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Bus Stop: 1938
... stepping out from the shop on the left; he looks like a fish out of water. Public Service Coincidentally in the foreground of ... 
 
Posted by John.Debold - 01/23/2017 - 4:28pm -

One of a half-dozen bus-related photos I got at a flea market about 20 years ago. This is somewhere in the Essex County, New Jersey area and is dated July 31, 1938 on the back. View full size.
Natty dresserthe guy in white stepping out from the shop on the left; he looks like a fish out of water.  
Public ServiceCoincidentally in the foreground of the Aussie's Google street view is a PSE&G van.  Public Service Electric & Gas is part of the same organization as Public Service Coordinated Transport once was.
Grade CrossingI can't offhand think where a RR grade crossing would be in Essex County.  The Lackawanna was all bridges.
I've seen that style of bus running in Summit, but that's Union Country.
Charter!For what I wonder. Was there something happening in the town on that day. Wonderful picture full of intent on the peoples faces.
Charter BusesYou can see on the middle bus that it's designated charter rather than a destination.  I suspect these folks are going to some sort of event rather than boarding the bus to go shopping or to work.  
Where were they going?This is my favorite kind of picture, because it shows a moment in the lives of a group of people. I wonder where those getting on the bus were going, that day, and what the rest were doing, too. In this case, I wonder what they were doing, three years later, when they heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor, who served in the military, and what sacrifices were made by others, who remained at home. 
"If we stand here long enough""Marilyn's bound to show up eventually"
What's happening?A fascinating and vaguely disconcerting photograph. Everyone whose face is visible seems concerned, almost alarmed, about something.
Yellow Coaches?Very interesting pic. If Mr. Debold has more of buses I hope he can post them. I'm a historic bus fan and those buses look like NYC Yellow Coach model 740s. Several NYC transit lines used them. Yellow later became GM Truck & Coach Div.
Aussie finds location in 1 minute80 Franklin St
Belleville, New Jersey

It's a Light Rail LineThe photo is rich in details:  That guy with the apron and the spiffy shoes & socks is a tavern keeper. One can make out parts of T-A-V-E on the folded awning. What self-respecting tavern of that era would not have a Bell System pay telephone? Note also the round cover in the sidewalk close to the buildings. It's a coal chute to the basement.
Why everyone seems sort of "intense" is a good question to ponder.  There's no military draft at the date of this photo, so they are not "seeing off" draftees.  On the other hand, they might well be "seeing off" volunteer enlistees. The trouble with that theory is that some of the women have luggage! 
That RR is currently a Light Rail line known as "Newark City Subway", as it originates in a tunnel below Newark Penn Station and follows a subterranean right-of-way until it gets out of the heart of the City of Newark.
There is an obvious "dogleg" in the street in the photo. There are two doglegs in Franklin St, Belleville, NJ one of each side of the crossing! Our "Aussie" Shorpy Sleuth may indeed be correct that it is #80 Franklin. The other possibility is about #94 Franklin, looking the other way.  There's a storefront with an inset doorway at about that address.

740 minus 9leebon is oh, so close.  The buses are 1936 Yellow Coach Series 4 Model 731s.  Four series of Model 731s were built in 1935-36, all powered by a 450ci GM 6-cylinder engine, and three more series (Series 5, 5A, and 6) of the same look continued on in the Model 732 from 1936-39—the Series 5A and 6 powered by a 529ci engine.
The operator is Public Service Coordinated Transport of New Jersey, and the logo on the front of the bus can be seen in the 1940 ad for a Yellow Coach Model TDE 4001 (Transit, Diesel Electric) below.
Have to love the socks and shoes on the fellow standing in the doorway holding the newspaper.
It's nice to meet another historic bus fan (leebon that is, not the fellow with the socks).
Grade CrossingThe railroad crossing at grade in the 1938 image was the Erie Railroad's Orange branch, which eventually became part of Norfolk Southern.  The right-of-way is now shared with the Bloomfield extension of the Newark City Subway light rail line.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)

Sunrise, Sunset: 1940
... living on Lebanon Road, with the occupation of "Fish Peddler." I'd bet decent money that Benjamin and Sam are the Goldman and ... vegetables, Hires Root Beer, Royal Crown Cola, and fresh fish) make them Jewish? If the owners were named Rossi and Mangioni, would ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/10/2015 - 6:46pm -

November 1940. "Jewish stores in Colchester, Connecticut." R. Goldman, grocer, and S. Kalmonwitz, fishmonger. 35mm negative by Jack Delano. View full size.
Then & NowIn the same photo!

1940 US CensusThere is a Rose Kalmonowiz living with/renting to a Benjamin and Rebecca Goldman; they both lived at 45 Lebanon Avenue.  Benjamin's occupation is listed as a Grocer. Going back a decade to 1930, there is a Sam (or possibly Siam) Kalmanowitz living on Lebanon Road, with the occupation of "Fish Peddler." I'd bet decent money that Benjamin and Sam are the Goldman and Kalmaowitz from this photo.
Where's Tevye?Transliterate the Roman characters to Cyrillic, and this could be a scene from a typical Eastern European shtetl around the time of the Black Hundreds' atrocities, dirt streets and all.
Jewish stores?I am puzzled as to why the caption references the stores as "Jewish". Selling groceries (Coca Cola, Salada tea, tobacco products, fresh vegetables, Hires Root Beer, Royal Crown Cola, and fresh fish) make them Jewish? If the owners were named Rossi and Mangioni, would these , then, be "Catholic stores"?
[The photos in the Library of Congress FSA/OWI Collection come from several federal government projects whose purposes included documenting as well as publicizing the country's ethnic and cultural diversity. Overseas propaganda value was among the considerations, especially as war loomed. The captions and descriptions originally appended to the photos therefore recorded such information when it was relevant. -tterrace]
It's sunsetIt would actually be sunset given the position of the shadows and the house.
[Sunrise, Sunset. -tterrace]
Jewish farmersIn the early 20th century, the Jewish Agricultural Society in New York began an effort to establish agricultural settlements in and around Colchester, Lebanon, and Montville, Connecticut. Some of the transplants rapidly moved on to other businesses. It appears Delano (incidentally, himself a Jew) was recording this next step.  A good article on the topic is here.
Re: Jewish farmersIn Canada, all immigrants were given a crack at free land via the Dominion Lands Act of 1872, the purpose of which was to populate the Prairies (as well as to prevent the land from being claimed by the neighbors to the south).  For a $10 administrative fee, the immigrant would get 160 acres (a quarter-section) of free land, provided he cultivated at least 40 acres and built a permanent dwelling within three years.  Many of my ancestors were lured west with this offer but ended up in small towns as shopkeepers or in cities as urban workers.
The intriguing magazine cover (below) is taken from the article Manalto links to.
(The Gallery, Jack Delano, Rural America, Stores & Markets)

Edna and Olga: 1925
... and then, but you could never get the stink of worms and fish out of the bilge. (The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, D.C.) ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/01/2011 - 12:39pm -

May 6, 1925. Washington, D.C. "Miss Edna Rush & Miss Olga Joy." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
DepthThere looks to be only six inches of water, hope they were able to catch something besides our eyes!
Fishing in PearlsMust be a high class fishing hole,  they're both wearing pearls.  They must be asking themselves "Do I have to put my feet in that mucky water?"
Rush to Joynothing more to add.
The fishing hole is most likely the C&O canalThe steep rocky banks are a giveaway. Although there is a building in the background, of which there are very few. It looks like it was partially drained at the time. 
Edna!Miss Edna Rush was a popular nightclub and vaudeville entertainer who at one time had her own radio show. In 1945 she married actor James Dunn (an Oscar winner for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn").
Musty monikersI always find it interesting the way names, like clothing and so many other things, go out of style. I can't say I've heard of too many Ednas or Olgas nowadays. 
Here's a list of some old-fashioned names to give some examples of what I mean (though interestingly, neither Edna nor Olga are on it... lol).
Ogling Olga!Not so much really, but couldn't resist using one form of the word ogle. 
Crude BoatIn this self-consciously rustic scene the boat is self-consciously crude too -- no ribs, thwarts resting on a stringer with no knees or gussets securing it to the hull, oarlocks on blocks through bolted with huge unsightly bolts to the sheer strake, itself held on by staples (probably the joint is not watertight), and the area below that shows no seams.  It couldn't be plywood in that period, could it? But that's what it looks like.  If we could see all of it, it might well be a pram (square in the bow as well as the stern where Edna, or is it Olga, is fishing.)
Which leads me to wonder where they got such a craft in the (even then) fairly refined nation's capital.
[The craft is a small river punt. - Dave]
"Oprah...Uma. Uma...Oprah"Edna...Olga. Olga...Edna.
Rememberwhen fishing was sexy?
Whither Progress It's depressing to note that wooden row boats are now found only in maritime museums or wealthy collectors storage sheds. Those clunky, heavy and slow handmade half-crates were pretty much indestructible, as long as you hauled them out now and then, but you could never get the stink of worms and fish out of the bilge.
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, D.C.)

