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Three Trees: 1942
July 1942. "Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Lumberjack on truckload of logs." Acetate ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/27/2022 - 12:56pm -

July 1942. "Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Lumberjack on truckload of logs." Acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
KindlingGood for medieval battering rams.
Three logsIs it possible they’re all parts of the same tree?  The length of each one on the truck is nowhere near the height of the tree.
Quality Old WoodOld wood = denser wood and the reason older homes have longer lifespans than newly constructed homes of today. These three trees were left to grow on their own for years and years as evidenced by the tightly packed rings. Modern, planted sustained forest are harvested once the trunk reaches a certain diameter after just a few years and thus have much denser rings. 
No longerBy coincidence, we spent several hours driving through Malheur N.F. yesterday on vacation. I was watching for old growth ponderosa pine like this. Plenty of trees, but nothing larger than about 2 feet in diameter. It will take a couple of hundred years or longer to get back what those logs represent. 
[These logs are Douglas fir. - Dave]
By the way ... in response to another comment, I'm sure those are all butt logs from different trees. By contrast, look at the load in the background. One suspects that they were all put on the same trailer for purposes of the photograph. Posed, as it were. 
[They were not. - Dave]
You are correct that they are Douglas-fir logsI should have looked at the bark more closely. But how do you know the load was not posed? Each of those logs had one or more smaller mates from the same tree, so it's a fair assumption that a three-log load didn't need to be that heavy. Hauling those babies down curvy mountain roads was not for the faint of heart.
[This is just one of hundreds of photos Russell Lee took while on assignment in Malheur -- almost 200 the day he spent with these loggers. The FSA did documentary photography. Multi-ton logs were not being "posed" for the sake of an interesting picture. - Dave]

(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Russell Lee)

Survivor: 1972
... and the blue is a shade darker. I would wager it is an Oregon truck. The tracing of rust along the bottom of the door is another clue. ... 
 
Posted by tterrace - 09/29/2011 - 6:06pm -

The old General Store in Raymond, California. My sister-in-law sits on the steps while I pose proudly with my brand-new 1972 Datsun 1200 - still with its paper plates. The building dates from 1890 and is still there today - so is the tree. Risking life and limb, my brother crossed bustling Raymond Road to take this Kodachrome with my Konica Autoreflex T. View full size.
Magnet pictureI was too young then (and 6000 miles away) but that picture somehow acts to me like a magnet : somewhere hot and sunny in the California of the '70s ... I would like to go there, back in time and in that place.
I envy you tterrace ... I would have loved to grow up in California in the '70s and '80s.
Then and NowThanks tterrace for all the pictures you have shared that remind me of my youth.  This pictures cries out for a "Then and Now" follow up entry.
DatsunMy first new car was a 1976 Datsun B-210. It rusted away in 1979.
Well ain't you somethin?How lucky you were to be so young (about 25) and have a brand new "just out" Datsun 1200.  I had to wait 'til I was 50 yrs. old to get a showroom fresh spankin' new car, you lucky young whippersnapper.  Hope you remember the good feeling and high self-esteem you felt being young, good-lookin', single and rich.  Any chance you know where that car is now?  My first car was a '51 USED Ford Crown Vic (totaled by an insurance company in a flood) which I bought after the flood for $50 in 1956.  It overheated constantly and I had to carry gallons of water to cool the radiator at all times, not exactly a "chick magnet." I still like "whitewalls" and sleek design from the fifties. This is a thoughtful photo, great contrast between the very old, decrepit building and the bright, shiny new car.  
Whitewalls, wire wheels --Tres sporty.
Shiny sidesThe Odd Fellows Hall in Plymouth, CA, has the same odd-looking textured metal siding.  What is that stuff called, anyway?  It's a strange finishing material, in my opinion - shiny and fake-looking.
It makes me happy that this store is not only still in existence, it's been "upgraded" with a new porch that looks appropriate to the age and style of the building.
Capri 1983Great photo tterrace! This is me, age 20, proudly posing with my '77 Mark 2 Ford Capri near Reading, England and very similar looking cars they are too. It was a real babe magnet. (Well, in my memory it was.)
How It Looks TodayA quick Google search led me to these two pics, here and here. The first pic's date is unknown to me but the second is from mid-2009.
[You can also click on the link tterrace put in the caption. - Dave]
Jingle BellI can hear the old fashioned bell above the door ding-a-linging every time someone goes in or out.
It sure brings back a lot of memories  
North Street GangIn tterrace's link, the North Street gang has left their bicycles on the ground and gone inside, perhaps for something cold?  And note the satellite dish on the roof of today's old general store.
At the MoviesWasn't this in "Dirty Larry and Crazy Mary"?
Ahead of her time?Looks like your sister-in-law was taking a moment to text something on her cell phone.
Everybody loves RaymondI'm betting not everybody loved riding in that cramped backseat all the way there and back.
Merry OldsmobileI bet the  1959 Oldsmobile in the lot to the right is gone by now.
[That's a Pontiac. - Dave]
Lucky  youMy first car was a 74 Chevy Vega wagon, my car rusted faster than yours.
The siding is tin panels, the aluminum siding of its day, came raw and you painted it, usually with zinc paint. Used to see gobs of it around here, most on old commercial buildings just like this, many farm machinery dealers.
Great memoriesTterrace, I always enjoy your photos.  They trigger so many memories for me.  Most of my four brothers-in-law had Datsun B210s later in the 70s. Thank you for the photographic record of our (collective) past (even tho I'm an East Coaster).
My DatsunYes, Dave, that was a spiffy-looking little car, my first. Those aren't wire wheels, though, just standard-issue wheel covers that sort of looked like it from a distance. At the time it was the lowest-priced car in the USA; I paid a few bucks under $2000 exclusive of tax & fees. Handled well, even more so when I got radial tires (downside: no whitewalls) a few years later. Datsun liked to ballyhoo it as a "mini-musclecar," but believe me, a 240Z it was not. The back seat wasn't all that uncomfortable, and if your legs got cramped after a while and you forwent the seat belts, you could stretch out sideways for a break. The poor thing was never the same after I blew the head gasket, and ten years later I was in Toyota Corolla.
This wasn't a long trip; it's just 26 road miles from Chowchilla, where my brother had been briefly teaching at the high school. Later that year (and four years before the Chowchilla school bus kidnapping) they moved to Santa Cruz, where my Datsun occasionally made guest appearances.
Not aging wellI have to say I liked the General Store better before it started catering to tourists, as is obvious by it's "new" old look.  In other words, it looked better in 1972.  So did I, come to think of it.  Sigh.
The WaltonsI will bet the inside of this store has the same atmosphere as Ike Godsey's General Store in the TV series "The Waltons."
I would also bet that there was/is a Post Office in the store depicted in tterrace's image.
Blue license plates, Chowchilla and country storesIn 1972 I was in grade school a little bit north in Merced after being stateside for a year. California had switched from black/yellow plates I wanna say around that time altho my memory may be off by a few years.
At the end of the decade I would be dating my now ex-wife who had family in Chowchilla, my ex-mominlaw drove the same school bus route as the kidnapping one when she worked for the school district.
Back then any major intersection or dusty valley town had a small store, cold drinks, some tables and maybe a pool table and juke box.
Blue Plate SpecialThe license plate on the '55 Chevy pickup (or is it a '56?) is not a California plate. The name of the state is on the bottom rather than the top, and the blue is a shade darker. I would wager it is an Oregon truck. The tracing of rust along the bottom of the door is another clue.
I used to have an Autoreflex T! My dad bought it new, and gave it to me when I was 18. I'm still kicking myself for leaving it in the overhead bin of a plane four years later. I forget which newer Konica I replaced it with, since I still had compatible lenses. I still have it, too. Somewhere.
One Adam 12I can just see Malloy and Reed stopping here to help someone after some bad guys pulled a 415 (robbery). Also, I wannnnt that Chevy truck!
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Stores & Markets, tterrapix)

A Big Kiss for Gramps: 1941
... his granddaughter at the Fourth of July picnic in Vale, Oregon. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the FSA. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 11:22am -

July 1941. Farmer with his granddaughter at the Fourth of July picnic in Vale, Oregon. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the FSA.
Cordon sanitaireWow! Getting physically and mentally irritated by smokers, even from 200 feet away! If you need a private sphere with a radius of 200 feet from which all possible causes of irritation are banned, you might as well go live in Siberia or face it that you may have a problem living with other, sometimes imperfect, people around you.
The Fat Lady at Wal-Mart>> I think that fat people are ugly, disgusting, and are doing harm to their bodies.
Whoa, back the fat train up here. Where do you get off saying that from nowhere?! Adjust your perception, buddy. Most of the civilized world is getting fatter. Whatever will you do with your sensitivities 20 years from now?
People will smoke, people will eat.
Not everyone who is a smoker or fat is flawed in the ways you think they are. Perhaps smoking was an option back in the Depression to stave off hunger... and they never could quit. Perhaps Mrs. Fat in Aisle 3 buying chips isn't fat because she wants to eat junk food and be lethargic. Perhaps she can't afford healthy foods, like most. Cheap carbs are always more accessible for the poor than vegetables and lean meats enough to feed a family. Especially in this day, in the economy at hand.
Complain not about other people's life, health and such. Take care of yourself and learn to appreciate the good in people. Not what you are judging them for.
Note: for future reference, if you cannot spell "exercise," then you cannot preach to others about it. Sorry.
Love,
The fat woman at Wal-Mart, doing the best she can.
Health and stuff...Good health is great, you need it to tackle those issues which are more important than smoking.
People were considerate and loving as this picture illustrates, and sadly many of those caught up in the smoking mania of the first half of the 20th century discovered its dangers too late. My generation watched the parents of the 1950s, including my father, die in a long, painful manner directly attributed to smoking.
Your lungs can repair themselves, to a point. When I was a child, our home was filled with a smoky haze; allergies and asthma followed me for years after I'd moved out. I was around 30 when I noticed my lungs didn't hurt while jogging. But I digress.
Keep yourself healthy. Really. You want to be around the next 20 years to benefit from medical advances that are being developed now. It'll make our current life seem as distant as these views from the past. (Hope there’s no rule against mentioning the future in Shorpy comments!)
SmokeophobiaYou're lucky and I wish you continued good health. I was a smoker as well but I got the message and quit. I have three married daughters and neither they or their husbands are tobacco users and I'm hoping my six grandchildren won't be either. You've got to play the odds. The phobia is not out of hand in this country. Tobacco is a killer and the cost in heartache, pain and money is beyond reason. The people who grow it, sell it, smoke it or tax it have to realize the danger of this addiction and end it once and for all. I don't mean to preach, this is, after all, a photography site and not a soapbox for do-gooders or health nuts, but your comment had to be answered.
Walmart, etc. etc. etc.If you keep it to yourself, and/or keep it private, you are simply a polite adult who has a valid opinion. You should set your own boundaries, and if you do not like smokers, chose to do what you can to not be exposed to it.
If you yell at others, impose your will upon otherwise law abiding citizens (no i am not talking about someone lighting up inside the hospital waiting room or other unlawful place) you are being a rude, selfish, jerk. 
I think that fat people are ugly, disgusting, and are doing harm to their bodies. Do i go to walmart and yell at every 400 lb person in a scooter that I see? Do i walk up to someone in the junk food isle and preach at them about nutrition and excersize? No. I do not. I am an adult and I know when it is appropriate to express my opinion in a civilized society.
[One reason the Shorpy "comments" section is the delightful place it is! - Dave]
Smoking NazisSmoking Nazis, nothing quite like them. 
I do not smoke, but I fully support the freedom of your decision to do so. 
I had a friend who smoked, then quit, and abruptly became someone I no longer wished to associate with. She would accost strangers for smoking near her, and speak loudly and in a derogatory tone about anti-smoking rhetoric whenever someone with a cigarette was within shouting distance. The final straw was when I went to a museum with her, and we were out front taking pictures of our kids near a fountain, and someone lit up (200 feet or more away, down wind,in a heavy breeze, in the OUTDOOR designated smoking area) and she went over and berated him in public about killing her children. I was mortified.
It is nobody's business what I or any other consenting adult does to his or her body, as long as it is legal. I'm sure I could find fault in any of your lives should I want to. Too much fried food? Drive too fast? Maybe you drink beer, or eat red meat, or a multitude of other "sins"? 
Relax people, there are other things to worry about in this world, and none of them are people smoking. 
For the record, I have family members who smoke. Some have developed cancer. Some are 80 years old and in great health. It is, and remains, their decision to partake in this habit, for better or for worse, and it is not my business to preach at them to quit. I have enough personal flaws that I'm sure anyone could point out that affect both me and the ones around me, and I know each and every single one of you do too.
NonsmokersWith all due respect the smoke police are out in full force. I was at an Eagles game last month and I went where I thought was a smoking area, I lit up and lo and behold, someone yelled "smokers" and about 4 security guards came running at me, give me a break. I am a adult and choose to smoke, I am aware of the risks and I respect a nonsmoker's space, I wish people would stop telling me to stop, sorry to sound off on here.
SmokersI'm probably not your ex-friend, but I can relate. 
When I quit I became far worse (more sensitive) than the self-righteous non-smokers I resented and swore I'd never be like. 
It stinks and irritates me, physically and mentally. And, sorry, smokers are not just doing something to their body, they're invading my space -- even from 200 feet away. 
That said, I'm not going to editorialize about historic pix (unless to note how the purveyors of these poisons took advantage of otherwise decent folks). 
Grandpa and the BabyIt shows what we didn't know or think of then. The possibility of burning the child or even worse, the ingestion of secondhand smoke leading to the lung problems of that and succeeding generations. We've got the info now, but there's still plenty of smokers out there.
SmokophobiaI came to look at the comments for this photo just because I knew there would be complaints about the cigarette.
I was not disappointed.
I grew up in a household where every adult smoked heavily. I do not smoke. My little pink lungs never exploded from secondhand smoke and at 40 I still have not developed lung cancer.
Smoking phobia is really getting out of hand in this country. 
Dr. Mel on smokingI am not going to argue on secondhand smoke, global warming, etc., but it strikes me that every time a cigarette is visible in vintage photographs, comic books or advertisements you get this sort of extremely well-meant comments.
Baby on firePrimitive thought he might be, I imagine granpa knew not to set the baby on fire with his cigarette.
And this brief exposure to second hand smoke probably imperils her less than the lead exposure from paint and auto exhaust of the time. I look at that and I'm glad they had a moment to play together.
A Big KissAnd actually there was a kiss. All kinds of love for Grandpa.

