George Ekblaw and the Bananas

  

When possible, I like to do a little research on the images I post, and this one has a fair amount of info that I was able to run down.  To start with, the card's original photo is credited to "A. HIRSCHWITZ, NEW ORLEANS. LA."  I wasn't able to find any biographical details on the man's life, but I was able to find quite a few postcards credited to him, all published by 'THE CURT TEICH @ CO. CHICAGO."  Whether he was a freelancer who specialized in postcards or an employee of Curt Teich, well, I wasn't able to find any info on that.

There was a message written on the back, "I am seeing the sights at first hand.  Lordy here-azaleas, camelias, oleander in bloom.  I may see you-I will stop off at Mother E's on my way back. KJ has left for Florida to day.  Sunday we made a side trip to Biloxi.  Regards to all. AE."  

The card is addressed to "Dr & Mrs George Ekblaw, 511 W. Main Str, Urbana, Ill."  The postmark, "NEW ORLEANS LA, FEB 6, 11 AM., 1939"  

So, this is where it gets interesting.  I found a memorial page for the life of George Elbert Ekblaw, of Urbana, IL, published by the University of Illinois.  I'm only going to hit the highlights, so for those interested in more detail, it's easy to find online.  George Ekblaw was born in 1895 and died in 1972.  He was a veteran of World War 1, and after returning from Europe, he taught school for a few years, and eventually got degrees in engineering and geology from the University of Illinois.  After getting his degrees, he joined the Illinois State Geological Survey's Engineering and Geology Section.  It looks like it was his job to work on dams, roads, and tunnels.  I assume it was his specific task to survey the underlying geology for state projects.  He also found time to map the glacial moraines of Illinois and write at least one book on the geology of Illinois. He married Emma Josephine Nyberg and fathered at least one son, Andrew Ekblaw II, also a graduate of the University of Illinois, and also an engineer, though he moved to New York State and worked for G.E.  Andrew was born in 1933 and died in 2016.  If Andrew was the person who sent this card, he was all of six years old, so despite the initials, I'm thinking it was another Ekblaw. 

And the caption, "New Orleans, is the world's greatest banana port, more than 700 ships arrive each year loaded with 25,000 to 50,000 bunches of bananas.  Each individual bunch of bananas is carried from the hold of the ship to the door of the refrigerator car on mechanical conveyors."  Also, "NEW ORLEANS-AMERICA'S MOST INTERESTING CITY."  I'm not sure about that one.  I've been to New Orleans, as well as some other very interesting American cities. 

A Century of Progress 1

 

I've written before about my fascination with World's Fairs and my disappointment that I've never had the chance to visit one.  This is one of four postcards I own from this series from The Chicago Word's Fair that ran from 1933- 1934.  This one is numbered 223, the lowest number of the four I have in my collection.  The highest, 235.  The caption, "Official post card of A CENTURY OF PROGRESS, 223. Northerly Isle from the Lagoon."  Published by the Ruben H. Donnely Corporation, Chicago.  I won't be posting the four cards I have in a row, so click on The Century of Progress Collection in labels at the bottom of the post.  I don't know why, but it's fairly common for Blogger to slice just a hair off the right side of horizontal images, so just click on the postcard to bring it up into a window. 

Before & During

 

Written on the back of the top image, "July / 41 Batavia, Ill."  So, four to five months before Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into World War 2.  Written on the bottom print, "Helen & My Ma taken in the Sunken Gardens just of the hill & the Hotel. August 1944."  Not long after D-Day.  

School Play

 I hope the little girl on the left grew up to be a great actress so she could go back home and remind people, that once upon a time, she was almost cut out of the picture.  There's a very faded processors stamp on the back, which is mostly unreadable, but "Decatur, Illinois" can be made out.  

Mason City, Again

 

Of the four cabinet cards I purchased, this is the one that might not show a member of the Rayburn family.  So, a bit about photographer on T. H. Eulass, a very small bit.  Eulass was, apparently, an itinerant photographer.  He was known to work out of Joplin, Missouri, as well as Indiana, and Ohio.  And of course, Mason City, Illinois.  

Mason City

 

I hadn't purchased any cabinet cards for awhile, but I just picked up four of them at a reasonable price.  Two of them have names written on the back.  The top one, "Eddie Rayburn & Family."  Then a bit lower on the back, "Ralph, Floyd."  I guess the mother didn't merit a mention.  The other photo, "Arthur Rayburn."  The other two cabinet cards, which I'll be posting in the next two slots, are almost certainly members of the same family.  I wasn't able to find anything on the Rayburn family.  