Coke Break: 1941
... came into camp from the jungle, carrying a nice string of fish. Dad asked him, "What bait did you use?" Reply, in a southern drawl, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/05/2019 - 1:45pm -

May 1941. "Workmen from the nearby Dupont powder plant in a cafe in Childersburg, Alabama." Acetate negative by Jack Delano. View full size.
Guy on the rightEating the ice cream cone. It's a two scoop cone. Our little ice cream shop in the 50's would place a slice of Neapolitan ice cream in the cone and call it a skyscraper. 10 cents a cone.  
Forget the Coke Break!I'm with the guy on the right--he's having an ice cream break!
Better yet, put that ice cream in your Coke and have a Coke float!  
Mmmmm. Pie!Looks like six or seven different kinds of pie, and a bunch of different cigars on the display in the back. Don't know my cigar boxes, but I bet there's someone out there who can. 
Dare I Hope ... ... that this is The Dinette?
Coca-Cola Warning!In my country (Poland) in the early 1950s, official communist propaganda tweeted that coca cola dissolves human brains.
Under the CounterAre empty bottles ready to be returned and refilled, proving that you an get a round peg in a square hole.
Henry Fonda - front right!It’s not often that a photographer serendipitously captures a movie legend, like Henry Fonda, while taking  “man on the street” photos. And if you say “That’s not Henry Fonda,” I will say, how do you know ... were you there?
Powder plantMy father worked in that powder plant during WWII. I still have his W-2 forms for that time. Said it was extremely hot work, since they had to wear woolen outerwear to keep the powder off their skin.
Just The Necessities Pack of smokes, a Coke, rack of sunglasses on offer and grab a box of cigars. Plus an ice cream cone.
What more does one really need in Childersburg, Alabama?
Dupont!A few years later, my dad was in the South Pacific, building airstrips. One afternoon, a sailor came into camp from the jungle, carrying a nice string of fish.
Dad asked him, "What bait did you use?"
Reply, in a southern drawl, "Dupont!"
"Ladies and Gents"I bet in 1941 Coke and Lucky Strike were the No. 1 smoke and drink combo enjoyed by men and women alike. If that is a Lucky Strike pack on the counter, in 1942 it would be white in color, as Lucky Strike green went to war.
Fonda ice creamPeter Fonda appears to be enjoying his cone.
Smokleless PowderI used to work with a man who worked at a DuPont smokeless powder plant (later to be tapped by DuPont to go work at a super secret facility making slightly more explosive stuff; namely, plutonium).  He said that DuPont was so strict about safety that everyone was searched for matches or lighters every day before entering the plant.  You got one warning if you were caught with anything that could produce a flame.  If it happened again, you were fired on the spot.
I have a notionOr several, actually.  Adjacent to the register are displays of cigars, sunglasses, and other impulse items geared to extract that extra bit of cash from the pockets of men whose wages after a long depression must seem unbelievably ample to them.
"Hey, Bob!  Grab me a packet of Sen-Sens, would ya?  I've got a hot date tonight with Bertha from Accounting."
Light the FuseImagine how busy these guys will be in seven months. I imagine prewar production of gunpowder was already high by May, 1941, but much less than demand after 12/7/41. 
Some observations: 
1. Somebody tell the guy at the far end of the counter - NO SMOKING in a gunpowder factory! I suppose they couldn't even take a book of matches into the factory. 
2. I have the same sugar bowl as the one on the counter next to the napkins. Green stripes. Very heavy - commercial "diner ware". I picked it up at a junk shop a long time ago - we use it as a salt cellar to hold that fancy pink cooking salt on the stove. It just tastes saltier, amiright?
3. I also had several pairs (may still have some) of the round, clip-on sunglasses from my bohemian, fashion-backwards, pre-wife, junk-shop phase. I think I bought a whole card of them at an entirely different junk shop. I gave some away, broke the clips on others. I used to wear them on prescription glasses that weren't quite the same shape. Looked extremely goofy, I'm told. Wife fixed the fashion goofy; ophthalmologist fixed my eyes. I'm in a better place.
Goober Pea
P.S. I received a very nice postcard from Team Shorpy this week thanking me for my Patreon contribution. I encourage all of you who derive pleasure from noodling through these photographs to chip in what you can to keep the site going. Easy to do. Link on the left side of the home page.
(The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, Jack Delano)

This Is Florida: 1955
... Wigwam Village, Orlando." Featuring Tile Baths and All the Fish. 35mm Kodachrome from the Look magazine assignment "What Is Florida?" ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/27/2019 - 3:30pm -

December 1955. "Motel Wigwam Village, Orlando." Featuring Tile Baths and All the Fish. 35mm Kodachrome from the Look magazine assignment "What Is Florida?" View full size.
Conical ConstancyApparently these were all over the place. I wonder if you could collect Wigwam Weward points.  
Demolished February 14, 1973. 
You just don't see those anymoreThe free-standing enclosed phone booth, that is.
Dad believed in AAA wholeheartedlyAll our family car trips in the 1950s kept us kids with our eyes peeled  for the AAA sign on tourist cabins and motels. I wish I was there with you now. It was a sweet simpler time with us turning the pages of our AAA TripTik, Mom navigating and Dad driving our 1953 Plymouth.
This postcard looks exactly like one of our stops on the way to Williamsburg, Va. It was our family out in the world -- strange foods, strange soap, coin-operated radios in the motels.
George Washington Slept HereWell maybe George Washington didn't, but I did.   
As a 10-year-old who loved anything cowboys and Indians, I bugged my parents repeatedly to stay in this motor court when we visited my granddad every year in Orlando.
My folks finally relented and we stayed there.  After a few days of slanted walls, bad wood paneling, and antique crappy hotel furniture, my parents said "Never again," and moved us on to a "name" hotel.
Ceci n'est pas un wigwamThose are teepees, not wigwams.
The walls are closing inThe Wigwam Motel on Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona is very much alive and well. I stayed in unit number one several years ago. I just wish I had brought my Roy Rogers pajamas to complete the time machine illusion.
Long gone -- but the Internet remembersOther cool pictures of this motel (including pictures of it being built) are here.
http://orlandomemory.info/places/wigwam-village-motel/
It's interesting Look thought these emblematic of Florida, since the guy who came up with this lived in Kentucky, and franchised the concept.
C'mon Carl --at least they're fireproof.
Open at the Top"Air Conditioned" Wigwams, or so the sign says! What'll they think of next?
InspirationFor the Cozy Cone Motel in Pixar's film "Cars"
Cabins and MotelsWhen I was about ten (66 years ago!), when we traveled we never stayed at a motel until my mother went into it to see how clean it was, and if she decided we could stay she always Lysoled the toilet before we used it.
(Kodachromes, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Florida, LOOK, Native Americans)

Cafeteria Cuisine: 1943
... meat and veggies on the menu. Every Friday was limp fish sticks to appease the Catholics. Wow, I was always thankful when my mom ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2014 - 9:57am -

May 1943. "Keysville, Virginia. Randolph Henry High School cafeteria. Typical lunch for 15 cents: candied yams, macaroni and cheese, fruit salad, deviled eggs, dessert and milk. Milk is free and children can have as much as they want." Photo by Philip Bonn for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Two Bits for a Barber....Looks like she paid for her lunch with a Barber quarter.  Traded a shave and a haircut for lunch and some change. Of course, it might be a Barber half, kinda hard to tell.
[It's a half; compare to the size of the Liberty Walking half on the dollar bill in the tray and that to the Standing Liberty quarter (flying eagle up) in the left slot. -tterrace]
SilverThe dimes, quarters, and half-dollars are all silver, and that dollar bill is probably a silver certificate.
$0.15 = $2.07The inflation calculator calls $0.15 in 1943 $2.07 today.
Where's the BeefEntirely too healthy for my taste. In my day the school fed us nice greasy sloppy joes every day. Or at least it seemed like every day.
The RingGoing steady with a senior?
No Fine DiningFrom 1955 to sometime in the early 60's I remember paying a quarter for a school lunch.  Milk was 2 or 3 cents, maybe it was only if you wanted an extra one, I don't remember.  But here's the caveat - most of the food was really, really, lousy.  The occasional chocolate milk, ice cream, chili and cinnamon rolls were the the only things we liked.  You couldn't get an ice cream unless you ate ALL the rest of the slop they put on your tray.  The ballon armed cafeteria ladies would cook and steam the daylights out of any flavor left in the government surplus commodity meat and veggies on the menu.  Every Friday was limp fish sticks to appease the Catholics.  Wow, I was always thankful when my mom would make me a meal to take to school in my Zorro lunchbox.
Today's Currency...I wonder what would happen today if I walked into a fast food restaurant and handed the high school age order taker a 50 cent piece. Would they even know what it was. It has been a long time since I have seen one.
Phonograph Records?The rack full of phonograph records seen in the upper left hand corner seems out of place in such a setting--did they have music while they dined?  Perhaps the cafeteria doubles as a place for sock hops and dances at other times, like the later "cafetoriums"?
Missing meatIt went to the boys in uniform.
I'm younger, but --Things didn't change much by by the 60's. I remember paying for lunch ahead of time and getting tickets that were turned in to the school secretary who doubled as cashier. Meals were a quarter, milk was a nickel by that time. If I saw the menu for the week in time and saw something I didn't like, my mom would fix my lunch. This routine pretty much lasted through high school except for the cost increases. Some of the food was pretty gruesome, but I've never tasted anything to compare with the peanut butter/honey/corn syrup sandwiches and Alabama biscuits we got. You'd think you had died and gone to Heaven when you ate that. The spaghetti was good too. 
The records in the photo are probably a mixture of classical music, square dance music, audio for some slide projector or filmstrip lessons. Remember those? Teacher's Pet got to turn the knob on the projector when the commentator on the record said to or there was a beep. The cafeterias in our schools doubled (and still do in the elementaries) as gyms and event centers.
No meatAnother incredible photo that is worth more than a thousand words! I'll bet they rarely got meat for school lunch, in 1943.  Meat was heavily rationed. The items shown here are some of those that Americans had access to, during the war. We didn't go hungry, but did have to become more creative.  Jello was used extensively. I think that's fruit in the jello in that lettuce leaf, but there are other possibilities.  My dad remembers having to eat green jello with nothing but cabbage in it, that his aunt would bring home from her job at a college cafeteria.  The makers of Jello even suggested putting leftover bits of vegetables and meats from Sunday dinner into a Jello mold, made with one of their vegetable flavors, for Monday!  
Americans were actually very fortunate to have the food we did! The shortages and rationing that our allies had to live with was much, much more restrictive, and went on not only during the war, but for several years after it, too! 
Cafeteria FoodMy Junior High and High School had excellent lunches, "real" food and plenty of healthy choices even if you just wanted a sandwich, you could get a P & B. Maybe it was the cooks we had? By the time my kids were in Jr & High School the food was slop just like today. Darn I packed a lot of lunches.
CoinsMy eyes immediately went to the Flying Eagle and Walking liberty. Some nice silver there!
(The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, Education, Schools, Philip Bonn)