30 years later......could've been me and my Grandpa. Plenty of family photos & memories involving smokers here...good AND bad. I think it's a sweet photo, as are the others...happy kids, happy grandpa.
Touched a nerveSorry, it's just a fact that to me--a reformed, addicted smoker--secondhand smoke is physically and, yes, mentally (the holier than thou theory, I suppose) bothersome. 
I certainly didn't say I need a private sphere, much less require one, but surely you don't think Siberia would provide refuge from all possible causes of irritation?! Not my choice, anyway, if in fact I required such an orb. 
Of course, what's wrong with wishing for a bit more clean air? I mean, this isn't Shorpyland circa 1941 anymore. We've heard the Surgeon General's warnings about the harms of cigarettes since 1964. 
Smoking GrandpaAt one time, my sister and I divvied up a collection of family photographs.  She refused to keep any photo of our grandfather in which he was holding a cigarette or a drink.    Because of that, she wound up with only a few pictures of him as he was rarely without a cigarette or his whiskey.  Cancer and cirrhosis helped lead to his death--as did diabetes and high cholesterol--but if I shunned any reminder of his smoking and drinking, I would have few mementos of him.
So in this photo, accept that a cigarette is present and look at the real subject of the photo--a happy day, a loving family, and a charming memory.
BTW, I love the Shorpy comments section for all the lively discussions.  I don't always read blog comments, but at Shorpy the comments are often as fascinating as the photos.
Warts and AllI can't understand anyone who wouldn't want pictures of a family member with a cigarette or a glass of whatever they drank, if the person was a smoker or someone who had enjoyed a drink from time to time. It is part of who they were. You can't remember people in an idealized form - the whole person includes their faults as well as their strengths.
Just one more...Actually, one of the factors that inspired my quitting smoking (after 8 years, in my 20s) was that every picture of me featured a cigarette. I didn't want that associated with whatever legacy I might leave.
Grandpa.I'm 30 years old, a smoker, and from a family of smokers.
I smoke because I like it.  I'm intelligent enough to know it's a dangerous lifestyle choice.  So is unprotected sex.  So is eating McDonalds, and so is driving too fast.
I just want to say that I would do anything to have a moment like this with my grandfather, just one more time.  Just a moment of it.  I  wish I had appreciated these kind of moments more when I had them.  My grandfather died recently at age 86, not from smoking.  I miss you, Rudy.  
I rememberThe aroma of my mother's purse -- tobacco, face powder, perfume and blackjack gum.  She smoked and she loved me.  Absolutely no one lives forever. I'd take a grampa who smokes and loves me over one who snarks at his fellows, compulsively goes to the gym, bitches about the dearth of organically grown veggies, fat people taking up his visual space.  He is going to die, hopefully not alone with people who resent his hysterical attachment to himself.
Cigarette hysteria is rampant, mean, dehumanizing, elitist and snotty.
[Someone seems to have touched a nerve or two. - Dave]
(The Gallery, July 4, Kids, Russell Lee, Small Towns)

At Nampa: 1941
... to last Roster of Union Pacific Wooden Cabooses Oregon Short Line Wooden Cabooses - Class CA Car Number OSL 3055 Date ... on our automobiles. Caboose 3055 This shows Oregon Short Line 3055, a Union Pacific CA-class caboose built in 1911 and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/30/2019 - 11:01am -

June 1941. "Coaling station on railroad at Nampa, Idaho." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Narrow tower in the background?Thanks, damspot, for your very informative reply.  Your response answered the questions I was considering asking, except for one:
What is the purpose of the tall, narrow tower in the background?  I'm guessing it's some sort of water tower?
Built to lastRoster of Union Pacific Wooden Cabooses
Oregon Short Line Wooden Cabooses - Class CA
Car Number 	OSL 3055
Date Built 	Jan 1911
Length 	        30'
Builder 	        AC&F
Previous Type
Previous Number 	OSL 700
Date Renumbered 	Jun 1916
Date Retired 	        Mar 1953
(Later that summer, I took a train from Jacksonville, Florida to Washington, DC as a proud member of the School Boy Patrol.)
Notes
In 1913, construction moved from wooden to wooden with steel under-frame and class changed to CA-1
Here is a link to the home page that looks to include almost every unit of Union Pacific rolling stock.
http://utahrails.net/index.php
Off trackThe coal-laden cars are pulled upward by a cable to the top here, and the rollers on the centerline of the ramp's track are to keep wear on the cable and the ties lowered. At the base, where it levels (?) off, there is what is known as a derail. This is a section devoted to intentionally divert a car to the ground if it runs away in the event of a cable breaking or the connection comes undone. The cars are fed onto the ramp from the track leading away at the left of the photo. Good detail picture of how the railroad solved a potential saftety issue. 
Third light safetyA few RR's like the Nickel Plate, New Haven and Union Pacific, added a third marker light on the roof of the cupola. ICC safety inspectors were always lavishing praise on this practice as many rear end collisions avoided by the light being higher up and easier to see from a distance. Now we have that feature on our automobiles.  
Caboose 3055This shows Oregon Short Line 3055, a Union Pacific CA-class caboose built in 1911 and retired in March 1953. Behind it is a much older NCS-class caboose built about 1901 or before.
v^2=2*a*sBy measuring the rail width at the shadow of the tower, the tower would be 34.8 feet tall, which would give a runaway rail car speed of 32.2 miles an hour after rolling down the hill.  Less destructive than you might wish for.
Nampa Train DepotThe smokestack visible further down the tracks appears to be the Nampa Train Depot which is now preserved as the Canyon County Historical Nampa Train Depot and home to the Canyon County Historical Society.
https://canyoncountyhistory.com/
Half hidden locomotiveA half hidden loco stands left of the bunker. This is equipped with a Vanderbilt tender, which looks almost like a tank car from this perspective. But tank wagons usually do not have big headlights and no coal box on it. And if you look closely, it could be that behind the coal chute - where the locomotive's chimney might be - the air flickers a little bit.
Maybe the middle of the cabooses has its best time behind it - or the track situation on this point is not the best. 
A long wait for passengers on the platform..?Noticing the outfits on some of the people in the background... on the train platform. Seems more like something worn around 1910... curious. Based on that added detail, I found that the train station in Nampa is now a museum.

I love spending time in train stations converted to museums. A favorite pastime as spring approaches!
(The Gallery, Railroads, Russell Lee, Small Towns)

Lumber Numberer: 1942
July 1942. "Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Measuring logs to determine board-feet." Photo ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/31/2022 - 4:26pm -

July 1942. "Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Measuring logs to determine board-feet." Photo by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Bad joke timeHoney, do these rings make my trunk look fat?
"A Day in the Life of a Log"Mr. Lee seems to have followed the same three logs, from grading to lading, to shipping out.
Log rhythmMeasuring logs to determine board-feet is called scaling. The person scaling is a scaler and they use a special stick.
Maxed OutI think we need a bigger ruler.
Kon-Tiki?This photo reminds me of one when Thor Heyerdahl and crew were building the balsa log raft Kon-Tiki back in 1947.
(The Gallery, Russell Lee)

20 Cents a Gallon: 1925
... luxury in the future. Location? This place could be Oregon, considering the Bartholdi Cafe uses the "N.W." designation for part of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/07/2012 - 10:05pm -

Washington, D.C., 1925. "Texas Company, James Burke Station." View full size. National Photo Company Collection glass negative, Library of Congress.
Another Great Gas StationI love these photos you have been showcasing lately with the early service stations.  This one offers a lot of eye-candy: the station equipment, the cute little station building, the rural flavor just down the street, and of course those gorgeous billboards.  Fantastic!
Gas LoansSubstitute today's gasoline prices and an adjacent loan office seems quite appropriate.
East of the River?This looks like it might have been taken in Anacostia. It was probably the most rural part of the District back then.  I like the F Street and Pennsylvania Avenue businesses on those billboards, too.
InflationInflation is always a factor when looking at these old photos. But even so, we a still paying much more per gallon, as one of the internet inflation calculators gives a price in today's dollars of $2.42.
http://www.halfhill.com/inflation.html
20 cents a gallonAll things considered, 20 cents a gallon is expensive when you consider the median income in 1925 was around $1200 a year. I remember buying gas for 25 cents a gallon during the early 1970s.
Don't Forget the TaxesWhat was the gasoline tax back then, if there was one? And what is the tax today? Add that to the total.
[You wouldn't need to. The price per gallon includes taxes. - Dave]
Expensive?At least you could "Look Prosperous!"
Steve Miller
Someplace near the crossroads of America
LoansWe will probably see more "neighbor situations" like this in the near future....loan office near gas station.  How appropriate!
GasolineTwenty cents per gallon was expensive then, just as $4 a gallon is expensive now.
A car still costs half a year's pay after taxes - the cost of a tank of fuel is (and was) about 1/200 of the price of the car.
Cars were an expensive luxury (expensive necessity for rural doctors) and it was only a very flat cost of oil over 5 decades that kept oil and gas really cheap until the '70s.
It looks like cars are going to be an expensive luxury in the future.
Location?This place could be Oregon, considering the Bartholdi Cafe uses the "N.W." designation for part of its address on the upper right billboard (however, I'm not familiar with any other states that might do this).  I'd never heard of a "shore dinner" before -- could this be a precursor to the "surf & turf" term?
[The photo caption says where this is. - Dave]
Texaco: Alexandria HwyA display ad from 1924 Washington Post for Geo D. Horning Loans lists location as "South End Highway Bridge, Va. opposite speedway on Alexandria Highway."
Expensive Luxury"Cars were an expensive luxury (expensive necessity for rural doctors)..."
Is this really true though. Googling "Model T Prices" brought up a chart of the price for new Model T Fords by year. In 1925 - the year this picture was taken - the price of a new Model T Runabout was $260, the Touring Car $290 and the high end of the line, the Coupe, was $520. Now my math skills have deteriorated over the years but figuring a 40 hour work week and Zippy's statement that "A car still costs half a year's pay after taxes", that would mean that someone who bought a Model T Runabout in 1925 and spent half a year's pay after taxes earned about 25 cents an hour.
Location of Photo - not DC in 1925This photo is more likely of the site of Geo. D. Horning's business on the VA side of the Chain Bridge where he relocated it from downtown DC after DC essentially outlawed the pawnbroker business.  
(The Gallery, D.C., Gas Stations, Natl Photo)

