which caught fire and she reverted to the old ice box for the duration of WW 2. A neat trick since we lived 5 miles out from the ice house. Tell Ya What I'm Gonna Do$127.75 in todays dollars equates to about $1900. Attached photo is a current model Fridge with a Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price of $1899. Show em your AARP Card and you can probably get it for around $1600 and if the salesperson is dying to make the deal, he'll waive the delivery charge and take the old one away. A room full ofrefrigeration units is cooled by an old-fashioned electric fan! Buttons & BowsAlthough the song Buttons & Bows wasn't published until 1947, I couldn't help noticing the woman's dress is a Buttons & Bows pattern. Love it! "What Can I Doto put you into this refrigerator?" Vanilla ice creamThe earliest of my grandmother's refrigerators I can remember had the freezer box this size. Whenever I was visiting, there would always be a half gallon box of vanilla ice cream, and a can of Hershey's syrup in the cupboard. She got upgraded freezing facilities over the years, but no matter how old I got, whenever I was visiting, there would be the vanilla ice cream and can of Hershey's syrup, all the way to the last time I went there before she passed away, when I was 29. Ice box?I had a Kelvinator with the same sized 'freezer'. Had to knife my way into it once a month. (The Gallery, Arthur Siegel, Detroit Photos, Kitchens etc., Stores & Markets)
Hard Copy Exterior: 1962
... is: "an often portable fireplace over which meat and fish are roasted." - Dave] Still likely now CtheP, I don't want to ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 06/24/2009 - 4:53pm -

A garden, a deck, a barbecue, the family dog and the papers. My father, after a day at work, relaxes in his domain in 1962. You don't get more echt than this. He created the deck and the lattice fence as well as surrounding gardens, a very small portion of which is at the top. Our BBQ seems starkly low-tech these days. No starter fluid for Father; that's a box of kindling at the bottom. Snapped with my Kodak Brownie Starmite. View full size. Mmm-mmm good.Nothing better than a steaming mug of barbecued coffee! Grill master.There is nothing not to like about this pic. The grill, the dog, the deck, and Dad with the news. Wonderful. Terrific SceneThis is a view right out of Sunset Magazine, really nice!!! It's always interesting to peer into other people's back yards -- Old school grillingYour dad probably would've been appalled with at my grandpa -- he had a beer can with the top cut off that he filled with gasoline to light a nearly identical Structo grill when I was a small Anonymous Tipster. MemoriesMy dad had the same grill when I was a kid. I still remember the hand crank on the side that would move the entire coal bed up and down to adjust the heat. And of course the bags and bags of charcoal briquets in the garage and that aweful smelling lighter fluid that would create a mushroom cloud when lit. The only thing missing in that pic to be my dad is a beer on the deck next to his chair. And no mosquitoes!Maybe it's because I was a Boy Scout, but I'm with your dad. Who needs lighter fluid? Our briquets start right up with a few twigs that have fallen out of the trees. And no icky taste from the petroleum. Now, barbecued coffee ... that's something I haven't tried. Boxer or -- ?What kind of dog did you have? BBQ dogOur dog Missie was hybrid beagle/undetermined mix, hard-wired to point and track. During our summer vacation hikes up in the hills between Guernewood Park and Cazadero, she'd disappear into the underbrush for hours sniffing out critters, finally tracking us down miles from where she'd left us. The crank on the BBQ raised and lowered the grill, not the coals, BTW. We purchased it partly with funds I collected as taxes a few years before when I incorporated our entire back yard as a city and appointed myself City Manager. 10¢ per week was the rate, as I recall. He's got a barbecue jonesMy dad was also big on outdoor grilling, but my memories aren't of him sitting alone, but rather of the big parties that he and Mom would host at our Jersey Shore summer house, on the big back lawn shaded by an ancient apple tree. Dad went in for the whole 60's-70's BBQ thing, standing behind the grill with a chef's apron and toque on, and wielding his cooking tools with great gusto. The beer flowed freely, too (there was always a keg at the larger gatherings). When he died, more than one person told me, "What a host he was! What a cook!" He was a government official, but I suspect that he would have been much happier owning a fine restaurant instead. My grandpa used gasoline...My grandpa built his own grills out of 50 gallon drums he would get from the oil refinery where he worked. I remember as a kid back in the '60s helping him put gasoline in a coffee can that he used to soak the charcoal briquets and then stack them up in the grill and throw a match at it. Worked every time! A summer idyllA beautiful scene, the epitome of the American Dream. Thank the gods, we still enjoy similar scenes at our summer bungalow co-op in the shadow of Shawangunk Mountain, Ulster County, NY; eagerly awaiting same, now, during this protracted winter season. We don't BBQ coffee, but we do enjoy fantastic beer-can BBQ chicken. Except we all have cats frolicking and lurking in the hedges and woods. Cats rule, dogs drool. That device is a grillBarbecue is something you eat (pulled pork, ribs, brisket) and a grill is something you cook on. And cooking on a grill is not "barbecuing," it's grilling. [A word can have more than one meaning. The device is called a barbecue grill, or barbecue for short. In fact the first definition of "barbecue" in Webster's is: "an often portable fireplace over which meat and fish are roasted." - Dave] Still likely nowCtheP, I don't want to distract from tterence's great photo, but your comment is inaccurate in several ways. About the only thing that has changed much since that afternoon when his father was enjoying his paper is what we consider to be "basic necessities" is far in excess of what was considered "basic" back then. It should be no surprise that it costs more to fund our lifestyle. For example, just look at today's average home sizes, frequency of new car purchases, number of cars per household, value and quantity of home electronics, number of times people eat out, the list goes on. In many ways, things are astonishingly cheap these days, it's just that we have much more of them. You have to get a permit to build a deck because a lot of "handymen" don't know how to do it right--their deck falls off their house, hurting or killing someone. (It's been said that behind every code item there is a death.) It's unlikely a simple deck would need a variance from the city, though if you opted to buy in a HOA community, their hoops are something you valued when you bought and have little to complain about if they deny you your deck. As to "savers" paying the mortgages of those who got in over their heads, that's silly. What "savers" are paying for now is the multi-million dollar bonuses of the country-club set who approved those crappy loans. A mortgage is a simple document at its heart; a lender agrees to lend money to buyer of a house with the understanding that if the buyer cannot pay, the bank gets the house in lieu of payment. In a sane world, such as existed in tterence's father's day, banks very carefully determined the value of the house they were lending on in order to ensure they'd come out whole if everything went south. They were careful about the buyer, too, and insisted the buyer bring a large down-payment in order to show their worthiness. If the bank is going to go out of its way to lend money to people who shouldn't be buying vastly over-priced houses, that sounds like the bank's problem to me. That we're bailing out the fat cats irritates me, but I have no issues with the home buyers. I wish they were more prudent, but when they mail the bank the keys they've done their part. They will have trouble getting another mortgage in the future, that's the price they'll pay. So I think I'll join tterence's father, at least in spirit, on his deck, and not pretend life was much better "back in the day." I doubt his father felt that at the time and I don't think that now. The Right IdeaAlthough as a kid I was a devoted user of lighter fluid, your father had the right idea with the kindling. No matter what they included in the fluid to make it small like hickory or whatever, the lighter fluid was always going to give a petroleum based smell to the smoke, which was half the charm of barbecuing. These days I use propane of course, but I feel like I'm missing something. Not likely nowMy guess (correct me if I'm wrong, tterrace) is that your father worked long hours while your mother raised the family. Even then, he could afford a nice deck (your post suggests he built it himself) and a nice yard. I imagine he wanted a deck and all he had to do was buy the materials and erect it -- no permission necessary, as it was his property. Now, he'd need a variance and probably have to pay for the privilege of improving his own property as he saw fit. Today, those things are almost a luxury. Dad and Mom work to buy all the modern devices (even the "poor" have cell phones, DVD players, iPhones, etc.) while those of us who work and save get shafted to pay the mortgages of those who got mortgages they knew they couldn't pay for in the first place. Neighborhoods are cookie-cutter, and God help you if your neighborhood association doesn't like the new mailbox you put up to replace the one the neighborhood thugs tore down. Freedom was a wonderful thing. Damn shame the sheeple decided they'd rather let the government take care of them than provide for themselves. That GrillMy dad had a grill just like this one. He placed an inch or so of gravel in the bottom to keep the fire from burning through. Had an old license plate bent into a cylinder that he would place the charcoal into to start the fire. The grill lasted into the late 70s.. Headline NewsI would love to know what the headlines say! What DO those headlines say?"JFK Stands Up To Khrushchev?" "Studebaker Autos Not Selling?" "Penn Station To Be Torn Down?" "Captain Kangaroo Show A New Hit With Kiddies?" "Sox Lose Series, Again?" Make up your own, the possibilities are endless... BBQ HeadlinesLooks like the San Rafael Independent-Journal. Man's home is his castle.The tterrace family lived right and they lived well. It is apparent that they all had traditional and responsibly-fulfilled roles of their position in the family. I have to say, I do miss those days, coming home, tired and hungry, to incredible smells of freshly cooked food being prepared for supper by Mom and having a pleasant evening at home at the end of the day with the comfort of a caring family all around. As we age, we realize that changes are inevitable and one really cannot go back, life never stays the same. Still it is a beautiful picture to remember and know that home is where the heart was. It certainly appears there was great contentment in the family of tterrace. Thanks for the memories. GrillingLike most of us, I use a gas grill today (natural gas, not propane, though). However I still have a Weber charcoal grill which I refuse to discard, despite my wife's urgings. Unlike many, I do not use lighter fluid, though. Long ago, I learned the advantages of an electric fire starter for a charcoal grill. You have better control over the process, and you can start the fire under a wooden deck without any worries. I have used the quick start saturated coals, but still prefer the electric starter. In any case, gas is easier, but something is missing in the taste. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, tterrapix)
California Vacation: 1956
... tanks." The Times They Are a-Changin I fish off the site of the former Marineland and above is how it looks now. ... 
 
Posted by pointedrocks - 09/16/2011 - 5:27pm -

Marineland of the Pacific on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 1956. Left to right are my two cousins visiting from Texas, myself, and my brother. Inside the 1955 DeSoto are my Granny and my Aunt. We are all enjoying our ice cream at the end of a day of watching the fishes. All but my little brother, that is. His ice cream has rolled out of the cone and can just barely be seen on the ground at his feet on the right. It wasn't the first or the last time that would happen to him. View full size. DeSotoWOW what a great car. Missing dessertLove the chrome on that DeSoto. I learned to drive in my grandma's '55. What memories this pic brings back. Looks to me like a '55 Chevy station wagon in the background. [Almost -- the wagon is a Pontiac. (Oops, actually a Mercury, as noted by A Californian.) - Dave] Delightful, DelovelyI love the photo! It is so very 50ish!!! Love the joy of the ice cream and the sadness of losing your cone to the pavement!!! Boy! Do I remember that!Especially losing a triple decker. Oh, the pain of youth. DeSoto!Memories of my late father are always intertwined with his string of DeSotos. From the '47 (Fluid Drive semi-automatic) of my early childhood through the fire-breathing red '61 Firedome (383 Hemi) of my teen years, in which I learned to drive and became a man. Thanks for bringing up a lot of memories, pointedrocks. [The last Firedomes were 1959 cars. For 1961, which was DeSoto's final year, the only models were a nameless sedan and coupe. - Dave] The station wagon at rightIt's a handsome car and definitely a rival of Pontiac's, but my money is on it being a 1955 or 1956 Mercury. Sadly, in just a few years younger people won't recognize those names anymore (or other old Detroit friends like Plymouth & Oldsmobile.) Chrysler productsAs a kid of 8 & 9, just about my favorite cars were DeSotos and Chryslers of 1955-56. And they keep on following me. Just the other day via Netflix Streaming I watched Hot Cars, which is full of them, and tonight whilst exiting a shopping center parking lot I came nearly face-to-face with a vintage restored 1955 Chrysler. '56In 1956 I had a new drivers license and on the weekends I could be found on those hills directly behind the cars. There was a Nike Missile site up there and my friends and I would explore it. It was also prime hunting territory for rattlesnakes. We would catch them live and sell them to a lab in L.A. All of this within view of the big blue pool at Marineland. And at night, the Palos Verdes Peninsula (P.V.) came alive with the arrival of hundreds of young couples to watch the submarine races. Silver Lining?At least you get to eat the cone. Been there and done that. Marineland!I remember a visit in the late 50's. The walruses (walri?) were making awesomely flatulant noises inside their cement shelter - almost outweighing the famous leaping porpoises in my impressionable 12-year old mind. It was fascinating to watch the porpoises build up speed through the underwater portholes, racing individually in seemingly random circles until they suddenly came together and burst out of the water in formation leaps. And we too observed the now-forgotten discipline of only enjoying treats OUTSIDE the car, to preserve the upholstery. We would have arrived in our 1957 Mercury Colony Park station wagon with the Turnpike Cruiser V8, complete with pillarless hardtop construction, vinyl siding and red "spear" inset into white body - a major milestone in the lurid styling race that erupted in the late fifties. As hastily as this car seemed to be designed and built, not many made it into the sixties. DeSotoProbably a Fireflite, may be a Coronado. Submarine Races?Couples watching submarine races? Is this a 1950s euphemism, or was this an actual, literal event? [Yes. - Dave] Fashion youngstersBoy, those clothes are just so typical of the era. Love the turned up denims. Come on pointedrocks, tell me you gave your brother some of your ice cream after his "whoops". Cars like shown here are alive and well here in New Zealand, friends of mine have '57 Fairlanes, '57 Oldsmobile, '58 Buick Special and one mate has three Chevy Bel Airs -- 1955, 56 and 57. Great cars. Booty cuffs. Those are just like the way we used to cuff our pants as kids. Then some kid transferred to our school with his cuffs tucked under and inside the pant leg, and we never looked back. My sister, grandmother and aunt would venture down from the Bay Area to Southern California two years after this to enjoy Disneyland and surrounding attractions, Marineland being one of the stops. With no interstate highways at the time, it was the longest trip I'd ever been on, and seemed like it would never end. We did get a chance to see some Hollywood magic, as they were filming some of the new hit show "Sea Hunt". One of my favorite shows, it was so cool to see the footage of the scenes I'd watch them film later on. Yeah, I guess this photo is bringing back a few memories. Marineland From the AirLate 50's aerial view. The wife and I were married on the former Marineland site, several years after it closed. It's now Terranea Resort. The big differenceI love these nostalgic pics of families with their cars. It does show up the big difference between America and South Africa in this era -- the cars. The cars in the old photos of my parents and grandparents are generally smaller British and German cars like Morris and Opel, nice and yet somehow not as glamorous as those fantastic "yank tanks." The Times They Are a-Changin I fish off the site of the former Marineland and above is how it looks now. Below a post card and the name of the resort that is there now amidst some of the priciest high rent districts in California. Amazing AmericanaSuch a classic example of a bygone era!! (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Kids)
Barbershop Duet: 1936
... to deliver babies in, for God's sake. And don't forget fish and chips! It's a tidy little barbershop. And I can't see how anyone can ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/24/2011 - 8:41am -

