Greenwood Cemetary

 

A bit of an apology on this one.  Stereoview cards have a curve to them.  The card stock on this one is thick, and so even after putting a couple of books on top, I still couldn't get the card flat, so the focus isn't as good as it should be.  

There is a caption on the back, "The widely known cemetery is situated on Gowanus heights and covers an area of 474 acres.  The number of bodies interred up to July, 1896, was 290,000 or an average of about 5,000 per annum since it was opened."  

The Keystone View Company was founded by B.L. Singley in 1892 in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and finally went under in 1963.  Keystone originally specialized in humor and entertainment but eventually pivoted to educational imagery. 

S.S. Drottningholm

 

The S.S. Drottningholm was built in 1904 by Alexander Stephen and Sons in Scotland.   Her first owner was the Allan Line and was named the Virginian.  During World War 1, she was chartered by the British as a troop transport.  Sold to the Canadian Pacific Line in 1917 and then sold to the Swedish American Line in 1920, renamed the Drottningholm, and operated by the line until 1951, then sold to the Home Lines, an Italian company that renamed the ship Brazil.  The ship's final owner was the Hamburg American Line, which renamed the ship the Homeland.  She was scrapped in Italy in 1955.

It's partially obscured, but I'm fairly certain that this postcard is postmarked, "NEW YORK N.Y. SEP 10 5 P.M. 1947."  The message, "The time is getting closer but just to say "Hello" Feeling fine and all looks interesting-Don't forget to write.  Love Ingrid."  The card was mailed to "Mrs. Imogene Abzug, 1342 Sunland Ave. Jamestown, N.Y." 

And the captions, BREKVORT CARTE POSTALE, S.S. DROTTNINGHOLM, SVENSKA AMERIKA LINIEN, SWEDISH AMERICAN LINE, GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN.   Printed in Sweden, 45.1 55,000 11.6.47, 645." 

Nicky Blair's Carnival

 

It's been a while since I've posted one of these souvenir photo folders.  

So, I was able to find out a few things about Nicky Blair's Carnival. It was located in the Hotel Capitol in New York City, a hotel that doesn't seem to still be in business.  I wasn't able to find out when the hotel opened and when it shut down.  The same with the nightclub. Did Carnival die with the hotel, or did it close before the Hotel Capitol closed its doors for good? I have no idea. 

I found an advertisement for the hotel with a rather long caption, "Nicky Blair's Carnival, 51st and 8th Avenue, New York. NEW YORK'S MOST BEAUTIFUL NIGHT CLUB.  Presenting Olsen & Johnson, Beatrice Kay, and America's Loveliest Girls in a spectacular revue staged by John Murray Anderson, two shows nightly at 8:30 and 12 (Sats 8, 10, and 12:30). New York's biggest evening of Dinner, Show, and Dancing...All for the price of your dinner alone! NEVER A COVER CHARGE!" Well, I hope I transcribed that correctly. 

On the back of the folder, "Souvenir Photo $1.50. For extra copies write to: PLANETARY PHOTO, 311 West 34th Street, New York 1, N.Y. Use Number on back of Print Stating date taken and name of Club along with description of the photo." The number, handwritten, "146" and the date stamped, "JUN 6 1947."  I wasn't able to find anything about Planetary Photo, but I've found the name on some of the other souvenir photo folders I own.  

There's an inscription on the inside of the folder. "To Sam my samba partner Jackie Goldete. At least that's what I think it says. Her handwriting isn't the best in the world. And before I forget, the folder was too big for my scanner so all I've got is a somewhat marginal cell phone photo. 

Barney Seamon's

 

 I did a bit of research and found some information about Barney Seamon's Modern Clothing Store.  In February 1917, Barney was liquidating his store.  He had to retire due to ill health.  There is something written on the back, "Out on the State road near Coffin Crops-the same day we stopped at Coffin's & returned to the gorge behind Aunt Min's."  Well, I'm not sure about Coffin Crop's.  It could be Coffee Drop's, or perhaps Coffin Drops.  It's bad when someone has worse handwriting than me.  There are over 150 waterfalls in the Ithica area, all with their very own gorge.  I have no idea which one is behind Aunt Min's. 

Have a Pepsi

 

I've always been rather fascinated by the idea of a World's Fair, and it's one of the regrets of my life that I've never been to one.  So, the caption, "PEPSI-COLA PAVILION, New York World's Fair 1964-1965.  Peace through Understanding.  Animated figures representing children in national costumes entertain visitors on a Walt Disney-created cruise taken in specially designed boats.  A UNICEF exhibit is also included."  Child labor laws, I guess. 

Is This the Niagara River?