Four of a Kind: 1939
... waiting for the school bus in the morning. Malheur County, Oregon." So who is this lady with the camera? Medium format negative by ... brothers? Malheur County is in the southeastern part of Oregon. It's very desolate and has very few people even today. Ditch Riders ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/28/2014 - 7:50pm -

October 1939. "Boys from Dead Ox Flat waiting for the school bus in the morning. Malheur County, Oregon." So who is this lady with the camera? Medium format negative by Dorothea Lange for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
I suppose they're brothersSame jackets, same pants, same shoes, same bag lunch, same haircut, same ears, same gaze.
Manly faceson these boys, probably brothers.  I'd guess the oldest to be about fourteen.  Well-dressed for school, and all with lunches.  I imagine they had already performed chores at home before leaving for school, and had other responsibilities awaiting them on their return. No slackers in the crowd.  
Found the MailboxThanks to the wonders of a wildcard search over at Ancestry, I was able to peg down whose mailbox they were in front of, at least.
That mailbox almost certainly belonged to a Herbert and Jessie Hudgins.  Herbert and Jessie did have two children as per the 1940 Census - a daughter, Arlene, age 11, and a son named Jerry, age 6.  They had moved within the past five years from Idaho (and would later move on to California).
Herbert had the unusual job title of "Ditch Rider," which is now going to bug me until I figure out just what the heck that job is or was.
Scanning up and down the census pages surrounding the Hudginses, I'm not seeing any families that would have had four boys that age (assuming they're all brothers by the matching clothing, haircuts, and cleft chins).
Two of a kind or a full house?Their identical jackets and similar features suggest familial relationships - two pairs of brothers or four brothers? Malheur County is in the southeastern part of Oregon. It's very desolate and has very few people even today.
Ditch RidersThese are people who operate irrigation systems. They are responsible for, among other things, inspecting the waterways (ditches) that convey the water throughout the system. Generally done by riding along them, hence the name.
Ditch RidingMeant riding along a ditch to ensure that the farmers were taking only the amount that they were entitled to. A crappy job inasmuch as the ditch rider normally had to get out of his vehicle at each field, open the gate, drive the vehicle through, get out again to close the gate, over and over. If the ditch he rode was many miles long he might have to do this 20-30 times a day.
3.2 People per Sq Mile!And that's today in Malheur County.  What must it have been like in '39?  
Some of the public schools in those remote parts operate on a weekly residence basis because it's too far to commute each day.  Bus the kids in on Sunday evening and return them home on Thursday.  
For all we knowThere may have been another 'set' of four (or more or less) at home that were pre-schoolers since the youngest boy looks to be about 6 or 7.  In any case, they look like good, reliable kids who towed the line and perhaps they are even still with us.  Personally, I like the uniforms and hope they've all had a good life.
BadlandsI guess when novelists describe a "featureless landscape", this is where they have in mind. Not without a stark sort of beauty, but pretty sparse, especially to an East Coast born and bred guy.
What's in a name?Dead Ox Flat? Malheur County? 
I have the distinct impression that their grand- and great-grandparents didn't have too much of an auspicious start when they first broke turf around there. 
[These kids and their families were all Dust Bowl refugees who had only recently settled in Oregon. -Dave]
Dead Ox FlatIn prowling for the location and possible IDs for the boys, I discovered that the 'proper' names for the area are either Fair, or (more commonly) Ontario.  Dead Ox Flat is most likely the name of the geography in the area, as the nearby Snake River kind of bows out, leaving a somewhat 'flat' area.  Someone's ox probably died there, and you wind up with an odd name.
One reason I think the census was giving me no luck finding the boys 'nearby' is that as mentioned, there were a LOT of itinerants.  If you start looking around, you'll find a lot of photos of people living in tents, out of their trucks, or even in holes dug into the ground in the region back then.  Those four boys could well have only owned one or two pairs of clothing, so what we see is what they had, period.
I also wouldn't be surprised if this was the first day (or close to it) of school for them for the season - in the old days school tended to revolve around the planting season for rural areas, and October would have been just about when the harvest was done, so the educating could begin.
Recycled lunch bags?Noting that the families of the boys were frugal...these lunch bags look new in that maybe it was the first day of school for the week..."now you boys remember, after lunch, to fold your lunch bag neatly and put it in your pocket"...
Bad LuckI lived in Malheur County as a kid and went to school in Vale, OR. "featureless landscape" is about right. Malheur translates from French as misfortune or bad luck which I have always thought suited the place.
(The Gallery, Dorothea Lange, Kids)

101 Ranch: 1925
... the Florida Avenue fairgrounds. Ezra Meeker, "hero of the Oregon Trail," was part of the parade. National Photo glass neg. View full ... one year after he flew from Vancouver, Washington over the Oregon Trail to Dayton, Ohio in an open cockpit army plane at the age of 94. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 6:47pm -

May 11, 1925. Washington, D.C. "Ezra Meeker with 101 Ranch." The Wild West show rolls into town at the Florida Avenue fairgrounds. Ezra Meeker, "hero of the Oregon Trail," was part of the parade. National Photo glass neg. View full size.
Ezra Meekerwas the main pioneer founder of the town of my birth, Puyallup, Washington. His home (the Meeker Mansion), built in 1890, still stands in Puyallup as an historic landmark and museum.
Incidentally, it seems no one from outside the Puget Sound region can ever pronounce the town's name correctly, and even locals are of two minds (some say it's "pyoo-AWL-up", while others pronounce it "pyoo-AL-up").  
Not as down-home as he seemsFor all his old-timey covered wagon-ness in this picture, Ezra Meeker was no relic. This was only one year after he flew from Vancouver, Washington over the Oregon Trail to Dayton, Ohio in an open cockpit army plane at the age of 94.
It's amazing to think that someone born only 4 years after Thomas Jefferson died would eventually take to the skies.
Where's John Wayne?It looks like Gabby Hayes is riding shotgun!
That's oddA man bereft of lid.  Get that man a homburg, pronto!
Lived to be 98Old Ezra must have been doing something right because he lived from 1830 until 1928.  He saw a tremendous amount of history and remarkable changes in his long lifetime.  And he does look exactly like Gabby Hayes, they could have been twins.  He could have seen four or even five generations of his family, so the guy was really blessed.
101 RanchIt is interesting to see a picture from the 101 show.  My family is from Ponca City, Oklahoma, which is near the 101 Ranch.  When it was a working ranch in its heyday it got the name from it being 101,000 acres.  In the ranch's later life it was turned into a wild west show.
Meeker and his OxenEzra Meeker trekked back along the Oregon Trail in 1906 when he was 76. He raised money along the way as part of an effort to commemorate the trail and even drove his wagon and oxen illegally down Broadway in New York (it's against the law to drive cattle down the streets of New York), before meeting with Teddy Roosevelt in Washington. Congress refused his request for $50,000 to mark the Trail.
He later had the two oxen - Dave and Dandy - slaughtered and stuffed and had them pulling his wagon as part of an exhibit that was taken across the country by train in 1915. Today, they and the wagon can be seen at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma.
(The Gallery, Animals, D.C., Natl Photo)

Roughing It: 1905
... to be cedar branches. (There are lots of them out here in Oregon) Cedar branches will keep away most insects. they tend to be a natural ... (think cedar closets) When I go camping out here in Oregon, I look for cedar trees. I cut and bruise (crush the leaves) a few ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/12/2014 - 2:46pm -

Upstate New York circa 1905. "An open camp in the Adirondacks." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Fine ThingHumph.  
Lean on meThat lean-to makes me so nostalgic for the time I spent hiking and canoeing in the Adirondacks.
I have enjoyed several dozens of nights sleeping in those amazing shelters, hiking the high peaks area near Lake Placid and portions of the Lakeville-Placid trail and canoeing from the lakes and rivers around Saranac all the way down to Old Forge.  The lean-tos are all over the trails, rivers and lakes in the park.
Were it not for the early 1900s clothing, the photo could have been taken yesterday.  The shelters still look exactly the same.
Pit BullBecause I own one myself, I cannot help but notice that the dog looks like it is at least part pit bull.
Lean-to sheltersThose who have hiked in the Adirondack High Peaks will immediately recognize the lean-to, which is characteristic to the region. These can be widely found and in the state park they are maintained by the state for use by hikers on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Some locations and photos, etc., here. You can see that they haven't changed at all.
That's how I remember itThree men with guns, check. One man with an oar, check. Two disgusted women, check. One disgusted dog, check. One cabin open to all the bugs in the Adirondacks, check. One man in a three-piece suit carrying a clipboard, check. Okay, then, I guess we're ready to camp!
Hey MaWhatcha want us to do with this here city slicker we caught snoopin around?
He shore got a funny lookin hat!
Didn't read the rulesSomeone in this picture accidentally brought an oar to a gunfight. Who feels like a silly goose now?
On a country road close to town?Very interesting picture with the contrast between the rugged outdoors and civilization.  Two of the men are wearing ties.  One looks like he is the banker there to discuss the mortgage on the property.  Only the two on the right look dressed for the outdoors.  The structure looks to be just a sleeping platform.  Something more sturdy than a tent but without all the comfort of a cabin.  This contrasts with the more developed structure in the background and the cleared land indicating this might not be too far from civilization.
Two of the men are holding now classic Winchesters.  The man on the right an 1886 takedown and the fellow second from the left an 1895.
The open cabinYou'd get eaten alive by black flies and mosquitoes, sleeping in that place. 
Second From LeftI hear a song when I see this picture:
"Come and listen to a story 'bout a man named Jed
Poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed"
Ahh the memories! I spent a lot of my youth in the Adirondacks camping in lean-tos just like this.  The canoe paddle is identical to one my dad and I picked up nearly 50 years ago in the Adirondacks. Every time we went to this one canoe rental place we would look for that paddle.  The owner finally sold it to us. 
It's all about the detailsSo, the lean-to appears to be hung with cedar boughs - is this to ward off bugs?  The man on the right it seated on a wonderful chair made of wooden crate.  He wears a handsome plaid shirt with corduroy trousers tucked into socks with fancy tops.  He appears to be wearing a badge or fob of some kind - perhaps his park permit?  And look at that  beautiful basket behind him!
Note also what looks to be a bunkhouse in the upper right, up the hill.
Adirondack ChairThe crate-chair on the far right says Cushman's Menthol Inhalers on it. These supposedly "cured diseases of the head, including hay-fever, colds and bronchitis."
Back in Boy ScoutsWe had these three-sided cabins (bigger than the one shown here) at Camp Harris on Lake Echo in Nova Scotia, and we all referred to them as "Adirondacks". Now I know why!
See der branches?Looking at the branches that festoon the cabin I see that they appear to be cedar branches. (There are lots of them out here in Oregon) Cedar branches will keep away most insects. they tend to be a natural insect repellent. (think cedar closets) When I go camping out here in Oregon, I look for cedar trees. I cut and bruise (crush the leaves) a few branches, then spread them around and under my sleeping bag if I am sleeping on bare ground. They seem to do the job of keeping mosquitoes away.
The Ghosts of Camping past The 'Lean-to' we opted for on Horse Stable Mountain, NY, was twice this size and with a stone fireplace and chimney in the center, facing inwards of course. The breeze atop a 500 foot tall boulder kept most bugs away, and nightly warmth was assured by dropping a ten foot pole down the flue, and watching it self-feed into the coals all night long. 
(The Gallery, Camping, Dogs, DPC)

Star Vehicle: 1920
... was injured in a train wreck in 1919 while on location in Oregon making "Valley of the Giants," he was prescribed morphine so that he ... book will tell you "Valley of the Giants" was filmed in Oregon, but it's just not true. The 1919 newspapers all say it was filmed in ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 9:54pm -