March 1936. "Negro barber shop, Atlanta." Large-format nitrate negative by Walker Evans for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Gone to the CinemaEveryone must be at the local theater to see Mae West and Victor McLaughlin in "Klondike Annie." A focused barberThe barber has three different forms of localized light available. One of them (radiant heater converted to a spotlight) is especially clever. Wonder if he had poor eyesight or just liked to see what he was cutting? FiretrapWow, this has all the ingredients for a three-alarmer: kerosene lamps balancing precariously on loose newspaper pages, even more newspaper sheets lightly hanging on the wall at most one inch from a bare light bulb, piles of rags, cloth-covered (and probably fraying) electrical cord splaying out from the wall. Getting clippedI remember hand clippers like those on the little table next to the hat. I wonder if this was a basement shop, but it has a wood floor -- with a couple of loose board-ends between the chair on the right and the table. A little off the top.I'm worried about what they use that screw jack for. Clip joint.My first job in the early 60's was shining shoes in a barber shop. I always loved the intricate iron work in the foot rests. And all the arm rests had built in ashtrays. Fresh NewsAll of that newsprint looks pretty fresh. Perhaps it was used to tidy up the atmosphere for the photo. Booster BoardEvery time I see a barber chair, I remember the booster board. That's the board they put across the armrests to boost up a 5-year-old to the barber's height. The ones I remember were padded too, but I don't see any in this photo. No photographer ghosts?All those mirrors and not a single reflection of the camera, photographer or flash equipment. There isn't much to go on; I could take a walk down there and see if the building was razed for a parking lot. Barbershop Rich'sThe newspaper, not surprisingly, has an ad for the mainstay Atlanta department store Rich's. The headlines are talking about Gene Talmadge, Democrat and multi-termed Georgia governor, who created a political machine dynasty that rivaled anything in Boston or Chicago. One of those crooked enigmatic Huey Long types which seemed to resonate with the common man and seemed to bring about good works for them while at the same time rotten… and in his case as well as his son, a later GA governor, racist to the core. What a dumpI am by no means a fastidious person, no obsessive-compulsive disorder here and a little mess does not unhinge me. However, for a barbershop, which has to meet sanitary standards from the board of health and hopefully not spread communicable diseases in a business that specializes in human grooming and handling of biological materials of large groups of people (who may harbor various bacteria and diseases) this place is filthy. Not only are there used towels left hanging everywhere, the place is in total disarray and apparent neglect as far as acceptable housekeeping and illness prevention is concerned. Would you patronize a place like this or take your kids here? In 1936, this was totally unacceptable in the cleanliness department. Goings onI wonder if that "doorbell" button is to warn the people in the back room in case the coppers come in for a raid? re: What a DumpRE What a Dump's comment: I don't think it's dirty at all, nor particularly a fire waiting to happen. We're all set in our 21st century crazy clean and safe world; this is how people lived in the 1930s. They used clean newsprint to deliver babies in, for God's sake. And don't forget fish and chips! It's a tidy little barbershop. And I can't see how anyone can determine the towels are used. I think it's a lovely little shop. (The Gallery, Atlanta, Walker Evans)
Native Fishers: 1941
... the use of the folks contesting their exclusive right to fish. No More Sadly, these beautiful falls are now long gone; drowned ... an exciting waterway and a dramatic backdrop. I see a fish in the big net on the right, and I think I see a guy up to his waist in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/05/2022 - 12:23pm -

September 1941. "Indians fishing for salmon at Celilo Falls, Oregon. At the present time Indians have by treaty exclusive right for fishing in Columbia River, which is adjacent to their reservation. This right is now being contested in lawsuits." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. About that footbridgeMy guess is that the Indians constructed it for the use of the folks contesting their exclusive right to fish. No MoreSadly, these beautiful falls are now long gone; drowned by the building of the Dalles Dam. A river runs through itThat’s a fantastic photo, just a hive of activity, with an exciting waterway and a dramatic backdrop. I see a fish in the big net on the right, and I think I see a guy up to his waist in the water, just left of the very center of the picture. Myself, I would feel somewhat precarious on those platforms, but no one has invited me along. I think I see my manThe demurely-coifed lady in heels and hosiery and practical coat is certainly out of place, but she's got her eye on something. Or someone. Medium formatI always wonder what size the negative is when it is 2x3 or 3 1/4x4 1/4 it would be interesting to know. [4x3. - Dave] What a Coincidence!Today I was driving West on I-84, along The Columbia River. I saw a sign for Celilo Falls. I looked out at the bloated river behind the Dalles dam. I wondered what the falls looked before inundation. I get to the hotel, eat a meal, and check my email. And I see this photo. First, I thought, what a great coincidence. But soon I was sad at the loss of a way of life and sustenance for the indigenous population. Re: NativeI’m 63 and live in Canada, and the official word for Indigenous people has evolved over my lifetime, as follows: Indian, Native, Aboriginal, First Nations, Indigenous. (In French in Quebec it’s autochtone, “from the earth.”) I wonder what it will be next. 35 second newsreel footageEmbedded in the following Wikipedia entry is a 35 second newsreel footage of this very scene, taken in 1956. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celilo_Falls (The Gallery, Landscapes, Native Americans, Russell Lee)
North Pole Colorado: 1956
... other in the back seat. Too cute. ~Love the guy with the fish too. [Let's not overlook that lollipop. - Dave] PeaceOut ... 
 
Posted by Samuel1940 - 07/06/2009 - 12:04am -

My father and his sister in 1956 at "North Pole Colorado -- Home of Santa's Workshop," at the foot of Pikes Peak. Dad was 6 and his sister 8. View full size. Don't like what's happening here.There’s been a definite and regrettable shift in this site. Virtually all the photos used to be fascinating windows into a time none of us knew. Some of them were great photos, some were banal, but with very few exceptions they were, as the motto says, "interesting." Now there are more and more pictures that seem to be posted here just because someone wants to say, "Look at me!" Everyone has family photos; I have thousands, stretching back eighty years. My father was a talented amateur and local-newspaper photographer, and a high percentage of my family pictures are much better than the fuzzy family album excerpts that have appeared recently. My family albums are interesting to me, but I’m not so full of myself (as my mother would have said) that I think I should post them on a website of historic photographs. And speaking of my mother, she used to say that my coloring book work was wonderful. However, I know now that applying a crayon to pictures someone else created does not: (a) make me an artist, or (b) produce anything that’s worth other people's time. So Dave, I hope you'll turn the dreck filter back on. If there’s a shortage of good pictures to post, I certainly don’t mind if you post fewer pictures. Don't let this terrific site that you created be ruined. [There is maybe some confusion here. This photo is in color because it was taken on color film. And it's certainly not "dreck." Color vacation photos are a summertime tradition on Shorpy. We've published dozens over the years. - Dave] SuspendersYep, all us little shrimps wore suspenders back then. This is about 1953. Bring on the dreck!The North Pole is a place I know well, having visited it several times a year when I was a kid. I like this photo, not much had changed between then and when I was a kid in the 80s. The pole had some kind of refrigeration gizmo built into it, so it was always covered with ice. Leaning on it was a nice break after playing around on a hot summer day. I love EVERY photoI too am a follower for quite a while and while I do enjoy the "historical" photos the most, these snapshots into your family's life are very interesting as well. I am just a little younger than your dad, but we didn't have a decent camera -- much less color film -- until well until the 1960s, so these provide a glimpse into what my life might have been like if I could remember back that far. Your photos are so well-presented in all of their original (and occasional retouched) glory, that I have found myself feeling like I was a witness to history. Keep 'em coming. It's your site and it's your choice. We just get to share. [Thank you, SLP. Again let me note: These are not my photos. Check the "Submitted by" tag above each photo to see who posted it. In this case, Samuel1940. This is just one of almost 1,500 user-submitted photos in the Shorpy Member Gallery. - Dave] Just Sayin I thought it was obvious that the crayon analogy referred to the colorized photos – e.g., the garish Fourth of July offering – that have been posted. Then again, I would have thought it was obvious that the blurry snapshots and colorized pictures fit in with the rest of the content about as well as a Spike Jones number fits in at the Philharmonic. Nothing wrong with a good Spike Jones number, but it doesn’t fit in everywhere. And as for the other color vacation photos posted in the past: (a)they've generally been well composed and technically good for their day, and (b)they've generally contained something more interesting than Dad and Aunt Maggie standing in front of Santa's workshop. In conclusion: It's your website, and while I'll defend your right to ruin it, I won't say it's not a shame. [I can't help but think you might not be seeing something other people don't fail to appreciate. And that "garish" flag photo -- webmaster gift from God on a holiday weekend! Perfect Fourth of July page topper. - Dave] Fire up the slide projectorThis pretty much distills the essence of the mid-1950s family road trip. Well done. CriticsI feel compelled to add my 2 cents here. I spend a lot of time on Shorpy.com. As a matter of fact, over a two week period, I went through *every* page of photos so I could see them all, and now check in at least once a day to see what's new. One of the features that I enjoy about Shorpy is the member photos. Not all of the member photos are 100 years old, but I find them interesting and entertaining -- especially if the poster adds some background to the shot. I appreciate that Dave allows members to upload their own photographs here. I think that's very generous of him. As to this photograph in particular, I grew up in the Bay Area of California and we had our own Santa's Village in Scotts Valley. Having also been born in 1956, comparing the Colorado Santa's Workshop to my own visits to Santa's Village is kind of fun! My advice to folks who don't like member photos is to just skip them. There's a whole lot more on this site to engage you. I guarantee it. View of the PastTo me, Shorpy is a view into the past. The professional photos are usually well composed or at least have an interesting subject (even if the chicks in the figure-hugging swimsuits ain't all that hot). And the user-submitted photos are, for the most part, an incredible look into the lives of some humans in another part of the country. I'm all for that. I'm sure most of us would like to step into a time machine and go to some other time and place just to experience it firsthand. But flux capacitors are still prohibitively expensive, so that ain't happenin' any time soon. I'm all for more "family photos," color or B&W, just as long as they aren't colorized via computer. Hand-tinted, maybe, but none of the colorized examples that have been posted recently are worth diddly, except that fiddle. It's a big websiteMore content is more content, and it's grand. I look at and occasionally comment on the pictures that interest me, and skip the ones that don't. It doesn't seem so terribly difficult. Colorized photos? Great; the originals are still a click away. Family pictures? Wonderful; they bring back memories for some and are a "window" into an unknown time for the younger Shorpyites. I suppose I don't understand why people who enjoy one sort of thing feel they have to put a stop to any different sort of thing -- which others might enjoy just as much. Nobody's taking anything away from anyone here, at least as far as I can see. Different POVs, I guess. Too cute!This photo is absolutely adorable. Love the details. These kids look so happy and wholesome. It's historical from a textiles and style stand point as well. Love that crazy little shirt he's got on. The little girl probably became President of a university and the little fella has all kinds of possibility written across his face! They look so amiable that perhaps they didn't even torture each other in the back seat. Too cute. ~Love the guy with the fish too. [Let's not overlook that lollipop. - Dave] PeaceOutOkay; last one. I think folks have moved on, anyway. I really don’t think the problem is my insensitivity to some subtle magic that more perceptive individuals can appreciate. (That is, of course, one of our stock responses when someone criticizes a thing we like.) My reasons for writing are laid out pretty clearly in the earlier posts: The pictures I’ve complained about are not good, and I think they’re out of place here. Of course some people are going to defend them. There are always people who rise in indignation when anyone dares to suggest that one picture or poem or pasta is better than another. Such elitist snobbery must be opposed! But come on now . . . “The little girl probably became President of a university and the little fella has all kinds of possibility written across his face! They look so amiable that perhaps they didn't even torture each other in the back seat. Too cute.” Honestly, is this the audience you’re aiming at? There are millions of people who love their unicorns on black velvet, too. Should you throw a few pictures of those on the site? I’m baffled by all this. You’ve started two sites that I know of. (I started coming here from Plan59.) Both were much, much better than 99.99% of the sites on the Web. Now you’ve left one to wither on the vine, and you’re letting the other one be dragged down to the Cute Overload level. I hate it when people who can do good work don’t do it. [Ever program a website on a holiday weekend? - Dave] Re: PeaceOutCluelessness abounds! Not a Joe I knowDave has the site set up so that if you see something that doesn't interest you, you can move right along to something that does. Dave, it's your site, and I defend your right to "ruin" it by letting people air their fractious views, but I wish you wouldn't: comments like these are beginning to grate and take the fun out of Shorpy. Didn't Mother also say that if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all? I don't see how denigrating user photos or user comments benefits anyone. Speak for Yourself>> There’s been a definite and regrettable shift in this site. Virtually all the photos used to be fascinating windows into a time none of us knew. And they still are. This photo was taken in 1956. I was born in 1968. Thus the photo was taken during a time I didn't know. Insofar as I find the 1950s a fascinating era, this qualifies. Sidewalk SuperintendentsPoor Dave. How is it that some people seem to think they can run your site better than you do? Did the cover price they paid to get into your saloon entitle them to complain so loudly about the floor show? There may be only a few whiners and gripers out of the thousands of mostly silent readers, yet the grumpiness seems pretty strange. But never mind. They remind me of the Yogi Berra quote: "Nobody goes to Coney Island any more. It's too crowded." Not a Joe I'd like to know.>> There are always people who rise in indignation when anyone dares to suggest that one picture or poem or pasta is better than another. Such elitist snobbery must be opposed!" You seem to be the epitome of what you claim to object to. You've stated your opinion, and it has been duly noted. Now you can do one of three things. 1. Leave and be done with it. 2. Stay and enjoy, but don't continue to belabor your point regarding the content. 3. Go and start your own web site, and post only that which you deem appropriate. I enjoy whatever is posted here. Keep up the good work! Straw men>> There are always people who rise in indignation when anyone dares to suggest that one picture or poem or pasta is better than another. Such elitist snobbery must be opposed! As far as I have seen, no one has made this point in any of these discussions, and certainly not in this thread. I haven't read all the comments on everything, of course. NotAJoe, can you point to any comment in support of these pictures of which you so disapprove in which anyone has said, or even implied, that "no picture is better than another"? (Of course, if this is an attempt at reading the minds of those who differ with you, I can only say -- as one of those who is capable of skipping past pictures that are not of personal interest to me -- that it is not a very accurate try.) Shorpy as Time Machine...For the life of me, I cannot fathom how anyone can complain about the content of this or any other website, when there is so much from which to choose on the Internet. Speaking of Shorpy, this site offers wonderful glimpses into the past, part of which I did know, part of which I might have known, and part of which was before my time. Even when admiring others' photographs, I'm reminded of times, events and places in my own life that I would absolutely love to return to and relive. I'm 45 years old, and just last month I laid my 59-year-old brother to rest, God keep him. I'd show him some of the content here (especially that which dealt with automobiles; our family has a history in auto refinishing) and even he was moved to reminisce. Now that he has become the most recent of my dwindling family to leave this mortal coil, I see Shorpy as more of a connection to the past, when times may have been a little more hardscrabble, but a lot of things were simpler. Sorry for the ramble. To Dave and all the contributors here, I thank you sincerely. Keep up the good work. The Way I Read It.It reads" "Always Something Interesting." Not: Always Something Perfect. On pins and needles...Can't wait for the debut of NotaJoe's website. I hope he allows comments! [I wouldn't be surprised if both he and the nice person who posted this photo were halfway to Mexico by now. - Dave] It's ALL goodThis is THE best site for vintage photographs that I have found on the Web, and believe me, I have searched for them. I enjoy each and every photo posted here. Some I don't dwell upon as long as others, but each one has its own merit. No one has mentioned the fact on this particular thread that you are willing to post dissenting views, and that it's OK to have them. It's fine that NotaJoeYouKnow doesn't approve of certain things. You acknowledge his views and move on. As many people have expressed: KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. This is a wonderful site which I treasure highly. I love the family photosFamily snapshots help me position myself alongside folks of backgrounds alien to mine, sometimes in settings very different from those I know, and in many cases before I was born. I've never visited a "Santa's Village" or "North Pole," but I see the joy that these children take in visiting one with their family, and that brings these people, so different from me, together with my family (as I am sure my children would sport similar grins in similar settings). Samuel1940, Illegitimi non carborundum. Keep 'em coming, Team Shorpy. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Travel & Vacation)
Meat Market: 1943
... old. It appears you could eat all of the liver, kidneys, fish and poultry you could get. "Girl Reporter" It ... per person a week, especially with no limit on poultry and fish, actually sounds pretty generous to me. I'm not vegan or anything close ... 
 
