Vintage Photos of Groups

"Miniature Railway, House of David Park, Benton Harbor, Mich. 14." A miniature railroad at an amusement park that was operated by the House of David , a religious commune in Benton Harbor , Michigan, whose members also performed in touring bands and played on baseball teams. Check out another view of the Miniature Railway, House of David Park, Benton Harbor, Michigan .

"Curtis Candy Co. Mixed Bowling League. 1948. 1949. Sheridan Recreation, Feb. 3, 1949." Group photo of the participants in a Curtiss Candy Company bowling league. Games took place at Sheridan Recreation, a bowling alley and pool hall located at 1002 Wilson Avenue in Chicago.

Handwritten message on the back of this real photo postcard: "This was the name of our camp at Cooks Mill where we was the last ten days of August." These seven campers have enough firepower--a couple of shotguns and a rifle--to "raise hell," as their sign suggests, but it's more likely they used their guns and rods for hunting and fishing (I'm not sure why the one woman is holding a tin horn, though). Their camping trip, which took place during August sometime in the 1900s or 1910s, is documented in these three photos (the one above and two more below). The location--Cooks Mill--was a small settlement in rural Bedford County, Pennsylvania, that was described in 1900 as having one store, a grist mill, and ten dwellings.

Handwritten message on the back of this real photo postcard: "This is the table where we had a many good meal those ten days. The lady at the end was a visitor. She brought 1 gal. of ice cream along." The seven Raise 'ell campers and a visitor are seated around the table where they had "a many good meal" during their stay. Perhaps they're eating the ice cream that the woman at right brought with her. Next to her are two milk cans, which were probably used to store water. The stream that's visible In the background is Wills Creek , which is still a popular fly-fishing destination today. Is that a Buster Brown outfit that the boy is wearing in this photo and the previous one ?

Handwritten message on the back of this real photo postcard: "To yous all. This is a view of our tents. Rhoads and two of the clerks came down one night. Hunter." The seven Raise 'ell campers are sitting in front of their tents. What appears to be a quilt or coverlet is visible in the first open tent, and the man seated in front of that tent is still holding the shotgun he posed with in the first photo . Charles R. Rhoads was a pharmacist in the nearby town of Hyndman , Pa., in the 1900s and 1910s. Could he have been the Rhoads who--along with two of the clerks in his pharmacy--visited the camp? And how ironic is it--considering the guns that are visible in the photos and the hunting that presumably took place during the camping trip--that the writer's name is "Hunter"!

A real photo postcard of the "Tressler Orphans' Home Band, Loysville, Pa." For another orphanage music group, see Girls' Saxophone Band, Evangelical Orphanage, Lewisburg, Pa.

"Can you find me? I'm in the crowd. K.S.N.S., May 22, 1916." Students at the Keystone State Normal School, located in Kutztown , Pennsylvania, pose in front of the gymnasium more than a hundred years ago. The school became what is today Kutztown University . For another vintage view of the campus, see Keystone State Normal School, Kutztown, Pennsylvania :

An on the farm photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A photo showing a remarkable assortment of people, animals, and equipment on display in front of a large Pennsylvania barn . The dealer's tag on this cardboard-mounted photo identified the location as a farm near Quarryville , Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Mouse over the image above to see close-ups of the men, women, horses, cows, carriages, and plows visible in the foreground.

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A tall photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. This blindfolded school marm stands tall next to her students as she takes a turn to pin the tail--you can see it dangling from her right hand--on the donkey (mouse over the scene above for a close-up view of the woman and the donkey ). Or at least that was my initial thought when I saw this photograph. I noticed, however, that the children seem to be wearing better clothes than they might on a regular school day, so perhaps it's a special school event. Or maybe they're Sunday school students dressed in their Sunday best. Or it could be that it's a birthday party. Other interesting details: Only one boy is present. Another woman (teacher?) is standing in the background on the left. Some of the children are carrying advertising fans (the girl in the lower right-hand corner has one, but the image isn't sharp enough to determine the names or locations of the advertisers printed on the fan, unfortunately). An American flag is visible on the right.

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Handwritten note on the back of this real photo postcard: "1896 1910. Birthday Party. Gladys P. Morrison. June 4, 1910." Addressed to Bertha Chase, Campton, N.H., but there's no stamp or postmark. Fourteen-year-old Gladys Morrison holds her birthday cake (or is it just a plate of cupcakes with candles?--mouse over the image for a closer look ) as twenty-eight of her friends and relatives pose for a photo with her.

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A selection for the Vintage Photos Theme Park of a favourite photo (this can be a family photo or a found photo, and if you would like to say why it's a favourite, that would be wonderful) . I have lots of family photos that I treasure, and I have many found photos that I enjoy. I'm not sure that I could select just one single photo, but I can offer a particular type of photo as my favorite. I guess you could say that the kind of photos I like best are the ones that pose questions. These are typically found photos rather than family ones, and some of the questions they pose are: - Who is that person? (See, for example, Elias M. Baugher, Teacher and Who Was That Masked Santa? ) - What is that thing? (See One-Man Music Machine and Giant Portable Underwood Typewriter .) - What's going on here? (See Breakfast in the Women's Dorm and Braving the Whirlpool Rapids at Niagara Falls .) - What the heck? (See Group Portrait with Man Smoking and Sykes Ranch, Aberdeen, Mississippi, 1956 .) The fun part, of course, is trying to answer the question that a photo is asking. Sometimes there's an easy answer, but often there's no solution to the puzzle a photo presents. Which brings me to this photo, which I've captioned as a question-- Hosed Down at Hotel Wells? This is a what's-going-on-here photo in which it seems that folks from near and far have come to see--well, I'm not sure what's taking place. Mouse over the photo to see an enlargement of the action in the middle of the street and my notes about some of the details I've noticed. Any idea what's going on?

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It looks like this photo was taken at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. The couple on the right are smooching, and the others are taking a drink or otherwise making merry in this undated and slightly out-of-focus Kodachrome slide.