Alan Mays' photos

A cardboard poster from Danville , Montour County, Pennsylvania, that dates to the 1920s or 1930s (September 12, 19, and 26 fell on Saturdays in 1925, 1931, and 1936). For a similar poster from the same town, see Eddie Gilligan and His Cosmopolitan Orchestra, Riverside Park, Danville, Pa., Sept. 14, 1925 . Montour Park Fall Opening Third Annual Corn Roast and Dance Saturday, Sept. 12 Saturday, Sept. 19 Pfeiffer's Imperials Saturday, Sept. 26 Alexander's Orchestra, with a Charleston Contest.

Caption on the front of this real photo postcard: "Lithia Spring Park, Temple, [New Hampshire]." Sign on larger, nearer building: "Pack Monadnock, Lithia Spring, Bottling House." Sign on far building: "Pack Monadnock, Lithia Spring, Temple, N.H." Two men and two women pose for a photo in front of the bottling house at Lithia Spring Park, which was located on Pack Monadnock Mountain near the town of Temple , New Hampshire. During the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, visitors to the park could partake of the lithia water that was available from the spring. The lithium salts in the water were thought to have medicinal benefits. A book by authors Michael G. Dell'Orto, Priscilla A. Weston, and Jessie Salisbury about the New Hampshire towns of Wilton, Temple, and Lyndeborough (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2003) explains what eventually happened to the park: "People flocked to Pack Monadnock Lithia Springs, which operated from 1891 until 1911, to enjoy picnics and slides and teeters free of charge and to take the therapeutic waters. 'Contains more Lithium than any other Lithia Spring known,' claimed proprietor Sydney Scammon. 'Best Remedy for Kidney Trouble and Indigestion.' The popular (and profitable) enterprise went out of business abruptly when Scammon was observed adding bottled lithium to the 'natural' spring water."

A religious photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. "St. John's Lutheran Church, 12th Daily Vacation Bible School, 7-1-36, Slatington, Pa." A real photo postcard of the children and adults who participated in a vacation Bible school at St. John's Lutheran Church in Slatington , Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 1936. It wasn't until I attempted to count the number of people in the photo—there are about 215—that I realized that this is a montage combining two or more images. A close-up of part of the photo makes the montage obvious.

A detail from a photo of the participants in a vacation Bible school at St. John's Lutheran Church in Slatington, Pennsylvania, in 1936.The children in the top half of the image look like giants compared to the ones in the lower half, which makes it obvious that this is a montage of two or more different photos. For the full real photo postcard, see Vacation Bible School, St. John's Lutheran Church, Slatington, Pa., July 1, 1936 .

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 adage illustrated (a photo illustrating a common adage—please identify the adage) . The old adage about two heads being better than one turns out to be true when it comes to a photo like this one. This is a nineteenth-century CDV showing two young women with their heads sticking out through the torn pages of a newspaper. And why did they pose like this? They were perpetuating a photographic joke that was popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. They're literally breaking the news or perhaps just looking through the paper . For other examples, see Breaking the News, Lititz Express, July 4, 1907 and Looking through the Newspaper .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the monthly theme of pick your favorite theme(s)—why is it (are they) your favorite(s)? (submit a photo on this topic each week in addition to—or instead of—a photo for the weekly topic). William H. Martin (1865-1940), a Kansas photographer who was a master of photomontage , created this real photo postcard in 1908. Postcards like this by Martin and other photographers were especially popular in the early twentieth century and featured gigantic fruits and vegetables, dangerously oversized animals and fish, and amusingly huge products. These humorous trick photos are some of my favorite kinds of vintage photographs. For more examples, see my album of Tall-Tale and Exaggeration Postcards , which includes both photographic and printed cards. This particular postcard bears a postmark of April 7, 1909, and is addressed to "Mrs. Susan W. Dick, Roaring Springs, Penna. Care [of] Ora L. Dick." The message on the other side refers to the photo on the front: "Dear Mother, Hope you are better. I thought I would send you a mess of potatoes. They look good. Thad & Sue."