Posted by John.Debold - 09/22/2011 - 6:19pm -

March 1943. Washington, D.C. Meat rationing at the A&P. "Harold Rowe, Office of Price Administration food rationing chief, sells meat to girl reporter at shopping preview of new program." View full size. Print of a photo by Alfred Palmer, Office of War Information. [Thanks to John D. for this sharp scan. - Dave] Share the MeatMeat was difficult to obtain during World War II. Much of the available supply was being diverted by the government to US and allied troops abroad, which meant less for civilians at home. The "Share the Meat" program urged Americans to limit their weekly consumption of beef to 2½ pounds per adult, 1½ pounds per child 6 to 12 years old, and ¾ pound per child under 6 years old. It appears you could eat all of the liver, kidneys, fish and poultry you could get. "Girl Reporter"It strikes me that the "girl reporter" looks to be at least 40. MeatI'd have to say that 2 1/2 lbs per person a week, especially with no limit on poultry and fish, actually sounds pretty generous to me. I'm not vegan or anything close to it, but I still eat less than 2 lbs of beef a month. Then again, I remember once seeing one of the old wartime propaganda films that spoke of the Japanese diet as "low in fat and sugar" in tones that made it clear this was positive proof of unspeakable evil, and old recipe books give me the impression that people used to eat like every day was Thanksgiving---makes my gallbladder hurt just thinking about it, though I suppose they usually had more physical work to offset it. WW2 RationingMeat rationing was instituted in Washington D.C. on March 28, 1943. Rather than a set weight per person, families were allotted 16 points per person per week. Different cuts required different numbers of points. For example, a pound of steak or center cut pork chops was 8 points while a pound of hamburger was only 5 points. A pound of spare ribs was 4 points because of the extra bone. The program also included dairy products with a pound of butter requiring 8 points while margarine was 5 points per pound. A Gallup poll conducted in mid-April of 1943 asked people to rank which rationed products were hardest to cut down on. Meat ranked first. The full list is below. I wonder if gasoline would be #1 today. The 1943 survey noted that "one-half of all car owners said that if necessary they could give up their automobiles without undue hardship."    1. Meat    2. Coffee    3. Gasoline    4. Sugar    5. Butter    6. Canned goods    7. Shoes    8. Fuel Oil    9. Tires 10. Cheese The human head...Butcher: "The human head weighs eight pounds...here, look!" Girl Reporter: "Tee-hee!" What this needs ...This is so begging for a caption contest. War Economy MythsLest we remain attached to the notion that wartime scarcities lowered our standard of living from 1941-1945, ponder this: Even though the War Production Board implemented manufacturing bans on certain consumer products during World War II, it is important to realize that our economy grew substantially during this period due to nearly full employment and better cash wages that accrued from war jobs. Even though Roosevelt warned the country that we could not sustain a consumer economy and a war economy at the same time, Americans did just that. While war spending jumped from $3.6 billion in 1940 (2%GNP) to a peak of $93.4 billion (nearly 50% GNP) in 1944, consumer (civilian) purchases of goods and services grew an astounding 12%.* The War Production Board estimated that labor productivity increased by 25% during the war years, even while millions of men and women were in uniform overseas. The economy was good due to the immense war production spending ending up in the pocketbooks of labor. This can happen again. Need we fear that the American economy cannot undertake the Herculean task of converting from petroleum to a “next fuel” economy? I think not. With no apologies to the poster of the “hydrogen!” comment attached to “Full Service: 1950’s”, my money is on the Flux Capacitor. * Bureau of Budget, The United Sates at War, (USGPO, Washington D.C., 1946) "I must put a goat on." Winston Churchill (possibly misheard) Goober Pea War EconomyI agree with Gooberpea. Notice how many women are wearing fur in some form. As limited as our funds were, even my mother had a winter coat with a huge fur collar. A&PHe worked at an A&P during WWII as well, in Pittsburgh. My mother recalled that despite the Depression and the war, meat was on the table every night thanks to where her dad worked. Help For EuropeInterestingly, food rationing in Britain didn't end immediately after WW II. Some food items were limited through the 1950s, with the last item ("yes, we have no bananas") only coming off the list in 1954. [Australia, too. - Dave] Now That's a good one!I laughed! Thank you, Moomin. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Stores & Markets, WW2)
Extra Fancy: 1910
... There's quite a lot of 'fresh' packaged/canned meat and fish products stocked, and a good portion of them seem to be only for display ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2012 - 1:33pm -

More delectables at the Edw. Neumann grocery in Detroit's Broadway Market circa 1910. 8x10 glass plate negative, Detroit Publishing. Superjumbo full size. Note the artfully arranged pickle slices in the big apothecary jar to the left. Heinz 57They really DO have 57 varieties -- look at all those Heinz products. Mmmm, mincemeat. Stunning!I love it. I am pretty sure that jar says pickles and not olives. It looks like pickles cut into disks. [You are right! I changed the caption, thanks. - Dave] Neumann GroceryWhat a fantastic store! The cabinetry alone is mind-boggling. Someone did a really good job designing and building the display cabinets and shelving. The only thing that seems to be missing is a rolling ladder to retrieve items from the upper shelves. Maybe it's out of sight. Those jumbo Heinz apothecary-type jars are spectacular. Besides Heinz 57, did you notice how many brands of sardines they have (bottom left)? You say potatoAll I see is a dust collecting nightmare. Lamb's tongueOne doesn't see lamb's tongues in jars every day (in front of the Yacht Club salmon). PicklesI can barely read the label on the big jar, but it looks like the rectangular label says "Preserved With" and the Heinz label below it says "White Premium Table Vinegar." So it really could be pickled anything. [Including sliced pickled cucumbers -- pickles -- as we see below. - Dave] And the award goes to...I hereby nominate this picture as the coolest picture of all time. WOW. Spoilage?Just wondering how fast the inventory turnover was. There's quite a lot of 'fresh' packaged/canned meat and fish products stocked, and a good portion of them seem to be only for display rather than sale (buried inside cabinets as they are). Were there "sell by" dates back then, if not, how much product was already 'spoiled' by the time it was finally purchased? [This is before grocery stores were self-service -- before markets became "super-markets." Generally speaking, you had to ask the man behind the counter for whatever you wanted: "Sam, I'd like a pound of butter, five-pound bag of flour and a pound of coffee." - Dave] First self-serve grocery storeThe first self-serve grocery store was the Piggly Wiggly store on 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee. It opened on September 6th, 1916 some six years after our photo above was taken. More at Piggly Wiggly's web page. VarietyThere seems to be a lot of variety here but the food looks quite scary. I wonder what most of it is. Makes you thankful for today's food production and safety. Now THAT'S branding!I work at an ad agency and I just showed the upper left corner of the large image to one of the copywriters. I said "This is a grocery store from 1910. Quick! Who makes those products?" And of course he knew it was Heinz. Almost 100 years and their brand is immediately recognizable. Sardine brandsThere are only a couple sardine cans I can identify in the lower left of the photo: the top right can is King Oscar; just to the left of it is Beach Cliff. I think the 3rd from the right top row can may not be sardines, but herring. Those three are still available in stores today, and I believe the Beach Cliff were packaged in my home state of Maine. Beach Cliff SardinesThe Beach Cliff brand of sardines was indeed packaged in Prospect Harbor, Maine, for over 70 years. The cannery was locally known as the Stinson Seafood plant, and was recently sold (2010). The plant is being changed to process lobster under new ownership, but has not restarted operations yet. Reading Terminal MarketThis reminds me of the Reading Market in downtown Philadelphia, PA located under what were the commuter train platforms. A number of the vendors there have been on site for many years. There is a Mennonite deli there that makes the best subs that I have had. (The Gallery, Detroit Photos, DPC, Stores & Markets)
Hotel Mikado: 1942
... Empire, Sumida & Son hardware, Angel Cake Shop, Moon Fish Co., Eagle Employment Agency, Kawahara Co. and Dr. C.K. Nagao, dentist. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/23/2022 - 4:43pm -

April 1942. "Los Angeles, California. Street scene in Little Tokyo." Businesses represented here on East First Street include the Hotel Mikado, Sho-Fu-Do confectionery, Ten-Gen restaurant, Sato Book Store, Hotel Empire, Sumida & Son hardware, Angel Cake Shop, Moon Fish Co., Eagle Employment Agency, Kawahara Co. and Dr. C.K. Nagao, dentist. Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Office of War Information. View full size. +74Below is the same view from November of 2016. Mikado pencilsI've always heard that the Mirado pencils we used in grade school in the '50s had previously been called Mikado pencils, but they changed their name after Pearl Harbor. Both trunks are emptyAnd his feet are a blur because he doesn't want to get a parking ticket. Kawahara Co.In the business of "agricultural minerals" since at least 1931. ChangesLooking at the street view picture from 2016, all three of these buildings still exist but with some changes. The two buildings that are center and to the right have lost the upper few feet of their facade (although still contain the same fire escapes in the 1942 picture) and the building on the left is missing it's its third floor. Why the third floor is missing is odd, fire or storm damage in the past maybe, we’re left to wonder. Re: street view pictureThis is not from Google streetview, Jeremybd, but one of a very unique series of photos taken by TimeAndAgainPhoto, who photographs the same scene many years after the original, using the same source photos as Shorpy, and sent in by TAAP to Shorpy when Dave posts the original for us. It is a cool project that spans America and many years. 1942 Dodge CoupeWhat I think is a 1942 Dodge coupe on the left is the shiniest car I've seen on Shorpy. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Los Angeles, Russell Lee, Stores & Markets, WW2)
Our New Facility: 1905
... chute to be disposed of. Of course the waste is where fish sticks come from. I don't know and look forward to the answer. Thanks. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/21/2012 - 4:51pm -

So here's this new facility -- state of the art. Except it's over a hundred years old. And we've misplaced the caption. Who can tell us what this is? View full size. UPDATE: Nobody identified this as the world's first indoor skateboard park. But it turns out that Nobody is wrong. The original caption from circa 1905: "New engineering building, big testing tank, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor." Towing tank at U-Mich.Looks like the towing tank at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Located right near the West Hall Engine Arch on Central Campus. Seafood processing facilityMy first thought was a German gas chamber. My second thought is a animal processing plant and since you just had shots of oysters, I will guess a sea food processing facility where the food is cut up and the waste is dropped into a water chute to be disposed of. Of course the waste is where fish sticks come from. I don't know and look forward to the answer. Thanks. A Water TankTo test model ship hulls? A submarine pen?Or a sewer? Ahoy, Matey?Looks nautical to me -- perhaps for the early stages of a hull. The slot is for the keel, the cutout close to the camera is for the bow. Just a thought. State of the ArtI know the answer will come from a fellow Shorpian as to what this is. My guess would be that it might be a facility for finishing boats. Ship Model Basin?Would that be the Ship Model Basin at the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories at the University of Michigan? Tow TankMarine Hydrodynamics Lab, West Engineering Building, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Modern SlaughterhouseThe problem is that it's not finished. Clearly they're going to put floorboards, or something, across the deep part. But it's hard to tell. So my money's on abattoir, as borne out by this Monty Python sketch. Whale eraThe world's longest abatroph? ["Abatroph"? - Dave] FascinatingWhatever it is, it looks unfinished. there are scraps of lumber lying about the place and there are planks laid across the supports for what will become proper walkways in the near future. I see a couple of shovels and a wheelbarrow down in the narrow trench. The walkways along both sides of the room are interesting, as are the exposed bolts sticking up from the concrete walls in the foreground and along both sides of the large trench. It almost looks like it could be used for building boats of some kind, but they would not fit out through the narrow opening at the lower end. I hope that YOU know what it is, 'cause I sure don't! Is it a drydock for small submarines? The HoneymoonersThis could well be the training facility for new sewer workers. I can picture Ed Norton taking his first class and going home to tell Ralph Kramden how enlightening it was. Still towing after all these yearsGoogle "university of michigan marine tow tank" to find videos and other information about the tank. Ship models are attached to a frame which moves the hull the length of the tank. The engineers can "ride along" next to the model as it makes it journey. Now sophisticated sensors and computers record the data. Fermentation room?Just a guess, but with all those heaters along the wall and the steel doors and platform, something was cookin' in there. They may have yet to tile or seal over the concrete form. It looks like product was dumped through the doors to the platform and shoveled into the tank for processing. There may have been an auger or screw running along the deeper trough to mix and eventually aid in moving the product through the "U" shaped portal. Possibly the inentical concrete forms on either side in the foreground allowed screen filtered liquid to be separated from the solids for further processing or bottling. It could have produced beer, wine, or maybe Sauerkraut. [We know the answer now -- it's in the caption. - Dave] Wade in NW FloridaWade in NW Florida [Not even warm. - Dave] THE HYDRAULIC LABORATORYFrom "Calendar of the University of Michigan - 1904-1905": This laboratory occupies a space 40 by 60 feet on the first and second floors of the north wing, adjoining the steam laboratories. A canal four feet wide, fourteen feet six inches deep, and forty feet long extends across the middle of the laboratory. Water enters this canal from the naval tank and is returned to the tank by a centrifugal pump in a well at the far end of the canal. This canal is provided with bulkheads, screens, and weirs, and is arranged for testing the flow of water over weirs and through no22les up to a capacity of ten cubic feet per second. The bulkhead between the naval tank and the canal is arranged for weirs and no22les so that tests may be made for flow from a still water basin as well as in a running stream. The naval tank itself is arranged for bulkheads dividing it into three basins, each one hundred feet long. By means of a sluice in the bottom of the tank these basins can be connected to the hydraulic canal and the centrifugal pump, so that water can be pumped from one of the basins and delivered into either of the others. The lab oratory" will also have two weighing tanks for calibrating purposes, each holding six hundred cubic feet. A 36-inch pressure tank, designed for 25o pounds pressure, extends through two stories. This affords means for no22le and motor experiments under high heads. An open tank eight feet wide, sixteen feet long, and five feet deep rests on a platform near the ceiling of the second floor. The centrifugal pump supplies this tank, which serves as a forebay for water wheel tests under heads up to about twenty-five feet. Michigan Hull Test TankI used to look in awe at this. I'd take a walk by the long indoor window alongside this tank, while I attended freshman classes at the University of Michigan. It is (was?) in the West Engineering Building on Central Campus, at NW corner of South University and East University Avenues. I'd see lots of hull designs being tested, mostly for large Navy ships and submarines. Great photo. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC)
Wide Christmas: 1920
... on this tree. A scarab, a thresher, a cross and anchor, a fish, a carrot, a pair of axes, and a tin man. What fun! What's snow ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/20/2008 - 11:53am -

