Stores in Vintage Photos and Postcards

Signs: At top: "[Meats]. Cash Store, A. J. Morel. Groceries." In windows: "The Morel Stores." Gas pump: "Socony Motor Gasoline."

The street sign says, "Market Street," the glistening sidewalk suggests that it was raining, and the people are posing in front of a store that's displaying a bed, chairs, and other furnishings in the window.

A taken unawares photo (shots of people who clearly have no idea they're being snapped) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A photo of the W. L. Zimmerman and Sons grocery store in Intercourse , Pennsylvania, shows an Amishman with his horse and buggy (mouse over the image above for an enlargement that makes it easier to see the man in his dark clothes). Since the Amish religion prohibits photography, it's likely that the man in this photo was either unaware that he was being photographed or else he did spot the photographer and turned his back to the camera. As scholar Donald B. Kraybill explained in a Top Ten FAQ about the Amish for the PBS Web site, "Amish churches forbid individuals to pose for face-on photos for two reasons. First, they cite the second of the Bible's Ten Commandments: 'Thou shalt not make… any graven image, or any likeness of any thing….' (Exodous 20:14). Second, in a communal society that values humility, posing for photos is a sign of pride that calls attention to oneself and rubs against Amish beliefs about the importance of deferring and yielding to others." It's ironic, then, that this grocery store appeared in the 1985 film Witness when actor Harrison Ford, who played the part of an undercover detective dressed in Amish garb, made a call from a telephone booth located on the porch of the store. That was a later phone booth, since the booth visible in this photo is the small but elaborate building situated between the buggy and the Gulf gas pumps (it has a "Zimmerman's Store" sign on one side and a very faint "Enterprise Telephone Co." sign painted above its front door). Unfortunately, Zimmerman's grocery store (the sign partially visible beyond the phone booth probably refers to "[Lanco] Service Stores," a local affiliation of independent grocers) went out of business in 2014. The store's role in Witness was described in " Lancaster County Grocery Store Featured in Harrison Ford Movie Closes Its Doors ," an article by Tim Stuhldreher that appeared on LancasterOnline, April 3, 2014. Check out Google's street view of this same scene, which dates to 2011 when the store was still open.

A stores (department, grocery, five and dime, etc.) photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A tobacconist poses among his wares in a cigar store, date and location unknown. One interesting aspect of this photo is how many different packages and advertisements for tobacco products are visible (mouse over the image above to see close-up views of the counter and wall behind the proprietor and the display case in front of him ). Some of the tobacco posters, placards, and packaging visible behind the counter include items for Red Star Plain Scraps Chewing and Smoking Tobacco ("pure tobacco never harmed anyone"), Murad the Turkish Cigarette, Town Talk, American Navy, Helmar Cigarettes, Our Principal, Quaker Boy, Bold, and cigarette packs for Camel and Lucky Strike. Gum and candy was available, too, with Beech-Nut Chewing Gum, Black Jack Chewing Gum, Schrafft's Chocolates, Hershey's candy bars, and Life Savers candies among those represented. Cigar brands in the boxes on the top shelf of the display case include Muriel, Rose-O-Cuba, Lord Clinton, Our Principal Senior, Lord Romeo, Summons, Londres, Golden Belle, Let-Er-Rip, and O.K. Among the tobacco products on the display case's bottom shelf are Sach's All-Right Plain Scrap, Red Man, Beech-Nut Chewing Tobacco, Master Workman Scrap, Tub Tobacco, and Picnic Twist.

Some of the tobacco posters, placards, and packaging visible behind the counter include items for Red Star Plain Scraps Chewing and Smoking Tobacco ("pure tobacco never harmed anyone"), Murad the Turkish Cigarette, Town Talk, American Navy, Helmar Cigarettes, Our Principal, Quaker Boy, Bold, and cigarette packs for Camel and Lucky Strike. Gum and candy was available, too, with Beech-Nut Chewing Gum, Black Jack Chewing Gum, Schrafft's Chocolates, Hershey's candy bars, and Life Savers candies among those represented. See also the full version of the photo.

Cigar brands in the boxes on the top shelf of the display case include Muriel, Rose-O-Cuba, Lord Clinton, Our Principal Senior, Lord Romeo, Summons, Londres, Golden Belle, Let-Er-Rip, and O.K. Among the tobacco products on the display case's bottom shelf are Sach's All-Right Plain Scrap, Red Man, Beech-Nut Chewing Tobacco, Master Workman Scrap, Tub Tobacco, and Picnic Twist. See also the full version of the photo.