Washington, D.C., 1920. "Mack truck." As seen in the major motion picture "What's Your Hurry?," starring Wallce Reid as truck driver Dusty Rhoades.  National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
Mackin'DC still had Mack garbage trucks with chain drive and solid tires in the mid-1930s.
JarringDriving this thing must have been a bone breaker, hard on the eyes (no windshield), a bear to control, and a lead-sled to stop. Pneumatic tires would have helped the ride a little.
MackosaurusWhat a dinosaur of a dumper. Chain drive, open cab and solid tires!
What's Your Hurry?Wallace Reid should have stuck with trucks.
After he was injured in a train wreck in 1919 while on location in Oregon making "Valley of the Giants," he was prescribed morphine so that he could keep working. He got hooked, and in 1923 died of an overdose.
In the stone ageof product safety - look at that open chain drive! How many fingers/hands/arms lost out to that beauty?
Big as a bread boxI've noticed these bread (pie, cake) lockers in some other Shorpy pics. I have read about bakeries making regular deliveries just like the milkman or ice man, and finally put 2 and 2 together -- these boxes are where they left your loaves, pies or cakes! What a fascinating detail of everyday life. It looks like this address also received deliveries of beverages from Reading Brewing.
Reading BrewingBelow, a 1912 "City Bulletin" from the Washington Post. To survive during Prohibition, Washington's breweries switched to selling low-alcohol beers, as well as various cereal- and malt-based soft drinks.
Legendary RideMy father, who was 16 years old in 1920, used to say of some cars, "Rides like a Mack Truck." It was never meant as a compliment.
Mack MaintenanceThe brakes on this Mack are on the rear wheels only. The brake band can be seen around the circumference of the large hub the small chain sprocket is mounted upon, the actuating lever from the foot pedal to the front of the brake hub draws the band tight.
To adjust the brake slack as the band wears, or after being renewed, the wing nuts below would be tightened or loosened as required.
To the rear of the small driving gear, inside the upper and lower chains, the slack adjuster for the chain can be seen on the hinging axle arm.
Threading the slack adjusters out on both sides will move the rear axle back, tightening the chain. Think of the chain on a single-speed bicycle, the rear wheel being moved back to tighten the chain.
The rear axle would have to be kept at right angles to the frame to prevent undue tire wear and the truck travelling straight rather than at an angle.
The much-larger driven gears can be seen through the spokes of the rear wheels.
The differential, normally between the rear wheels inside the axle housing under a vehicle is inside the frame of this truck, the two small chain drive gears on it's outer axle shafts outside the frame rails.
Heavy oil or chain lube grease would have to be liberally applied to the chain and the gears from time to time.
Eventually, wear from constant forward motion, sand and grit thrown up by the wheels, and chain stretch would wear the gear teeth and the chain would catch, or jump, and the gears and the chain would have to be replaced.
If a chain broke or jumped off the gears ( a la a single-speed bicycle again ) that wheel would no longer be driven nor have brakes.
The radiator on this model of Mack was behind the sloped engine hood between the engine and the dash.
The cooling fan was on the crankshaft behind the motor and blew cooling air out thru the rad cores and the louvers to each side next to the marker lamps.
On top of the rad is the radiator cap with a built-in thermometer often known as a 'Moto Meter' which had a thermometer that showed red inside a bulls-eye as the engine and rad water heat increased.
Operating a hard-rubber-tire truck over cobblestones, trolley tracks and bumpy roads would have been a real treat.
Driving this truck in winter ice and snow, even with chains, would have been a nightmare, and COLD.
Chain drive trucks, ( not only Mack marketed them ) albeit on pneumatic tires and with air brakes, were offered NEW into the early Fifties, their approach heralded by the rapid metallic clacking/buzzing sound of the chains gnashing around on their orbits. 
Another great photo on mechanics from Shorpy.
Thank You.
Nice!Mack trucks are from my hometown. I learned to drive a Mack just like that in the 70's, we had a 1912 but with a flatbed as a yard hack. It was a bonebreaker, you could only steer when it was moving. Oh god crank start was soo scary but kinda fun. No differential either, turning was crazy. No need for a windshield, it would not go faster than 20 MPH! and at that speed every bump and jolt was worse, it was like riding in an earthquake. Imagine trying to drive this beast, and having to manually advance the timing while steering, shifting, trying to stay in your seat and not crashing into anything.
Next in lineI see a beautiful piece of machinery. I'd love to look under the hood and take it for a test drive.
This old Mack.It's a nice pre-WWI, C-cab Mack AC. You can tell by the mesh covering the sides of the radiator. Newer models had louvers instead, plus a bigger radiator several inches wider than the hood.
Apparently this truck was recently painted for the occasion; I can see several dents and mends in the hood. Its original color would have been "Mack green," a dark and rather nice shade. The paint was lead-based varnish. 
Those trucks carried the gas tank inside the cab, right under the seat cushion, a-la Ford T. 
Optionally you could get a wooden-framed, two-piece windshield that bolted to the cowl and the underside of the roof. 
Also worth noting, they already had adhesive tape back in 1920, and they used it to affix the photo  to the sides of the cab. 
Turnbuckle stars!What? No one gets excited over architectural star turnbuckles anymore? Ach! You kids today!
Scared Me!When I was a small boy in the early fifties I used to play in a closed coal/lumber yard near my home. One morning I ran around a corner and head on into one of these HUGE Macks - it scared the bejeebers out of me! I have never forgotten the look of that truck.
Reid's AccidentEvery film book will tell you "Valley of the Giants" was filmed in Oregon, but it's just not true. The 1919 newspapers all say it was filmed in Humboldt County, California, and a review of the film--recently discovered in a Russian film archive--confirms it.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch of August 23, 1919 mentions Wallace Reid's accident in a "railroad wreck scene which was so realistically produced that Reid was injured in it and forced to take a vacation which gave him an opportunity to visit St. Louis, his 'old home town.'"
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Movies, Natl Photo)

Falls City: 1900
... Although there are towns with this name in Nebraska and Oregon, the Falls City name likely refers to Louisville, which owes its ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/20/2012 - 7:14pm -

Vicksburg, Mississippi, circa 1900. "The levee." And the sternwheeler Falls City. Dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Point & shootCameras back then were bulky and required time to set up. Nowadays this shot could be taken while walking past the scene. While the photographer didn't try to make this shot "casual", it has that look about it.
Because of this, we see a more accurate glimpse of what life was like then. The detritus in the water, the men (only men in this scene) waiting for business and/or passengers, the six or seven ships in the background all show a thriving economy.
PerfectA stage set for "Showboat"! I can hear "Old Man River" just as plain as day! Thanks. Look! There's Howard Keel!
Falls City, my home townAlthough there are towns with this name in Nebraska and Oregon, the Falls City name likely refers to Louisville, which owes its existence to the Falls of the Ohio River. The late lamented Falls City Beer was brewed in Louisville starting in 1905.
From the signage it appears that in 1900 this sternwheeler was working the Mississippi between Vicksburg and Greenville. It had come down in the world, literally.
Falls City factsAccording to Way's Packet Directory, there were five boats named Falls City. This appears to be the last, built in 1898 at Cincinnati. 132 feet long, owned by the Louisville & Kentucky River Packet Co. The book notes that the boat was not taken to Vicksburg until 1908, but it was common practice for boats to "tramp" when work was slow in their home trade.
Photo capabilities in 1900?What intrigues me most about this shot is how well motion has been stopped.  The horses’ movement and even the water flow from boat to river. Most photos from this era seem to blur anything with the slightest motion.  What were the capabilities for shutter speed given the emulsions of the time? Just lucky to have an extremely bright day?
[By 1900, exposure times for outdoor photography on a sunny day would be measured in fractions of a second. - Dave]
Vanished OccupationsTwo jobs I would have loved to have, but are forever unavailable:  (a) Paddlewheel Riverboat Pilot; (b) bandsman on the nicer passenger boats.  Lot of the groundwork for early jazz got laid down on those boats.
Cost of a steamboat tripI imagine that the cost of taking the Falls City from Vicksburg to Greenville was incredibly cheap as by 1900 the Illinois Central ran multiple trains a day on their Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad between Memphis, Leland, Vicksburg, Natchez and Baton Rouge. At Leland, the Southern Railway of Mississippi could take a passenger 15 miles west to Greenville. Does anyone know riverboat fares from 109 years ago?
Per some of my Gulf & Ship Island Railway documents from 1902, it cost $1.25 to travel from Jackson to Hattiesburg, a distance of 95 miles, and I imagine that in those highly regulated days the fare for the journey between two cities of similar distance would be similar. I should have been a historian.
Re: Vanished OccupationsThose occupations haven't vanished, Anon. As a Cincinnati-based musician, I've worked enough riverboat gigs that the romance has faded, and my first thought is always what a PITA it is to haul equipment down to the docks. Most American river cities have at least a few excursion boats working the river, and all those boats have pilots (although, sadly, you're more likely to hear recorded music these days). I've had a few conversations with riverboat pilots, and they're a really interesting bunch.
Steam has been mostly replaced by diesel, and the paddlewheel is more than likely decorative, but those jobs are still out there. And those riverboats where the sounds of jazz were first heard? They were primarily excursion boats, just like today.
At first glancethis scene could as easily be 1850 instead of 1900. Until I looked at the gent sitting on the barrel center front, his clothes give him away as "not 1850." 
Tickets please.Could not find pricing for Vicksburg to Greenville, but comparable short trips in Mississippi and Louisiana were about $8 for a cabin, and $1 to $2 for deck passage.
SteamboatsChautauqua Lake in western New York State had, like most comparable bodies of water in that era, an extensive fleet of large steamboats. The Lake steamers were all (except one) screw driven, with deeper drafts.  But otherwise they were very similar to this.
The last Chautauqua steamer was the City of Jamestown,  about 110 feet long with two decks. It ran frequent excursions though the 1950s.
I vividly remember it pulling into the pier in 1951 or 52, belching steam. I never ran so hard in my life as when I ran down to the water to see that magnificent vessel.  My own personal little Mark Twain memory.
Make that 3 decks.  http://cchsnys.org/mp/mp_chautauqua_lake_steamboats_4_08/acoj.html
Sharp lookerWhat a gloriously rich image.  The detail cries out to be examined further. Thanks for posting it!
(The Gallery, Boats & Bridges, DPC, Vicksburg)

Hermiston High: 1941
... September 1941. "High school boys and girls. Hermiston, Oregon." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/17/2022 - 12:23pm -

September 1941. "High school boys and girls. Hermiston, Oregon." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Class switch at the breakThat's what I think it is. 
In Europe the young go through high school in their edgy but most beautiful years  of growing up in the one coherent classroom of about 25-30 students each. Four years of together and challenge of passing the same subjects create everlasting memory and has a deep meaning at the class reunions.
Great moment caught, with that cool "what-textbooks?" boy relaxed and aware of the photographer but girls oblivious and eager to attend the class.
Survival and ChangeWhen I see a photo like this, taken at that time, I wonder if everyone survived until 1946, and how they were changed.
Couple of things missing.Not a backpack or cell phone seen!
All healthy looking... and not an overweight person amongst them.
Is He Coming?The frightened-looking kid hiding behind the far right corner must be hiding, trying to get away from somebody. And three other guys to the left are grinning 'cause they see what's coming. But who? The principal? Butch? 
The BlobCould they be running from the blob, down the hall, out of frame on the right? There are some terrified eyes looking that way, except for the bookless guy, who probably sees Steve McQueen (hence the broad grin).
She's got classI'm rooting for the tall, confident, athletic but feminine filly in the white dress, who would have been about the age of my late mother-in-law, who was also a tall, confident, athletic but feminine girl. For some reason she reminds me not only of my m-i-l but of Katharine Hepburn from her eponymous role in Alice Adams (1935), though I doubt that this young lady's circumstances were quite that difficult. At any rate I hope there was a handsome Fred MacMurray/Arthur Russell waiting somewhere in the wings for her, with whom to share her life and rear a family in post-war America. My husband's mother certainly had that.
OK serious question.Why do some folks here call young ladies "fillies." A young female horse? I don't get it why? 
["Fille" is French for girl. When people call girls "chicks" or guys "studs," are they talking about birds and horses? Words can have more than one meaning. - Dave]

The device on the desk is a puzzlementI suspect it is for displaying documents. There appears to one be on it now.
[The U.S. Constitution, all four pages. That stand is on the floor behind the desk. - Dave]
(The Gallery, Education, Schools, Kids, Russell Lee)

Ford Motor Company: 1910
... less than a mile from the building that was the Portland, Oregon Ford plant. I knew it was an Albert Kahn design the moment I laid eyes ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/17/2014 - 10:05pm -