Circa 1920. "Houck Christmas tree." Everyone gather round for eggnog and carols! National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Frond remembranceI feel kinda bad for that poor half-dead potted fern on the right. Its mate on the left seems so robust and healthy. ::wipes tear:: Case in pointThis is why bonsai has been practiced for 6,000 years. Peeking at the TreeI see a tin ceiling (I believe) lots of crown molding, and small scenes at the base of the tree. Someone spend lots of time decorating this tree and room! [That's wallpaper on the ceiling. Or maybe ceilingpaper. - Dave] Dreaming of A Wide ChristmasI am officially in love with all of these wonderful ornaments. The tree is VERY wide, but just look at all the detail! My eyes can't find a place to rest. I love it! What's a birdie to do?A bird trying to land on that tree would've gone cross-eyed. And that'some ceiling crack--runs down the well too. I spyI spy some very interesting ornaments on this tree. A scarab, a thresher, a cross and anchor, a fish, a carrot, a pair of axes, and a tin man. What fun! What's snow with you?Nowadays people spray fake snow from a can - well, we did when I was a kid, too; the stuff we used back then had a unique aroma that I can almost conjure up in my mind's nose, and if it's still around I'm sure the smell would be one of those that could send me back. But I digress. I was wondering what that glop was they used here. A bit of Googling came up with a recipe of liquid starch and soap flakes that sounds plausibly non-anachronistic. The WideningWe had a tree like that one year; it was too tall, but for some reason Dad decided to cut the extra off the top instead of the bottom. I'm also seriously envying those ornaments. I like the other tree...I think I prefer the other tree with all the Scotch and ashtrays and cigars... more festivities for the grownups! Snow glopMy neighbors back in the 50's used a concoction of paraffin for their fake snow. They'd melt it, whip it with a beater (possibly adding some secret ingredient) and carefully daub it on the branches. They always had all deep red balls, with the old fashioned lights (one goes out, they all go out) all in blue. Made for a gorgeous tree. [We had all-blue lights too! Now it's kind of a family tradition. No twinkly LEDs for us. Good old-fashioned 4W "nite-lite" incandescent bulbs. On a blue spruce. - Dave] The OrnamentsI notice that many of the ornaments are apparently made of paper or card stock. Since WW1 had ended in 1918, perhaps the variety of anchors and patriotic ornaments were an outcome of the war. Also noticed several types of crosses, even an ornament that looks like an Islamic symbol -- but with a six-pointed star. Maybe the family had a son in the war and now he was back home safely -- let's hope so. Merry Christmas to allI love this tree, each ornament is different and special. The scenes at the multi-level base show that someone put in a lot of time decorating this tree to perfection! I only wish our tree today looked this awesome! The Nightmare Befire Christmas!Daubing whipped paraffin all over the tree branches! That gives new meaning to all the yearly ritual media on the dangers of live trees catching fire. I think I'll reserve the fireworks for the 4th of July. What an ugly tree!Wow! This is one of the ugliest Christmas trees I have ever seen! It even has a black kid eating a watermelon in it! Cute? You have to be kidding! Not only does the tree lack any shape, it wasn't even trimmed to have any definition. It looks like they bought a tree too big to fill room so they just hacked off the top. Ornaments were hung regardless of size. And what gives with all the patriotic stuff? Columbia? Really? What is she, one of the Christmas elves? This photo proves that these folks were proud of their tree. They were proud of how it looked. It is also obvious that they had no taste. Just like most of us today. Great photo! I learned a lot. [You are so full of the Christmas Spirit! - Dave] (The Gallery, Christmas, Natl Photo)
Crank Call: 1940
... incense in the Buddha to cover up the smell from Bob's fish dinner. Just When You Think It could it get any better? Dave comes ... he'd get the dipnet and scoop up any electroshocked fish and we'd repeat until he had enough for a fish fry. I later discovered ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/24/2019 - 9:15pm -

April 1940. "Lady signaling operator on old-style telephone. Scranton, Iowa." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. "Turn crank briskly ... "In October of 1975 I drove my 1965 Falcon from Vancouver, Canada, to San Francisco on a leisurely trip down the coast. I arrived at a road junction north of Fort Bragg, and saw a phone booth. I planned to stay with friends in San Francisco, and thought this was a good time to call and let them know of my arrival day. Upon entering the booth, I discovered the pay phone had no dial, and below it was a black box with a crank on it. There were detailed hand-written instructions on how to use it. "Remove handset to be sure line is clear." There was no dial tone, and this was to determine if anyone else was using the party line. "Replace receiver, and turn crank briskly to signal operator." A male voice answered in Fort Bragg, and placed the call to San Francisco. The final instruction: "Turn crank briskly to clear the line". I charged the call to my Vancouver number, and when the bill came it read: "Call from North Rockport Toll Station No. 1." Vancouver was one of the last large cities to convert to dial phones, a 20 year process finally completed in 1960. A visit to New Zealand in 1985 revealed that some small towns still had not received dial telephones, as shown in this photo of a pay phone in Taihape. I have the wheat pastebut could you bring the brushes and seam roller when you come over to help hang the wallpaper today? I have to burn some incense in the Buddha to cover up the smell from Bob's fish dinner. Just When You ThinkIt could it get any better? Dave comes up with this caption!!! Now I have to add THIS ONE to my all time favourites list. [Thank you! Although "Crank Call" is the title, not the caption. The caption is the writing under the photo. - Dave] [Right! My old brain needs to reboot :) - Baxado ] Roll CallShe has rolls of something in bundles and it seems she's calling the person she prepared them for to say they are ready. Perhaps she is making some side money. What are they? Corner shelfI made one in wood shop class identical to that one in junior high school around 1977. Calling up CatfishMy grandfather (b. 1898) had the innards of one of those telephones in a bucket in his fishing boat. When he was hungry for catfish, he'd load me up and we'd go out to a deep bend on the Clear Fork of the Brazos and slide the jonboat through the reeds and into the river a couple hundred feet upstream of the bend. On one of the copper telephone wires he had tied a horseshoe as a weight, which he dropped straight down off the side of the boat. The other, much longer wire was tied to a big iron washer -- about the size of a #10 can lid. I'd paddle down to the deepest hole in the river and he would swing the washer over his head like a lasso and toss it as far as he could. As soon as the washer hit the water, he'd holler "crank it!" and I'd wind the magneto as fast as I could, creating a current between the two poles and stunning any catfish caught in between them. After a few seconds he'd get the dipnet and scoop up any electroshocked fish and we'd repeat until he had enough for a fish fry. I later discovered this was regarded as unsporting and possibly illegal means of harvesting fishflesh. In the mid-'60s, however, I never passed up and opportunity to go "call up some catfish". Where's the bird?She looks a lot like Granny from the Tweetie and Sylvester cartoon. Makes me think of Bryant Pond, MaineBryant Pond was the last community in the U.S. to have crank telephones, switching over to plain vanilla dial phones in 1983. To call my friend in Bryant Pond, I had to dial 0 and ask the operator (remember operators?) to place a call to Bryant Pond 32 -- which was my friend's number. Some operators took it in stride; others took some convincing. Oh, my aching backI'm pretty sure her phone calls never lasted long - look at the posture she has to assume. That table makes her stand about two feet away from the phone and then lean forward over the table to get close to the mouth piece. I'm surprised I don't see a hand mark on the wallpaper from bracing oneself. And of course she'd never just clear that table and sit on top of it. She doesn't look BuddhistSeriously, I am a little surprised by the Buddha figure on her shelf. Grandma was practicing way before it was hip! About those rollsI'm probably wrong but, those rolls seem to me to be too narrow. Is it possible that they are player piano rolls? A couple of them seem to have narrow wooden slats along one edge. I remember seeing player pianos in one of my aunt's homes when I was a kid in the early 1950s and they generally looked like these, but were usually stored in boxes. No hands voice dialingThat phone used no hands voice dialing, an amazing technology that is virtually unavailable today. More!A person can never have too much wallpaper. Well, maybe sometimes. BuddhaMy grandmother had one -- an incense burner, in green-red-gold. Isn't It Obvious?Those rolls next to her can't be anything but more wallpaper that needs hanging! I really like the woodworking on that fern table in front of her! (Technology, The Gallery, John Vachon)
The Nursery: 1915
... screwdrivers and awls on changing table, picture of dead fish on the wall. What a lovely nursery! Runaways I am sure the children ... painted with lead. Tools on the dresser, pictures of fish on the wall. Looks like a nursery from a horror movie. It Looks ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/05/2014 - 8:40pm -

"Nursery" is all it says on this 4x5 inch glass negative, which comes to us from a seller in Minnesota. Maybe someone with the right connections could run a check on these fingerprints. Probably from around 1910-1920. View full size. Nursery AccoutrementsPaint (lead, no doubt) chipping off cribs, screwdrivers and awls on changing table, picture of dead fish on the wall. What a lovely nursery! RunawaysI am sure the children ran away. The place is a deathtrap and the still life on the wall is enough to make me run. Nasty cribsWidely spaced bars, probably painted with lead. Tools on the dresser, pictures of fish on the wall. Looks like a nursery from a horror movie. It Looks Fishy To Me.Is that a picture of dead fish on the wall next to the mirror? [As noted below by the cultured Kait, that is a STILL LIFE. - Dave] FingerprintsThe nanny did it. No, wait -- the nurse. Okay, then -- the photographer. Nursery of the NastyIt is hard to believe that our ancestors made it through things like this to allow us to be born! Scary! The devil you say!This is where Rosemary had her baby. Looks like a nursery from a second-rate orphanage.Linen on the beds is clean, but the beds themselves are shabby. Too many clothes apparently hung up on pegs in the closet. [I wouldn't go anywhere near those beds without a tetanus shot. -Dave] Early indoctrinationFishing is the state pastime in Minnesota (along with hunting). Kids had to be indoctrinated from the cradle . . . And There Is the ClosetWhence the monsters emerge at night. Despite the Negative CommentsI wouldn't mind having one of those wrought-iron cribs to refinish. The brass work on them was quite nice, too. On the other hand, I wouldn't be saying, "Bloody Mary" three times in that mirror! (The Gallery, Found Photos, Kids)
Your Grocer's Dairy Case
... markets, with separate vendor stalls selling produce, fish, etc. Just about every town of any size had its Central Market at a ... 
 
Posted by John.Debold - 11/22/2008 - 7:24pm -

Supermarket dairy case circa 1950. You'll get change back from your half-dollar if you purchase a dozen eggs. View full size. Louella ButterYou can still buy Louella Butter dishes from eBay and antique shops. Or, get yourself a nice reproduction. Like ButterI didn't realize my two plastic butter dishes are Louella knockoffs. However they can go in the dishwasher and look just fine. Great design. Acme MarketsI remember the Acme Markets store chain had Louella butter as one of its "brands," as seen by the picture here on the bottom shelf: YoghurtThat's back in the days when yogurt was sour, lumpy, somewhat foreign and certainly not very popular. How about a nice Wensleydale?One hundred forty-five varieties of cheese?! I can't even name that many. BountyWhat a bounty this must have appeared after the Depression and also with rationing still a recent memory. Rationing continued in the UK in some form into the 1950s. Serve MYSELF?!?What is this, Soviet Russia? Service! That's what we want.Many people nowadays don't realize that idea of "serve yourself" was an innovation at the time. Prior to that, all the grocery products were stored in the back room, and a shopper would hand a written list to the clerk, who would then fill the order. When stores first decided to place the groceries on the store floor there were differing ideas on how to display them; some stores would place everything alphabetically, for example. [Before self-service supermarkets there were plain old markets of the non-super variety -- basically roofed or open farmer's markets, with separate vendor stalls selling produce, fish, etc. Just about every town of any size had its Central Market at a crossroads or rail depot. There were also general stores (below) where the goods were kept on shelves behind the service counter. - Dave] CartlessWe had self service for everything except meat and produce in the 30-40's at our local Safeway. However, no carts, so one either piled up one's purchases somewhere near the register or brought along a kid to help carry (me!). The meat section must have been under contract since we paid the butcher separately. It was easier then because milk was delivered and choices of everything were very limited. Chips meant potato -- period (not that we could afford them). Early 50s in HartfordThe early 1950s in Hartford meant a milkman and a bread man stopped by the apartment house daily or every other day carrying huge trays with all sorts of dairy and baked products. And there was a horse (mule? donkey?) drawn vegetable cart which came down the street several times a week. There may have been other such services, but I cannot recall. Nonetheless, every few days my mother would take me to the corner market where she would obtain mostly package goods. My only vivid recollection is the grocer using what seemed like 8 foot long pincers to grab boxes from the high shelves. Deliveries in the 50sincluded A.C. Petersen's or Sealtest for milk, Viking (baked goods - the best Swedish limpa), Charles Chips (in a big tin - but State Line from the grocery store was better) and Hartford Club soda. Oooh, that smell!! My family lived upstairs from a "butter & egg" shop just like this in the '40s and '50s...I can still smell the cheese, butter and fresh ground coffee and peanut butter 60 years later! (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Stores & Markets)
The Young Moderns: 1952
... wine with dinner, which for some reason I keep thinking is fish. Perhaps the whites been drunk already and the red is a dessert wine. The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/21/2013 - 8:40pm -