As of right now, I haven't been able to locate any information on T. H. Eulass, the photographer of the top photo, but I was able to find a mention of S.M. Miller, whose mark was found on the back of the second image.  Samuel M Miller was born in Illinois, in 1839.  He's listed in the 1860 census as a farmer.  I couldn't find any indication that he served during the Civil War.  In 1863 he married Lucea A. Whitney, the daughter of his boarding house landlord.  From 1870 to 1900 he's listed as a photographer, and, over the years, father of four children.  By 1910, he's a widower and retired.  So far, I haven't been able to find a date of death, but I'll try a few more searches with the next two posts.  

Duke & Diane

As a rule, I don't show the decorative borders found on many old photographs.  Most are pretty much the same and unless a particular border is unique, I kind of figure, if you've seen one, you've seen them all. 

So, information on the back of the print.  "Dec. 27, 1935.  Duke & Diane Andrews. Taken at 1228 S. Wisconsin Ave. Berwyn, Ill.  9-7 years."  Let's start with the obvious, the helmet Duke is wearing is probably a Christmas present.  Football, would be my best guess, though in an era that was mad about aviation, it could also be a flyer's helmet.  The leather jacket was also the type of clothing worn by early, open cockpit aviators, so perhaps Duke wanted to be like his hero Charles Lindbergh.  There is a dark blob against the wall that I think could be a dog.  I tried looking up the names on line but pretty much struck out.  Diane Andrews is too common of a name.  Also, if she got married, any mention would have probably been by her married name.  Duke is probably a nickname which doesn't really help, though there is a Duke Andrews basketball league in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  A connection?  Perhaps, but impossible to tell.  And finally, Berwyn is a suburb of Chicago. 

Bold choice for an amateur photographer, taking a picture next to light patterns from the window, which is very difficult to print. 

Graduating In Peace

I'm not quite sure what this picture represents.  Maybe a prom photo or homecoming.  It's a bit out of focus, but once I blew it up, it looks like the sign above the stage reads Classes with some dates.  I'm not 100% sure, but I'd say 1938, 1939, 1940 and 1941.  Perhaps it means that those four classes raised money to pay for the auditorium.  In any case, there is a photographer's stamp on the back, "ARTHUR W. F. LOWENSTEIN, MORO, ILL. OCT 22 1945"  If I'm reading it correctly, the class of 1941, the last one listed on the sign would have been the last graduating class before World War 2, and the Class of 1946 would be the first to graduate after VJ-Day. 

I couldn't find anything about the photographer, but Moro is near St. Louis, Missouri. 

From Illinois to Iowa

I can't make out too much of the licence plate or the writing on the spare tire cover, but I can make out "ILL" for Illinois.  Written on the back, "Road-side in Iowa."  With the suit case tied to the back bumper, I'm thinking that all American tradition, the road trip.  How long would it have taken this family to drive from coast to coast?  No Interstates when this photo was taken, few paved roads west of the great plains, and a shortage of gas stations in the hinter lands.  My state of California is about to raise it's gas taxes by 12 cents a gallon, with the money going for road repairs.  Hopefully, the once paved roads that have slowly but surely turned into rough, dirt tracks can get repaved.

Long Beach Album Photo, The Second Side

Perhaps it's actually the first side.

This one's captioned, "Gwendolyn Ljunggren. Day she left for Waukegan-Ills."

When I get a name that's pretty common, I don't bother  doing any research.  If I ran "Mary Jones" I'd probably get a thousand hits on Goggle.  But Gwendolyn Ljunggren begs for a quick trip to Goggle land.

The first problem with searching for a woman is that they have a tendency to get married and take their husband's name, so it was no surprise that the only direct reference to a Gwen Ljunggren, in Los Angeles, that I found was a marriage record.  It didn't have a date, but Gwen's husband, Theodore Pretz was listed as head of household in the 1930 census.  His birth year was listed as 1906, and Gwen was listed as being 18 years old, giving her a birth year of 1912.  The photo on the other side of this picture was dated 1914.  I'm not very good at estimating the age of children, but I'd say four or five, so it's the right era.  And, since I wasn't willing to provide a credit card number to Ancestry.com, that was it as far as Gwendolyn went.

As for Theodore, his profession was listed as furniture salesman.  I also found out that he was a Marine in World War 2.  Let's say he joined up in 1942, which means he was running the obstacle  course at 36.  That's pretty old for that sort of duty.   He died in 1957.   Pretty young.

Of course, just because Gwendolyn Ljuggren is a rare name, it doesn't follow that this Gwen became Mrs. Theodore Pretz.  Perhaps she changed her name to Mary Jones and disappeared into the vast digital wasteland.