I don't really know.  I have family in Canada, and when I was a child I often found myself being shipped off to Toronto, and the route we took went through Niagara Falls, both the Canadian and U.S. side of the river.  We would usually spend some time along the Niagara River, and there were plenty of concrete slab overlooks, at river's edge, with nothing but a flimsy, steel pipe guard rail keeping little kids from falling into the river.  Anyway, there's just something familiar about this photo.  If I'm right this picture is from the upper river above the falls.

Music To My Ears 5

Stamped on the back, "PLEASE CREDIT Kerr 43 west 51st street new york, n. y. eldoarado 5-3178."  And yes, they did use lower case letters as I've typed them.  Well, I did find a bit about The Kerr Studio.  It was opened in 1951 by husband and wife team, Justin and Barbara Kerr.  Originally they specialized in theatrical portraits, but by the late 1950's they began restoring and photographing pre-Colombian artifacts from Mexico and Central America.  I dug up a bit on Barbara, but nothing about Justin.  Barbara went to the Pratt Institute and died in 2014.  As I wrote, a bit.  This collection isn't finished yet, but I'm going to shelve things for awhile and move on to other photos.

Once again click on Music To My Ears to see other posts from this series.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 8

Alright, I know I promised I'd find out more information about Honest Jimmy Higgins, but it looks like, not so much.  I'm headed out to the California desert to do some hiking and camping, I haven't had as much time as I had hoped, so here goes.  James Higgins was a reformer, yes he was honest and introduced forensic, scientific policing to Buffalo.  That's it, I just was too backed up to dig up more.   As usual, click on Higgins Pocket Gallery to see more.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 5

Finally a hat!  Spongy the larcenous tailor.  Click on Higgins Pocket Gallery in labels to see more.

Higgins' Pocket Gallery 4

I've established that Honest Jimmy Higgins was the Buffalo, New York Chief of Police.   I have to wonder if the pocket Gallery was only distributed in Buffalo.

Yet again, click on Higgins Pocket Gallery to see more.

Going to the Gym, Really Tired

Believe it or not, there was a time when it was against postal regulations to write anything on the back of a postcard, except the address.  Not wishing to be so limited, people wrote their messages all over the front.   I'm not sure how easy it will be to read this, even if you click on the image and bring it up in a bigger window.  In a more things change the more things stay the same, the sender of this card is complaining about being tired after going to the gym.  I doubt it was a spin class.

Addressed to "Miss Mae E. McGovern, Lowville, Lewis Co., New York"  Postmark, "NEW PALTZ, OCT 26. 7 AM, 1905, N.Y." 

Woman on Horseback

I got tired of having my desk covered in loose photographs and old postcards, so I bought a plastic box and shoved everything in and was finally able to see wood grain.  True, it's fake wood grain, but small victories.  On the other hand, out of sight, out of mind, so I now find myself having to make time for The New Found Photography.  Just in case anyone was wondering about the slower pace of my efforts.

So, despite the card stock this was printed on, lacking a publishers name and address, this is not a real photo postcard.  Blow it up and take a closer look and the very tiny dots found in mass commercial printing are quite visible.  I can remember, when I worked in photo labs, if we wanted to make a copy negative of something from a magazine we had to use a special filter on the process camera to descreen those images. 

While this postcard was never mailed there is something written on the back.  "Hazel Jester 595 St. Ams Av N. Y. City  Lovingly Nanna 1921"  Anyway, I was pretty sure that there wouldn't be a St. Ams Avenue in New York City, or for that matter anywhere  else.  I figured it must be a hastily written corruption of St. James Ave.  I looked it up, it's in the Elmhurst section of Queens at the corner of St. James and Broadway.  Not the Broadway in Manhattan.

The Singer Building

Perhaps it's my age.  Perhaps it's my mother making clothes for the family on her sewing machine.  For whatever reason, say Singer and I think of the sewing machine company.

The Singer Building in New York City was designed by architect Ernest Flagg.  It was completed in 1908 and for two years at, 47 stories and 612 feet high, was the tallest building in the world.  The Singer Building has another interesting distinction.  In 1967 it became the tallest building to be torn down.  It seems it's extraordinarily difficult to raze really tall building, which might explain why there are so many old, ugly skyscrapers in cities all over the planet.  (Perhaps, they'll be our version of the great pyramids.)  Before the destruction of the  twin towers of The World Trade Center, the Singer Building remained  the tallest building razed and is still the tallest to be razed voluntarily.

