Alan Mays' photos

With farm buildings in the background, a man and woman pose for a photo while seated on a hammock. For more information, see the full version of this real photo postcard.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of iconic landmark/tourist destination . This is an undated snapshot of a somewhat tilted view looking west over the Reflecting Pool toward the Lincoln Memorial from the top of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. I was surprised to see all the buildings located along the left and right sides of the Reflecting Pool, and I discovered that these were "temporary" buildings constructed during World War II . The last of them was torn down in 1971, and Constitution Gardens , the Vietnam Veterans Memorial , and other monuments have taken their place.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of machinery or equipment . This is a real photo postcard with a perplexing scene of destruction. Strewn around in a field are various equipment parts typical of a steam-powered machine shop, including a steam engine, flywheel, line shaft , pulleys, and belts, along with other unidentifiable pieces of metal and wood. Four people -- a boy perched on a downed tree at left, a woman and man standing near the center, and a woman standing next to the steam engine on the right -- posed for the photo. Visible behind them in the background are undamaged vehicles (a wagon and a carriage), a grindstone, trees, and farm buildings. It's difficult to say what happened. Did a tornado tear through here? Could a steam explosion have caused this much damage? For additional views of the puzzling scene, see enlargements of the left-hand side and right-hand side of the photo.

See also an enlargement of the right-hand side of the photo. For more information, see the full version .

See also an enlargement of the left-hand side of the photo. For more information, see the full version .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of extraordinary (anything) . A few years ago I posted the following image of a real photo postcard featuring an unknown man playing an extraordinarily complicated One-Man Music Machine : The photo was a mystery—I wasn't able to determine who the man was or what kind of contraption he was playing. Later I bought what I thought was a duplicate of the card and filed it away without inspecting it too closely. More recently I was looking through a copy of Real Photo Postcards: Unbelievable Images from the Collection of Harvey Tulcensky (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005). To my surprise, there on page 97 of the book was the same man and machine, and the caption indicated that there was writing on the other side of the card that provided a description: "Handwritten: Nelson's 32 piece one man band, took 35 years to build, has 6,000 ft. of rubber tubing, 50,000 parts, weighing 2,800 lbs. Albert Nelson, Buffalo, NY." When I pulled out my two copies of the card to compare them with the one in the book, I realized that I had two similar but different photos. Both showed the man seated at the machine, but in the second one I purchased the man is looking to his right so that his face is visible in profile. The machine is configured differently, too. For one thing, in this photo the fan-shaped shield at the lower right has one belt coming out of it while the image I previously posted has two belts. With the information from the book, I was able to identify the man as Albert Nelson (1884-1964), who was originally from Buffalo, Minnesota ( not Buffalo, New York). He spent many years working on different versions of his machine—called The Nelsonian —and became famous when he was hired to play it at the Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium during the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. A history of the man and his machine was published in 2006. Gary Albert Hukriede, Nelson's grand nephew, authored the book, The Mighty Nelsonian: The Story of Albert Nelson, Inventor of "The Nelsonian One-Man-Band," 32 Musical Instruments Played by One Man (Minneapolis, Minn.: LifePath Histories). Although Albert Nelson, who passed away in 1964, was the only person who could play and maintain the Nelsonian, his remarkable music machine is on display today at the Wright County Historical Society Heritage Center in Buffalo, Minnesota.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of bands (music groups) . The Dover Gutter Band from Dover, New Jersey, played Dixieland, performed on an antique fire engine, and played at picnics, parades, and other events in the 1950s and 1960s. This real photo postcard likely dates to the 1960s. For more info, see Glimpse of History: George Peer and his Gutter Band Brought Dixieland to Dover .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of bridges . Eight girls and two women pose for a photo on a rustic wooden bridge. There's an Azo stamp box (with four corner triangles pointing up) on the other side of this unused real photo postcard that suggests a date that may be as early as 1904 to 1918.