Good EAT Food: 1938
... much to pay for chitterlings. Especially if you can get a Fish Sandwich for a dime. Inscription on door What is the writing that ... from the boats at water Street SW. Now it's turned into a fish market. You buy from shops instead of right off the boat. I beg to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/17/2015 - 9:42pm -

January 1938. Washington, D.C. "Cafe on L Street." Where the only thing flakier than our delicious biscuits is the peeling paint! 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
Price Gouging25-cents is way too much to pay for chitterlings.  Especially if you can get a Fish Sandwich for a dime.
Inscription on doorWhat is the writing that appears on the door? It looks Arabic. 
[1841. And indeed, they are Arabic numerals! -Dave]
Questionable syntaxPut me immediately in mind of our trip to Kyoto, where we'd breakfast in a cafe called "Good Eat You".
We'd joke about putting in a reservation for Donner: "Donner, party of five . . . party of four . . . party of three . . . "
Making me hungryLiver & onions for a quarter??  Make it a double and add some mashed w/dark lumpy gravy and string beans.  I'll be back tomorrow for the fried chicken!
Panoramic viewA quick stitching and we get a better view of this old building full with character. 
Chincoteague oysters"1/2 dozen oysters 35 cents" ... nowadays a half-dozen Chincoteague oysters runs about $6.
This was probably L Street in SE Washington, about 200 feet from the Anacostia River.
When I was a kid my dad would stop by the wharf and buy fresh shucked oysters in big mason jars from the boats at water Street SW. Now it's turned into a fish market. You buy from shops instead of right off the boat.
I beg to differI respectfully disagree with MaltedFalcon on the location of this photo. I don't believe this can be in SE because, well, L St. SE doesn't run past 17th St. (and never has).
No, I think this has to be 1841 L St. NW. That seems to match the 1921 Baist atlas, which shows two frame structures with a narrow side yard to the east (which we see in the companion photo of the shoe store). Even though the photo above is from a later decade, it seems likely that the building in question has been there, slowly deteriorating, since well before 1921.
1957 Baist's Real Estate AtlasThe 1940 Boyd's City Directory shows 1841 L St. NW to be "Tate Louis restr", which would be a restaurant owned by Louis Tate.  Also there by the same name in the classified section.
Things were different by 1957, as shown by the Baist's Real Estate Atlas of that year.  Street address 1841 is now assigned to the buildings in lots 937 and 1038.  There's a gas station on the corner, with a building set back from the street, like the building with the "Independent" sign in the picture.
1845 L St. NW was a filling station in the 1940 Boyd's City Directory.
(The Gallery, D.C., Eateries & Bars, Russell Lee)

Larry's Beer Garden: 1934
... a fisherman aboard. Hopefully when the boat was full of fish the schooner would come back and find the fisherman. South and Fulton. ... was Sloppy Louie's. Just to the right was the Fulton Fish Market, and a few blocks farther, the Brooklyn Bridge. (The Gallery, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 1:59pm -

April 20, 1934. "New York. Fulton Market pier, view to Manhattan over East River." 4x5 inch nitrate negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.
South StreetAny idea of where that Manhattan neighborhood was? The buildings along the waterfront look like South Street, near Fulton or Peck Slip. I'll bet you could buy a cold Rhinegold, Trommer's, Ruppert, Schaeffer, Rupson & Horman, or even a Ballantine at Larry's. 
Strong manI don't believe I would want to tangle with the guy on the boat. Look at those thick wrists and forearms, likely from years of hard work.
On the Waterfront"I coulda been a contender ... now I'm just a bum who gets blotto every night at Larry's Beer Garden."  I knew guys like this, they worked very hard and had hearts of gold, would give the shirts off their backs, not at all the thugs fiction would have you believe, at least not the ones from the mid-20th century.  Today's longshoremen might be a different story as I am out of the loop. A wonderful photo.
Naturally"Larry's," like Duffy's Tavern, would be where "the elite meet" to share tales of the sea and Wall Street wizardry over a stein of beer. Seems logical, just a step away from the docks and near the City canyons.  Great photo.
Primo locationLarry's must've done a booming business with longshoremen coming in every day after work.  I wish there was a tavern in the lobby of my office building, but then I'd probably never go home.
Gloucester SchoonerHas no one recognized the classic lines of the fishing schooner alongside the pier at bottom left?  Visible are 2 nested dories on the starboard side, the tackles used to launch them immediately forward and aft, respectively, of the shrouds of the masts, the curved molding at the rail that marks the "great beam" where the deck stepped up to provide more room in the officers' cabin, and what's even more unusual, a power "donkey" winch in the little house amidships alongside the dories.  This winch would have been powered by a gas or diesel engine.  The ship might or might not have had a main propulsion engine; if she had it, it would have been used only in calms or to get in or out of harbor.
Most of these schooners were built in Essex, Mass, by a handful of specialist yards, one of which was still in business when I visited the town in the 1970's.  Almost all were homeported in Gloucester, Mass, and I wasn't aware they routinely traded into New York.  
Their main catch was cod, which was cleaned and salted on board.  Some halibut and a few other species were also caught.  The fishermen used longlines -- lines more than 1000 feet long with hundreds of hooks that all had to be baited separately -- that were set and recovered from the small dories shown, with one or two men to a dory, while the captain and cook managed the ship.  This was one of the toughest ways of fishing, as it went on even in winter.  The schooners were of highly refined design because the first back to port got a premium price for its catch, and very seaworthy because of the extreme northern fishing grounds off Newfoundland.  (There were also a large number of similar schooners under the Canadian flag, most sailing out of Nova Scotian ports such as Lunenberg).  In the 1920's and 30's, many replicas of them were built on a smaller scale for use as yachts.  I spent a week on one of these replicas in 1969 so I can testify first hand to their superb sailing and seaworthy qualities.
Grand BanksThe schooner appears to be a Grand Banks fishing boat, the dorys would be lowered over the side and set adrift with a fisherman aboard.  Hopefully when the boat was full of fish the schooner would come back and find the fisherman.
South and Fulton.This is taken on Pier 17, where Fulton Street ends at South Street along the East River. The corner building is at the end of Schermerhorn Row (1810). It was featured in Joseph Mitchell's "Up in the Old Hotel." To the left (slightly darker) was Sloppy Louie's. Just to the right was the Fulton Fish Market, and a few blocks farther, the Brooklyn Bridge.
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, Gottscho-Schleisner, NYC)

Market Street: 1926
... one! The guys painting the Maxwell House sign! Bernstein's Fish Grotto! Why don't we name things "Grotto" anymore? Grottos had a good ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 11/09/2015 - 4:56pm -

San Francisco ca. 1926. "Market Street from Ferry Building." Note the backwards Owl Cigar signage. 8x10 nitrate negative, photographer unknown. View full size.
Foster and Kleiser billboardThe Maxwell House billboard bears the maker's name on top, Foster and Kleiser. 
According to Wikipedia, that firm evolved into the current-day Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, "the oldest outdoor advertising company in the United States as their roots trace back to the three companies that merged into the current incarnation: Foster & Kleiser (1901-1986), Patrick Media Outdoor (1986-1995) and Eller Media Company (1959-1997)."
Perfectly readable in the rearviewI bet that sign was designed for those people stuck waiting to turn into traffic off the side road.  Anyone turning onto it would be past before seeing it, but if you're stuck waiting for traffic to clear and happen to glance in your mirrors it would be perfectly readable. How about an Owl?
[Generally speaking, 1920s cars did not have rearview mirrors, and the sign itself looks to be quite a bit older. Even in 1925, the majority of eyeballs passing by would have been on streetcars. While the sign might have reflected off the windows of the building across the street, I suspect eye-catching novelty was the strategy. - Dave]
19 Years EarlierThe same view taken while the City was still smoldering in 1906.

Spectral Christmas treeThere appears to be something swinging/spinning from the pole like a loose mast halyard in the right foreground, causing a Christmas tree-like artifact.  Must have been a breezy day and a bright rope!
[The thing on the flagpole is the Stars and Stripes. There another one at the next street corner. - Dave]
Market Street: 1904And here it is pre-earthquake.
Hotel TerminalYou can check out any time you like but you can never leave.
Short cityNearly all of the low-rise buildings in that photo are gone now, wiped out between 1960-90. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 was used as a feeble excuse for condemning the few remainders, including one in which I had been working just a couple years earlier. Fortunately, most of the vintage 10-12 storey buildings survive.
General OfficesThe building one block up on the left still stands.  It was the headquarters of the Southern Pacific Railroad where I kept things running on Third Trick (midnights).  My office was just past the balcony on the 6th floor facing Market Street. There was no need for air conditioning; you just opened the windows.  We used the windows to get rid of stale coffee too - not too many pedestrians late at night.  Being there the last working day of the year was interesting.  Office workers had a strange habit of throwing small calendar pages (the kind that you flipped a page each day) out the windows before going home.  It was almost like a ticker tape parade.  A legion of street cleaners would have it all swept away by the next morning.  Looking out the widows at the Hyatt Regency Hotel across the street might be interesting too - especially when a convention was in town.   
Owl Cigars 5 cents M.A. Gunst & Co.Moses A. Gunst One of the most beloved men in the history of San Francisco.
http://www.jmaw.org/gunst-united-cigar-california/
One of My Faves From ShorpyThis is a great one! The guys painting the Maxwell House sign! Bernstein's Fish Grotto!
Why don't we name things "Grotto" anymore? Grottos had a good run but seemed to peter out by the 80's.
A truly historic photo This documents the last time there were parking spaces on Market Street in San Francisco.
Russ Building?Emporis says the Russ Building was finished 1927-- think that's it under construction, midway between 225 Bush and the Mark Hopkins?
[The building under construction is the Western Women's Club headquarters (a.k.a. "San Francisco Women's Club") at 609 Sutter. In the 1940s it became the Marines' Memorial Club and Hotel. - Dave]
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, San Francisco, Streetcars)

Christmas Tree Market: 1903
... The South Street Seaport. The area once home to the Fulton Fish Market and now TGIF'd by nascent Financial District Bankers and Brokers ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/02/2011 - 5:30am -