Circa 1910. "Ford Motor Co., Detroit, Michigan. Highland Park plant." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.
Something's missingGrassy area, no parking lot.
And not one car.How can this be? I feel so let down.
Albert Kahn's Old ShopThis is Albert Kahn's Old Shop of 1908-1909, the first of his many factory designs for Ford. It is perhaps the largest multi-story "daylight" factory ever built, and it employs Kahn's patented technique for reinforced concrete construction (the Kahn System). Kahn developed this system together with his engineer brother Julius; it was first employed in Building No. 10 for the Packard plant in Detroit in 1903. The immensely long Old Shop (800+ feet - we can see only about 1/3 of it here) would soon be joined by Kahn's design for Ford's "New Shop," which was built perpendicular to this building along the street at the right (Manchester Parkway) and is still standing today. Most of the Old Shop was demolished in the 1950s. Thank you, Dave, for this beautiful picture! 
The Clouded Crystal BallSon, a hundred years from now. Mr. Ford's factory over yonder will be a-making thousands of flying Model A's for your great grandbabies to drive.  They'll be going to the old country on weekends the way we go to Saugatuck nowadays.
I Can See Clearly NowSo that's what a factory looks like before the windows get dirty, painted over, broken, and boarded up. Wow! 
Kaaaaaahn!Albert Kahn designed many of Ford's early facilities, not only in Detroit but around the country.  There's still one of his Model T assembly plant here in Cincinnati, opened in 1915 and recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places and restored as an office building.  The design is quite a bit more sumptuous than the one pictured above, though being only a fraction of the size it was certainly easier to afford more embellishment.  I wonder if the Highland Park factory used similarly dark red brick.  I've noticed that many of these glass plate negatives dramatically underrepresent the darkness of red brick buildings.  
View Larger Map
No Parking?I suspect that this is the "before" photo.  The employees ride to work on the electric trolley car tracks out front.  Then they make the automobiles to drive tomorrow, so that they will need a parking lot.
One story is that Henry Ford thought that he had to pay his employees enough to buy his cars that he sold at a price low enough that they could afford.  Otherwise, his mass production methods would just build up unsold inventory!
Properly AttiredMens dress etiquette of the period was that you did not wear just a shirt sleeve in public, unless doing physical labor. Either you were in a jacket, with or without vest, or just a vest. Hats were optional, but the style of the day. Both are properly dressed. 
Dirt!So unusual to see the great Woodward Avenue as a dirt road!  Woodward has the distinction of having the first mile of concrete paved road, completed in 1909 for the princely sum of $13,537, starting 6 blocks north of here at McNichols Road (6 Mile road) and running to 7 Mile Road.  Had to have something to drive those new Fords on!
Newly built ComplexThe Albert Kahn designed complex at the corner of Woodward and Manchester didn't start pumping out autos until the late summer/early fall of 1910 and it wasn't until 1913 that the automated assembly line shifted into gear.
I'd bet that this photo was taken in june/july of 1910.
Bonded RailsAt the extreme right side of the photo you can see the cables that provide a good electrical connection between two pieces of rail. The electricity to power a streetcar is typically 600 volts Direct Current, and the positive side is the trolley wire, with power collected through the trolley pole. The negative side is the track, and the power connection is made from the steel wheels to the rail. Where the two pieces of rail are bolted together, it is necessary to use a copper cable to ensure a good negative return to the substation. The last streetcar to run on Woodward Avenue was in April of 1956. 
The Ford River Rouge plant had thousands arrive and leave by streetcar at shift change - there was a special station with prepaid fares and multiple loading platforms. Here is an interesting fact from "River Rouge: Ford's industrial colossus", by Joseph Cabadas:
"Filled with wanderlust, Henry went to Detroit in 1879 at age 16 and briefly worked at the Michigan Car Company, building streetcars."
Ford assembly plant in Shadyside, PittsburghFollowing up on Jeffrey Jackucyk's comment, here is a drawing of an apparently Kahn-designed Ford assembly plant and showroom in Shadyside, Pittsburgh. The present-day structure was not in the best state of repair and has been most recently used as a party store selling paper and plastic items for birthday parties etc.  The building is now being renovated (hopefully with some level of historical preservation) by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.   I didn't know how to embed the Google Maps street view photo as Jeffrey Jackucyk accomplished, but typing in "Baum Blvd. and Morewood, Pittsburgh" in Google Maps will suffice.    It is on the SE corner at 5000 Baum.  
The building was immediately adjacent to a railroad spur in a hollow/valley (~125 feet below the roof).  From the rail siding, far below street level, an elevator lifted bins of parts to different floors. On the top floor, workers started by connecting the chassis and wheels. The assembly line then operated by gravity. Workers rolled the chassis down a ramp to the floor below, where other workers installed additional components and built out the car.  On each floor, at each stage, workers added parts then rolled the car down another ramp. The finished car ended up in a parking area behind the building, at street level. There was even a well-appointed showroom on the first floor (which became the party store until recently), where customers came to kick the tires and buy the vehicles.
My great-great-grandfatherMy great-great-grandfather did carpentry work in the construction of that Highland Park plant. Later, his son, his son, and his son (my dad) all worked for Ford's in various skilled trades. What is extremely cool is that I now live less than a mile from the building that was the Portland, Oregon Ford plant. I knew it was an Albert Kahn design the moment I laid eyes on it. 
And not one car? Not producing yet.Since this photo is dated 1910 it could be that no cars were in production there yet as that started in 1910. Although difficult to tell for sure it looks like the back end wasn't there.
Although many may credit Albert Kahn for the building it was a cooperative effort, Kahn designing the 'shell' that went over the floor layouts directed by Edward Gray (check Wikipedia and other sources). My grandfather worked for him directly from their days together at Riverside Engine Company in Oil City, 1906 to 1909, when Ford hired Gray to be his Chief Engineer and Construction Engineer. Grandpa was his draftsman and stayed with Gray even after his days at Ford (Gray left Ford in 1914 to start his own construction work, developing 'Grayhaven' where Gar Wood eventually built is Detroit River mansion.)
Reference, "My Forty Years With Ford" by Charles E. Sorensen, p 125-126 (Available to view on Google Books)
Inside the addition c. 1913Maybe the only "family photo" of the interior, which Edward Gray, Ford's chief engineer, designed the inside of. Gray worked with Albert Kahn, doing much of the workflow design as Kahn designed the shell. Gray joined Ford Motor late 1909 and was key part of the design of the Highland Park Model T plant from that point to 1915, when he left Ford Motor.
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Detroit Photos, DPC, Factories)

Jell-O Shot: 1925
... great-grandfather owned the first mercantile in Wallowa, Oregon, many years ago in what is still a Wild West sort of rural community of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 2:41pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "F.G. Lindsay store." With some nice Jell-O promotions scattered about. National Photo glass negative. View full size.
Well stockedLots to look at here, from meat to washboards. And this POS display too.
Familiar brandsAnd they are still around today. I could find several Nabisco products, Diamond Crystal Salt, Lava, Sunmaid Raisins, Kellogs on the top right,  Quaker products, Heinz.
For all your popcorn machine needsC. Cretors & Company is still in business
3243 N California Ave, Chicago
www.Cretors.com
Clown-powered Popcorn CartsThe things you learn on Shorpy!
I always thought those popcorn carts with the laboring clown were invented by Disney as gizmos for his theme parks. Oh well. The model in the picture dates from 1909 and if you'd like to see it in color, you can find a photo here:
http://www.oldtoyz1.com/steamengines.html
B & B supplySix years earlier, this must be the place the Junior Marines got their basket and brooms.
I wonderwhat time of year this was taken. Christmas decorations are up, but the windows are open. Either it was a balmy day for D.C. or that place had a heck of a heater, I'm thinking. 
I spyArgo corn starch as well. It's still around today.
Debit or creditI'd like to pick up a few things, but I'm a little light on cash today. Maybe you can point me toward your ATM?
Always facing frontWhen I was a teenager I worked in some of my brother's grocery stores for a few summers. In a well marketed store you will always find the canned goods "faced," meaning every label must be facing forward. This store was immaculately kept and displayed. What a beauty. Back in those days there was only one way to run a mercantile -- the right way.
My great-grandfather owned the first mercantile in Wallowa, Oregon, many years ago in what is still a Wild West sort of rural community of cattle ranchers and Indians. The old mercantile (still open) was my first stop on fishing and hunting trips in the '70s.
It's amazing to walk into such a small store and see it filled with so many items. You can buy anything you could possibly need from groceries to farm feed, cowboy boots, saddles and tack, cast iron skillets, pot bellied stoves, fishing supplies, flannel coats, yarn, bolts of cloth. Sitting on the old wooden front porch sipping on a soda and remembering great-grandpa. Life was good.
MiscellanyThat is the most mysterious bucket of whatever I've ever seen. And it's the most out of place pile of ? right in the middle of a most tidy store.
To me it looks like it could be scraps of wax and or tallow.
However, there also looks to be a handle from a cabinet or drawer mixed in, as well as a door knob. bones, scraps of meat and paper.
Looks like a pail of garbage that someone forgot to throw out.
D.C. WeatherThere's a reason for the expression "If you don't like the weather in D.C., just wait a minute." It can be 25 and snowing on December 10th and 78 and muggy on the 11th. So it wouldn't be unusual to see windows open at Christmastime.
Bucket o' ???Any idea what that bucket might be full of?
Re: Bucket o' ???Perhaps a variety of natural sea sponges.
#3 Bucket o' ???Looks like assorted hard candies.  Wouldn't be Christmas without them.
"Tokio"Containers near the back on the right -- "TOKIO."  Any clues as to what's in them?
[Toilet paper. - Dave]
Tokio mystery containersTokio is an old fashioned spelling of Tokyo.  I expanded the photo as much as possible and the angled writing on the right hand side seems to say "Grade A".  The word at the bottom appears to be "Flour."
My guess is: Tokio Grade A Flour, although I had to laugh at Dave's suggestion that it was toilet paper.  No one is that full of .... oh well, never mind.
[No mystery. The wrappers say TOKIO TOILET TISSUE. - Dave]
(The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Stores & Markets)

Log Lading: 1942
July 1942. "Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Loading large logs on truck for transport to ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/31/2022 - 4:15pm -

July 1942. "Grant County, Oregon. Malheur National Forest. Loading large logs on truck for transport to railroad flatcar." Photo: Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration. View full size.
ParbucklingThese logs are apparently too much for that steam powered heel-boom loader to lift, so it is being used to roll the logs aboard by parbuckling, with the cable run under the log and attached to the truck frame, giving a mechanical advantage. The ramp timbers will then be repositioned to roll the third log on top of these two.
Note the CAT D8 at the far left beyond the Mack bulldog hood ornament. It probably made the very wide tracks in the center foreground. Air cleaner location makes it a D8, not a D7. Where it is positioned, it might have a cable attached to the truck trailer to counter the pull from parbuckling.
There is apparently no connection between this Edward Hines and the Detroit based Edward Hines, who did so much for paved highway development.
... and the hat on the guy at far right!
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Russell Lee)

Looking Back: 1948
... The overland journey from the Mid-West to Oregon and California meant a six month trip across 2,000 miles of difficult ... 
 
