Strange and Unusual

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of odd, unusual, or quirky . Trick photos with double exposures usually involve typical scenes with props like wheelbarrows (see A Man Simultaneously Pushing and Riding a Wheelbarrow ) or playing cards ( Aunt Maggie's Trick Shot ). The setting for this one, however, is rather unusual. A huge pile of firewood dominates the scene. On the left, two boys stand at the bottom of the woodpile. Partially visible behind them is a farm wagon and beyond the wagon are some trees. Both boys are looking toward the photographer. One of them is pointing toward the top of the pile and wielding a piece of wood as if he intends to use it as a weapon. The other boy is about to start climbing up the pile. On the right, standing at the top of the woodpile are the same two boys. They're both drawing bows as if they're about to shoot arrows, but neither of them has an arrow. So, it appears that the storyline is that the boys are about to climb the woodpile to stop themselves from shooting arrows as they stand on top of the pile. Or at least that's all I can make of it.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of church, chapel, or any other religious building . Caption: "Get Right with God." Painted on the side of the building: "Anderson Campaign Ta[bernacle]." This is a real photo postcard with a photomontage consisting of five giant heads peering over the top of a large wooden building. "Get Right with God" is the admonition at the top, and the sign on the building identifies it as the "Anderson Campaign Tabernacle." I also have a second copy of this card that has the name of a photographer -- "D. W. Faulk, 7 Second Ave., Coatesville, Pa." -- embossed on it. A different version of this real photo postcard that I spotted online is captioned, "Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out," with the location given as "Coatesville, Pa." On the back of all three of the photo postcards is a Noko stamp box design (with "NOKO" on all four sides) that indicates a time frame ranging from 1907 to 1929. After some searching, I discovered that "Anderson" refers to George Wood Anderson, a minister who ran some of his first large-scale revival meetings in a tabernacle building in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, in 1914. As reported in the Christian Advocate , December 3, 1914, p. 36: "The Rev. George Wood Anderson, pastor of Elm Park Church, Scranton, Pa., has been conducting for six weeks an evangelistic campaign at Coatesville, Pa., an industrial town of 11,000 people. The service has been carried on in a tabernacle specially constructed. The local paper tabulates results, showing total attendance 140,700, with 2,208 conversions.... Beginning next spring, Dr Anderson will leave the regular pastorate, to devote his life to evangelism, in obedience to an impulse which he has long felt." A later photo of the "George Wood Anderson Evangelistic Party" appeared in the Christian Workers Magazine , May 1916, p. 712, and allowed me to identify some of the giant heads on this photo card. That's George Wood Anderson himself on the left, his wife Nellie Anderson next to him, and Miss Agnes Smith, director of women's work, in the middle. The man on the right is Carl Leonard, business manager, but I haven't been able to determine who the man next to him is. George Wood Anderson went on to build tabernacles in other states to continue his revival campaigns. A recent Facebook posting by the Logan County History Center , for instance, describes his evangelistic services and provides photos of tabernacles in Bellefontaine and Belle Center, Ohio.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of a barn, farmhouse, or any variety of agricultural building . This is a real photo postcard of a bank barn with a gambrel roof and roof-ridge ventilators . Next to the barn is a sturdy stone silo . There's no name, address, postmark, or stamp box on the other side to indicate where or when the photo was taken. There is, however, a handwritten note that says, "Skin of a diamond rattler from Florida." I had to take a closer look to spot it, but that's apparently the skin of a large eastern diamondback rattlesnake hanging on the gable-end side of the barn.

The skin of a large eastern diamondback rattlesnake hangs from the side of a barn in this detail from a real photo postcard .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of on the street where you live (people outdoors in a residential setting) . For this week's theme I was looking for a photo that was clearly taken in a residential setting (like Women in Suburbia, 1963 ) or maybe one that showed a scene from a street not far from where I live ( Revolutionary War Monument, Middletown, Pa., 1931 would qualify). I wasn't having much luck until I came across this snapshot. I'm not sure why this fellow is perched so precariously on the top step of a ladder (while holding his hat in one hand and a cigarette in the other, nonetheless!), but he's obviously outdoors in someone's yard. The street in the background isn't one I live on, but it must be a residential area judging by the houses. There's a car parked along the street. Even though the photo isn't sharp enough to make out the details, I can tell that there are a number of people in the car. Perhaps they're waiting for the photo session to end -- or the guy to fall off the ladder -- so they can depart the scene.