New York circa 1903. "A Christmas tree market, Barclay Street Station." With wagons for the Mammoth Furniture House and Herman Kornahren's Wooden Ware. Previously seen here. Detroit Publishing glass negative. View full size.
Barclay Street StationGoogling around for "Barclay Street Station," I encountered Berenice Abbott, who made a picture of the railway side of Barclay Street Station. Shorpy lovers might be interested in the Gallery of her pictures.
Pier 17Here we are again at Pier 17, now home to a major tourist destination, The South Street Seaport. The area once home to the Fulton Fish Market and now TGIF'd by nascent Financial District Bankers and Brokers just partying away.
Way up there.Photographic evidence that ceilings were much higher back in the day.
Christmas Tree Hunts at the Star NurseryGrowing up in Detroit, Michigan in the 1950's always meant going to the Star Nursery for our Christmas tree.  The nursery had a big green five pointed star with the name STAR outlined in lights as its sign.  The outdoor garden area was packed with a maze of pines.  Strings of overhead lights added to the excitement of prowling the shadowy isles with my younger sister as my parents hunted for the perfect tree.  It being Michigan, there was usually snow on the ground which added to the experience.  During the rest of year driving by the nursery always brought thoughts of past Christmas tree hunts or the next one coming up.   
Any tree you want, 25 cents!Seven-footers? No problem. How many? Put one in every room.
One stop shoppingFurniture for our mammoth and a tree that fits our 16 foot ceilings, Merry Christmas.
Those are some tall Christmas treesNot much has changed in 108 years - except for the horse-drawn delivery vehicles. Bet the trees cost less back then.
That is a worried looking pile of treesI don't see one that I would be interested in!
East Side, West SideSorry Mr Mel, but I think the photo is of Pier 17 on the Hudson River, not East River. The nice painting you posted is Pier 17 on the East River. The photo is of a NY Central & Hudson RR terminal. Besides, I don't think Barclay Street ever ran to the East River. It did run to the Hudson River, pre-landfill.
Pier 17 on the Hudson RiverThe picture is of Pier 17 on the Hudson River, not on the East River where the South Street Seaport now resides.  The historical photo is taken from West Street at the foot of Barclay Street, which at that time was on the waterfront.  The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (among others) had a passenger ferry terminal here as well which lasted until 1967, and was demolished shortly thereafter to make way for the World Trade Center complex.  During that construction, fill was added to the river side of West Street, creating new land which would eventually become Battery Park City and the World Financial Center.  A new Goldman Sachs glass-and-steel office building now sits where the ferry terminal once resided.
(The Gallery, Christmas, DPC, NYC, Railroads)

Ruth E. Pember: 1901
... in Brooklyn. She went into service as part of the Fulton Fish Market fleet. Captained by F.M. Redmond, who owned her in partnership ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/05/2012 - 4:27pm -

Circa 1901. "Ruth. E Pember at sail." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Schooner beachedNew York Times, Dec. 17, 1917.


Schooner Beached Near Sandy Hook

The American schooner Ruth E. Pember was beached early yesterday near the Sandy Hook Coast Guard station after having been seriously damaged in collision with a submerged wreck one and a half miles northwest of the Scotland Lightship. The vessel is 95 tons register, built in 1901 at Tottenville, Staten Island, and owned by John F. Cohn.
So, 95 tons. Would that be the same vessel?
Though are the passing moments frailNothing is so timeless as water and sail.
Hats off to the Photographer!Shooting an 8x10 plate from a boat with a large sailing vessel bearing down on you is NO EASY TASK!  Kudos to the snapper!  Great photograph!
BreathtakingOur view of photography from a century ago is everyone standing stiffly in the noonday sun.  What a great action shot.
A Bit More SpecificAccording to "Merchant Vessels of the United States: (Including Yachts)" published by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915 her specs were: 
Official number 111334
Signal letters KSWR
Rig Schooner
Gross tonnage 95 tons
Net tonnage 58 tons
Length 92.3 feet
Breadth 22.8 feet
Depth 9.7 feet
Crew 20
Built 1901, Tottenville, NY
Home Port New York, New York
Re: Schooner beachedFrom the NYT (undated):
               PEMBER - HINE ENGAGEMENT
Announcement has been made of the engagement of Ruth Eldridge Pember, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Pember of Hartford, Conn., to Harold Morton Hine. Miss Pember is a graduate of Vassar College, class of 13, and Mr. Hine was graduated from Wesleyan in 1912. No date has been set for the wedding. 
AND from the Connecticut Historical Society comes Harold's obit, on 12/22/41, age 54, leaving Ruth, whom he married 4/18/17, and their son, Thomas, Wesleyan 1941. 
So, right, they're all dead except maybe Thomas, who was born in 1919.
Famous Last Words"There's a wreck near this lighthouse, but our centerboard should clear it."
Capsizing SchoonersCostello: "I once had a schooner capsize on me"
Abbott: "What did you do?"
Costello: "Wiped off the bar and ordered another one!"
"Signal letters KSWR"I'm intrigued by this.  As far as I know, very few vessels had radio by 1915 (when the Coast Guard record was entered), so any identifying signal letters would have been flown on coloured signal flags.  That is, if the boat wasn't already flying its name on a huge banner!
"KSWR" certainly fits the format of a U.S. maritime radio call-sign.  Either the government was routinely allocating call-signs to registered yachts by 1915, or perhaps the identifying letter groups used on signal flags were already in this format.
[Lots of ships had Marconi wireless (radiotelegraph) equipment in 1915. And even farther back. The Titanic, for instance. - Dave]
Follow that codAfter floating from Brown's yard in Staten Island, the schooner was fitted with a 50-horsepower gasoline motor at Commercial Wharf in Brooklyn.  She went into service as part of the Fulton Fish Market fleet.  Captained by F.M. Redmond, who owned her in partnership with John Feeny, she sailed in pursuit of bluefish and mackerel, patrolling seas between Block Island and Cape Hatteras.  Redmond was Ruth's uncle.
Re: "Signal letters KSWR"At least as far back as the late 1870s, registered US (and British) vessels were given 4 letter codes as a part of the International Code of Signals. This was, of course, before radio. The signals were made by flag, semaphore, or by night beacons and a 4 letter code was easier and usually quicker to signal than spelling out a name, especially when considering the code flags originally consisted of only consonants. When radio came along, the system was continued and is still in use today.
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC)

Seed and Feed: 1935
... at the right was demolished by the WPA and replaced by a fish market not long after this photo. A duplicate Red Stores Building was ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/05/2012 - 6:05pm -

December 1935. "Waterfront in New Orleans. French market sidewalk scene." Large-format nitrate negative by Walker Evans for the FSA. View full size.
Down on Decatur StreetDecatur Street, French Quarter, above St. Philip Street, looking downriver. If the second truck wasn't there, the Morning Call Cafe could be seen at the center. 
Most of the architecture around here is still the same. The "Red Stores" building seen at the right was demolished by the WPA and replaced by a fish market not long after this photo.  A duplicate Red Stores Building was re-erected in the 1970s. For some reason the new one is a couple of yards out of alignment from the original footprint of the first one-- annoying if you're trying to recreate a historic photographic view.
French MarketThe French Market was remodeled in 1936, 1975, and just completed another remodel last year.
Cool CarThat 1933 or '34 Ford Sedan Delivery would make a great hot rod.
My White MulesI use Wells Lamont White Mule Gloves just like the ones hanging above the feed store door, though I don't use them as vigorously as when I was working on my PhD (post hole degree) in East Texas.
Pharm FreshJust can't get enough of those fresh drugs and toilet articles!
Fresh DrugsBut are they typhoid-free?
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, New Orleans, Walker Evans)

Two Kinds of Cute: 1951
... behind his knees where there is a hole for it. Maybe the fish stole the hook, line, pole and sinker from this guy lol. Mom's ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/15/2012 - 12:46pm -

"1951." The boy and his dog, along with a radioactive lawn ornament. From a box of 35mm Kodachrome slides found last month on eBay. View full size.
AsbestosI still have these on my house - they were installed in 1938.  They're perfectly harmless as long as you leave them alone.
CollectibleWhoopi Goldberg might pay good money for that thing; she's a notable collector of such items.
Hard to chooseThe three featured items in this slide have their own contest going in which one wins the "Awww" factor first prize but I think the puppy has it, hands down.  The boy is a photogenic "natural" and his joy holding his new, round-bellied puppy comes across clearly which is endearing while the African-American lawn ornament also presents itself as a nostalgic decoration that is just plain adorable.  If I were the "cuteness" judge though, I'd have to go with the puppy due to his irresistible demeanor.
["Inoffensive," unless you happen to be offended by it. - Dave] 
You are correct Dave, I apologize and have removed that word.
Missing poleMy grandparents had that same lawn statue so I know that the man is fishing. The fishing pole is supposed to mount in the center just behind his knees where there is a hole for it. Maybe the fish stole the hook, line, pole and sinker from this guy lol.
Mom's favorite colorI would guess it's Yellow!
"Radioactive" lawn ornament?Don't forget to mention the carcinogenous asbestos shingles. A dangerous world and we didn't know it.
Let sleeping fibers lieThe carcinogens in the old asbestos shingles are very immobile, and pretty much harmless, as long as you leave them be. The moment you cut or drill them, there's a problem. If you need to remove them, you're in luck as long as they are held in by smooth nails. You can probably just pry them off without liberating much dust. They have done their job for more than half a century, and can do it for a bit longer.
If I had asbestos shingles on the front of my house, I'd leave them there. They're a lot more harmless than the particular mentality that created the lawn ornament.
Asbestos shinglesI spent the first 34 years of my life in this house that was covered with the things. (Seen here in 1955.)
It's a ShameAs mentioned in a post for another one of this "blond-headed boy" series of slides, it's unfortunate that a family member does not have access to these great images. Unlike prints, it seems that multiple sets of slides were not common, since the film used became the slide to make dups required extra cost, and most people did not see the need to spend the money...just gather the family around the slide projector at the next party!
Asbestos shinglesDown here in Louisiana plenty of homes sported these shingles in the 30's and 40's.  Our family business was covered with white ones.  Light green was popular down here too.  Most carpenters of the day had the correct tools to work with the tiles.  Hole were punched not drilled using a special hole punch specifically for asbestos tiles.  Instead of sawing the tiles there was a huge iron "guillotine " type press that shortened the tile.  By the 80's it was impossible to get any more for repairs. 
(Dogs, Kids, Michigan Kodachromes)

Hanauma Bay, Hawaii: 1958
... crowded. Our first time there in 1997 you could feed the fish. I remember walking out there quite a distance with a bag of food in my ... out there I dropped one and I was immediately swarmed by fish! It was awesome! They don't allow people to feed the fish anymore. It was ... 
 