Alfresco dining on the patio circa 1952 in this unlabeled Kodachrome. Do I hear Brubeck on the hi-fi? Third in the "Linda" series of 35mm slides. View full size. Comparing wristwatchesI was looking at the watch on the woman's wrist in the Lil Boomer photo and was wondering if it was the same watch as on the wrist of the woman on the right in this photo. Difficult to tell. https://www.shorpy.com/node/14453 Mid-century masters of good livingSlay me now -- this is gorgeous. Atomic wire end tables, Dansk salad bowl (on its own wire stand "for tossing" beautifully patinaed!!) The hand-painted earthenware, paired with silverware, a silver salver and condiment set; and to top it off, crystal wine glasses. It's a casual meal though, given that the Heinz ketchup bottle is actually on the table. What a setting. Love it! [Also note the wine bottles and caddy on the end table at right. -Dave] ProofThat there was color back in the black and white 1950s. Style notesThe roman brick on the house suggests a modern design, long and low, possibly with overhanging eaves. I hope we get to see it later in the "Linda" series. Also, the couple across the table illustrates that, unless you're on the same bowling team, it has never been a good idea for spouses to dress alike. Upscale crowdWine, suit & tie for an outdoor meal, real silverware, nice china instead of paper plates, well groomed all around, jazz would seem more likely than pop music. Give it about four more years and they'll be talking about how perfectly dreadful that Elvis guy is. MissingI had assumed that the photographer is the husband of the woman in the light green dress and that the young wine drinker in the plaid shirt is the unattached guest invited to dinner. By the way, I do appreciate the individual components listed by Deborah, but I’m not as enthusiastic about how it all comes together. I find the wineglasses especially clunky and under-sized. But then the US was not a heavy-duty wine-drinking nation back in the fifties. A+ for effort, though. [Those "wineglasses" are goblets. - Dave] That Red Plaid ShirtI had one just like it a few years after this photo was taken. It scared away most girls and all but the toughest dogs. Slay me now, indeed!Slay me now -- this is gorgeous. Atomic wire end tables... Absolutely! I was two years old then, but - even if my assessments are too rosy and not really true - I see these folks and envy their confidence, the lives they would have in the coming decade (1957 Chevy Nomads!!!), technological devleopments like stereo and color TV. And let me pretend the gent on the close end of the table was an amateur radio operator and was about to buy an E.F. Johnson single sideband transmitter and Viking Desktop Kilowatt!!! In Good HandsI believe the gentleman in the suit and tie is trying to sell them insurance. Missing persons.I see that there are two empty places -- one might be the photographer, so who is the odd one out? If it were two couples hosting a visitor, fine, but is it two women or a man and a woman who are away from the table? I'm guessing the man of the house has his back to us, his wife was sitting to his left, serving the wine and taking the photo, and the other missing person could be the woman on the right's husband, or the wife of the newly arrived guest who still has his travel suit on. [There are six people in this photo -- three men and three women, with one Missing Person. - Dave] Won't hurt a bitIs that a vaccination scar on her left arm? Dress codeI'm nostalgic for the days when men wore coats and ties even for informal gatherings. I've been doing it lately myself; I'm trying to start a revolution. It's not working. All that happens is that I get assailed with sarcastic comments. Comments from people who are wearing their pajamas in public, or who look like an unmade bed. RelationshipsI think we have in-laws and newlyweds. Red shirt guy is unmarried brother-in-law. Home is probably that of the photographer; unless he was a particularly obsessive camera-bug, he wouldn't have lugged the Leica along to a casual dinner party, but just went inside to grab it for the shot. Wine: What it is, how to use itThese people were not just on a patio but on the cusp of a trend. Ad from 1953. Click to embiggen. Three Couples and a SalesmanI am guessing that the "photographer is the husband of one of the two ladies on the right side of the table, probably the woman in the green dress. The woman hidden behind her is either her daughter or the husband or sister of the fellow in the red shirt. As someone mentioned earlier the odd man out in the suit and tie is probably a salesman, most likely selling insurance. Within ReachIt's a testament to the enduring power of midcentury style, or at least its resurgence in popularity, that very little in this 60-year-old photograph would be out of place in a contemporary design magazine--although the young man with the buzz cut is missing de rigueur wispy facial hair. The lowly Heinz bottle has earned its place as a kind of Platonic ideal. Another yarn.The missing person is a professor--of physics maybe?--who is taking the shot. The woman in the green dress is his wife. The man in the suit is a visiting foreign professor, escaped from Hungary maybe? The other four at the table are graduate students and their wives/fiancee's. The brick work and the maple/beech woods say this is a new modern subdivision in East Lansing Michigan. The professor and his wife were originally from New York City, he got his PhD at Columbia, and they continue to vacation on Cape Cod every summer. It all makes sense. Family tree and other thoughts, WatsonIt is funny that we're all trying to figure this group out. These are part of the "Linda Kodachromes" (So only Dave knows for sure) But I'm going to have at it anyway. Look back again at the little girl's birthday. She's related in looks particularly to the older woman in the green dress and the younger woman in blue denim. So I think that's mother and daughter/granddaughter (little baby girl). I think the woman in the green dress is the wife/mother of the house. She's also on the lounge in the picture with the baby (re: watch on wrist). The father would then be (age-wise) the man in the suit. Dinnertime in the summer, he'd be coming home from his city job just in time for an evening meal outside. I think his older son has his back to us (hair color, hairline, size). The other woman hidden from our view may be a mother-in-law or married to the son. I see a touch of lighter hair and it's frizzier. The two at the end may be siblings or friends, but not married (he's not wearing a ring, she's young) plus they have the same nose as the lady in green. The table setting speaks to some depth, time and money in the household. Modern artistic dishes, real silver from the '30s (family pieces or wedding gifts?) and the goblets are older as well. Two bottles of wine with dinner, which for some reason I keep thinking is fish. Perhaps the whites been drunk already and the red is a dessert wine. The whole setting speaks to an established style infused with modern. Now to the photographer. This person's place is the only one with a glass of water. Suggesting someone too young to drink. The photo also suggests someone who is not adept at photography at all. No one is ready for this shot, all are turned away. It's definitely a quick snap. Also, he/she is not that tall. One more thing: This is a rooftop "patio," a found space. It's up at least atop a first story (above a garage at the back of the building. See tree height). It's quite tight (table angle, position of photographer). The building's windows & "roman" brick style suggest an urban/city home environment. That's all I got. Will we ever know? Patio space, sunken rec room and trees down the hillMy guess is that it isn't rooftop space but a small patio against the back of the house in a small suburban backyard. The edge of the cement/concrete "floor" beyond the wine bottles has a few sprigs of grass and a sandy space between the concrete and the top of a retaining wall. On the retaining wall is a railing; but there is a break in the railing between Dad and The Daughter in Blue. Perhaps a walk-through to the yard or steps down to the yard? There's another sandy space in the yard beyond the railing then there seems to be a break off to a darker area. My guess is there's an embankment or depression or wooded hillside where the trees are rooted below the level of the patio. That might explain why they give the appearance of the patio being higher than it is. The trees are actually lower. Oh, and the windows are probably to a rec room or basement that is also lower than the patio level. Reminds me of my aunt & uncle's yard in Cincinnati near Ault Park. Mom doesn't seem to have touched her wine, nor has her bench mate to her right. And I found the juxtaposition of ketchup on the table with wine, silverware and decent china to be less than de rigueur. Ah, well. (Linda Kodachromes)
Trainville: 1929
... toy trains! Toy trains are a whole different kettle of fish! Beyond Imagination I can only wonder what Mr.Swartzell would have ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 7:06pm -

August 5, 1929. Washington, D.C. "Miniature RR of John N. Swartzell." Our fourth look at the Swartzell rail empire. National Photo glass negative. View full size. "Should have dusted it"Is what Mr. Swartzell (or the Missus) would have thought. I like the fallen-over cow at bottom right. Third railThis shot gives an interesting hint about the third rail question, mentioned on some of the other shots. While there doesn't seem to be an actual center rail on the tracks, there does seem to be a wire down the middle of some sort. Do you suppose this wire operates the same as a Lionel central rail, to provide power? Very interesting. And regarding Mr. S's serious expression, "model railroading" is a SERIOUS activity. Don't call them toy trains! Toy trains are a whole different kettle of fish! Beyond ImaginationI can only wonder what Mr.Swartzell would have thought if he was told his model railroad would be admired by thousands of people all over the world in the next century. Is that his dad?The man who insisted John give up trains for real estate? John Swartzell isn't smiling in any of these photos. Is it because his dreams of train engineering have been reduced to model train construction? Wow!Those two boys look like they are having such fun! All smiles!! Ground beefIt looks like something knocked over the cows on the bottom right. Maybe those dogs barking at the nearby horse cart began by attacking the cattle? Men at WorkA colleague once told me that never in history has a model railroad ever been finished. Mr. Swartzell is doubtless pondering the next phase of construction and that's why he's not smiling. The center wireObviously the center wire is there for this purpose, as in Lionel setups. What other purpose could it serve? The sidings however, have no center conductor, so I imagine he used these as stationary rolling stock positions and moved the engines and cars by hand. There was a railroad maneuver whereby the engine released a rolling car to go into a siding under its own momentum. Perhaps another Shorpy railfan knows the name of this technique. Attention to DetailNotice the bank of miniature throw levers to operate the switches. Today you would just use push buttons, but these copies of the full sized units are so much more elegant. Train ConductorYes, that is the "third rail." I didn't have to be an actual rail -- simply a metal electrical conductor. Pickup was by a roller, wiper or bar rubbing on the wire. In fact, Maerklin of Germany used a series of black "studs" which were very nearly invisible. I have been a model railroader for over 55 years. I cannot imagine that much dust on any of my layouts. Can't see how he kept them running. Moooooo!I see someone has been cow tipping. I wonder which one of the naughty plastic people did it? (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Railroads)
Eggstravaganza: 1972
... that the eggs always fell out of and you either had to fish them out of the dye with your fingers or ruin one of your mom's spoons. ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 04/17/2022 - 9:59am -

My niece and nephews were coming down for an Easter egg hunt, so that gave my brother, his wife and me an excuse to color some eggs for the first time since our own childhood. I made a caricature of my brother, another that was supposed to look like the Western Hemisphere, and at the bottom center in a sort of holiday mashup, an homage to one of our favorite vintage Christmas tree ornaments. The brown ones were made via the traditional onion skin method and some forgotten arcane process produced the blue-and-white mottled jobs. Paste-on printed features from an egg-dyeing kit are on two, and two more are named for their creators. All posed against the lawn at the family home in Idyllic Larkspur™, California and immortalized by me with this Polaroid snapshot. View full size. 1972!I think this is the most modern Shorpy picture I've ever seen! I was actually alive, although it would be a couple years before I made any Easter eggs. Possibly Paas?Those stick-on features look so familiar. We always had Paas egg-decorating kits, so I suspect that's where your printed facial features came from. Very nice.:) I remember my childhood. Definitely PaasThe Native American girl is definitely from the Paas kit; it was around long before 1972 also. The brown egg with white face is made with a clear wax crayon that also came in the Paas kit. Names are written with same crayon. Only thing missing is the little paper punch-out collars that you made into a circle and sat the egg upright in. Those kits had the little copper wire dippers that the eggs always fell out of and you either had to fish them out of the dye with your fingers or ruin one of your mom's spoons. Thanks, KathyRo!I graduated high school in 1972. A severe dose of oldness is setting in this morning. Oh, well, everyone has their time. Still work, I hope (or did until April 3), still get around and I'm active in the yard and garden, still paying the mortgage. My goal in life right now is to collect Social Security starting early fall. Blue FabricLooks like the blotchy blue eggs were dyed with printed fabric. Could be PaasThank you Tterrace, this rang some bells and brought up a lot of memories for me. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Easter, tterrapix)
Dick's Wrecking: 1942
... Turn Them On Their Side And clean them like a fish. You don't see that style of dismantling much today. Not very old? ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/18/2021 - 12:09am -

January 1942. "Wrecking yard in Clarksburg, West Virginia." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. View full size. Heaven, I'm In Heaven!The song that hot rodders will be singing when they first set eyes on this place. Oh to be there today!I'd give my left steering knuckle to have access to those parts today. Turn Them On Their SideAnd clean them like a fish. You don't see that style of dismantling much today. Not very old?Noting that most of these cars don't seem very old, most of them seem to be from the mid 30s which would put them at 5-6-7 years old? I don't see a Model T anywhere, and the last Model T's produced would be 15 years old. My current vehicle is 13 years old and going strong. Soon to be goneThe needs of the war will soon see almost all of these vehicles, and tens of thousands like them, scrapped and melted down. Hang onIt will be a very short time before the car boyz give us the lowdown on all the the models and years. Can you pick out the oldest and newest before they do. Organized EnterpriseI think Dick has spent time and effort to keep the property neat and reasonably presentable. The cars lined up in rows with aisles between makes removing parts much easier. Removing and replacing the used up hulks likewise. The buildings are clean, painted and neatly lettered. We're probably only seeing a portion of this yard, the inventory of which will soon go to feed the insatiable appetite of the open hearths. Worth a visit ?The yard has been cleared but hasn't been built over, perhaps a visit with a metal-detector could get you some goodies ? No tin lizziesWhadayoumean no parts for my Model T? I want in, too!The vintage steel on this lot would probably bring at least high six figures in today's market. I'm drooling at the rat rod potential. But since it's the beginning of '42, I see a lot of Sherman tanks and Liberty ships in the making here. Think TwiceIt was probably not yet evident in January of 1942 just how hard it would be to get a car for the next several years. If only folks had known that old '33 or '36 model would become valuable they wouldn't have been so quick to junk it. I think this is the location. Compared to todayMost of those cars seem to be from between mid 1920s to mid 1930s. This photo being 1942 makes the age of the scrapped cars only relatively not that old. Today we see cars on the road of 7-20 year old that don't look ready for the wrecker. The good news? It’s yours!The bad news? You have to get every part and fitting and subassembly on line, bar-coded, ready to sell and ship ... and yesterday would have been a lot better than next week. Why are you just standing there? (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, John Vachon)
Looking Back: 1948
... for several days while her dad did odd jobs or to fish or hunt for extra food. Poor people did what poor people had to do to ... 
 