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 9

This one's a real question.   Is this the owner of the album, or did the person who put the album together just like the image?  I've got another explanation, that I concede is almost certainly wrong, but I'm going to throw it out anyway.  Is this a 1920s version of a boudoir photo?  Did the lady in the photo travel to Chicago to have an exotic picture taken of herself?  Probably not.

Click on Waterbury Box Co. Album in labels to see the rest.

Views of the World, The Chicago Stockyards

I've still got a lot of cards from the flirtation collection to go, so I shouldn't, but I'm going to start another, once in awhile, probably take more than a year to post, collection.  I've had the postcards in this lot since I was in high school, and for those unaware, I'm  just a few months away from my sixtieth birthday.  Yes, I've been picking up old photos and postcards that long.  The numbered images top out at 48, but I am missing numbers 6, 7, and 45.  Every so often I go on EBay, specifically, to look for those three missing cards, but I've never found them.  None of these cards have ever been used, and no publisher is listed.  I'll put views of the world in the labels section at the bottom of the post for all cards in the collection.

I already knew a fair amount about the Chicago Stockyards before posting this image.  I new that the stockyards weren't owned by the big packing companies, but by railroads looking to create a single, central location to ship animals, ready for slaughter.  Chicago had become the main rail center for the United States because the Illinois congressional delegation had pushed Chicago as the terminus for the major American railroads, and congress had that power because the federal government had subsidized early railroad construction.  What surprised me was that the Chicago Stockyards also were a major tourist destination, with viewing platforms built so that people could look over the thousands of animals waiting for death.  I'm always amazed what people are willing to gawk at.  I'd criticize, but if the stockyards were still in business, I'd take a look if I were in the area.

Now, about The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.  I read it in high school, and reread it just a few years ago.  Every American should read this book, and any school that doesn't assign it as mandatory reading, isn't doing it's job.  Do public schools still buy into the great books theory of education?  I hope so, though I doubt it.

Three Guys Lurking In Garfield Park

I'm abandoning my usual practice of cropping out borders, even decorative ones, because someone was unable to write small enough to keep the labeling out of the image.  Thoughtless!  Well, what do you expect from these three lurkers, who are, very likely, up to no good.  Personally, I suspect they're mashers.

Garfield Park, in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, first opened as Central Park in 1874.  Then it was 40 acres, today it's grown to 184.  It's original design was by landscape architect, William LeBaron Jenney.  In 1881, the name of the park was changed in honor of the recently assassinated president, James A. Garfield.  Garfield Park is also the home of Garfield Park Conservatory.  (No, not a music school, but one of the largest municipal greenhouses in the United States)  In 1905, parks superintendent Jens Jensen, had demolished three small conservatories in the parks system.  With the collaboration of several architects and engineers, he designed the 4.5 acre replacement.  It was built in Garfield Park, with construction lasting from 1906 to 1907.  It's design was meant to mimic the shape of a prairie haystack.  Jensen also designed the building with separate rooms, each meant to invoke a particular landscape.  Some of the oldest plants at the conservatory are a collection of 300 year old giant ferns.  Hmm, isn't that where our three lurkers are lurking?

Time to delve into the world of archaic language.  Today, mashing is known as inappropriate touching if the judge is feeling generous, sexual assault if he(or she) isn't.  Basically, men, mostly young men, would position themselves in some semi hidden place, like a secluded walkway in the Garfield Park Conservatory, where young women would likely pass, and as those women passed, they would reach out and, well, cop a feel.  And yes, mashing was a crime.  Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso, was arrested for mashing in San Francisco a few days before the 1906 earthquake.  I have no idea whether he ever stood trial or not.

A quick confession on the Caruso story.  About two decades ago I read a book on the quake, so I'm going on memory on this one.  I'm just too tired to go online and research details.  To use a favorite term of former Pres, George W., I might be misremembering, so don't quote me without looking it up.

More Small Photos from Bloomington, Illinois

As promised, more very small photos from Bloomington, Illinois, which may or may not be related to the previous post.

Small Photographs From Bloomington, Illinois

Yet another example of a dealer who broke up a photo album for greater profit for him, and greater frustration for me.  I asked him if he knew anything about these photos and he told me that he thought they were from an album owned by the L.E. Johnson family of Bloomington, Illinois, and he thought that one of these women was named Mildred McClintock, and the man was Paul.  Sadly, he had already sold the pages with captions and was just guessing.  And yes, they are tiny.  The width of the page is less than four inches and the smallest photos are a bit under half an inch square.  At that size, they don't scan well and they blow up even worse.  I've got a few loose pictures that the dealer thinks may go with the album but isn't really sure.  They'll be in the next post.   They're tiny too.