Posted by Tony W. - 09/17/2011 - 8:11pm -

My grandpa was in the Navy for a time in the late '50s. This photo was taken in March, 1958. This was scanned from another faded paper print that I cleaned up. View full size.
Gonna be in town long? I have to fan myself every time I see a picture of your grandpa, Tony. 
Before it was too crowdedHanauma Bay was one of the best beaches on Oahu (except for surfers).  When we lived there, 1970-73, it was busy, but still fun.  When I went back for a high school reunion in 1997, you had to stand in a long line and pay admission to get down there, and it was hard to find a spot to spread out your beach towel!
Nice placeMy family and I have been here for the snorkeling. It's a very nice place. Yes it is very crowded. We went on a rainy day and it was still crowded. Our first time there in 1997 you could feed the fish. I remember walking out there quite a distance with a bag of food in my hand. On the way out there I dropped one and I was immediately swarmed by fish! It was awesome! They don't allow people to feed the fish anymore. It was messing with the population. They were eating more than they were breeding.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Tonypix)

The Gentle Art: 1900
... fishy That "dead something" is a whole passel of fish! And he looks EXACTLY like my older brother at the same age! My ... the photographer that he should buy the entire lot of fish. Cherubic looks and the ability to sell sand to Arabs or ice to Eskimos -- ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/21/2012 - 1:23pm -

The fishing hole circa 1900. "A disciple in the gentle art." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Very FinnyThis is a photo that Mark Twain would wholeheartedly approve of.  Wonderful. Makes one jealous for all the happiness and joy reflected in that face. A true Huck Finn.
AwwI wanna take him home! He can leave the dead thing behind though.
Poetry personifiedJohn Greenleaf Whittier wrote
Blessings on thee, little man,
barefoot boy with cheek of tan
(You can look up the rest of this long poem on the internet).  It is most suitable to accompany this heartwarming photo.
Something fishyThat "dead something" is a whole passel of fish!
And he looks EXACTLY like my older brother at the same age! My brother, however, would have probably convinced the photographer that he should buy the entire lot of fish. Cherubic looks and the ability to sell sand to Arabs or ice to Eskimos -- a born salesman.
Opie Taylor's doppelgängerI wonder if he has an Aunt Bee to fry those up for him?
(The Gallery, DPC, Kids)

Catch of the Day: 1894
... even born but brings his story to mind. Better put those fish on ice if they are going to be eaten. That Florida sun does not enhance the flavor of fresh fish. Holy Mackerel! It appears our crew has hauled in a nice catch of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/06/2015 - 11:17am -

1894. "Sport fishing, Palm Beach, Florida. Day's catch." Now where's that frying pan? 8x10 inch glass negative by William Henry Jackson. View full size.
EGADThere are no railings!  AND NO LIFE JACKETS!
The days when men were men!
The old men and the seaThis was five years before Hemingway was even born but brings his story to mind.  Better put those fish on ice if they are going to be eaten.  That Florida sun does not enhance the flavor of fresh fish.
Holy Mackerel!It appears our crew has hauled in a nice catch of Spanish mackerel, a couple sheepshead drum, and at least one amberjack.
Moustache to chin ratio = 3:2
(now that I look closer the largest mackerel are probably king mackerel)
Sloop or Schooner?The vessel they are fishing from has an exceptionally large gaff mainsail -- you can see both gaff and boom, as well as what are probably reef points. The boom is all but certainly being held out to starboard by a boom tackle or preventer, otherwise it would be unwise to leave the bottle standing up where even a slight movement of the boom inboard would knock it over, if not break it.
The way the men at the side are standing, as well as the hatch in the left background of the picture, suggest an extra wide and high cabin trunk with rather narrow side decks. Likewise, the odd control line going into the cabin top just left of center in the photo makes me wonder what it's for. A vessel with such a large cabin trunk would be a shoal draft vessel (not rare in Florida waters) and possibly the line is the pendant for a centerboard. Then the hauling end of the line is behind the photographer, rather than below decks. We sometimes see control lines going through-deck on modern racing boats but it usually means they are meant to be handled from below.
Now we get to ask if it's a sloop or a schooner. If it's a schooner it must be very big indeed, but I've seen both rigs in Shorpy photos of this period from Florida waters. If the mystery line is really a centerboard pendant, it seems too far aft for a schooner, so I suspect the vessel is a sloop. But, I'm sure others will disagree and have good reasons to say it's a schooner.
Lucky TiesI never thought about wearing a neck-tie when I go fishing.   If I want good luck, I may need to change my attire next time I go to the lake.
TiesAlthough the mustaches are quite epic, I am more impressed that two of the men are fishing wearing a tie!!
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Florida)

A Happy Time: 1918
... in a place where multiple others are fishing with barbed fish hooks at the end of their lines that gives me the willies. On the other ... Ouch for sure No swimsuits versus the fish hooks. I think I hooked a big one. Half Happy Swimming generally ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/29/2017 - 2:12am -

September 1918. "Shell Shock patients having a happy time fishing and swimming under the walls of the old chateau. These American soldiers are recovering from war neurosis, as the scientists now call the condition that used to be described as 'shell-shock.' Capt. A.E. Dennis, American Red Cross hospital representative for the U.S. Army camp at Blois, has obtained wonderful results by taking a number of these patients away from the noise and congestion of the hospital to the quiet out-door life in the forest of the Chateau Chambord near Blois." 5x7 glass negative by Lewis Hine for the American Red Cross. View full size.
Hooked?There is something about swimming in the nude in a place where multiple others are fishing with barbed fish hooks at the end of their lines that gives me the willies. On the other hand, I suppose it's safer than the trenches.
By any other namePTSD, only in the last 30 years or so has a real understanding of it started to be reached.  Always a name for it has been there, effective treatment and a lack of shame for it has only come recently.
Quite a fishin' hole! 
Ouch for sureNo swimsuits versus the fish hooks. I think I hooked a big one.
Half HappySwimming generally disturbs the fishing and swimming, especially sans suits, in the middle of a bunch of hooks isn't for the faint of heart.
Oh, and 'Cannonball!'?
Don't yell it when you jump in.
O, the water!Hanging out by the river naked always did ME a world of good, even 50 years later than this.
(The Gallery, ANRC, Lewis Hine, Swimming, WWI)

Rolling on the River: 1908
... outside the door. Must be cutting a lot of something - fish? The Minnesota You can still take an excursion boat from downtown ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/22/2016 - 4:38pm -

The Mississippi River circa 1908. "Steamboat landing and Union Station at St. Paul, Minnesota." Sidewheelers and sternwheelers on view include the Minnesota, Hiawatha, Idler, Wanderer II and F. Weyerhaeuser. View full size.
The shackCan anyone tell what the shack on pilings in the middle of the river is for? It's heated so used year round. Also a sharpening wheel outside the door. Must be cutting a lot of something - fish?
The MinnesotaYou can still take an excursion boat from downtown St. Paul upriver to Fort Snelling, the Soldiers Home, and Minnehaha Falls. 
The F. WeyerhaeuserI grew up in the Northwest, where Weyerhaeuser timber land is quite is common. I knew it was a large company but never knew their holdings spread as far or have been around as long as they have been. It wood (sorry for the pun) seem this ship is named after founder grandfather F. Weyerhaeuser, who died six years after this picture. 
One of the things that keeps me coming back to Shorpy is finding how long so many companies have been around. I love the history lessons and getting lost on the information highway.
The photo that has everything (almost)Let's see, there's a river, a city, railyards and sheds, steamboats, steam locomotives, rolling stock, two autos (and a hint of a third), horsedrawn wagons, signs, a fine depot, smokestacks, shacks, warehouses and offices, a distant ridge covered in buildings, homes, trees, people working and people idling - all this at first glance.  Mighty busy and it isn't even a panorama!  I'll be lost in this one for awhile! 
The IdlerCaught once again in that 'time-suck' called Shorpy. I found this photo pretty interesting, in particular the Idler which seems to not be powered. I did a quick search on the web and found a restaurant in South Haven, Michigan on a riverboat called the Idler. Could they be the same? Then I found this article. And finally this article (the boat behind the Idler, the Wanderer, is also referenced in the article). So the Idler is still afloat and in use 108 years after this photo and 118 after it was built.
More About F. WeyerhaeuserFrederick Weyerhaeusers 11,000 sq ft home was on the top of the bluff, overlooking this point just out of the picture to the left.
His next door neighbor was railroad magnate James J. Hill.  
Both houses still stand.
The ShackThis looks like it might be part of the old railroad lift-bridge c. 1885 at Robert Street, which might be the vantage point of this photo.
A View from a Bridgein this case the old Robert Street Bridge.
This view from under the bridgeshows the depot and the riverboat docks. The curved track in the foreground is coming from the swing-bridge.
The old Robert Street bridge from which high vantage point the "Rolling on the River" photo was taken. Union Depot and the riverboat docks are off to the left, out of this photo. Visible at the downriver end of the cutwater pier is The Shack referred to by tcrosse. There are actually TWO bridges in this photo - a wagon/pedestrian bridge above, and a pivoting or "swing" railroad bridge that crosses diagonally below. Both were built about 1885. The railroad lift-bridge, to which tcrosse refers, replaced this swing bridge in 1913. The upper bridge was replaced in 1924 by a beautiful and substantial structure which is still with us today, and is on the National Register of Historic Places: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Street_Bridge ) 
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Railroads)