Posted by Truck5man - 10/04/2011 - 10:54pm -

My grandmother at my parents' wedding in February 1948. I can't help but look into her eyes and think of what she had seen in her lifetime: Came to California from Ohio on a covered wagon with her family in 1888, survived the San Francisco Earthquake with her newborn son who would be killed less than 1 year later in a stagecoach accident, lost another child who was a twin, and my grandfather had died and left them broke 4 years before this picture was taken. Yet all I have ever heard from every relative was what a strong, warm, loving woman she was. This is one of many slides recently found at my brother's house. The box is chock-full o' late 40s and early 50s goodness. View full size. Hey! Leave 'er alone! Wow. Quite a few master debaters regarding her traveling methods. I called my mom who for the record is 87 years old and could take every one of us, and asked her to "confirm" she came here from Ohio in a covered wagon. She corrected me that my grandmother was 2 (making it 1884) and the family consisted of 6 kids and my g-grandparents. Probably making train fare a wee bit expensive for my g-grandfather who was a carpenter by trade. [Or would train fare be considerably less expensive than the cost of moving (and feeding) eight people and a team of horses 2,000 miles across the continent in a journey that would take weeks? - Dave] You're more than welcome to call my mom and question her (good luck with that). Added bonus: An awesome picture of my uncle Walt and my brother and cousins in the San Francisco Bay with one of my uncle's toys in about 1959. More to follow! Train fares in 1882Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad train fares of 1882. The fare from Kansas city to San Francisco was $104 in first class, $78 in second class and $47.50 in emigrant class, whatever that was. $47.50 translate into $1,316 nowadays (according to one inflation calculator). For a family of four, it represents a total fare of $5,264. [One thing to consider in your calculations is that (using the Union Pacific as an example) children under 5 traveled free, and children under 12 paid half-fare. So the cost for Grandma's fare would have been zero, not $47.50. Second, "inflation calculators" are less and less meaningful the farther back you go. What you want to know is not so much how many dollars such a trip might cost today, but how much it cost compared to the alternative. Which would include buying or hiring a wagon and team, outfitting it, feeding the animals, food and other provisions, tolls, lodging, repairs, etc. As for "emigrant class" -- emigrants were settlers moving west; emigrant class was the cheap seats, similar to flying coach or sailing in steerage. Emigrant-class coaches were often part of freight trains. - Dave] Covered wagons, sureThere are days I feel old enough to easily feel like I came to Minnesota in a covered wagon. But no, I was born in 1948, the year this pic was taken. Guess I came in a Studebaker. I also say to Truck5man, please keep posting pics!!! Lovely. Thanks! Lovely pictureYour grandmother looks like and amazing, strong woman. Please post more of these! Wagon train costFrom : http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWwagontrain.htm The overland journey from the Mid-West to Oregon and California meant a six month trip across 2,000 miles of difficult country. It was also an expensive enterprise. It was estimated that the journey cost a man and his family about $1,000. He would also need a specially prepared wagon that cost about $400. The canvas top would have to be waterproofed with linseed oil and stretched over a framework of hoop-shaped slats. Although mainly made of wood, iron was used to reinforce the wagon at crucial points. However, iron was used sparingly in construction since it was heavy and would slow down and exhaust the animals pulling the wagon. The wagons were packed with food supplies, cooking equipment, water kegs, and other things needed for a long journey. These wagons could carry loads of up to 2,500 pounds, but the recommended maximum was 1,600 pounds. Research suggests that a typical family of four carried 800 pounds of flour, 200 pounds of lard, 700 pounds of bacon, 200 pounds of beans, 100 pounds of fruit, 75 pounds of coffee and 25 pounds of salt. 40s garb in colorWhat a treat to see such a sharp, detailed and vibrant color shot of how real people dressed in the period. While her fashions might have been regarded at the time as somewhat dated, I think we can say this woman had quite a sense of style nonetheless. The lighting is quite striking, too - not your typical flash-on-camera angle. I wonder if it's illuminated by photoflood? Please keep delving into that box! Thank you for sharing this with usThis is a strange, moving picture. Your grandmother has a sad, kind, and beautiful face. I agree; please post more of your pictures. Ohio to CaliforniaI can see traveling there by covered wagon in 1858, but 1888? You'd just take a train. Also: Where was this picture taken? Excellent job of scanning! There was this (garbled)There was this (garbled) family tale of my paternal greatgrandmother (1875-1955) having traveled as a child from the midwest to California by wagon train. What was more likely in our case was that it was her mother as an infant who had made the trip that way. Age perspectiveWonderful photo of your grandmother, Truck5man! Would you know how old she is in this photo? Just for perspective sake, let's say she was eight years old when her family moved to Cali in 1888. That would make her 68 in this photo. A woman who is 68 today would be six years old when this photo was taken. The photo tells the storyAlthough the details you provided on your grandmother's life add depth to the story, those eyes tell all of the story you really need to know. It makes my heart ache to think of the burdens she carried. 1888 - Covered Wagon?I agree with Dave. Great pic but almost no way she traveled from Ohio to California by covered wagon in 1888. She could have taken any number of train routes well-established by then, and it would have been a heck of a lot cheaper than feeding a team of horses (not to mention people) for the two month journey (at least). By covered wagon in 1888? Sure!As to your earlier comment, people migrating to California very often loaded their belongings in a wagon or wagons, added hoops and covers to protect the wagon contents, and headed west. This lasted well into the early years of the 20th century. [I think you're very mistaken. There were no long overland migrations by covered wagon "well into the 20th century." - Dave] No "migrations", but plenty of individual trips by folks looking for a better life. Lots & lots of them made the trip by early auto & trailer once those displaced the horse & mule as motive power. [I'd lay good money that the number of families or individuals traveling from anywhere in Ohio to California by wagon in the late 1880s was pretty close to zero. Historically documented, non-anecdotal examples to the contrary are welcome! - Dave] Covered wagon revisitedI knew a woman, now deceased, who traveled with her family by covered wagon in the early part of the twentieth century. It was a shorter trip than the one in question, only going from Illinois to Oklahoma, but I think it would be possible some families still made use of the prairie schooner if it was all that they could afford. Oxen graze. It might have been much cheaper than passage for the family and property on a train. The wagon trains of the mid-nineteenth century may have been a thing of the past, but one family moving their belongings is believable. Generations X & Y.-- Bah!They sure don't make 'em like they used to. I think that's part of what makes me LOVE this site so much. Railroad developmentBelow is a link to a nice series of maps, showing railroad development in the United States. It is really quite fascinating. By 1880, the rail network was very developed, and as it notes, "every state and territory was provided with railway transportation." http://cprr.org/Museum/RR_Development.html. I do appreciate the sentiment about the changes one sees during a lifetime. I once read a research report from the 1950s, where the author was interviewing folks about changes in the area. One of his subjects had lived in the same house since the 1880s! Of course, it is long gone and the past seems so distant, yet not much separates us from it. The chasm is narrow, but deep. Wagon TravelWell, you are correct that there was no widespread overland migration well into the 20th century, but there was smaller movements. My grandmother at the age of 2 or 3 went by wagon from Kentucky to the logging areas of Wisconsin around 1912, and returned the same way about 1918. Why wagon? They had to take the stove, plow share, tools, cookware, clothing etc. There were four families that went up and two that came back. My grandmother who died at the age of 93 remembered the trip back quite well. They stopped frequently, sometimes for several days while her dad did odd jobs or to fish or hunt for extra food. Poor people did what poor people had to do to survive. The covered wagon optionI'd guess that not everyone thought that they could afford to migrate by train in 1888, and it was faster but it wasn't necessarily as cheap as the records would suggest, so a very poor or stubbornly frugal family might have decided to make the trek by wagon. Migration by train obviously became more common than by covered wagon after the completion of the transcontinental railroad, and probably nobody even tried it in the 20th Century except as a publicity stunt. But, out here in San Diego County, my uncle George Irey, who graduated from San Diego High in 1916, made a month-long vacation trip every year with his parents and siblings in a pair of mule-drawn covered wagons, from their farm in El Cajon over the very rugged mountains east to their land in the Imperial Valley. They owned cars, but George said they continued to use the wagons through the 1920s because they actually enjoyed it, despite the fact that they were doing so in the early summer every year, when it was more than 100 degrees in the desert. Never mind what my dad said privately about George's family enjoying that. I've seen that expression beforeMostly on parents of the bridal couple at weddings; difficult to read, and as many have suggested, perhaps more related to events of the past than those of present time. My own mother wore a similar look around my sister in law for some time after my older brother's wedding until she finally realized their marriage would indeed endure. They recently celebrated their 44th anniversary, are parents to 2 and grandparents to another 2. She and my own father divorced after slightly less than 10 (frequently turbulent) years. Google "covered wagon migration"The first link I come up with shows "The Covered Wagon of the Great Western Migration. 1886 in Loup Valley, Nebraska" from the National Archives. I see no reason to doubt the story behind this lovely photo. [I don't doubt for a second that people in the late 19th century used wagons to travel long distances in the Loup Valley, Nebraska, and a thousand other places. But from Ohio to California, a journey over 2,000 miles, probably not. - Dave] Good point. If we want to doubt the story, I wonder if only part of the trip was in a wagon. Perhaps there is another reason this method would be chosen. If you fancied yourself a master of horses and wagons, and then the industrial revolution caught up to you, maybe you would stubbornly keep to the old ways. I can think of plenty of things my grandparents spend money on that is considered impractical by modern society. Forget train vs. wagonThat necklace is fabulous! (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
The Happy Homemaker: 1922
... Hoffman ...wanted in three states for her Tainted Tuna Fish Casserole! Take That, Japan! We had lifelike domestic companion ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 1:34am -

September 6, 1922. "Miss Elizabeth U. Hoffman." Who might be one teacup short of a place setting. National Photo Co. Collection glass negative. View full size. Demo, or apartment?@Tea -- I was rather wondering that. It looks to uncluttered to be a home (ergo, I think demo kitchen in a warehouse), but looking at the ceiling/wall, it could be a cheaply partitioned apartment. And she's either missing a wall and standing in direct sunlight, or there are some big artificial lights in place. [This would be an academic or institutional setting. Maybe government -- Bureau of Standards or Agriculture department. - Dave] JinkiesOoohhh. That lady gives me the willies Harsh lights, sharp cornersHarsh lights, sharp corners everywhere, a pressure cooker on the stove, a knife on the drainboard, an alarm clock-- ominously approaching 12 o'clock--tied to the wall, hard linoleum echoing every footstep, and that terrified look on her face--perhaps Edgar Allan Poe's kitchen. Cooking in a Warehouse?Where is this, does anyone know? America's Test Kitchen in the olden days? On the tableLooks like tea bags in one of the jars on the table but what the heck is in the other jar behind the milk bottle ? Miss Elizabeth U. Hoffman...wanted in three states for her Tainted Tuna Fish Casserole! Take That, Japan!We had lifelike domestic companion androids way back in the 1920's! The Proverbial Gaspipe?Is that a spare gaspipe hovering over the table? Is it there so Miss Elizabeth U. Hoffman can take a dose when her weird kitchen proves too much for her? [That's probably a fire sprinkler. - Dave] June?My mother has this same table on the enclosed back porch of her home. It was purchased from one of many estate sales she and Dad have attended. They always believed that new isn't always better and have instilled this belief in me. Therefore I would kill for that pressure cooker! My current one -- "only" 10 years old -- always has a clogged valve. As for Miss Hoffman, June Cleaver she is not. What is this place?Quality control test kitchen in a food factory, home economics classroom, recipe lab for Mrs. Wyler's fried pies? CollectiblesOur house was built in 1905 and all these appliances are there in the basement, which was apparently used as the kitchen area before the "modern" kitchen and bathroom were added in the 40's. I wonder if they are worth money. They sure did get their money's worth -- still work over 100 years later. HarshPoor Miss Hoffman! Don't pick on her! I get the same expression when I'm forced to spend any time in the kitchen too...and I bet she's thinking "take the photo, hurry up and take the photo already"... Cupcakes!It looks like sprinkles, or jimmys, or 100s and 1000s, whatever you might call them. Although that's kind of a random thing to have in a jar with your other necessities. Walnuts!The container behind the milk looks like it is holding walnuts. The bigger pieces are always on top, then smaller pieces, and then finally the nut dust. Post Toasties!I vote for flake cereal. Makes more sense with the milk. Must confess: I'm a sucker for the domestic setting photos, even test kitchens. I love everything about this -- the rubber mats on the floor, the Pyrex casserole, the ironstone bowl, the dish drainers, the border on the china, the glass milk bottle, the enamel-topped table, the wicker stool. Obviously, someone said "Hey, Elizabeth!" and snapped the shot. I'm sure she's a lovely person, really. (The Gallery, Kitchens etc., Natl Photo)
Modern Kitchen: 1942
... was very inexpensive. I'm guessing they are cooking fried fish and mashed potatoes, yum. Rich and Poor Alike My mother worked ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/23/2012 - 3:44pm -

Spring 1942. "New Bedford, Massachusetts. Family of Portuguese house painter who live in low-income government housing project." Medium format negative by John Collier for the Resettlement Administration. View full size. Wartime CakeWAR CAKE Eggless, butterless, sugarless, milkless cake. 2 c. hot water 2 tsp. lard 1 pkg. raisins 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. cloves 1 tsp. cinnamon Boil these for 5 minutes after they begin to bubble. When cold, add: 1 tsp. soda dissolved in hot water Bake in 2 loaves, 45 minutes in a slow oven. This cake improves by keeping. During the war this recipe was not given away, but sold for 10 cents to benefit the Red Cross. Didn't say whether it was tasteless, too! Landlord SpecialThe 20" wide gas range in this kitchen is what we used to call a "Cooker". This one is a Royal Rose, pilot lit, with a thermostat to control the temperature in the oven section. The broiler was in the drawer below the oven that pulled out. We sold them mainly to landlords and advertised them as low as $49 without the thermostat. Royal Rose was locally manufactured (NYC) and was sold, I'm guessing, mainly on the East Coast. The competing brands were Welbilt and Slattery. Re: War CakeUgh, I think I could do without for the duration rather than eat that concoction. Really? It all looks pretty nice for supposedly being 'low income'! I love that cute little dog's happy face! "I've gone back to Duz."DUZ DOES EVERYTHING Oh my goodness.That floor is soooo much cleaner than mine. Carefully staged posesEverybody but the dog is cooperating with the photographer! Shelving Paper and Blue WillowThe pretty doily-like edge on the shelf paper and the beloved traditional blue willow china gives this cozy kitchen what used to be called a "woman's touch". My mom was quite regimented about changing the shelf paper and kitchen curtains several times per year and always having pretty dishes. It just made the drudgery of daily cooking and cleaning a whole lot cheerier (and aprons were always in use) and was very inexpensive. I'm guessing they are cooking fried fish and mashed potatoes, yum. Rich and Poor AlikeMy mother worked hard to provide for the three children in our single parent home. While we didn’t have much, what we had was clean. The kids at school had no idea how little we had as we were always bathed and our hand-me-downs were clean and in good repair. My mother instilled in me that no matter how poor one may be, they can always be clean. This photo reflects that truth. Lady Sylvia Model 1940This gas range was in a Vancouver, B.C. apartment building I lived in 35 years ago, and was such an excellent cook stove that I bought it from the manager for $25 when I moved into a house. It was made by the Beach Foundry Company in Ottawa, Ontario, and has a thermostatic oven control, but the broiler is in the top of the oven. The backsplash is hinged and folds down to cover the burners. Lady Sylvia is the silhouette on the backsplash. Wartime Cake, part 3I think you forgot the flour! floor polisherThat floor is so spotless, it shines. You can see the small white floor polisher peering over the table, just waiting for crumbs to fall and drips to splatter. He'll have that floor licked clean before mom can clear the dishes. Duz SoapInteresting article on Duz. (The Gallery, Dogs, John Collier, Kitchens etc.)
With Stuffing: 1916
... Wood discovered this he reconstructed each feather with fish glue, returning each and all of them to their proper position in the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/27/2012 - 5:04pm -

1916. "N.R. Wood of Smithsonian Institution, mounting birds." Who can identify the big fella? Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Who can identify the big fella?My money says he's N.R. Wood of the Smithsonian Institution. Do I win again, Dave? [He's bearded, but is he a vulture? - Dave] Mr. WoodI'm not entirely sure he isn't stuffed and mounted, too. My voteBald Eagle Golden EagleIt is definitely a raptor and certainly appears to be an eagle, so based on the apparent color my guess is Golden Eagle. "I've completed the formula!"So I guess this proves that all those B-movie laboratories were based on reality. Bearded vultureThe large bird is a Lammergeier, or bearded vulture. This is the species of bird that allegedly killed the Greek playwright Aeschylus by dropping a tortoise on his bald head, having mistaken it for a rock. These birds employ aerial bombing to break open bones, tortoises, and anything else they think they can more easily dispatch by dropping from a great height. Wouldn't hurt a flyReminds me of Norman Bates in "Psycho." ProfessionsI've always felt that taxidermists and morticians had a lot in common. However the taxidermist trade isn't as serious. I think my taxidermist/veterinarian joke has had enough exposure on Shorpy. A bird of a different featherI would suggest that it's a Philippine eagle, based on the feather patterns. I tried decoding the tag but it's apparently to some person at the national zoo. Quebranta huesosParece que en la jaula de atrás hay un pajarillo, debe estar bastante asustado... Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue.It's a Norwegian Blue - notice the beautiful plumage; I think he's pining for the fjords. Let this be a lesson......to the rest of you Lammergeiers out there. Lammy here obviously missed his target of Mr. Wood's bald pate, and see what it got him? Don't be pigeon or a turkey, if that rock you're aiming for is moving and wears glasses, forget about it. Big birdThe contrast in the feathers makes me think osprey, or fishing hawk. A profile of the beak, and I would be all the more sure. Nelson Rush WoodNelson Rush Wood worked as a taxidermist at the Smithsonian for over 32 years. He died at age of 63 at his home, 2817 Quarry Rd NW, on November 8, 1920. The majority of his $10,000 estate went to his "friend" Holland W. Jenks. Washington Post, Aug 11, 1903 A Skilled Taxidermist The Smithsonian Institution is particularly fortunate in the choice of its bird taxidermist, Mr. Nelson R. Wood, who without doubt is one of the best and most skilled workmen in America. Persons who visit his laboratory are simply surprised at the manner in which he will oftentimes take a bird skin, looking all the world as it had been dragged and "yalloped" about in the dirt by some over-playful canine, and in a few days time convert it into a fine-looking bird. One day recently the rats gained access to a Javanese peacock which Mr. Wood had just mounted for the St. Louis exposition, and nibbled the neck feathers in two, that they fell out. When Mr. Wood discovered this he reconstructed each feather with fish glue, returning each and all of them to their proper position in the bird's neck. Parrots, Macaws, hawks, cranes, woodpeckers, and pheasants are sent in to him by collectors with their feathers broken and disarranged, but knowing the exact position of each feather in every species, breed and variety of winged creature, Mr. Wood sets himself laboriously and conscientiously to work, first mending the feathers and then restoring them to their proper place. ... Care and feeding of birdsWhen Mr. Wood offered some birdseed to the pigeon he is working on, it replied "I couldn't have another bite... I'm stuffed!" Serious TaxidermistSometimes I think I'm the worst contrarian in the world, but let me say that a taxidermist, working at the skill level of Mr. Wood, is pretty darned serious. They were, and still are, able to provide a three-dimensional, full-color view of wildlife that few would be able to have had otherwise. I also wonder about putting quotation marks around "friend" in mentioning Mr. Wood's bequest, but since the writer of that comment is one of Shorpy's MVPs, I'm not going to make a big thing about it. Sin duda es un quebrantahuesosEs un quebrantahuesos -- Gypaetus barbatus (The Gallery, Animals, D.C., Harris + Ewing)
Cures Malaria: 1903
... the mosquitoes. The smoke, that is. Then again, the fish may eat the mosquitoes before they can cause more malaria in the first ... Now we know That may be where they invented fish oil pills. Two things supposedly good for your health packed in one. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/21/2012 - 7:52pm -