More From the Brewers

More from the Brewers of Ohio.  This is the third postcard I've found from this traveling family.  This one is addressed to "F.A. Brewer, 623 N. St. Clair, Painsville, Ohio"  I've managed to confirm that F.A. Brewer is Frank A. Brewer, born in Painsville, Ohio on May 30, 1891.  There were quite a few Brewers born at about the same time.  But who sent this postcard?  The message, "Feeling fine.  Had good milk. Children good, not tired, getting in Chicago.  Will write soon.  C.B."  And added latter, "10 P.M. getting on train in Chicago."  Not exactly florid prose.  C.B. could be Frank's sister Carrie  or perhaps Frank's wife.  Impossible to tell.  The card was postmarked "CHICAGO ILL OCT 9 1928"  If C.B. and the kids were on their way to Painsville, did they beat the postcard?

Click on Brewer in the labels section to bring up the other cards.

Camp Grant

"Social "Mixer"-Service Club, Camp Grant, Ill. Dancing at the Camp Grant Service Club is enjoyed by every soldier. All types of entertainment are to be had here; include books, concerts, amateur shows, radio broadcasts, and impromptu gatherings. The Service Club houses one of the most modern cafeterias in the middle west, and offers a haven for the army man who wants "something to do" or merely wants to sit down and write a letter to the folks back home." Addressed to "Mr. Thomas Schiller, 1201 Meridian, Granite City, Ill." The message, "Dear Tom, Boy is it dead around. I sure miss home and that Good old Beer. Otherwise camp is swell. I think I am going to like the army. your Pal Ralph." Postmarked "2 ROCKFORD, ILL AUG 28 12:30 PM 1943." During World War 2, military personnel had hand franking privileges that allowed them to use the mails for free. The post office put a cancellation, an ad for war bonds, that partly obscures the soldiers name, and it's a shame because I can make out a last name with over twenty letters. This is what I can make out, "Pvt. Ralph Pasyustd (and then rest is obscured.) Co. E Bx T160 SU. U.S. Army, Camp Grant, Ill." Poor Ralph, he's bored, misses home and his favorite beer. But still, he thinks he's going to like the army. Well, it's not like he had much of a choice. In World War 2, once in the military, you were in for the duration.
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About Camp Grant. It was built on land outside Rockford, Illinois in 1917, and was decommissioned in 1921. It was used by the Illinois National Guard from 1924-35, and housed CCC workers from 1934-35. It was reopened in 1940 when the peace time draft came in, and closed after the war in 1945. Today, the site of Camp Grant is now the Chicago Rockford International Airport. From Sept. 23 to Oct. 1, 1918, over 1,000 soldiers died in the great flu pandemic that swept the world. For more info on Camp Grant, go to http://www.campgrant.org/

Study In Knees

No, not those knees. "STUDY IN KNEES AT CYPRESS GARDENS Cypress knees come up from the roots of the trees in fantastic and gnarled shapes but never grow to be trees, only acting as breathers, the same as leaves do on other trees." Addressed to "Ralph Lerch, Granite City, Illinois. U.S.A." And the written message, "Here's a little still study in art that you might like. Beautiful scenery & stuff on the beach. Boy they sure give you some service in Miami. A fellow comes out every few minutes and gives you the run down on the horse races and takes your bets while you're lying in the sand. See you all latter. Kindest regards to Fran, Frankie and yourself. Al Lehman" The funny thing is that this postcard has Cuban stamps and no post mark, so it looks like Al took the boat to Havana and did some more drinking, gambling, and maybe hit a brothel or two, then never mailed the card.

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I've always thought of Las Vegas as the place that nice middle class Americans go to sin in safety. Miami and Havana, both mob cities in the forties and fifties, could have been a little more dicey for Al Lehman. He might have been one of the many low level gangsters who made some cash during prohibition who then went semi-legit with a night club, illegal gambling in the back room, and a couple of girls who sat at the bar and cut in the house for a percentage of their earnings. Miami and Havana would have represented the big time to him. Then again, he might have been a nice respectable guy who wanted a bit of fun that would impress Ralph Lerch. What a great name.

A White Wedding

I have no idea what the bride wore, but I do have this shot of a wedding guest in his white shoes and suit. The lady he's standing with seems to be a member of the wedding party. Stamped on the back, "ALBERT PHOTO SERVICE Candid Photography 5106 W. 22nd Place-CICERO, ILL. REORDER BY NUMBER."