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)

Superior Street: 1909
... to 3 years. Similar laws eventually adopted in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/13/2012 - 6:42pm -

Duluth, Minnesota, circa 1909. "Superior Street." The newsboy's headline: JAP RIOT CRISIS. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co. View full size.
Maybe he stepped on a hatTwo things on the right immediately caught my attention:
1. There is a bald man walking down the street; he appears to be the only man in downtown Duluth not wearing a hat. He must have met with some devastating hat disaster. That shiny pate REALLY sticks out!
2. The man in front of Fitger's Beer who is looking down at his feet or something on the ground. I'm pretty sure he was saying or thinking: "Aw man, what did I just step in?"
Coming or going?This guy doesn't appear to be a window washer!
The Lyceum TheatreSaid to be Duluth’s first “fire-proof” theatre. It was built for live theatre in 1892, but in 1921 it was converted to showing movies. Demolished in 1963.
What did the Japanese do?To get that headline.
Fitger's beerhttp://www.fitgers.com/subpage.php?page=History
Hawaii RiotsThe newsboy's headline concerns an incident during a labor strike by 10,000 Japanese sugar plantation workers on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The wire service "riot" story was datelined "Honolulu - June 9" and ran in the New York Times on June 10, 1909. The wider story about this strike and its developments ran in many mainland newspapers throughout June and July, and concerned the efforts of Japanese sugar workers in Hawaii to achieve a wage increase from $18 per month to $22 per month. Much of the press coverage seems to have focused on "yellow peril" conspiracy fears, but a more nuanced report, "Who Will Develop the Wealth of Hawaii?" ran in the Times on June 27, detailing new efforts by white plantation owners to attract Filipino, Portuguese and Puerto Rican immigrants to replace the "restless and ambitious" Japanese.
News of the day?Can we get a close-up of the newsie to read his tantalizing two-word headline? Any guesses?
[Anyone read the caption under the photo? - Dave]
Spot the signIt looks hot and dusty -- perfect venue for a Coca-Cola advertisement!
Jap RiotThe headlines referred to riots in California due to a spate of new laws affecting the Japanese population.  Below is an outline of the years before and after the riot.  It clearly paints a picture for what happened during WWII.
1906
San Francisco School Board orders segregation of 93 Japanese American students.
1907
On orders from President Theodore Roosevelt, S.F. School Board rescinds segregation order, but strong feelings against Japanese persist. Anti-Japanese riots break out in San Francisco in May, again in October, much to the embarrassment of U.S. government.
Congress passes immigration bill forbidding Japanese laborers from entering the U.S. via Hawaii, Mexico, or Canada.
1908
The Asiatic Exclusion League reports 231 organizations affiliated now, 195 of them labor unions. U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root and Foreign Minister Hayashi of Japan formalize the Gentlemen's Agreement whereby Japan agrees not to issue visas to laborers wanting to emigrate to the U.S.
1909
Anti-Japanese riots in Berkeley. U.S. leaders alarmed at tone and intensity of anti-Japanese legislation introduced in California legislature.
1910
Twenty-seven anti-Japanese proposals intro-duced in the California legislature. White House urges Governor Hiram Johnson to seek moderation.
1913
Alien Land Law (Webb-Haney Act) passed, denying "all aliens ineligible for citizen-ship" (which includes all Asians except Filipinos, who are "subjects" of U.S.) the right to own land in California. Leasing land Iimited to 3 years. Similar laws eventually adopted in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Minnesota.
1915
The Hearst newspapers, historically hostile to Japanese, intensifies its "Yellow Peril" campaign with sensational headlines and editorials, fueling anti-Japanese feelings.
Something's missingCan't find the United Cigar Store!
Another Japanese connectionIn addition to the "JAP RIOTS" headline, a sign on the Great Northern Railway office announces steamship sailings from Seattle to Yokohoma and Kobe.
On a completely separate note, while street crowds in most vintage cityscapes tend to be predominately male, this one is the most extreme, with almost no women visible. It looks almost like a modern street scene in the Middle East.
I'll passon the Hot Beef Tea! Although 5 cents is a good price for lunch.
Count 'emThere are THREE trolleys running up this street. If I missed one, no problem! I could just wait a minute and hop on the next one!
Let's not forgetThe best 5 cent lunch in the city.  Was it the Hot Beef Tea that they were advertising?  
Hot Beef TeaThat's what it looks like the sign says. Or maybe it's Hot Beet Tea, which sounds even worse.
How to make it:http://www.thestrugglingcook.com/beef-tea.html
Beef teaBeef tea is nothing more than what we now know as beef broth, beef bouillon, or beef consomme. One of my unfailing go-to beverages when I am feeling puny, or (unfortunately) on a liquid-only diet. Why it was a big deal in 1909 I have no idea.  I am more concerned about the dude in the window, whether he is coming or going. My theory is that the husband came home unexpectedly. 
(The Gallery, DPC, Duluth, Streetcars)

Hustling Hermiston: 1941
... September 1941. "Traffic on main street of Hermiston, Oregon. Defense boom town housing workers for the Umatilla Ordnance Depot ." ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/16/2022 - 12:09pm -

September 1941. "Traffic on main street of Hermiston, Oregon. Defense boom town housing workers for the Umatilla Ordnance Depot." Acetate negative by Russell Lee. View full size.
Making ProgressTimes sure have changed. You used to have to grow turkeys?
Eyes rightThe guy in the front car (of five going each direction, plus a bus, woo hoo) facing the camera sure seems to be checking out something or someone over to his right. They/it were/was not in the line of sight of Mr. Lee's lens, more's the pity. The bespectacled and kerchiefed (or hatted) lady in the car just behind him and to his right, however, had an avid interest in either the photographer or his doings. Her female passenger was eager to scooch over and check him out, too.
Eat what?Somebody's gotta do it:  I'm surprised nobody has said anything about the SH??SHOP.

Flying A Gasoline Both window stickers on the trailing auto driving away, are in reference to,
 the Tidewater Associated Oil Co.'s  Flying A Gas. "Let's Get Associated" poster stamp series. Which were issued in the 1930s
  https://www.ebay.com/itm/403405260042
Kool AirEver been in Hermiston in the middle of Summer? I have. Trust me, the "Air Conditioned" bus and also the cafe on the right would have been the place to be.
Two  "EAT"and two "FOUNTAIN",  signing must have been expensive.
"Let's Get Acquainted"is what the small sign says, in the back window of the boxy older car in the center of the photo.  Any idea of what it means?  An advertisement slogan that everyone would understand?
[Let's get ASSOCIATED. A brand of gasoline. - Dave]
Still there!Amazing as it seems, the Hermiston Herald still exists after 116 years.
Still a busy little block
Survivors on the left, once a newspaper office, now shared by a dress shop and a church. Spots to lounge, have dinner, or lunch, are still there. A computer store, wellness center, and an antique store now appear. Bet that antique store has a few items from the early 1940s. I do wish they'd kept the angle in parking. Looking the other way, East Main is closed off to traffic for alfresco dining, courtesy Covid. Hopeful in 2022.
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, Russell Lee, Small Towns, Stores & Markets)

Beer's Here: 1941
September 1941. Hermiston, Oregon. "When workmen at the Umatilla ordnance depot broke a world record by ... the site. "Nearly all of them are empty," according to the Oregon Encyclopedia. RV Bunkers History and future of the former ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/20/2022 - 11:56am -

September 1941. Hermiston, Oregon. "When workmen at the Umatilla ordnance depot broke a world record by pouring concrete for twenty-four igloos in twenty-four hours, the contractor threw a beer party for them." (The "igloos" were concrete bunkers for storing munitions.) Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee. View full size.
It's that easy with the menBeer on the roof from Shawshank redemption movie comes to mind.
Two and a half years laterIn March 1944, one of the concrete igloos exploded while being loaded with 500-pound bombs, killing six workers.
The depot closed in 2012, but today 1001 igloos remain on the site. "Nearly all of them are empty," according to the Oregon Encyclopedia.
RV BunkersHistory and future of the former ordnance depot here. 
(The Gallery, Russell Lee, WW2)

The Sultan's Palace: 1937
... Does anyone know if this building still exists? I'm from Oregon, but I've always loved New Orleans and will be back soon to visit. I'd ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/03/2012 - 4:05pm -

New Orleans, 1937. "Le Pretre Mansion, 716 Dauphine Street, built 1835-6. Joseph Saba house. Also called House of the Turk." As well as the Sultan's Palace. 8x10 inch acetate negative by Frances Benjamin Johnston. View full size.
Iron LaceThere is nothing more iconically New Orleans than lacy ironwork balconies and long shuttered windows.  I'm so in love with this image!
Does anyone know if this building still exists?  I'm from Oregon, but I've always loved New Orleans and will be back soon to visit.  I'd love to put this gem on my list of places to see if it's there!
One last question - is it because of potential flooding that the home appears to be built one story above the street entry level?  Do those lower floors get used at all, or are they essentially a basement?
IntoxicatingAnyone who has spent time in New Orleans knows there is no other place quite like it.  It creates an atmosphere that is almost mind-altering, with the close, sultry, earthy air (no air conditioning in those days) and the curious, intimate stillness that occasionally occurs as in this photo, streets deserted with no signs of life except a bit of trash lying in the gutter.  Where is everybody?  They are inside and there lies the inspiration for the imagination.  Especially intriguing are the rooms behind the real, fully functional shutters,  open to air, closed to rain.  Are the people within just trying to stay cool with overhead fans, are they cooking spicy, savory red beans and rice, are they making crazy love, sipping sweet tea and sampling pralines, listening to Louis Armstrong on the Victrola?  I am transported back there by this so-accurate portrayal of a New Orleans street to where I can smell the smells and feel the surrounding humanity close, but unseen.  Thank you Shorpy.  As we know, you can leave New Orleans but New Orleans NEVER leaves you.    
Nice words, OTYYou've captured so beautifully what makes New Orleans unique.  It is one of the world's great cities "with a feel" that you just can't and won't find anywhere else.  I've been there half a dozen times or so, and every time I visit that curious intimate stillness you speak of strikes me.    
Harem of HorrorI've spent many a night in this house but I never heard the thump of heads of the Sultan's harem rolling down the stairs ... just the thump of tipsy neighbors falling up the stairs!
http://www.nola.com/haunted/harem/hauntings/murder.html
http://www.neworleansghosts.com/haunted_new_orleans.htm
["The Sultan's Massacre" makes a good ghost story, although it doesn't seem to be anything more than that -- a story. Any actual massacre would have been recorded in the newspapers of the day, and the "sultan" would have a name. If I had to pin one on him I'd say it was the Muslim entrepreneur Joseph Saba, who bought 716 Dauphine, along with several other New Orleans properties, after coming to America from Syria in 1886. What with Syria being part of the Ottoman Empire at the time, he could have been considered Turkish, although he wasn't a sultan, and seems to have died of natural causes. - Dave]
The beauty of cast ironNow that large buildings are made of glass and steel, we see what we have lost: romance.
Desiring a streetcarIts a shame that they tore out almost all of the streetcar system, the local traffic from Bywater to Carrollton and everywhere in between is miserable and could be seriously helped by better transit than the buses.
Thank goodness for Google maps!This wonderful building still stands at the corner of Dauphine and Orleans Streets. It looks like most of the incredible ironwork is still there, as are the original shutters (some missing a few slats).
The trolley car tracks are long gone, torn up and asphalted over, as happened in so many American cities in the decades between 1930 and 1950.
Does the personal-injury lawyer who occupies the building know its history and alias? Let's hope a friend sends her to Shorpy if she doesn't.
View Larger Map
Thanks, Dave, for adding the map link. Shorpy has made a reflex out of the use of Google maps for street-level architectural site obit checking.
Yes. The building is still there.This one, in particular has a good ghost story about it. A deposed Sultan rented the place and fillled it with harem girls and armed guards, not participating in the regular Creole culture of the City at all. Every single person in the building was found butchered to death one night. The people were chopped into little bits and the police couldn't tell how many people were killed.  So the place is haunted. "They" say that it was his brother, the real Sultan who had the entourage killed, the murderers escaped before the crime was known to the public.
I went to a garage sale in the courtyard once and pass by the building all the time. I just love living here in the Quarter.
Many homes are elevated or have storage type basements that are actually sitting on ground floor. 
Re: Iron LaceThe French Quarter is on the highest ground in New Orleans, and since the installation of pumps in the 1890s, flooding, beyond an inch or so in the street, has been a rare event. The lower floors of all buildings in the Quarter are functional. True, subgrade basements are very rare in New Orleans.
Dauphine dreamI was a bellman at a bed and breakfast on Dauphine Street my freshman year at Tulane in 1985. I had to be at work at 7 am Saturday and Sunday.  I rode my bike from uptown, and this picture really reminds me of the early morning stillness of the Quarter. 
IronworkMuch of the intricate and beautiful wrought iron that has helped make New Orleans so unique was actually made in the industrial North, mostly Cincinnati. Then it was floated down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and onto the balconies and steps and whatnot in N.O.
(The Gallery, F.B. Johnston, New Orleans)

Tom 'n' Larry: 1941
September 1941. "Sunbath on the beach. Seaside, Oregon." Enjoying "the panorama of the beach." Acetate negative by Russell Lee ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/06/2022 - 11:53am -

September 1941. "Sunbath on the beach. Seaside, Oregon." Enjoying "the panorama of the beach." Acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Naked Lunch.Click to embiggen.

Oddballs aboundSorry Dave but I can't figure out what you mean. All I see is the words Howling Dog on the front of the paperback.
But wow, the three leaning against the log ... mother-in-law along as third wheel? Real party animals, no? And the two sitting beneath the Sunfreze Ice Cream sign, checking the unlikely trio out, are almost as weird. The whole tableau strikes me as unsettlingly Hitchcockian. Something bad is going to happen to someone before long. But before it does, I would like a toasty sandwich and a rich, creamy milkshake from tom 'n' larry.
Classic Perry MasonMom is reading Erle Stanley Gardner’s "The Case of the Howling Dog."