Maryland circa 1903. "Baltimore from Federal Hill." Along with a word from our sponsor. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size. Cures by KillingCures Malaria by killing the mosquitoes. The smoke, that is. Then again, the fish may eat the mosquitoes before they can cause more malaria in the first place, thus reducing the need for the "White Pills". Tom O'Neill's bequestThomas O’Neill was indeed the person who made the Cathedral a reality but it was through a bequest, because when the church was dedicated in 1959, he had been dead for 50 years. I was fortunate enough to have been on the Cathedral’s 50th anniversary planning committee (I designed the anniversary logo), and one of the many things I researched was O’Neill’s story. At the age of 33, he went into a brief partnership to establish his own dry goods store at Charles and Lexington Streets, eventually buying out his partner and expanding his business to four adjoining buildings and nearly 500 employees, with branches in Dublin (he was an Irish immigrant), London, and Paris. On February 7, 1904, as the Baltimore fire roared towards O’Neill’s store with flames licking the south wall, the wind shifted and sent the holocaust eastward and his store escaped becoming one of the 1,300-plus buildings destroyed in a 75-block arc. Fire officials wanted to blow up his store to create a fire break if the winds changed, but he refused and, the legend goes, raced off to a Carmelite convent to enlist the nuns’ prayers (his sister was, well, a Sister there). Whether that story is true or not, his gratitude was real and his will contained this bequest: “All the balance of my estate (including, after the death of my said sisters and brothers, the sum so as aforesaid put aside by my trustees to pay the annuities above mentioned)…as a nucleus for, and for the erecting of, a Cathedral Church in the City of Baltimore”. Also he gave his employees the opportunity to become stockholders and joint owners of his business, with each worker who had two or more years of service gaining a sizable bonus. O'Neill was a trustee of St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore. One of its students, who entered the school in 1902 at age seven, spent 12 years there learning, among other things, how to play baseball. His name was George Herman Ruth, later known as "Babe". Burned UpMuch of what is seen here was burned in the Baltimore Fire of 1904. Directly above the "White Pills" sign is a tall white building, which I believe to be the Continental Trust Building. It became so hot in there during the fire, gratings in the elevator shafts melted. To its left is a Victorian office building with a mansard roof. This would be the Baltimore and Ohio RR offices, built in the 1870's and totally gutted in the '04 fire. The prominent mansard roof down the street to the left is Barnum's City Hotel, also lost in the fire. Both of these structures faced Baltimore Street, still a major east-west street. Along the waterfront are two Bay steamers of the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Rwy tied up at their freight terminal. Most of these waterfront warehouses, many dating to the early days of the Republic, were burned out. At far left margin is the painted sign of O'Neill's Department Store. At the height of the fire, Mr. O'Neill is supposed to have prayed for the Lord to spare his store, and if He would, O'Neill would build Him a new Cathedral. The store survived, and true to his word, Mr. O'Neill built the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in the northern suburbs of town. Refrigerated boxcarsThe boxcar on the train ferry with "Fruit" and "Ventilated" on its side caught my attention. The answer to early refrigeration in transporting perishable goods was a long time coming. Here is what Wikipedia said: "In 1878 Swift hired engineer Andrew Chase to design a ventilated car that was well insulated, and positioned the ice in a compartment at the top of the car, allowing the chilled air to flow naturally downward. Chase's design proved to be a practical solution." Of course, Swift & Co went on to become very successful. Although I see it is now owned by a Brazilian company. Skeletal ConstructionThe skeleton of a building, to the left of City Hall and faded into the background, appears to be The Belvedere Hotel, built in 1903 and still standing today. Knabe HallNice to see Knabe Hall there. My first piano teacher (after I resumed lessons as an adult) had a Knabe concert grand that was built in the 1890s, and that was a beautiful instrument, on a par with Steinway. Now we knowThat may be where they invented fish oil pills. Two things supposedly good for your health packed in one. I'll have the fish, fillet or steak, and you may keep the pills. Thank you. Mosquito killerCures Malaria by killing the mosquitoes. The smoke, that is. The white liver pills caused smoke to come out that killed mosquitoes? Wow. I'll bet it was deadly to more than mosquitoes! Churches still standingToward the left, you can see the tall pointed steeple of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, completed in 1872 and the twin spires with onion shaped domes of the Basillica of the Assumption, completed in 1821. Both buildings are still standing and in use today. (The Gallery, Baltimore, Boats & Bridges, DPC)
The Trimming Shop: 1865
... the winter, "chill-blained." Then you're poaching like a fish in the summertime, swatting at mosquitoes as big as a bean! Point to this ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 9:53pm -

April 1865. Washington, D.C. "Workmen in front of the Government [Wagon] Trimming Shop." Civil War archive, wet plate glass negative. View full size. Oh, man, a freezer AND an oven of a building!In DC, too. You're wiggling blue fingers and toes in the winter, "chill-blained." Then you're poaching like a fish in the summertime, swatting at mosquitoes as big as a bean! Point to this photo next time someone waxes lyrical about "old-fashioned American hand-made quality". Those windows must rattle with every passing breeze; they leak like sieves, both air and water; they have a broken pane replaced with thin balsaboard or chipboard. But I love the wavy glass. Most of all, though, I love the humans. Here is a whole workplace full of craftsman in highly skilled specialties. They all work with and make *things*. They may be wheelwrights, saddlers, ropeturners, carpenters, draftsman, barrel- and hoop-makers, even cobblers and bootmakers. But they all share a common language of, and reverence for, working with, constructing and repairing objects, material things. They may be artisans, but they are all craftsmen. They are all at the top of their game. They have been chosen to care for the wagons of the largest standing Army in the world at that time. They are all supporting their families on their earned wages. They are bond in a psychic union of workers, men of strength, technological know-how, self-determination, and practical expertise. Yes, all white and male. But magnificent nonetheless. Where is the like of this photo to be shot today? [BTW, I showed this photo to my 18-year-old son, who asked "How did they get that three-D effect back then?"] Assorted HatsInteresting assortment of hats. Apparently social mores required the wearing of a hat, but it made no difference what it looked like! Hats!Best I can tell, everyone is wearing a hat. All the clothes, boots, and hats, etc. must be mostly handmade. What is that odd hammer that the fellow leaning on the wagon wheel is holding used for? I always wonder the age of the oldest person, maybe someone in this photo was born in the 18th century! Best Dressed TrimmerThe fellow in the dapper Wyatt Earp style clothing has outdone them all with his velvet tapestry vest, gold watch fob, jaunty Derby and male model stance (slightly right of center, below the "M" and "I" in the sign). His clothes are not new, they've seen lots of service and could use a "clean and press" but he's well put-together and had elegant taste. Perhaps he was a salesman or advertising rep as he makes a good first impression. Vastly More ConveniencesThe craftsmen in the first row are straddling specialized tools. Are there any leather or canvas workers who could shed light on their purpose and function? Stoddart's Encyclopaedia Americana, 1883 The materials used in trimming carriages are leather, rubber, metals, and cloth. The art of carriage-trimming consists in fitting the top or hood; upholstering the seats; covering the wooden and iron portions of the tops with leather, rubber, and cloth; making the dash-boards, lamps, whip-sockets, cushions; and, in short, decorating and finishing the interior and all the parts not painted or varnished. There is field in this work for the display of considerable artistic skill, and in this respect the work of American shops appears to be fully equal to anything seen in Europe. At the same time, American carriage trimmings and fittings show a greater variety and more freedom in decoration, with vastly more conveniences, than English or French work of the same class. Nickel- and silver-plating is much used in American trimming to protect metallic surfaces exposed to much wear. Bench viseThe four sawhorse looking things in the front row are harness makers' vises (also known as saddle maker's vises when used for that purpose). The harness maker presses his right foot down on the lever and the jaws clamp the piece of leather, freeing up both hands so that he can sew or trim. Here's an older one: The fellow on the right with his arm propped on the wagon wheel is holding a saddle maker’s hammer, used for driving tacks in very hard to reach places. Jumping two places to his right, there is a short fellow with canvass over his arm who is holding canvass shears, while the chap above him seems to wield leather shears. The watch chain wearing man in-between the two vises on our right is holding a straight edge rule and a harness maker’s/saddlers’ draw-gauge – used for cutting out lengths of leather for straps, belts, reins, etc. The fellow over his right shoulder holding the gutta-percha tarp must make the waterproof covers that top the canvass as seen on the wagon to our left. His hand rests on the shoulder of a guy pointing his round knife right at the camera. The man with the striped tie and leather cap sitting above our left-most vise is holding another harness maker’s/saddler’s round knife so that we can see the shape of the blade. The man standing to his right has a coach trimmer’s hammer. I’m not positive, but the fellow sitting on the wheel to our left looks to be holding a screw-crease. That is an adjustable tool that is heated and used to etch a line along the edge of a harness strap to help to seal in the fibers. The wagons themselves are Rucker style Army ambulances, designed by Brigadier General D. H. Rucker. They were introduced in the latter part of the Civil War and could carry patients in either sitting or prone positions. This model proved to be the most serviceable of nearly a dozen or so designs that were in the field at that time. All of the Rucker style ambulances were built at the Government Repair Shops at Washington, of which the Trimming Shop was part. The odd hammerI believe that is a tack hammer for setting carpet and upholstery tacks. Army ArchitectureLong, white, two story wooden frame structure with lots of windows. Looks like what would become the standard US Army barracks buildings of World War 1 and WW2 fame. Representative of the population.A little perplexed at the comment about all white men. No black men here , but then a war was going on to set that race free. Perhaps a little early for the diversity police. As far as no women in this particular work place, society as a whole has some evolving to do first. I wonder if 150 years in the future when, for all we know, vegetarianism is universal, if the Shorpy postings on page 65,914 will contain remarks about photos of a little league team at McDonalds: "Cute little guys, too bad they are all participating in the slaughter and consumption of bovine brothers." (The Gallery, Civil War, NYC)
The Woman in His House: 1920
... Footwear" housed a carryout which featured the "bone fish sandwich," a big piece of fried fish, complete with bones, on a bun. Superproduction Premier ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/21/2012 - 7:51pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. "Crowds at Metropolitan Theatre, F Street N.W." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Lotta LookingI see Lotta Miles, the Kelly Springfield Tires lady, looking over the scene. Block is much the same todayFrom what I can see on Google maps, the theater is the only building that is gone on that block The other buildings look pretty much the same today as they did then. View Larger Map Personal appearanceMildred Harris Chaplin, the star of "The Woman in His House," made a personal appearance at the Metropolitan, which probably explains the crowd. Atlantic BuildingThe Atlantic Building, to the left of the theater, was a hotbed of music and art in the 1980s. "The Bootery Footwear" housed a carryout which featured the "bone fish sandwich," a big piece of fried fish, complete with bones, on a bun. Superproduction Premier Washington Post, October 10, 1920. At the Picture Houses. Metropolitan — "The Woman in His House." An event of particular importance in the picture world will be the first showing on any screen of Louis B. Mayer's superproduction, "The Woman in His House," at Crandall's Metropolitan for the entire week. An all-star cast headed by Mildred Harris Chaplin appears in the picture which is said to surpass the "Miracle Man" in heart appeal and has already been booked into a production house in Broadway where it will be shown at $2 prices. Lotta TalentThe young lady in the Kelly-Springfield ad is Miss Norma Shearer. It is ironic that the theater is showing a Louis B. Mayer film. In a few years Miss Shearer would become one of the superstars of MGM pictures. She would also marry Mayer's nephew Irving Thalberg. An article about the theatreAn article on the theatre: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/7629 Not REALLY Still ThereFor better or for worse, these buildings remain as facades only. A clever compromise has been reached in DC that allows developers to construct modern office space that incorporates the facades of legacy structures such as these. No minced words for Mr. MintzIn the 1922 guide book “Historical Self-Guide of Washington The Heart of the Nation. Arlington and Mt. Vernon. A Liberal Education for the Sight-seer" its ads included “‘Mintz the Trunk Man, agent for Indestructo Custom Made Trunks’, who mixed low commerce with patriotic reverence and promised ‘IMMEDIATE repairs to your trunk or leather bag’ located ‘just around the corner from Ford’s Theatre where President Lincoln was shot’”. Along with trunks and suitcases he offered traveling bags "for the missionary, and leather novelties". Probably better not to question the juxtaposition of missionary and leather novelties. 930 F St NWHunh. 930 F St NW, next door to the theater, was the old home of the 930 Club, a well-known alternative-music venue where I saw many a band back in the 1980s. I think Nirvana was the last band I saw there, with Loop opening up. If you can imagine Nirvana in that tiny front room; yeah. It's no mystery where my hearing went. (The Gallery, D.C., Movies, Natl Photo)
The Onionator: 1965
... onion who's boss. Other ingredients include two eggs and a fish. Medium format negative from the News Photo Archive. View full size. ... wash a tablecloth. Dave - you clever dog The only fish visible is the jewelry pin on the young lady's sweater - I think. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/26/2015 - 1:40pm -

