Alan Mays' photos

A photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park with the assignment to find a poem to match your photo . "Where we learn to be wise at Pine Island. Our public schools." This real photo postcard features a pre-digital photomontage of oversized owls perched on the roof of the public high school in Pine Island , Minnesota, circa 1910. " A Wise Old Owl ," a nursery rhyme dating to 1875 or earlier, seems an appropriate match to this whimsical photo: A wise old owl lived in an oak The more he saw the less he spoke The less he spoke the more he heard. Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

A large sale bill printed by D. B. Landis, Pluck Print, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I believe that the Catherine Baker who held this sale was probably the same person identified as Catharine W. Kauffman Baker (1835-1912). She was the mother of Nora K. Baker Landis (1858-1910), who was the first wife of D. B. Landis. In 1908, Catharine Baker was 73 years old, and she passed away four years later. Public Sale on Saturday, October 17, 1908 The undersigned will sell at public sale, on the premises in the village of Landisville, East Hempfield Township, Lancaster, Co., Pa., the following described household and kitchen furniture, to wit: 1 Bed and bedstead, 2 Bedsteads, bed spring, wardrobe, 2 washstands, large Starling Double heater and pipe, Oil stove, 2 sideboards, organ, centre table, 1-2 doz. chairs, 4 rockers, hall rack, 1 chest, 1 heavy walnut chest, wood chest, refrigerator, bench, quilting frame, mirrors, Brussels, ingrain, hall and stair carpets, stair rods, lamps, chandelier, rubber handle knives and forks, glassware, 2 wash bowls and pitchers, 2 feather ticks, feather bolsters, bed clothing, boxes, baskets, books, fruit jars, lard stand, lantern, ironing stand, iron kettle, brass kettle, pale fence, and a variety of articles not enumerated. Sale to commence at 1 o'clock p.m., on Saturday, October 17th, 1908, when terms and conditions will be made known by Jonas L. Minnich, auct., Henry H. Koser, clerk. Catherine Baker. Pluck Print, Lancaster, Pa.

A poster advertising a dance with music provided by Eddie Gilligan and His Cosmopolitan Orchestra, a popular jazz band. The Final Dance of the Clover Club Summer Series Eddie Gilligan and His Cosmopolitan Orchestra In a return engagement. The band that made so decided a hit earlier in the season. Featuring Edward Tracy and Frank Crisman, youthful singing and dancing wonders of vaudeville fame! Hear them at Riverside Park, Danville, Monday, Sept. 14th. Dancing 9 to 1 Ladies, 50c. Gentlemen, 99c.

A postal carrier ticket for the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad with an illustration of a green-tinted streetcar. See also the other side of the ticket . New Orleans & Carrollton R.R. Co. Good for one ride on presentation by U.S. mail carrier. J. K. Newman, prest.

A postal carrier ticket for the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad. See also the front of the ticket . This ticket when presented by U.S. Mail Carrier will be accepted in payment of fare only on the following lines: St. Charles Avenue. Claiborne " Jackson " Napoleon " Tulane " Carrollton "

Handwritten note on the back of this small snapshot: "Boeing Clipper at Honolulu, March 12, 1939." Tail number (aircraft registration) visible on the plane: NC18602.

A small photo that may show the British R34 airship during its stay in the United States from July 6 to 10, 1919. According to Wikipedia , the R34 was a British rigid airship that "became the first aircraft to make an East-to-West crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on 6 July 1919, and was decommissioned two years later after sustaining damage in adverse weather. . . R34 left Britain on 2 July 1919 and arrived at Mineola, Long Island, United States on 6 July after a flight of 108 hours with virtually no fuel left. . . . This was the first East-West crossing of the Atlantic and was done two weeks after the first transatlantic airplane flight. The return journey to Pulham [a Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) airship station] in Norfolk [England] was from 10 to 13 July and took 75 hours."

A flying photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Printed on the back of this real photo postcard: "The Colonial Studio, 137 Sixth St., Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.A."

A weddings photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. This is a Kodachrome slide processed by Kodak in Jan 1959, so I'm guessing that the wedding actually took place in 1958 Notice how no one seems particularly excited as the bride and groom pose for photos while cutting their cake. Perhaps they would have been more impressed had they turned around and taken a look at the elaborate design of that wallpaper. P.S. I didn't realize how many wedding-related pics I had already used for various themes in the VPTP until I started searching for this week's photo. Check out two of my six previous matrimonial postings:

A photo of readers (people reading books or magazines) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. (Or people reading newspapers? Hopefully my fellow VPTPers will indulge my topic drift from magazines to newspapers.) A real photo postcard of a young girl holding an issue of the North American newspaper (mouse over the image for a close-up view of the paper —I haven't been able to determine a date or decipher any of the headlines, unfortunately). The girl has a smirk on her face and a pair of pince-nez glasses on her nose as she looks down at her newspaper. I'm not sure what might be in the case that's on the floor next to her chair.

A detail showing a close-up of the North American newspaper from a real photo postcard. For more information, see the original photo .

A photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park monthly topic of cats (submit a photo on this topic each week in addition to—or instead of—a photo for the weekly topic) . I'm not sure what to make of this snapshot of a white-robed figure reclining on a sofa along with a black cat. "Keith Richards' Mother" is the irreverent caption written on the other side of the photo by the antiques dealer who sold it to me. For another example of the precaptioned pictures that I bought from this dealer over the years, see Grandma's Last Step .

A photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park topic of photobooth photos (or any interesting head and shoulders studio portraits if you don't have any from photobooths) . A photo strip with portraits of a woman wearing a hat, reading a Collier's magazine, and holding a parasol, along with two photos without props. For easier viewing, I cropped and rearranged the photos into two rows (the parasol photo is repeated). The Collier's magazine is the issue from September 1908. See my comparison of the original cover with the one the woman's holding .

For more information, see the original strip of five photos .

Over on Flickr, anyjazz65 kindly identified the Collier's magazine that the woman is holding in one of her five poses from a photobooth photo . It's the September 1908 issue, and I've put together this composite image in order to compare the original magazine cover (at left) with the part of the cover that we see in the woman's hands (on the right). For the full cover, browse down to the 9/1908 issue on the Collier's page at the Cover Browser site, or go directly to the image for the September 1908 cover . For more information, see the original strip of five photos , or take a look at my rearranged copy with the photos in two rows .

Easter loot in an undated snapshot.

Notice how the boy is holding up his toy Easter bunny. The woman is holding a pair of sunglasses along with her purse. The full version of the photograph is dated "Apr 1961," and Easter occurred on April 2 that year. For similar Easter photos, see A Girl with Her Bunny and Mom and Boys with Their Bunnies and Moms .

An Easter snapshot dated "Apr 1961." The boy is holding his toy Easter bunny up above his head, and the woman has a pair of sunglasses and a purse (I thought at first that it might be a camera case) in her left hand. What appears to be a garden hose is snaking its way through the lower left-hand corner of the photo. For a better view of the family, see the cropped version of the photograph.