A flowers or trees photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. This is a real photo postcard of two men sitting in an automobile decorated with flowers. The painted backdrop behind them depicts a tree-lined country road. The sign in the upper left-hand corner of the photo appears to be one for the "Morrow-Umatilla County Fair." This is now the Umatilla County Fair, which is still held in Hermiston, Umatilla County, Oregon. According to the fair's Web site (archived version), Morrow and Umatilla counties both sponsored the fair for its first year in 1912. Beginning in 1913, however, Umatilla County was the sole sponsor. If this is correct, then this postcard probably dates to 1912. The banner that the man on the left is holding says, "The Round-Up, Let 'er Buck, Pendleton," which refers to the Pendleton Round-Up , a rodeo that's been held in nearby Pendleton, Oregon, since 1910. Another Pendleton banner is partially visible on the wall behind the man on the right.

A handbags photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A man and woman pose for a photo along a street, location and date unknown. The man is holding a coat, and the woman is carrying a handbag, coat, and umbrella. There are some interesting details in the background. A man caught in mid-stride is looking in the photographer's direction, and other men and women on the far side of the street are walking along the sidewalk or sitting on a bench. A Volkswagen Beetle is parked along the street behind the woman, and another vehicle—possibly another VW Beetle—is barely visible behind the man. Finally, a puzzling structure that's shaped and painted to resemble a toadstool is located across the street. For a better view of the background details, see a cropped version of the photo.

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

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the monthly theme of pick your favorite theme(s)—why is it (are they) your favorite(s)? (submit a photo on this topic each week in addition to—or instead of—a photo for the weekly topic). I've always enjoyed photos of musicians, musical instruments, and other musical topics, especially informal ones like this picture of a boy playing a fiddle on the porch of a rustic house (see a cropped version for a slightly enlarged view). 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. The name "Sam Lewis" is written on the verso, though I haven't been able to track down any information about a fiddler by that name. For some other interesting music photos, see Frank Meger's Miniature Masquerade Ball and The Olzen Accordion School, Brooklyn, N.Y.

See also the full version of this real photo postcard.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of milkmen or milkwomen (or anything else related to milk, dairies, or home food delivery) . Sign on parade float: "Abbotts 'A' Milk. Ideal for Family Use." A milkman in a white uniform with a bowtie stands in front of a parade float advertising Abbotts "A" Milk from Abbotts Alderney Dairies, which operated in New Jersey and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Perhaps the "A" referred to the Alderney breed of dairy cattle , but I haven't confirmed that. I wish that this snapshot was a bit clearer so that the giant milk bottles on the four corners of the float were easier to see. There's also a milkmaid and a fake cow on the other end of the float. The "Ideal for Family Use" slogan that appears on the sign also shows up in a number of Abbotts "A" Milk ads from 1922, so it's possible that the photo dates to that year. For other milkman photos, see Milkman, Horse, and Wagon for Borden's Condensed Milk, Bottled Milk, and Cream and Season's Greetings from Your Rutter's Milkman (Detail) .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of gotta dance!—dancing of any type . This is an unused real photo postcard showing a couple dancing outside in the yard with an accordionist providing the music and another fellow watching the proceedings (see the full version of the card, which simply has white space on either side of the image). A number of houses and a water tower are visible in the distance beyond the fence, but there's no name on the tower or any other clues to identify the town. Finally, am I reading too much into things, or could the female dancer actually be a man dressed as a woman? If so, is it possible that the other dancer is a woman dressed as a man?

A photographer captured a scene of outdoor dancing and music making in this real photo postcard. For more information, see the cropped version of this image.

A blurry but charming photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A double exposure featuring a cute kid with a big smile sitting in the foreground along with a ghostly mom and the kid's blurry doppelgänger lurking in the background. The photo is dated 1949 in the lower right-hand corner. For more charming blurriness, see Misty Shores of Memory and Fuzzy Dog .

A photo of outdated technology (typewriters, record players, etc) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. This is a photo of a Philco 48-1001 television set, which was manufactured in 1948 and had a 10-inch television screen. I bought this along with a second photo showing 1948 Republican presidential nominee Thomas Dewey and his wife at the Republican National Convention , which was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June 1948. The image of Dewey and his wife is actually a photo of the screen of this TV set taken during the broadcast of the Republican convention, which was the first nationally televised presidential convention . See also a cropped version of the second photo.