An undated photograph of Weller's Dairy in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Photographer: "Harbaugh, Johnstown, Pa." See also cropped versions showing close-ups of the Weller's Dairy employees and the dairy's five milk trucks and drivers (thumbnail images below).

Cropped view showing the Weller's Dairy employees and building. See also the full photo and another cropped version showing a close-up of the dairy's five milk trucks and drivers (thumbnail images below).

Cropped view showing the Weller's Dairy trucks and drivers. At least three of the vehicles appear to be milk delivery trucks. See also the full photo and another cropped version showing a close-up of the Weller's Dairy employees and building (thumbnail images below). .

A real photo postcard for the Taylor-Tot Stroller Vintage Memories group. A street photographer evidently snapped this photo of a sailor and his family as they walked past a W. T. Grant Co. store in some unidentified town. The sailor and his wife seem surprised--and perhaps even annoyed--by the photographer, but their daughter seems to be excitedly holding on to a toy as she enjoys the ride in her Taylor-Tot stroller.

A photo of shop- or storefront(s) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Jacob Kamp (1838-1902) was the proprietor of a shoe store in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. I believe that's him standing with his hands on his hips in the doorway of his store (above the "K" in "Kamp's" that was added to the sidewalk by the photographer). The name "J. Kamp" appears at the top of the building. The front window in Kamp's store displays a variety of shoes and includes seven individual signs with the dates for the week of "Monday, May 29" through "Saturday, June 3" and the following "Monday, June 5." These dates, together with the days of the week on which they fall, allow us to determine which years the photo may have been taken. The fifth day of June, for instance, occurred on a Monday in the years of 1882, 1893, 1899, and 1905. Since Jacob Kamp died in 1902, my best guess is that this photo dates to either 1893 or 1899. On the right, two men are standing at the entrance to a grocery store , which advertises "berries, new potatoes, tomatoes, and cabbages" with lettering on the window. The second floor of the building is occupied by "Aetna Life," the "largest life and accident co. in the world," with insurance coverage for "fire," "life," and "accident," as indicated on the exterior of the building. These two buildings are still standing . Compare this photo from the 1890s with the Google Maps image from 2018.

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

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

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

For more information, see the full version of this photo, which dates to the 1890s. The Google Maps image on the right dates to 2018.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of our ad age—a photo that includes advertising signs . A man stands next to a "Hahn Bros." street clock, and a sign on one of the storefronts behind the man looks like it says "Hahn Bros. Jewelry." The sign above the store on the right advertises an "Economy Variety Store" and "We Give S&H Green Stamps." This is an unused real photo postcard with an Azo stamp box (four corner triangles pointing up) on the other side that suggests a date that may be as early as 1904 to 1918. There's no indication where the photo was taken, but the palm trees along the street in the distance may indicate a location in California or Florida. See also a rotated version that corrects the tilt of the photo.

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

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of stores (interiors or exteriors) . In this snapshot taken in the interior of a grocery store, a man is holding a pack of Old Gold cigarettes in one hand and a whole box of the cigarette packs in his other hand. Perhaps he's posing as if he's going to refill the cigarette racks that are positioned above each of the six cash registers that are visible in the photo. Hanging from the ceiling above the man are fifteen "January Jubilee Sale" signs. After enlarging the photo and spending some time studying the signs, I was finally able to determine that the logo on them says, "Mohican Markets," which identifies the store as one of the more than 50 groceries established by Mohican Stores, Inc., in the first half of the twentieth century. The January 18, 1952, issue of the Troy Record (Troy, New York), p. 23, featured an advertisement for a "Mohican Jubilee Sale," which included "Home Style Layer Cakes. . . . Specially presented for our January Jubilee Sale!" A year later, the same paper ran a second Mohican "January Jubilee" ad (January 6, 1953, p. 10). Two years after that, the Bridgeport Telegram (Bridgeport, Connecticut), January 7, 1955, p. 11, ran an ad for a "January Jubilee" sale at a different Mohican Market. Although I couldn't determine the location of the Mohican Market in this picture, it seems likely that it was taken sometime in the 1950s, when the same sales event was taking place at other stores. See also Stores in Vintage Photos and Postcards .