“Soon … soon,” their hungry eyes would say.Hungry but biding their time, Tom and Larry seagull persevered in their quest, and eventually they were able to sample the mysterious box-lunch leftovers.
Moved to fudgeIn my day, mid '90s, Tom and Larry's did fudge, and did it very well, about a block from the ocean on the corner of Seaside's main street.
Thanks for the embiggening, DaveAt first I thought it was mother and daughter and the daughter’s guy, but it could be mother and son and the son’s girlfriend / wife.  (The young’uns look like they’re sharing a screen, but of course they’re not, thank goodness.)
See? Wall!Looks like the original seawall is still there. 

Knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heavenDave, how do you attach a photograph that can be embiggened?  I've learned how to embed a Google Street view, attach a correctly sized photograph, and create a clicky link. But searching the Internet for "embiggen a photo" doesn't produce helpful results.
[Plain old HTML. Click "view source" to see how it's done. Uncheck the "List" box.- Dave]

Contemporary sign designAm I the only one who is startled by the "tom .n. larry" sign? I keep looking at it, trying to tell myself that this wouldn't impress someone looking for a restaurant with some flair in 2022. I can see Guy Fieri pointing up to it, the camera taking a close up, just as he goes in to meet the owners.
(The Gallery, Eateries & Bars, Russell Lee, Swimming)

Knotty Kitchen: 1941
September 1941. Hermiston, Oregon. "Housing for workmen at the Umatilla ordnance depot discloses its ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/19/2022 - 2:10pm -

September 1941. Hermiston, Oregon. "Housing for workmen at the Umatilla ordnance depot discloses its temporary nature by the unfinished interior." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Sparse but with a pretty decent new fridge.
Just add waterThat's a low maintenance sink.  Drain never clogs and the water pipes never leak.
Bring back the Taster!In 2016, Hills Bros. reviewed its "packaging strategy". As a result the "Taster", iconic for a century and visible on the can in Lee's photo, got cancelled.
According to the company, the Taster "had been diluted". Among other things, his long yellow robe was perceived as being pajamas. (One suspects the main problem was the turban.) Furthermore, "the Taster had no equity [?] and was polarizing to the female audience."
As a result of this no doubt very expensive study, nothing of the Hills Bros. image was retained beyond "the color red and a large brandmark impression".
Her face is her fortuneWhat a dollbaby is that wee girl holding the dishes. I reckon she'd had ample experience washing all those neatly stacked plates and cups and bowls and putting them back (with the help of a stepstool) just the way Mama wanted them on the crude and cramped but sturdy shelves. Now though, her interest seems to be in serving some hot coffee that I hope is just off camera. In other news, I wish I had the massive trunk that you can see the corner of in the far left side of the photo. It seems to be serving as a surface for a cooktop, but what is IN it?
Unseen in the Photo Is the 13 year old son who has just finished hanging the towel back on the towel bar.
That trunk was made for travelingA flat-top trunk with hardware identical to the one in this photo came out of my grandmother's house.  It measures 23" high x 34" wide x 31" deep.  Ours had spent most of its life in a closet and cleaned up very nice.  I even cleaned the hardware to a rustic luster, then had a glass top made so it could be functional.  My great uncle probably used when he went back East on business.  On the bottom corners are small, cylinder-shaped rollers, so it rolls but doesn't spin around.  There is a leather handle at each end and each handle is stamped with a number for easy identification.  My stamp is 34 496.
Deftly LabeledThe trusty ol' Shorpy Slop Bucket - with a direct gravity feed from the sink! 
(The Gallery, Kids, Kitchens etc., Russell Lee)

Native American Women: c.1910
... “Perhaps” the plateau area referred to must be the Oregon Plateau. Please read the full informative comment below. Scanned ... similar in beadwork and design of the Umatilla people of Oregon. Possibly Umatilla Women Umatilla women posing for photographs ... 
 
Posted by D_Chadwick - 07/25/2016 - 7:13am -

Revised: 7/25/16
I sent a copy of this to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian to find out if they could identify what tribe they may be from. The reply I received reads:
“There are not enough distinctive articles to make a positive tribal identification. However, the purses provide some distinction as coming from the plateau area of the country.”
In my original caption I assumed the plateau was the Colorado Plateau since the negative came from Denver but thanks to Manidoogiizhig and his or her's insightful reply “Perhaps” the plateau area referred to must be the Oregon Plateau.
Please read the full informative comment below.
Scanned from the original 4x3 inch glass negative.
re: PerhapsThanks for your interest and help.  What you said makes perfect sense and I’ve revised my description.
I scanned the negative at 1200ppi at 250% and this is the clearest image I can get of the purses.
You can rule out Hopi and Zuni, for startersWrong kind of dwellings.  The Hopi and Zuni built permanent pueblo-style buildings, as the weren't nomadic. They didn't move from season to season, ergo didn't need tipis, as seen in the background of the shots.  The photo below is a multi-family Zuni dwelling. 
PerhapsAlthough I do not speak for my western brethren, but amidst the few details present and despite a somewhat unclear photo considering it was scanned from an original negative suggests that the photo was likely taken circa 1910.  The woman in the middle has on store bought shoes that were popular at the time.  The other two wear traditional native footwear.  All three appear to be wearing store bought dresses in style also suggestive of the era.  The one interesting factor is the hand bag being held by the woman in the middle and in particular the hand bag held by the woman on the right is quite similar in beadwork and design of the Umatilla people of Oregon.
Possibly Umatilla WomenUmatilla women posing for photographs usually carried a beaded bag, had braided hair parted in the middle and wore round flat earrings that were sometimes beaded.  Umatilla's also also lived in teepees. 1900's photographer Thomas Moorhouse made many Umatilla Tribe photos c. 1900 on the Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon.
Definitely high plainsThey're not in the desert - the grass appears too thick for that - and the terrain is certainly consistent with that you'll find around the Umatilla Reservation. If they are Umatilla, they're relatives of the people still raising wool for Pendleton Woolen Mills, which might explain the blankets and the dresses of nicely woven fabric as well. Pendleton maintains a beautiful tipi outside their headquarters in honor of this partnership to this day.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)

Yreka Comix: 1942
... Richard Brautigan. According to Wikipedia, he moved from Oregon to SF in 1956, and that the title of the titular poem was indeed taken ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/11/2015 - 6:25pm -

June 26, 1942. "Yreka, California. Magazine stand." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Great Story Name"Taken for a Slay Ride" on the 10 Story Detectives magazine.
I Want HueThis photo begs to be colorized by a Shorpy wizard.
Sky Fighters "A Thrilling Publication"Indeed!
Though in some cases the covers might have been the most exciting part.
Richard Brautigan"Rommel Drives on Deep into Egypt" is the title of a 1970 collection of poems by Richard Brautigan. According to Wikipedia, he moved from Oregon to SF in 1956, and that the title of the titular poem was indeed taken from that headline. I'd love to know how he first saw it and why he chose it.
Boy howdy!If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: "What a rack!"
Allied and Axis AviationThe artist for Dare-Devil Aces was working from a reference photo of an Avro Lancaster, although he took licence with the time of day--by 1942, Bomber Command had switched to night bombing pretty much exclusively.
The artist for Sky Fighters made things more difficult for the plane-spotter by the angle he chose, but it seems pretty clearly to be intended as Mitsubishi A5M2 "Claude" (I considered but rejected identification as the Nakajima Ki-27 "Nate"). He had somewhat more trouble with relative positions of things, but I suppose the page format cramped him; any pilot that close to the ground would be within about a quarter-second of a crash.
All the Western heroesThey all remarkably resemble John Wayne.
War Stamp BrideEllen Allardice, 1922 to 2014.  Obituary here.
QuirkyI found another one of the covers:
Pulp mags.Not comix.
Always FascinatingShorpy is always educational - or at least fascinating!  Checking out the Super Science Stories pulp cover, and did you know?  Malcolm Jameson (“Wreckers of the Star Patrol") did not start writing until after he came down with throat cancer, first published in 1938.  Sadly, he survived this issue by less than 3 years.  
Rommel is dead.   His army has joined the quicksand legions
   of history where the battle is always
   a metal echo saluting a rusty shadow.
   His tanks are gone.
   How's your ass?
Here's Most Of The HueMy first attempt at adding some accurate colour to the magazine stand - I've found an image online of every magazine here except for the July 1942 issues of "Super Sports", "West?", "Dare-Devil Aces", "Ten Detective Aces", and "Thrilling Western".
[Most impressive! - Dave]
What I wouldn't give...Though the comics might have no value, what I wouldn't give to have at least one of them in my possession.  Before you ask, yes. I WOULD read it.
Lovely Photograph I fell in love with this photo the first time I saw it awhile back and thought I just have to see this in colour. So I spent many days colorizing this photograph and I hope you all enjoy this photo in colour as much as I enjoyed colorizing it. 
(The Gallery, Russell Lee, WW2)

Native Fishers: 1941
... 1941. "Indians fishing for salmon at Celilo Falls, Oregon. At the present time Indians have by treaty exclusive right for fishing ... 
 
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)

Greyhound: 1938
... my mother and I rode a Greyhound from Eugene to Salem, Oregon. I was very small, but I remember there was a "hostess" on board. She ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/28/2012 - 1:40pm -

Washington, D.C., circa 1938. "Greyhound bus." Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size. Compare and contrast with this Greyhound.
Amazing!I agree with Anonymous DC Tipster, this is indeed a really cool bus! This pic went straight to my desktop!
Awesome!That's got so much style, I wouldn't mind getting run over by it!
Art Deco DesignI'd wager a guess that Raymond Loewy was responsible for this design.  Very hip!  A restored example today would go for big money at one of the big name auctions.  
The De Sade Deco Design TeamSeems like that "bumper" was meant to slice and dice anything or anyone it hit! Or, are those raised ridges rubber? Also the sharp looking potentially piercing spear points protruding from each side ... what? They don't appear to be glass (turn signal lights)? Pretty sharp to be door stops. Lots of linear stuff. Art deco stripes, all over, going on.
Yellow CoachLooks like a Yellow Coach 719, a state of the art bus that was sort of a roadgoing equivalent of the DC-3 airliner, in the sense that it represented the advanced engineering that was coming into being in the pre-war era, revolutionizing travel in the US. Pretty cool styling too.
The art of coolThat is one cool bus!
Riding in StyleThey must have hired an industrial designer to produce this streamlined art deco gem. Good looks aside, I wonder if the stripes and the "fins" on the bumper proved to be a maintenance nightmare.
Service long goneBack in the late 1950's, my mother and I rode a Greyhound from Eugene to Salem, Oregon.  I was very small, but I remember there was a "hostess" on board.  She wore a uniform similar to airline attendents (stewardess) at that time.  She served small sandwiches and drinks.  I became ill and she helped my mom clean me up and brought some soda water.  I've often wondered how long they provided this service and why it was stopped.  Does anyone else remember these ladies?
Go By Super-CoachNot only revolutionary in style, this coach introduced innovative features that still form the basic design of modern buses: rear engine, elevated seating platform and baggage storage below.  Hopefully Dave has a side view waiting in the wings.



Washington Post, Aug 16, 1936 


Greyhound's New Super-Coach
Is Latest Thing in Bus Comfort
New Model Represents Revolutionary Advance in Design
for Vehicles for Long-Distance Travel.

One of the revolutionary new Greyhound super coaches - radically different from any motor bus ever built - will arrive in Washington Saturday at the conclusion of a five-day tour from Cincinnati.
...
Over 300 of the new streamlined super-coaches are making their first appearance in Greyhound service throughout the Nation this summer.  Used exclusively by the the Greyhound system, the super-coachh is radically different from all other coaches on American highways in both construction and appointments.  The engine has been placed in the rear for more power and smoother operation, also to avoid noise, vibration and fumes.  Passengers ride high enough to look over passing traffic, and baggage travels in locked, weather-proof compartments below the floor, instead of over passengers' heads. More passengers are carried, yet the super-coach, of rugged aluminum alloy construction, weights two tons less than older equipment.  Deeply cushioned chairs recline at four different angles, and more leg room between the seats has been provided.  Frosted glass tubes shed soft, diffused light at night.