Outfall: 1936
... Angling This is where I caught all those three-eyed fish. How to see This is the kind of photo that black and white was made ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/24/2011 - 10:47pm -

September 1936. "Pittsburgh waterfront, Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers." Medium format nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the FSA. View full size.
Down by the Win-e-gar WoiksOh I live under the viaduct
Down by the winegar woiks
Where they chain all the chilluns
To fences and logs
They do it to keep 'em
From biting the dogs
Oh I live under the viaduct
Down by the winegar woiks!
AnglingThis is where I caught all those three-eyed fish.
How to seeThis is the kind of photo that black and white was made for.
ChromaIf this were colorized, it wouldn't change a bit except for the sky (yellow) and water (heaven knows what).
Employment versus pollution. The nasty, polluting steelmills are in China now.
We now have time without end to enjoy the fresh clean water and air. We have nothing to do, because the well paying jobs left too.
[In the 2008 national rankings, the United States was the world's third-largest producer of steel. - Dave]
Something in the waterMy dad grew up in Braddock (a part of Pittsburgh) quite near and perhaps even more polluted than this photo shows. All four of his daughters had to face breast cancer as adults (the first in either side of the family). Who knows if this may have been a contributing factor.
Mini-millsThe US, as the third-largest steel producer, puts out about 1/4 as much steel as the largest (China).  US production is majority mini-mills these days.  Still a lot of integrated steelmaking, but we've got a lot of scrap to use, and it costs less.
Incidentally, Japan is number two in steel production.  They have 40% of our population.
(The Gallery, Arthur Rothstein, Factories, Pittsburgh)

Bustling Cleveland: 1911
... thing: my trolley pass. Lost & Found Bennet Fish is not the place for lobster or halibut but was actually a haberdashery. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/12/2013 - 9:00pm -

Cleveland, Ohio, in 1911. "Euclid Avenue." Painless dentists and quick-service lunchrooms in easy walking distance. 5x7 glass negative. View full size.
Wearing them outI would swear that trams identical to those pictured were still running on St. Clair Avenue in the late 1940s.  Other lines (like the Rapid Transit from downtown to Shaker Square) had newer equipment, but the clunkers with rattan seats and open vestibules were my daily transport to kindergarten and first grade.  My first wallet (fashioned of genuine imitation leather) contained but one thing: my trolley pass.  
Lost & FoundBennet Fish is not the place for lobster or halibut but was actually a haberdashery. Its ampersand would be hiding behind that flag. 
Chandler & RuddPart (about 2/3) of the Chandler & Rudd building on the right of the photo survives. It's the red building on streetview.
View Larger Map
Here is an article about the relocated Chandler & Rudd specialty grocery business closing after 145 years, although they later reopened as online-only. 
The Euclid Arcade survives (a point of confusion, there were/are several Arcades near each other), but the old Hippodrome was demolished in 1981.
The photo was shot looking east from the southeast corner of Public Square. The box on the westbound trolley wire is a sensor to allow motormen to throw the switch remotely when approaching the square. This was done by either having power on or coasting when the trolley pole passed through the sensor.
1911Looking at this photo, it is kind of hard to believe this was the same year that John Moses Browning invented the 1911 semiautomatic pistol.
Wheels of TimeThe wheels on the cars, closest on the left, have wheel hubs that appear not unlike those on a chariot in King Tut's tomb.  While roller ball bearings were being produced before 1911, it seems like the car makers couldn't quite figure out how to use them.
1911Actually, Browning's pistol was adopted in 1911, hence the name.  It had been around for some time previously in various forms.
What is the tower on the Hippodrome?  Radio communications? Broadcasting was almost 10 years in the future.
[Probably a wireless telegraphy mast. Many other contemporary examples can be seen atop urban buildings in Shorpy photos. -tterrace] 
+105Below is the same view from July of 2016.
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Cleveland, DPC, Streetcars)

Claws: 1943
May 1943. "Dock stevedore at the Fulton Fish Market holding giant lobster claws." Photo by Gordon Parks for the Office ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2012 - 11:16am -

May 1943. "Dock stevedore at the Fulton Fish Market holding giant lobster claws." Photo by Gordon Parks for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Hey, Goober!Look what Opie caught at the fishin' hole!
This guy reminds me of someone.Actually, 2 someones-Burt Lancaster, and Ernest Borgnine.
It seems as if the top half of Burt's head wound up on the lower half of Borgnine's.
Get a Grip OnYou oughta see the OTHER claw on the biggun!
Bert and Ernie?Lived in a land locked state all my life. I never saw a pic of a lobster claw that large before.
 Pass the drawn butter!Looking at this one is making my mouth water! I wonder what happened to the rest of the lobster that claw came from. It must have been as big as the man!
Whale of a ClawThat's no lobster claw -- it's a baby whale fossil!
Re: This guy reminds me of someone.And this is the illegitimate love child of Burt & Ernie: His name .... Al Bundy.
Re: Pass the drawn butter!The claw was probably all that fit into the trap.
Mother Nature's shears for the unwaryI sure wouldn't want to have any of my extremities anywhere near the beast where that claw came from. At least not before Mr. B. I. G. Lobster, Sen. had had an extended bath in a sheet steel bathtub with a big fire burning under it. And I guess it would actually take a bathtub, or a 55 gallon barrel with the top cut off, or something like that. 
That claw looks like it could take a hand off, easily. 
(The Gallery, Gordon Parks, NYC, Stores & Markets)

War and Peas: 1919
... Washington, D.C., 1919. "Buying Army surplus food sold at fish market." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative, Library of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/27/2012 - 3:21pm -

Washington, D.C., 1919. "Buying Army surplus food sold at fish market." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative, Library of Congress. View full size.
I hate canned peas!I hope that the million boxes behind the men are not also full of canned peas. Yuck!
Re: I hate canned peas!I hope for whirled peas.
Hate canned peas?I think they're Pretty Good.
Peas TreatyGray Hat: "Peas? I thought it was s'posed to be peace."
White Hat: "Yeah! They told us when the war was over we'd have peace. If I'd'a known they meant peas I'd'a stayed home."
Skinny Tie: "I slogged my way across France for a buncha peas?"
Warehouse Man: "Knuckleheads."
Best Headline EverHa! War and Peas. Fantastic.
I don't mean goober peasIn 1960 I was in junior high school with a kid from Austria whose family lived through the Allied occupation of Vienna. Food was rationed. He said that from the Russians they got nothing, from the Brits it was mutton, the Americans gave them everything, but the French give them peas!
The Russians themselves were probably eating 1919 surplus peas.
Give peas a chanceCould be worse. Could be brussels sprouts.
Hey, nowWatch it DoninVA...goober peas are normally a healthy and tasty treat. This recent kerfluffle about tainted goober peas is enough to make a fellow embarassed to sign his epistles.
Give (goober) peas a chance!
Goober Pea
I think I ate some of those peas!I think I know what those peas were like. They were huge and starchy and nothing like those deep green frozen peas people eat so many of now. Kids at military schools (not military academies, but public schools on military bases, for the children of active-duty parents) were served billions of those peas with school lunch. I don't really think the ones I ate in the early '60s came from 1919, but I would bet they had been around for quite a while! Being a total vegetable lover, I not only ate mine, but traded away all of my rolls, cakes and cookies for classmates' peas (as well as other vegetables).  I was very popular for sitting by at lunch! 
Canned PeasNever a good thing. Starchy and mushy. Part of it is the way that they're treated during the canning process and part is that they're allowed to wait a long time before processing. 
Frozen peas on the other hand are a marvel in part because they're frozen quickly after being picked. The longer a pea goes between picking and eating the more the natural sugars convert into starch. Freezing halts the process. Thus the peas you buy in the freezer section of the supermarket sometimes taste better than the ones you buy at the local farmers market. I know that some professional chefs who object to just about all frozen or processed ingredients make an exception for frozen peas.
(The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Stores & Markets, WWI)

Bride Zilla: 1924
... I know! They decided to hold the reception at a fish camp on the Eastern Shore. Re: That guy in the background... Yes, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/01/2017 - 12:28pm -

Dec. 29, 1924. Washington, D.C. "Mr. & Mrs. Philip Mason Sears." Massachusetts politician Sears (1899-1973) married Zilla MacDougall on his 25th birthday. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
BrrrrShe looks cold.   Must be a jacket in the car?
That guy in the background...Makes a relatively mundane photo creepy as hell.
Did someone edit out his face, or is he wearing a bandana? Is he the chauffeur? If so, did Mr. Sears and his wife survive the honeymoon?
[He's merely out of focus. -tterrace]
A CadillacJudging from the crest at the top of the headlight bezel, the car appears to be a Cadillac.
IncongruityDespite their smart formal attire, the happy (?) couple seem to be in a decidedly unrefined setting. From their dress, it's unlikely they're on their honeymoon yet, and since they're together, per the traditions of the time, the ceremony must already have taken place.
I know!  They decided to hold the reception at a fish camp on the Eastern Shore. 
Re: That guy in the background...Yes, he's out of focus, but I also imagine Sagitta was seeing him as looking toward the camera, in which case I can totally understand the perception of creepiness.  But he's looking to his right.
1921 CadillacI believe it's a 1921:
http://momentcar.com/cadillac/1921/cadillac-type-59/
Obit for (Philip) Mason SearsSPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES DEC. 15, 1973
BOSTON, Dec. 14 (AP)—Mason Sears of Dedham, who served as United States representative to the United Nations Trusteeship Council from 1953 to 1960, died yesterday at Faulkner Hospital. His age was 73.
Before being appointed to the United Nations post by President Eisenhower, Mr. Sears served as a Republican Representative and Senator in the Massachusetts Legislature from 1935 to 1948.
Mr. Sears resigned as chairman of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee in 1950 after other party leaders rejected his ideas for liberalizing the party's outlook.
He graduated from Harvard College in 1922.
Surviving are his widow, Zilla; a son, Philip Mason Sears, and two grandchildren.
Mr. Sears was United States' delegate to the silver jubilee of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, in 1955, and in 1957 went with Vice President Nixon as United States delegate to the independence celebration of Ghana. He was special Ambassador to the independence celebration of Cameroon and Ambassador and chairman of the United Nations Visiting Mission to East Africa in 1960.
Beautiful DressLove the details on the dress. They look like they could be brother and sister, very similar features. 
That dress!Man, you know where I don't want to be standing in my wedding dress? On a dirt road. My heart goes out to you, Zilla. I know those white satin shoes didn't come cheap. 
I'd love to see that dress in its entirety.  
(The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Weddings)