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 .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of curly . Handwritten name on the front of this nineteenth-century cabinet photograph: "Mrs. Anna Sokamp." Written on the back: "Grandma. Died May 1915. Age 61." Printed on the front: "Walton, Special Cabinet. Aurora, Ind." This curly-haired woman is Anna Eve (Frieberger) Sokamp (1854-1915), who lived most of her life in Aurora, Indiana, but moved to Dayton, Kentucky, following the death of her husband. See also a cropped version of this photo.

Anna Eve (Frieberger) Sokamp (1854-1915), from Aurora, Indiana. See also the full version of this cabinet photo.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of television sets in the living room . Handwritten note on the other side of this photo: "George Vogt & Housekeeper, 1960." Printed on back: "This is a Kodakcolor Print made by Kodak, January 1960 - RC." The woman on the sofa is holding a glass in her hand, and there's a second glass on the tray that's on the coffee table. A small basket on the tray probably contained snacks of some sort. Wallpaper with a distinctive design surrounds the television in the corner. For some more TVs, see my album of Televisions .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of wheelbarrows and carts . Stamped in ink on the back of this photo: "Made by Harry B. Killian, 624 First St., Lancaster, Pa." This is a real photo postcard with a Cyko stamp box on the other side that suggests a date sometime between 1904 and the 1920s. For a similar photo, see Hartman Gish, Farmer, Three Years Old, 1907 .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the monthly topic of slides and color photos . In this puzzling scene from a Polaroid photo, a man is speaking from a podium as a woman stands nearby. On the front of the podium is a sign for "Sears" (surely not the department store -- could it be a name or acronym?) and a drawing of what looks like three biplanes that's labeled "Shoot down von Rottenspotten." On the table next to the podium is a wrapped gift or rolled-up certificate secured by a red ribbon. Is the man presenting the woman with some sort of award? The image on the wall behind the woman makes me wonder what kind of award she might be receiving. It shows a flying saucer leaving earth for a destination somewhere in the field of stars painted on the wall. The numerical code printed on the back of this Polaroid indicates a manufacturing date of December 1978. Could the drawing on the wall be a logo for some kind of UFO group that held a meeting in 1979? But then where do "Sears" and "von Rottenspotten" fit in? See a cropped version of the photo for a closer look at the proceedings.

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

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of cities . Handwritten note on the other side of this photo: "Shot from the top of the [Eiffel] tower. You can see the Seplicur [Sacré-Cœur] in the background (arrow). Don't know what it is but there it is. That's the Meuse River [actually, it's the Seine]." As Wikipedia's article about Sacré-Cœur, Paris (indicated by the arrow in the photo) explains, "The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica . . . , is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica in Paris, France, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Sacré-Cœur Basilica is located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city."

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of number(s) in a photo . Printed on the other side of this real photo postcard: "The Automatic Vaudeville Co. , 9 Tremont Row, 634 Washington St., Boston, Mass." The "23" on the one fellow's hat is a reference to the "23 skidoo" fad that became popular in the United States beginning in 1906 or 1907. Back then, telling someone "23 skidoo" meant "scram" or "beat it," and using "23" in an unexpected place like this was a way to let others in on the joke. For another example of "23" used in a photo for humorous effect, see Too Many Places to Go and Too Much to See .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of hospitals . Handwritten message on the back of this real photo postcard: "Most of the sailors in the picture are from Texas. Do they look it? Dotty from Carrall, 1919, San Diego, Calif." Written on the front of the photo: "Yours truly," with an arrow pointing to the grinning sailor seated in the middle of the front row. Ten sailors, who I assume were patients in this hospital ward, and four nurses posed for this photo, which was taken during the Spanish flu pandemic that lasted from February 1918 to April 1920. To prevent the spread of flu, most of the sailors and nurses are wearing masks over their faces or have them draped around their necks. Three of the sailors are sitting in front of sewing machines, and I suspect that they used them to sew masks. A century later, sewing and wearing masks once again became a familiar sight, unfortunately, during the COVID-19 pandemic.