Vintage Photos

"Nicollette at Boswell, Pa." Sign: "Come In. Only 5¢." I haven't been able to uncover any information regarding this "Nicollette" (or "nicollettes," perhaps, if there were others besides this one), but my best guess is that this was an early nickelodeon move theater . See also a cropped version of this photo for a close-up of the entrance and the guys sitting on the steps.

For more information, see the full version of this real photo postcard.

A real photo postcard showing miners at the Atlantic Coal Company's Mine, Boswell, Somerset County, Pa.

A machinery photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Although this real photo postcard shows what looks like a complicated Rube Goldberg contraption , it actually appears to be some sort of elaborate one-man music machine. The postcard dealer who sold this to me described the scene simply as a "pipe organ player at keyboard," but upon closer inspection I was able to identify a number of other musical instruments--a guitar, string bass, and bell, for instance--among the pulleys, belts, tubes, and pipes (mouse over the image to see my tentative identifications of some of the instruments). Although this unique machine seems to be related to the fairground organ , orchestrion , or some other type of mechanical musical instrument , I haven't been able to uncover any specific information about it or the man playing it. Has anyone else ever seen anything like it? Update: See The Mighty Nelsonian (One-Man Music Machine Mystery Solved) .

Photographer's name embossed on photo: "S. W. Kuhnert, Harrisburg Pa."

"G. C. Liesenberg, B.O. Box 48, Empangeni, Zululand, S. Africa. Photo by H. Duncan Abraham, P.O. Box 1699, Durban." A photographic QSL card from 1939 that provided G. C. Liesenberg's old radio call sign--exZT5F--as well as his new one--ZS5AW. The writing on what was intended to look like an oversized QSL card that Liesenberg's holding is an acknowledgement that he made contact with another radio operator on January 14, 1939. I like how his kid is pretending to turn one of the dials on the radio.

A Wild Wild West photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Printed on the back of this real photo postcard: "Western Photo Gallery, 215 Smithfield St., Pittsburgh, Pa." Note the signs painted on the backdrop: "No trust, no bust," "Dead Man's Gulch Saloon," "Reward, dead or alive, Bad Dick, $5000.00, Sheriff," and "Poker." Ironically, the Western Photo Gallery, which provided the dramatic photo of these gun-toting dudes in their cowboy outfits, was located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--almost as far east in the U.S. as you can get!

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of up a tree (person, creature, thing) . This photo, which was labeled as an "unknown cigar factory" when I bought it at an antique mall, shows sixteen men posing in front of a house. Seven of them are standing, two are seated on the wooden sidewalk that runs along the street, five are leaning against a fence, and two are perched up in a tree. Five of the men are wearing striped work aprons. Similar photos at the same stand at the antique mall were identified as cigar factories in Akron , Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, so it's possible that this photo was also taken in Akron. See a cropped version of the photo for a better view of the men in the tree and on the ground.

Sixteen men pose in front of a house that served as a cigar factory. Note the two fellows who are perched precariously in the tree. For more information, see the full version of this photo.

A real photo postcard, date and location unknown.

Handwritten on the back of this real photo postcard: "John W. Taylor after a hard day's work, July 27, 1921, Clarksburg, W.Va., 633 Dale Ave."

Some may dismiss it as a flaw in the film, but this Ektachrome slide, which is dated October 1969, reveals a mysterious beam of light descending to the ground next to the Eternal Light Peace Memorial in Gettysburg, Pa. It could be, I suppose, a divine light shining from above or simply a tractor beam emanating from a hovering spaceship. For a less perplexing and more recent view of the monument, see Eternal Light Peace Memorial, Gettysburg Battlefield, 2014 . For another inexplicable light beam captured on film, see A Light from Above .

A souvenir photo (no. 3344, according to the photographer's notation) of a family visiting the Devil's Den area of the Gettysburg Battlefield in Adams County, Pennsylvania. For additional photos, see my album of Souvenir Photos from the Gettysburg Battlefield .

A souvenir photo taken during a 1959 school field trip to Devil's Den , a rock formation located on the Gettysburg Battlefield in Adams County, Pennsylvania. For other photos, see my album of Souvenir Photos from the Gettysburg Battlefield .

See also the full version of this real photo postcard:

As you can see from this real photo postcard, I'm afraid that I'm feeling a bit woozy. Can anyone give me a ride home from the pub? Printed on the back: "Rotary 'Grotesque' Series. Printed in Britain."