Tiny Shucker: 1912
... fresh mackerel. Beheading, gutting, and rinsing the fish and putting them into a wire basket was the task when the fishing boats ... and that began at four in the morning. It took 11 cleaned fish to fill the wire basket, and you got 25 cents a basket. I was supposed to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/14/2016 - 2:14pm -

February 1912. "Tiny, a seven-year-old oyster shucker (sister of Henry, No. 3291), does not go to school. Works steady. Been at it one year. Maggioni Canning Co. Port Royal, South Carolina." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
I've consumed many an oysterBut have shucked nary a one.  Still, judging from the heavy gloves sturdy adults use when performing that task, I am surprised that this poor little waif has any hands left.  I presume, of course, that she hadn't a tiny pair of work gloves, given her obvious place in the socio-economic hierarchy of Port Royal.
Child LaborPoor kid already looks like someone's grandma.
The other side of seafoodNo idea what it's like today, but I saw a lot of how the seafood industry worked in Florida in the mid-1960s. My dad, for a couple of years, was manager of what was at that time the largest seafood company in the U.S. To teach me the value of an education, he arranged for me to work at one of the plants in Marathon, Florida, that "processed" fresh mackerel. Beheading, gutting, and rinsing the fish and putting them into a wire basket was the task when the fishing boats came in, and that began at four in the morning. It took 11 cleaned fish to fill the wire basket, and you got 25 cents a basket. I was supposed to do that for a week; one day was all I could manage and I'll never forget it. 
Later, when living in Apalachicola, Florida, I'd go down to the packing plants where older black women shucked oysters. These women were so skilled it was almost beyond belief, and they had worked together so long that it seemed like a social event as they joked and sang and teased each other. That proved, to me, their tough spirit and great skill. The work was not only not fun but tedious and dangerous; handling those peculiar stiff-bladed oyster knives was not something you did without paying attention. I did admire those women so and was proud they accepted me as a friend. 
I think a bit misleadingI shucked oysters as a thirteen yo female in my family's restaurant in Louisiana.  The leverage it takes to break the hinge on the oyster would be beyond her ability, I would say, but who knows.  I would think her job would have been to break apart the clusters of oysters with a hammer to separate them for the shuckers.
[Not misleading. They used knives. She was one of hundreds. - Dave]
(The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)

Old-School: 1953
... kind, but the innocent 4th grade kind *Mimeograph ink *Fish sticks and sheet cake from the cafeteria *Wood shavings from the pencil ... era. Hardboiled eggs, fried eggs, salmon croquettes, fried fish and for a lucky few crab cakes created a meatless miasma of unforgettable ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2015 - 10:17pm -

Jan. 29, 1953. "Greenville School, town of Greenburgh, New York. Foyer." At right, "Third Grade Paintings." 5x7 negative by Gottscho-Schleisner. View full size.
FamiliarI'm sure this looks familiar to Shorpyites of a certain age - it looks just like my elementary school in Michigan. Most of the 50's and 60's schools seemed to share the same DNA. Many of those windows were blocked off and insulated in the panic of the oil crisis in the '70s.
Natural Light EverywhereThe complete LOC set is fascinating. Love these midcentury school designs, with abundant natural light in classrooms--and windows that open!--very unlike classrooms in the school where I teach (built in the 1990's). For the nerdiest among us, here is an interesting history of school design 1900-present.
Academic AromasAhhh, the scent of a mid-century American elementary school. Our sense of smell and the way our brains organize memory (the olfactory bulb is part of the brain's limbic system) are very closely related; aromas can call up memories and powerful responses almost instantaneously. I guess it works in reverse, too, because seeing this school scene caused ghost scents to appear in my office this morning as I indulged my coffee and breakfast taco and Shorpy habits. The phantom aromas have to be strong to overpower a taco and cup of Ruta Maya…but here’s what I detected:
*The indigo dye in brand new blue jeans
*A whiff of Cavendish pipe smoke coming from the principal’s office
*Sweaty kids – not the sourly rank teen kind, but the innocent 4th grade kind
*Mimeograph ink
*Fish sticks and sheet cake from the cafeteria
*Wood shavings from the pencil sharpeners
*Bic pen ink
*Cardboard Duo-Tang folders
*Cut grass from the playground
*Crayola crayons and construction paper
*An olfactory stew of gum eraser, chalk dust, and Elmer’s glue
*Ms. Borcherding’s rose petal perfume and Aqua-Net hairpspray
And perhaps my most vivid olfactory memory: the faintest hint of “Charlie” perfume, booze and cigarette smoke wafting around the hot-before-I-knew-what-hot-was library assistant Ms. Sherri D’Amato (Cherry Tomato).
Goober Pea
Re: Academic AromasOne more: that green stuff the janitor threw on the floor before he swept.
ackModernist architecture and, yes, I went to schools very similar to this.  They were, like most modernist designs, stiff, cold, and boring.  
In this picture, gaze with head shaking at the Danish modern furniture, which I think was designed to be as uncomfortable and unattractive as possible.
Thank you.  It's good to get that off my chest!
More than familiarThis doesn't look like my elementary school, this WAS my elementary school.  I went to kindergarten here in 1955.  I was put into shock this morning when I woke up to this photo.  Funny, the only thing I remember were the naps. My brother went there too.
Hey, that's my schoolWhat a surprise today at my daily glimpse of Shorpy as I saw "my" Greenville School where I attended second through fourth grades from 1950-54.  That Shorpy would single out such a relatively insignificant school in of all in the country seemed a bit strange so I did a double take to see that it was actually "my" Greenville School.   Although I walked past the furniture in the foyer every day, my memory does not recall it after 62 years, yet that memory clearly remembers riding rain, snow, or shine on a 1950 English 3-speed Rudge bicycle to school every day.  I rode that Rudge through 1970 in college.  The Greenburg area of Scarsdale was a wonderful place to grow up.
Strangely, it was a 1958 photo of my new Redwood High School in Larkspur, CA that was posted on Shorpy some years back that got me to looking at Shorpy every day.  Great site and many memories.
[You're in my 1961 Redwood Log yearbook, your senior year, my freshman. I posted that 1958 Redwood photo my brother took. -tterrace] 

My Thoughts Exactly, Gooberpea!Upon seeing this photo of what could've been my elementary school at Kincheloe AFB, Michigan I too was overwhelmed with "aromatic" memories.  I giggled to myself while thinking, "I wonder if anyone else associates memories with smells", and all at once I read your post, Goober Pea.  Apart from Ms. Cherry Tomato, you got it, exactly!
Academic Aromas IIMy elementary school had similar smells as Gooberpea mentioned except for Ms. Borcherding’s rose petal perfume and Aqua-Net hairpspray since mine was the Shrine of the Little Flower.
No parochial student of my era '46-'52 could ever forget the smell of a rainy Friday. There was the aroma of wet boys' cudoroy school pants mingled with the aromas of the brown bag Catholic lunches of that era. Hardboiled eggs, fried eggs, salmon croquettes, fried fish and for a lucky few crab cakes created a meatless miasma of unforgettable smells.  
(The Gallery, Education, Schools, Gottscho-Schleisner)

Howdy Duty: 1953
... View full size. Nemo? I never saw a clown fish in West Virginia Every Fisherman A metal copy of this picture ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2017 - 8:05am -

June 1953. "Howdy Doody Show's Clarabell the Clown (actor Nick Nicholson) pays a one-week visit to the Dolan family in Boone County, West Virginia, after Linda Dolan, daughter of coal mine foreman, was the winner of the 'I'd Like Clarabell to Visit Me Because' contest." From photos by Phillip Harrington for the Look magazine assignment "Clarabell Takes to the Hills." View full size.
Nemo?I never saw a clown fish in West Virginia
Every FishermanA metal copy of this picture belongs in every fisherman's garage.
Some ClownWhenever I see a clown on the street, (on their way to a party, street fair etc.)  I always ask them if they know where the post office is.
Then, for the rest of the day I can say I asked some clown for directions.
Second-place prize was a two-week visitEven the best clown visits tend to get old after a couple days.
One Week!I bet having a stranger clown visiting you must have gotten tired after about 20 minutes. 
Clarabell BeforeThe previous Clarabell, Bob Keeshan, became Captain Kangaroo.
Peanut galleryI was on the Howdy Doody show sometime after this image was taken, got to sit in the peanut gallery and squeeze Clarabell's horn. I have no memory of any of it or what Clarabell actually looked like but somehow that experienced is lodged in my head.
Another EraBefore clowns were scary.
(LOOK, Phillip Harrington, Scary Clowns, TV)

Airport 1941
... people as we flew between the mountains and see individual fish in the Caribbean. All Colombian pilots were avid readers of "Terry and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 01/18/2019 - 1:36pm -