1938 Advertisement


Bygone eraEven their buses look cool!
Frosted Glass Tubes"Frosted glass tubes shed soft, diffused light at night." Fluorescents, perhaps? That would be another state-of-the-art feature of this vehicle. Apparently they first went on the market in a big way this very year, if you can believe Wikipedia. Of course, there's nothing to stop incandescent bulbs from being configured as frosted glass tubes, either.
Dwight E. Austin, DesignerThe Yellow Coach model 719 was designed by engineer Dwight Austin (Yellow Coach history).  You can read the entire 1937 patent and see additional drawings here.


(click to enlarge)

Greyhound 743The 743 model had the headlights slightly lower than the 719 (thus the headlight surround in the cast front end was not as high), the horizontal bars over the air intakes (beside the destination sign) rather than vertical.
The door sheet metal extended below the front step on the 743, no doubt to keep water out. The rear end was quite different with 2 windows instead of 3, and a different pattern in the cast aluminum ventilation openings in the motor doors. 
(The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, D.C., Harris + Ewing)

The Old Paxton Place: 1938
... figuring it out. With the wagon sign I am guessing the Oregon Trail ran very close by. Any idea on what "B-16" means? A position ... the covered wagon is a Nebraska state highway sign. The Oregon Trail wasn't even close. It ran west from Kansas City, crossed the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/08/2020 - 6:44pm -

November 1938. "The old Paxton residence. Omaha, Nebraska." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
2556 Douglas StreetI can't tell if the Yeshia Fregger Grocery is incorporated into the house or in front of it, but either way, this would have been at the corner of Douglas and South 25th Avenue.  Now an empty lot in a commercial area.
Tough centuryThe 20th century was not kind to the Paxton family of Omaha. In July 1907, at the home at the corner of Douglas and South 25th Avenue, its patriarch William A. Paxton -- pioneer turned entrepreneur turned Gilded Age oligarch -- "was sitting in a great porch chair chatting and laughing in the best of spirits with his wife and the Misses Sharp, friends of the family" when "he gasped suddenly," nearly fell off the chair, and died of a heart attack. Their only son, William Paxton Jr., died unexpectedly of pneumonia less than three years later, in 1910. Son William left a wife (Georgia) and four-year-old adopted daughter, Prairie Paxton. His widow soon married a New York state senator, Martin Saxe, and in 1912 relocated with her young daughter to New York, leaving the great house and "many of her business interests" behind. Prairie Paxton married Randolph Day, gave birth to a daughter Georgia, suffered an illness for two years, and died in 1930 at age 24.
Signs, signs, everywhere a signThat has to be the busiest US Route sign I've seen. I learned A LOT about the US highway system running through Omaha figuring it out. With the wagon sign I am guessing the Oregon Trail ran very close by. Any idea on what "B-16" means? A position locator one could then reference?
Stae highway signThe diamond shaped sign is a Nebraska state highway marker, which was adopted in 1926 and designed by state engineer Robert L. Cochran. The oxen-and-wagon symbol later became the official state symbol of Nebraska, according to Wikipedia. I can't tell however if the sign reads 8-16 or B-16 though. 
Brick artThat is one gorgeous chimney.  It’s plenty of fun looking at the house, fantasizing about occupying it, but I keep coming back to that masterwork of brick.
Nebraska HighwayThe sign with the covered wagon is a Nebraska state highway sign.  The Oregon Trail wasn't even close.  It ran west from Kansas City, crossed the Kansas River at Topeka, and then went northwest into Nebraska.  
Budget RemodelNeed to get rid of some windows? Stucco 'em over!
Baffling signageIt seems strange to me, twelve years after state highway engineers came to some sort of consensus about nationwide standardized signage, that we had signs that were so illegible. We have a US route shield with four route numbers instead of one, and the word "alternate". We have a state route shield that looks like a caution sign, with an inexplicably graphic depiction of a covered wagon, and two barely-visible route numbers. And I don't understand how anyone ever thought it was a good idea to place route signage on a post so low that it could be obscured by a single parked car, and yet we see this repeatedly in pre-war photos.
Also, not shown here: the letters L or R, on a smaller US route shield beneath the numbered one, to indicate a left or right turn. Even if the engineers were that oblivious to non-English-speaking drivers, were arrows really that radical of an idea?
But I'm just barely old enough to remember the last few dozen miles of western highway not bypassed by Interstate, and I'll turn 52 tomorrow.
It's All About EfficiencyIt is commonplace in cities for numbered highway routes to converge and "run together" for a distance before separating.  Nowadays in the USA, US routes have individual signs, sometimes resulting in dizzying arrays of 9 or 12 markers.  Much more efficient to have one sign calling out four different routes, no?  Similarly, the Nebraska state highway marker shows the conjunction of state routes 8 and 16.  
Makes Sense To MeAll four of those US highways are running "concurrent" through Omaha.  They converged there, and will separate inside or out of the city.  You don't need an arrow or turn instructions there because you have just passed through an intersection or junction and are now reading an "assurance" sign to let you know you are on the right path.  Keep going and follow the signs.  "Alt. 30" (or any other number) is nothing unusual in a city, even to this day.
Still there in 1955Historic Aerials shows the old home still there in the 1955 imagery. The next newer imagery is 1969 and the lot looks to have been a parking lot by then. 
(The Gallery, John Vachon, Omaha)

Vermont Mill Boys: 1910
... My father in law and his brother (both born around 1925 in Oregon) got shoes for Christmas more than one year. That meant going to school ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2012 - 7:04pm -

August 1910. Every one of these was working in the cotton mill at North Pownal, Vermont, and they were running a small force. Dave Noel, 14; Theodore Momeady, 15, working three years. Albert Sylvester, 16, working one year; Eugene Willett, 13, working one year; Arthur Noel, 15, working one year; P. Tetro, 15, working one year; T. King, 14, working one year. Clarence Noel, 11, working one year. View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine.
Mill BoysNot sure what Hine meant by these boys "running a small force."  At least he didn't say they lived in filthy tenement flats with untidy kitchens and beer-swilling fathers.
You can tell by the lint on their clothes what the air was like inside the mill.  I've been inside one.  The noise of all the looms clattering away is deafening. The workers wore earplugs.
[Hine is saying the mill was "running a small force," i.e. work was slack, not many employees. - Dave]
Vermont Mill BoysThis is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. The first child laborer I researched was Addie Card, a girl who was photographed at this mill, probably on the same day. You can see the whole story of the search for Addie at http://www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/addiesearch1.html
KidsThe boy third from the left appears to be rolling a cigarette ... and how could they work barefoot all day?
[The farther back in time you go, the more kids (and people in general) you'll find without shoes. - Dave]
Haunting...I have to admit that the look on the face of the middle boy (the short one) is absolutely haunting.  He looks worn out and old beyond his years.
Many of the kids who worked in the mills of upper New York state and Vermont were kids of expatriates from here (Montreal) looking for jobs.  
Dave Noel, Theodore Momeady, Albert Sylvester (Sylvestre), Eugene Willett (Willette), Arthur Noel, P. Tetro (Thétreault) and Clarence Noel are all French Canadian names (some like Sylvester and Willett are Americanized).
Pat
Noel family of PownalThe Phillip and Rosa Noel family of Pownal (per the 1910 census) have children Lilian age 16, Arthur 15, David 8, Clarence 11, Nelson 8, and Mabel 5. The parents had 7 children so one has died.  They are listed as born in Massachusetts and French Canada with all the previous generations born in Canada.  The dad is a foreman at the cotton factory and the children include 2 spoolers -- but these are the two oldest. The four younger children are listed as unemployed.
ShoelessMy father in law and his brother (both born around 1925 in Oregon) got shoes for Christmas more than one year. That meant going to school barefoot until then, as they'd grown out of last year's shoes by summer.
North PownalOur family lives in one of the foreman houses on Route 346, sold by the Berkshire Spinning Mill to Arthur Smith right before the mill was turned into a tannery. My daughter is doing a research project on the spinning mill. Her focus is the daughter of Arthur Smith; her name was Naomi. Wondering if you can provide any more on North Pownal between 1880 and 1930?
Vermont Mill BoysI have been down Route 346 and by the mill. My grandfather James Daughton married Vitaline Bechard in 1901 at St. Joachim RC Church in Readsboro, Vermont. They both worked in that mill. One of Vitaline's sister married a Tetro. Could be the boy P. Tetro as shown in the picture. Both families moved to Adams, Massachusetts, and worked at Berkshire Fine Spinning until they died. Their kids worked there too. What an existence working in the mills. My mother worked there at 14. I would be interested in any info you might have on the North Pownal Mill and North Pownal in general during that time.
Thanks,
Dan Harrington
Vermont Mill BoysThis is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. My comment below, dated 1-31-08 included a link to my story of Addie Card, who was also photographed at this mill. That link has changed. It is now:
http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/addie-card-search-for-an-ame...
(The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)

Airship: 1915
... Re: Pop Quiz At the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook, Oregon the building is called either a Blimp Hanger or an Airship Shed. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 12:35pm -

New York, March 22, 1915. "Navy dirigible, Long Island." 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.
HighI like the little guard house on top of the hangar.
Heave ho!This picture really illustrates the size of the ground crews needed to manhandle these things around.  Sort of like trying to deal with a huge drunken elephant on a unicycle.
Re: Pop QuizAt the Tillamook Air Museum in Tillamook, Oregon the building is called either a Blimp Hanger or an Airship Shed.
http://www.tillamookair.com
[Not quite. Next guess? - Dave]
Re: Re: Pop QuizStraight from my son in fifth grade: Aircraft are kept in a hangar. Not a "hanger."
[Sonny gets a gold star. Thank you! - Dave]
RockawayI thought the Rockaway Naval Air Station was founded in 1917, unless I have the location wrong.
Pop QuizWhat do we call the large structure where blimps and other aircraft are kept? (Hint: Not a "hanger," which is where you'd put a sweater, not an airplane.)
Blimp MemoriesI grew up in Akron, the home of the Goodyear blimps.  I used to see the crews muscling the blimps in and out of the huge blimp hangars there.  I toured one of the hangars on a grade school field trip.  The thing that impressed my young mind the most was the tour guide telling us that it would sometimes rain inside the hangar on a sunny day, because rain clouds would get trapped inside the hangar.
I was in Akron recently and saw that one hangar is still there. 
Not a Dirigible, not 1915My suspicions are confirmed by some brief online research. Dirigibles (rigid airships) are easily recognized by their "facets" - the skin is stretched across internal framing whose outline shows through. Blimps are inflated, and hence much rounder.
["Dirigible" does not, strictly speaking, mean "rigid airship" -- the current usage is a mistaken notion resulting from confusion over the similarity of the words "rigid" and "dirigible," which means "steerable." Ninety years ago, people correctly used the word "dirigible" to mean "steerable airship," whether or not the airship was rigid. The use of the word "dirigible" in the caption for this photo -- a caption written in 1915 -- has nothing to say about whether the airship has a rigid frame or not. - Dave]
Future Floyd Bennett NASHaving grown up in these parts, my educated guess is that we're looking at the future Floyd Bennett Naval Air Station, which operated until the middle 1960s or so. The multi-story building in the distance looks a little familiar. It might've survived until the 1950s. 
The C-4 at NAS Rockaway?This looks a lot like the C-4, which operated out of NAS Rockaway.  
However, NAS Rockaway wasn't built until (I believe) 1917
Here's some photos of it, including a shot of their blimp hangar.  Note the same doors, and the cupola on the roof.
http://www.farrockaway.com/carol/morprockawayairhistory.html
Here's an image of the C-4 herself.
http://www.oocities.org/fort_tilden/c4-1.jpg
(The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC, Zeppelins & Blimps)

McKenzie Pass: 1939
... Frye with his 1935 Dodge coupe at McKenzie Pass summit in Oregon, He was probably headed over into Central Oregon on a deer hunting trip. View full size. [Who was he? A ... 
 
Posted by fryejohn - 07/15/2016 - 7:28pm -

Ernest Frye with his 1935 Dodge coupe at McKenzie Pass summit in Oregon, He was probably headed over into Central Oregon on a deer hunting trip. View full size.
[Who was he? A relative? Family friend? Do you know who took the photo? -tterrace]
McKenzie Pass driverErnest Frye was my father. He lived in North Bend, Oregon from 1921 until his death in 1974. He made a trip to Central Oregon each year for a week long deer hunting trip and I would assume this photo was taken on such a trip, probably by a hunting partner. In the 1940s, he made the trip with a 1929 Ford sedan, towing a trailer with the hunting supplies. He liked the '29 Ford because he could drive it anywhere in the woods like a Jeep.
(ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
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