Printed on the back, "SINGER BUILDING and part of the financial district, New York City.  Singer Building located on the corner of Broadway and Liberty Streets is 47 stories high rising to a total height of 612 feet.  In it are 5,000 tenants who are carried to their offices by 16 Otis traction elevators.  The foundations consist of 36 caissons sunk to bedrock 92 feet below the surface.  Built by the Singer Mfg. Co."  This card was published by The Manhattan Post Card Company and credits Irving Underhill as the photographer.  Irving Underhill was a prominent commercial photographer in New York City specializing in urban and marine landscapes.  He was born in 1872 and died in 1960.  Underhill provided photographs for postcards and book and magazine illustrations.

Ladies, Parasols, and Burning Oil

It may be necessary to click on the image and bring it up in a bigger window to see, but there are ladies, with parasols who have come out to see the burning oil tank.  What a fun way to spend a sunny afternoon.  And for the record, I'd come out to watch a burning oil tank, though I would keep a greater distance.

Published by "HARRY H. HAMM, TOLEDO, OHIO." 

How Albany Looks

It didn't start out that way, but it looks like I'm posting river front postcards.  (The Mount Washington Incline is 100 or so feet from the Monongahela River.)  So, about a month ago I read Volume one of Edmund Morris' biography of Theodore Roosevelt.  That monstrosity of a building in the far background, the one with the tower and turrets, is the New York state capitol building, which opened when TR was a state assemblyman.  I'm more interested in the river boats.  Even in this day and age, I see riverboats as a perfectly reasonable way to get around the mid-west.  So it takes a couple of days to get from Pittsburgh to St. Louis.   I mean, if you're not in a hurry, what difference does it make. 

Sent to "Mrs Laura Knight, Ludlow, Vermont."  Three postmarks on this one, "TROY N.Y. SEP 21 1 PM 1906," "WATERVLIET N.Y. SEP 21, 1 PM 1906,"  and a smeared one , all that's visible is the date, "SEP  22 7 AM 1906."  Obviously from Ludlow.  How Troy and Watervliet can have the same postmark date and time is beyond me.

Stony Point

Another undivided back postcard, this one never used.  There are a lot of Stony Points in the United States, but I think this is the one in New York.  Along the Hudson River, it's considered part of the New York City metropolitan area. 

The Lucky Crocodile

Not very lucky, considering he's dead, stuffed, and mounted on a wall.  This is another one from the studio of Lehnert & Landrock, so navigate back one post for some biographical info on the pair.  This card was used, and the message is, "Hello all.  Hope you & Pop are still well. Joe"  Mailed to "Mr. Al Sweede, 168 West 98th St., New York City, U.S.A."  Hey, when it's New York City, you don't need the state.  The postmark is smeared, so no date.

The Here, There, and Everywhere Collection-The Page With Articles on the Back

Over the years, I've learned to take the claims of sellers with a certain grain of salt.  One of the things I've noticed is that when I ask if a collection I'm purchasing is all from the same source, they almost always say absolutely, local estate sale. So, taking the man at his word, I've just purchased an envelope of photographs from an eBay dealer in Wisconsin who assures me that they're all from a local estate sale. I haven't counted up everything yet, but there's a fair amount of images to go through.  Needless to say, I'm going to break things up, so who knows how long it'll take to post the lot.  So, click on  The Here There and Everywhere Collection in labels to see things as they unfold.

So, why I'm I titling things Here There and Everywhere.  There are few album pages, and a lot of loose photographs.  Some are labeled, and some are not.  There are a lot of different locations mentioned.  In this first post, Massachusetts,and  Alabama on the front page, and in the article, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Illinois, and Ohio.

And for those who can't make out the labels on the photographs, the little girl is "Virginia Lee Stockam," though I suspect that should be Stockman.  Right under the photo, "Birmingham, Ala."  And the house, "9 Wedgemere Ave.  Winchester, Mass."  And under the photo, "Residence Vivian B Whitcomb Winchester, Mass."

Remember, you can always click on an image and bring it up in a larger window.  It'll make it easier to read the article.

The U.N. Restored

I like playing with the color restoration setting on the scanner.  Sometimes it works well, sometimes not.

Visiting the United Nations

I'm not going to write much about the United Nations.  There's a ton of written material about the U.N., both on line and in books.  The U.N. was an outgrowth of the World War 2 alliance that fought Nazi Germany and the Japanese militarists. The conference that laid out the structure of the U.N. was held in San Francisco between April and June 1945, and the actual treaty that created the institution was signed on October 24, 1945 at Lake Success, a small village on Long Island, New York.  It's headquarters has been in New York City since it's founding.  It's current building opened in 1952, and was designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Neimeyer.

Remember  the good old days when most Americans supported the United Nations.  I know lots still do, but those numbers are a lot smaller today.  The first photo in this column is labeled "UN TRIP AUG 10."  The second and fourth, "W L WALTER," the lady, "A M WALTER."