July 1941. "Observation deck and airliner on the field seen through the window of the waiting room. Municipal (National) airport, Washington, D.C." Medium format acetate negative by Jack Delano. View full size.
A popular hangoutThis is what I remember it looking like when I was a kid.  I wish this were a color photo - my memory has the floor being a green and black terrazzo tile.  I took my first flight from there in 1959 at the age of 5 - Capital Airlines to Minneapolis.
Culture changesMy attention was drawn to the well dressed women.  There was a time when either flying or greeting was a huge event either by air or rail.  Love the nostalgia nudge.
You can still visit todayHistoric Terminal A.
A different eraWhen flying was still romantic and adventurous. And nobody drew the shades over the windows while there was still something to see outside. Of course, the tickets were much dearer, too. 
Counting beans, the C-47 (first flight December 23, 1941, 10,174 built) was the military version of the DC-3 (first flight December 17, 1935, 607 built). 
Photo OrientationLooking over the Potomac and toward the mouth of the Anacostia River in the distance?
Ended in a cane fieldEastern took possession of five DC-3's in September of 1940.  Registered as N15595 through N15599, this one, N15597, crashed into a sugar cane field in the Dominican Republic, (as Victoria Air), in June 1991.  All 35 passengers survived.
History AwaitsLooks like a DC-3, the civilian version of the Army Air Corps Douglas C-47 "Skytrain." Just a few years later (1944) hundreds of these would be crossing the English Channel carrying parachute troops to be dropped off behind enemy lines for the D-Day invasion.
What an eraI was introduced to the work of Jack Delano through Shorpy. I'm now a big fan. It's fascinating to think that he was active at a time when both steam engines and airplanes were in common use.
The Great Silver FleetI just had to go to Wikipedia to see what it said on the side of that DC-3!
The Three and MeI was a Foreign Service brat, born into the last days of the Chinese Revolution and civil war in Nanking.
As the remnant of US representation shriveled and moved from place to place with the nationalist government, my first rides were in a Marine Corps Douglas. I think the Navy/Marine C47 equivalent was called the R4D.
We went on to Colombia, where as in all of South America the DC3's and C47's ruled the skies.  I loved the blasts of fire and noise as the radials fired up in the Andean dawn and the wonderful visuals of low-altitude flight, now lost to travelers.
We could watch people as we flew between the mountains and see individual fish in the Caribbean.  All Colombian pilots were avid readers of "Terry and the Pirates" and were great fans of the WWII look. They invariably wore battered leather flight jackets and 50-mission hats crushed to "Just Right," and kept their nickel plated .38 revolvers in shoulder holsters. One did not hijack planes in those days!
Our Dachshund achieved fame in aviation circles -- he broke out of the tail baggage compartment, waited til someone opened the bathroom door, and joined us at our seats.  The Colombians quite understood. I preferred the freighters we often flew to the passenger 3's. I could walk around exploring, read AAF overhaul plaques from Calcutta 1944, and just marvel at the beauty of it all.
Someday, planes might carry 40 or 50 people!In 1942 my mother was head ticket agent for United Air Lines at Chicago's Municipal (later Midway) Airport. She always told us about how she and the other agents imagined the future of flight where airplanes might hold as many as "forty or fifty people!"
She also explained that she was required to climb that little set of stairs and hand the flight manifest directly to the pilot through his window.
(The Gallery, Aviation, D.C., Jack Delano)

Barefoot Boy: 1902
... doesn't seem to resemble any of them. While on his way to fish with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, he is angry at being snatched by the ear ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/13/2014 - 8:10pm -

New Zealand circa 1902. "Unidentified family group outdoors, probably Christchurch district." Glass negative by Adam Maclay. View full size.
Scowl"I'll get you for making me wear this stupid hat"
Timeless expressionHe doesn't mind posing with a bunch of girls so much but making him wear his Grandma's hat was just too much!
But when askedhis sister said, "No thanks, I'd rather skip it."
Awww, Ma!You got shoes, Granny's got shoes, even Hermione has shoes ... everybody's got shoes but me!
Meet the GlummsScary eyes seem to be a family feature!
Aunt PollyLooks like two different families split left and right, all with inherited faces and expressions. The center boy doesn't seem to resemble any of them. While on his way to fish with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, he is angry at being snatched by the ear and forced to sit with these people.
Sharp eyes... and bare feet
Make the family complete!
HomozygosityI think we are looking at an inbreeding situation that is staring to go amok.
Emotion recorded for posterityThis boy has a lot to complain about! First, they put a bowl on his head and cut around it.  Then, they make him wear a cut off union suit with a serving platter on his head.  Next, he surely had to stand still while Grandma and Aunts Sally and Effie kissed him and told him how cute he looked!
No doubt, when he got home, he tore the clothing off and scrubbed his face clean of the kisses!
(The Gallery, Kids, New Zealand, Portraits)

Old French Market: 1890s
... respectively the “Meat Market,” the “Fish Market,” the “Fruit” and “Vegetables” ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/28/2013 - 12:41pm -

Circa 1890s. "The old French Market, New Orleans." Points of interest include many horsecars and an arc lamp on a boom. Ship Chandler's Grocer wagon and Deutsche Grocery at left. Photo by William Henry Jackson. View full size.
William RedmundAt the St. Charles Theatre:
"The Great Emotional Actor"
1850 - 1915?
Photo from here.
+118ishBelow is the same view from August of 2008.
Portions still standingGoogle Street View won't let me get quite the same angle, but here's a similar view of the Old French Market today, with several of the buildings on the left side of the street in the Shorpy photo still visible:
View Larger Map
The pictured ship chandlers and grocers are long gone, replaced by brightly colored umbrellas and open-air dining.
Ship chandler"Ship Chandler's Grocer wagon"
I always thought of a chandler as a a soap and candle maker, but looking it up I see that is also such a thing as a "ship chandler" -- a supplier of general provisions and equipment for ships -- of which I was unaware.
I wonderWhy all the spouts on the rain gutter of the structure in the middle ?
interesting time for the QuarterBy the 1890's the French Quarter was known as Little Palermo, with the recent immigration of Sicilians to New Orleans.  There was a turf war between the Provenzano and Matranga gangs, leading to the killing of Chief of Police David Hennessy.  A not guilty verdict led to 11 of the 19 indicted being lynched.  The national newspapers first used the word Mafia  to cover the big story back then.  Many Italian immigrants moved away from the Quarter, but you can still buy a muffuletta at Central Grocery located footsteps from where this old picture was taken.
1900s Hipster MarketThe photogenic corner of the French Market also seen on Shorpy: 

 Circa 1906 
 Circa 1910 

The following description hits many of the key features of today's urban farmers' markets: a wide array of local produce, convenient access to public transportation, unique people-watching, multilingual service, and plentiful coffee stands.



The Picayune's Guide to New Orleans, 1900

French Market.


You know it by the busy rush, the noisy rumbling of carts and wagons, the ceaseless clatter of foreign and native tongues all commingled, the outlandish garbs and curious faces, and the strange, novel, cosmopolitan scene, nowhere else to be witnessed on the American continent. The market is open daily between 5 a. m. and 12 m.; but Sunday morning between 8 and 9, is the best time to visit it. Every stranger goes to see the French Market. There is no more remarkable or characteristic spot in New Orleans. Under its roof every language is spoken. The buyers and sellers are men and women of all races. The French Market comprehends four distinct and separate subdivisions under a special roof. These devisions are called respectively the “Meat Market,” the “Fish Market,” the “Fruit” and “Vegetables” markets. Around these is a fringe of fruit stalls and coffee stands. 
(The Gallery, New Orleans, Stores & Markets, Streetcars, W.H. Jackson)

National Theatre: 1918
... the other way around--meaning that there was no meat(only fish) served there? ["Milk bars" and "dairy lunches" were a phenomenon ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/27/2012 - 3:21pm -

March 1918. The National Theatre on E Street. At right is Shoomaker's, a favorite Shorpy hangout. Harris & Ewing glass negative. View full size.
Back to the SpongeDave, I've seen North By Northwest several times but other than the scene in the Plaza Hotel where Kaplan's suit is being delivered to the room or is that what you're referring to.
[Not sure I follow the question. Script below. - Dave]
Cary Grant at the Ambassador East, on phone to valet:
"Room 463. How quickly can you get a suit sponged and pressed? Yes, fast. 20 minutes? Fine."
Sponge Again Part  2Ok, but how did you remember such an insignificant piece of dialogue from a 50 year old movie.
[I've seen the movie and remembered the line is the best explanation I can give! - Dave]
Sponge AgainThanks, you answered my question. My new question is: How did you come up with that answer to a question so obscure, that quickly? You never cease to amaze me.
[I Googled the script for "North by Northwest." - Dave]
Out With The OldDid the "old" National Theatre burn down?
[The National had been "new" for more than 20 years, having been rebuilt following a fire in February 1885. The building in this photo was was torn down in 1923 and replaced with the current structure. This section of E Street is now part of Pennsylvania Avenue. - Dave]
WindowsThe one thing that always strikes me is all the open windows in these old large buildings, even in the winter. Today, working in Downtown anywhere, the windows will almost certainly be sealed shut, a consequence of our new ventilation systems. What we have lost is the connectedness to the street. It's like walking into a cocoon.
Dairy Lunch"Dairy Lunch" for a restaurant seems so unpalatable. I am wondering if there is some other reason to the name? Did it signify that it was non-kosher because dairy was served there? Or was it the other way around--meaning that there was no meat(only fish) served there?
 ["Milk bars" and "dairy lunches" were a phenomenon of the 1910s, 20s and 30s, a byproduct of the temperance movement. A lot of these places were bars and pubs before Prohibition. - Dave]
Baths?The pole on the sidewalk on the left side of the image appears to say "Baths." Would this be correct?
[Yes, if you needed one. - Dave]
SpongeThe tailor shop, to the left of National Dairy Lunch, has a sign in its window "Suits Sponged and Pressed." I've never seen or heard that term before. Was it an early form of dry cleaning or an expeditious way of getting the garment clean.
[So you've never seen "North by Northwest." - Dave]
Shows at the National"The Land of Joy" was a Spanish musical revue that opened on Broadway on Oct. 31, 1917 and closed in January 1918 after 100 performances. "Friendly Enemies" opened in New York on July 22, 1918, and closed in August 1919 after 440 performances--a major hit for 1918. The posters must be announcing an out-of-town tryout.
[A January 1918 item in the New York Times has "Friendly Enemies" set for a February opening in New York. For reasons unknown, it didn't happen. The play opened in Atlantic City before going to Washington. - Dave]
(The Gallery, D.C., Harris + Ewing, Performing Arts)
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