From Chicago circa 1965 comes this uncaptioned snap of a lady in a kitchen showing an onion who's boss. Other ingredients include two eggs and a fish. Medium format negative from the News Photo Archive. View full size. Fuzzy LogicThe photographer has cleverly kept viewer's attention focused on the mid-ground by selecting a "depth of field" the put the background in soft focus. (Often done by selecting a large aperture.) On the upper cabinet to the right of the sink, there's a wooden knife rack with an manufacturer's escutcheon. We can't read it because of the soft focus, but the shape suggests that these might be "Flint" brand knives with their arrowhead-shaped trademark. The soft focus also makes it a challenge to identify the range. [Caloric. - Dave] Wrong way Onionator?Isn't she using the slicing gadget the wrong way? I use my sideways from that and use the prongs as a guide to make even slices. Onionator?That's the way my grandmother (and my mom for that matter) used it. But hey, if that's the way your onion is sliced you go for it! Back thenDid Women usually prepare a meal on a tablecloth? Seems to me it's easier to clean the table then wash a tablecloth. Dave - you clever dogThe only fish visible is the jewelry pin on the young lady's sweater - I think. Caloric 75 Range"Live modern for less ... with GAS!" [This is definitely the same range, but the date on the video is off by a decade. The Caloric 75 was introduced in 1964. - Dave] I thought as much. Happy Holidays! And not a tear in sight from this attractive young lady, whose clothes and hairstyle epitomise the 1960s. All I Want for Christmas Is a MandolineNot the stringed instrument, the slicer. Beautiful LadiesAlthough a woman's hair was anything but soft to the touch back then, due to the heavy hair spray, women sure were beautiful. Of course, my being 18 years old at the time may have clouded my perception. Those double ovensWe lived in a Southern California neighborhood, 1978-1984, where all of the houses had been originally equipped with this style of double-oven range, and most of them were still so-equipped. The glass-fronted upper oven (not a microwave) was used for most regular baking, and many families used the lower oven only for holiday occasions. There were several homes still occupied by the original owners, and one of them told my mother a story about the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. This woman had baked a cake the day before, and set it on top of the fridge in a Tupperware cake keeper. When the excitement of the quake had died down, she looked for the cake, couldn't find it anywhere, and eventually gave up. She had completely forgotten about it when she pre-heated the oven on Thanksgiving, and smelled burning plastic. Evidently the seismic activity had opened the oven door, flung the cake keeper across the room, and then the door closed again. The ranges were Gaffers & Sattler, a make marketed only in California, so far as I am aware. (The Gallery, Chicago, Kitchens etc., News Photo Archive)
No They're There: 1938
... When Catholic Fridays used to be meatless and if we had no fish, we always looked forward to these for dinner but it meant lots of work ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/28/2013 - 10:35am -

August 1938. "Refreshment stand at county fair, central Ohio." Photo by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Geez, thanks a lot, Shorpy.Where am I going to find latkes in a Midwestern town at 7:30 on Monday evening? Try try againThere, their, They're! FinallyThe source of our confusion has been pinpointed. A County Fair in Ohio, eh; would have never guessed that in a million years. You Say PotatoeSome of the best latkes I've ever had were made by people whose English was not up to college standard: my Grandma, for example. Lotkiz ShmatkizThe good news is there is no correlation between literacy and cooking skill. It took a second or two before I realized the items for sale are more commonly known as latkes. Since the word is a transliteration from Yiddish, "lotkiz" may be a less conventional spelling in Roman letters but it's not wrong. You just won't find it in anyone's style book. SoooWas Dan Quayle right about the spelling of a certain vegetable after all? Lotkiz?At least they spelled the price right. "Uh oh""Grammar Police. Let me do the talking." Potato pancakes, yumHash browns and that patatoey thing that comes on the side with your Egg McMuffin are cousins of the Latke, which is the current preferred spelling. The true Latke may at least include some eggs, onions, and of course a goodly dose of oil. Compares favorably with Christmas cookies as a seasonal feel good but somewhat deadly treat. Here in New Mexico we became Latke aware via the exceptionally tasty green chile variety served at the local Hanukkah Festival sometime around late November through December. They are themI'm guessing they are (them) potato latkes served during Hanukkah in Jewish homes but almost all nationalities have a similar version, especially the Eastern Europeans, no matter what their religion. They are unbelievably delicious but somewhat labor intensive. When Catholic Fridays used to be meatless and if we had no fish, we always looked forward to these for dinner but it meant lots of work for Mom having to hand grate a ton of potatoes, drain them, chop onions, add eggs and flour (or matzo meal) and fry them in hot oil. The seven of us would eat them as fast as she could cook them. The Jewish latkes symbolize the miraculous single small container of oil that lasted 8 days. Their outstanding taste and texture is not quite like any other potato dish. By the way, that USED to be the archaic way "potatoe" was spelled in the olden days, even though Dan Quayle is still ridiculed mercilessly and forever when he added the 'e'. Great Sign!I find it interesting that, although the grammar and spelling leave a lot to be desired, someone did a great job painting that sign! I wish I could go into the picture, walk up and say hello, give them a nickel and be in Heaven for as long as I was eating it! Slice of life! Nobody does it better than 'Shorpy' for transforming us into another realistic time and place. 'Shorpy' is like stepping into a time-machine, whisking us away from the worries of the day. Provoking thoughts, memories and insight we seldom touch upon during our busy modern daily lives. Thank you! In Grandma's KitchenThis great photo was made by Ben Shahn caused possibly by a momentary flashback to a time gone by all too quickly. How about the fonts?I see three different fonts in one advertisement. We definitely need the Font Police to backup the Spelling Police! Whatta ya want for 5 cents!They are hot, they are good--there now, no contentious contractions. (And they are latkes; yummmmm.) I expect the small business kids were aided by older kids who will get better at graphic arts and spelling. All look to have a good start. Makes No Never MindFonts, spelling, grammar? None of it really matters all that much. What is important is that these young women actively participated in a (somewhat) large community event and communicated their participation perfectly. What a miserable language English would be were it not for misspellings, misunderstandings, dialects, derivations, deviations and perhaps most important it's its global use among all classes. Presently I shall take my colouring book and return to my house -- home -- hovel -- whatever, where I shall have a discussion with Mr. Johnson (Johnston, Jones, Johns, Jonson, Joynson ... whatever). Recipe for your considerationMy mom and dad used to make these, so I thought I'd share their recipe: Several potatoes, peeled and mashed Onion (green preferably, but not required) salt pepper to taste Two eggs half a cup of flour. Mix all together in a bowl, adding the eggs, onion and salt and pepper. Slowly fold in the two eggs, and then add just enough flour to make it have a batter like consistency. Fry in hot oil till golden brown on both sides. We served them with a good amount of salt and pepper on them, but they can be eaten just as they are. (The Gallery, Ben Shahn)
Xmas Anonymous: 1928
... street lights, and toy people. Trees and a flag. Are there fish in that pond? Someone put a lot of time, work and creativity in that ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 10:40am -

Washington circa 1928. "Christmas tree. No caption information, title devised by library staff." Click here for a closeup of the train set, which has a duck pond and a birdbath. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Future FavoredThe traditional Christmas tree seems abandoned to the dazzle of the modern age. All eyes are on the streetlights glowing, paved roads for vehicles, and an electric fountain. Somewhere within that decorated hunk in the background is a modest pine accepting its fate as a has-been. Looks like the handyman in the family won out this year. Choices"Alice, I distinctly told you if you bought that 20 foot high birdbath we wouldn't have enough left over for a locomotive!" Beautiful!I wonder if this was something Daddy made and took down from the attic every Yule. I am thinking that is real fountain in the front, since the use of resin for water didn't happen for decades. Must ahve been lovely in the dark with all the tree and village lights glowing! [Click below to enlarge. - Dave] Whose is it?This house has a dad who either just out and out built the set for himself, or has used the baby boy as an excuse, or convinced his wife that a train set would make a great tree base -- "But honey, imagine how cute it will be to put the presents on the train"! Xmas sceneThat is a wonderful scene under the tree. Electric train, toy cars, streets, fountain, houses, electric street lights, and toy people. Trees and a flag. Are there fish in that pond? Someone put a lot of time, work and creativity in that scene. Not to mention that very busy tree. We don't often see girls posed with electric trains. Delicate SewingMy arthritic fingers are aching just looking at those scalloped hems on Big Sister's dress. [Maybe your fingers need bifocals! - Dave] Samtsirhc YrremThe blow-up of the fountain reveals backward writing on the Christmas tree stand. This photo needs a floppin'! [evaD - !thgir era uoy yllog yB] The ornamentsMy parents married in the early 1930s. On our trees in the mid 1930s through the 1950s were those exact same style of ornaments. Including the tree topper. (see tterrace's xmas trees.) High Risk RockingGee, can we charge the parents with child endangerment? That wee baby has no rocking chair seatbelt and no helmet. One wonders how kids survived their early years. Re: Samtsirhc YrremI'm a bit confused. If, as you stated (in reverse) that Tipster's observation about the writing is correct, then why is the lettering on the label of the tree's base legible? What are you both looking at? [The lettering was backward. Then I flipped the photo. - Dave] Merry Hiccup!I especially like the two figures lying against the porch of the bungalow under the tree. Been into the eggnog, you think? Golden SubThe little toy car in the foreground looks like the 1917 Miller Golden Submarine driven by Barney Oldfield. The trainIt's a Mojave Lionel 253 loco with two 610 passenger cars missing the 612 observation car. There is also a Lionel 184 Bungalow next to the train. (The Gallery, Christmas, D.C., Kids, Natl Photo)
Suitcase Wireless: 1924
... a wonderful ad somewhere showing two guys camping, with fish in the pan, "listening to the big game". The tubes are encased in beeswax ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/09/2012 - 3:18pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1924. "Brent Daniel, formerly of the Radio Laboratory of the Bureau of Standards at Washington, with the first portable Super-Heterodyne, his own design. The seven vacuum tubes, batteries, loop antenna, loudspeaker and other necessary units are completely self-contained in the carrying case. He has been able to hear Pacific Coast stations from this outfit." View full size. BatteriesThe batteries on the right power the low voltage high current filaments, probably 6v in parallel; the batteries on the left supply probably 48v each in series for a jolting 144 volts for plate current. Keep your fingers out. Batteries were the problem; they're heavy, expensive and costly to replace, which they are often. If you can't pick up anything, you can at least keep yourself warm from the heat it throws off. [The 15-cell batteries on the left are 22.5 volts each, or 1.5V per cell. "Heavy Duty 6" on the right are labeled 1.5 volts (per cell, I guess). - Dave] The ultimate in portabilityIt's the size of a Breadbox and only weighs fifty pounds! You just know he was thinking that they'll never get any smaller than this! The latest technology..."Transistors Under Glass" Portable, all rightIf you have a dolly! And thirty years later.It came down to this size. This is the first commercial transistor radio sold in 1954 by Regency. I remember listening to many a Giants game one those transistors. I wasn't around for the one in the main photo. ReflectionsI love it when one of these old photos contains a reflective surface that provides a bit of unintentional insight into the background. In this case, each of the silvery tubes tells a slightly different story - depending on which one you look at, you can see the subject's hands, legs, and feet, the camera and a bit of the photographer, the large window that runs the length of the studio, some sort of lamp that's projecting a halo of light onto the ceiling, various bits of furniture and shelving, and if I'm not mistaken, part of the (adjoining?) building outside the window. At least we can figure it out!Unlike an iPod, at least the components are somewhat easy to understand. Wonder what he would think of an iPod? Complete in Itself Washington Post, July 15, 1923. Make Successful Test of Portable Suitcase Radio Set Local Enthusiasts Get Clear Reception With Type Built by Brent Daniel Various types of portable radio receiving sets have appeared from time to time in the last few months. While taking different forms, all the sets require either an external coil aerial or overhead antenna when in use, thus limiting their use to stationary installations or specially equipped conveyances. A Washington manufacturer recently has standardized a design of portable receiving set which is complete in itself. The entire outfit, including all the batteries and coil aerial, is contained in a medium-sized light-weight suitcase. This portable receiver is ready for important use at any time by merely closing the switch which lights the filaments of the six UV199 vacuum tubes used in the radio audio amplifier receiver. This amplifier employs three stages of DX-12 radio frequency transformers, detector and two audio stages. The same type instrument in nonportable form has been used repeatedly in the reception of transcontinental radiophone signals by employing a three-foot square coil aerial. The builder of this portable set, Brent Daniel, recently made a series of tests to determine the practicability of its use in an automobile in motion, and in general outdoor reception. WCAP, the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone station, was tuned in when the set was located on the fourth floor of an office building. Leaving the set in operation with the musical program from the broadcasting station coming in clear and loud, the set was carried downstairs and placed in an automobile without once interrupting the reception. When the car started off, the ignition spark was quite audible with the set placed near the bed of the machine, however, by placing it in different positions, the spark was not audible. … These tests, and the reception accomplished later with this portable set demonstrated its scope of usefulness in the hands of the auto-tourist or vacationist. With a high-class broadcasting station within a few hundred miles range, the user of such a set is assured of entertainment, regardless of his location. … The outstanding feature of this portable receiver is that when the summer season is over and a radio set is wanted for the home during the winter, it is only necessary to remove the amplifier receiver unit from the portable case and place it in the regular mahogany case which is furnished for indoor use. The superheterodyne receiverThe superheterodyne receiver and FM radio were both invented by Edwin Armstrong, generally acknowledged the greatest American radio engineer. A Signal Corps officer in WWI, he gave his patents to the US government during both WWI and WWII. FM radio contributed to Allied victory in WWII since it provided communications when AM did not. Armstrong lost a years-long patent fight with RCA and committed suicide in 1954. His wife continued the fight and eventually won the FM patents from RCA. Armstrong's life is documented in the book and Ken Burns' film "Empire of the Air". SuperheterodyneThe big word "superheterodyne" means that this radio was quite advanced over the common tuned radio frequency (TRF) radio of the day. The fact that it has seven tubes and only two tuning knobs is unique among 1920s radios. Later, the two tuning knobs were put on a common shaft, allowing the single knob we're used to. The trick used in this model is that it converts the station's frequency to a lower intermediate frequency that's the same no matter which station you're listening to, and amplifies the weak signal using an amplifier that's factory-tuned to that one frequency, instead of requiring the listener to tune several amplifier stages to the station's frequency. Hence the need for fewer tuning knobs. By 1935, after the patent mess got sorted out, this type of radio completely replaced the TRF radio that Atwater Kent made a fortune from. It later became known as the All-American five tube radio, after the bean counters whittled every last penny from the design in the late thirties. Ultimate geekHe's even got his pocket pen protector! This must have been very advanced for 1924. Dry Cell BatteriesZinc-carbon chemistry gives 1.5 volts per cell, so all batteries made up from them in series will be multiples of that. The "A" battery was for the filaments, "B" for the high plate voltage (often 90V), and "C" for the grid circuits of the vacuum tubes (often 67.5V, so three of those 22.5 bats in this - four would give the 90V). The UV-199s (triodes) in it have 3V filaments, drawing 0.06 amp each. Larger current capacity is achieved by using cell electrodes with more surface area (so larger and heavier cells) or by connecting smaller cells/bats in parallel. On those large "Twin Cells" on the right their terminals are marked "carbon +" and "zinc -". Burgess has an interesting history with its distinctive "zebra striped" product. Zenith TransoceanicThe largest radio I sold was the Zenith Transoceanic Radio. Zenith produced this shortwave radio that could be powered by AC or batteries . It was first produced in 1942 and continued to be made until 1981. In 1960 it sold with the batteries for about $160, figuring the average U.S. wage at the time at about $4000, it cost about 2 weeks pay. It weighed in excess of 25 lbs. Not the only portableI happen to be the owner of a RCA Radiola AR-812, which is considered the first commercially produced superhet, and, which was considered a portable radio. Production began in 1924, and the radio sold for the bargain price of $220! It's an enormous thing, one foot high by one foot deep by three feet wide, with a mahogany veneer. I have a wonderful ad somewhere showing two guys camping, with fish in the pan, "listening to the big game". The tubes are encased in beeswax to protect them during transport. This feller's is a homebrew model. To understand the importance of the superhetrodyne technology, one must realize that there were several competing systems vying for dominance when the superhet came out. Today, if you have a radio, it's a superhet, period. Many of the facets of radio we take as given today were not yet common when these radios were being built. For example, the mHz system was not yet adapted, so every single knob on the radio scales from 0-100. Volume knobs, tuning knobs, everything. Gotta love it. [Spelling note: heterodyne, not "hetrodyne." - Dave] (Technology, The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing)
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