Alan Mays' photos

A valentine postcard with an inset photo of a little boy. For a similar postcard, see A Heart Free from Care to My Valentine :

A valentine with an attached photo of two women (perhaps a mother and daughter) along with an incongruous illustration of howling cats being barraged by skillets, boots, and bottles.

"Ice Cream and Cake Festival, to be held at the Sagon School House for the benefit of the Sagon Union Sunday School, Tuesday, February 17, 1914. Tickets, 15 cents."

"I may drop in on my way home." Newspaper: " The Leader . Grand Fall Opening."

A photobombs photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. While Ginger (her name is written on the back of another photo) poses pleasantly for a snapshot, Mr. Photobomb grins wildly as he jumps into the background.

A soldier and his father stand at attention in the bright sunlight while his mother waits impatiently in the shadows with her hands on her hips.

A die-cut Valentine greeting card with a suffragette girl giving a soapbox speech about women's voting rights . It wasn't until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920 that all women in the United States had the right to vote. For another copy of this card, see "No Votes No Hearts," Comic Valentine, ca. 1910-1920 over on Flickr. Votes for Women—No Votes, No Hearts. If words could tell of all the love within this heart of mine. I'd keep on speaking till I'd won you for my Valentine.

Printed on the back of this postcard: "When better automobiles are built Buick will build them. Litho in U.S.A.--10-15-40." For another Buick advertising postcard, see Buick Fireball Valve-in-Head Straight-Eight Engine (below).

"S. F. Brooks' Patent Combined Ottoman Cradle, Patent Toilet Mirror, and Game Box. No. 110 Milk Street, Boston." A newspaper (see below) described Sylvanus F. Brooks (1832-1884) as "an eccentric and wealthy real estate owner" at the time of his death. His business card (above) suggests, however, that he was also an inventor who held a number of patents. According to the book published for The Ninth Exhibition of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association at Faneuil and Quincy Halls in the City of Boston, September 1860 (Boston: Geo. C. Rand and Avery, 1860), p. 81, Brooks displayed some of his work in the Cabinet Furniture and Upholstery section at the exhibition. The entry in the book simply indicates, "S. F. Brooks, Boston. Ottoman Cradle, Game Box and Mirror. A very neat and tasty contrivance." This confusing comment about a single "contrivance" seems to suggest that Brooks displayed only one item at the exhibition. But what exactly is a "Ottoman Cradle, Game Box and Mirror" and how does that relate to what's listed on his business card? After sorting through the information from the business card, the brief entry in the exhibition book, and some documents describing his patents (see links below), I was finally able to determine that Brooks actually listed three inventions on his card, entered all three in the exhibition, and received patents for each of them. To make sense of it all, I've collated the info below. Before Sylvanus F. Brooks died in 1884 due to a sudden "paralytic shock of the heart," as the newspaper luridly reported it, he came up with one final combo-invention. In 1876 he patented a "Combined Sled and Truck" (see link below) that had both runners for children's use as a sled in the snow and wheels for adult use as a horse-drawn truck for hauling heavy loads. Combined Cushion Settee and Cradle . U.S. Patent no. 27,964, dated April 24, 1860. . Listed as a "Patent Combined Ottoman [and] Cradle" on the business card and "Ottoman [and] Cradle" in the exhibition book. "The object of this invention is to combine a settee or cushioned stool and child's cradle in one and the same article of furniture in such a manner that the cradle may be transformed to an ornamental settee or vice versa, as may be desired without any additional attachment, or troublesome manipulations." Combined Looking-Glass and Drawer . U.S. Patent no. 27,965, dated April 24, 1860. Listed as "Patent Toilet [and] Mirror" on the card and "Mirror" in the book. "The object of this invention is to combine in a suitable manner with a hanging mirror, or looking glass, a draw[er] for holding toilet articles, such as pomades, perfumery, combs, brushes and such like articles that are generally used in conjunction with a mirror." Game-Box . U.S. Patent no. 28,733, dated June 19, 1860. Listed as "Game Box" on the card and in the book. "This invention is a novel constructed box for the purpose of holding game boards of a variety of descriptions, and protecting their faces [i.e., the surfaces of the boards] from injury in playing at the games, by a glass plate placed in the frame of the box." Combined Sled and Truck . U.S. Patent no. 185,014, dated December 5, 1876. "The object of my invention is to provide an improved combination sled and truck of simple construction, that may be readily used for either purpose, being adapted with equal facility for carrying large loads by horse-power, and in smaller scale for the use of children." ________ "Death of Sylvanus F. Brooks, " Cambridge Chronicle (Cambridge, Mass.), Saturday, October 18, 1884, p. 2: "Mr. Sylvanus F. Brooks, an eccentric and wealthy real estate owner in the lower Port, died suddenly of heart disease, on Monday last [October 13], at about 10.30 o'clock. He was seated in front of the bakeshop of Mr. J. C. Ludemann, when first taken ill, and fainted from the effects of a paralytic shock of the heart....Deceased was born in Boston in 1832, and came to live in Cambridge when but a child. He owned considerable property, and for some years past had been in the real estate business. He never married, and for the past few years lived at 359 Main street, where he had a furnished room. His brother, Mr. E. D. Brooks, [whose residence is No. 21 Lee street] is his only surviving relative."

Postmarked Boston, Mass., Sept. 12, 1911, on the back and addressed to Miss Edith Bates, 27 Bradbury St., Allston, Mass., with a handwritten message: "Are [Our] Little Dear!" A curious postcard featuring an oversized dog. The name Tige may relate to the dog in cartoonist Richard F. Outcault 's popular Buster Brown comic strip, which first appeared in 1902. For examples of Outcault's drawings of Tige, see Buster Brown and His Dog Tige and Buster Brown Joker (below).

"Roberts & Co., leading clothiers, 'glass front,' 797 Broad St., Newark, N.J. Copyright 1883 by J. H. Bufford's Sons." A winged Cupid, who's wearing a shirt but no pants, waits patiently as two women use needles and thread to mend a gigantic pair of pants. Although pants seem to be an appropriate item to feature in an advertising trade card for a clothing store like Roberts & Co. (whose glass store front was apparently a selling point), I'm not sure why they're so huge or how Cupid is going to wear them. Perhaps this is just a silly scene intended to amuse the children who would paste cards like this in their scrapbooks in the late nineteenth century.

"Jackalope (Rabbit with Horns). Sanborn X-1732." A real photo postcard of the elusive North American jackalope .

Men pose in their work areas at the Standard Pattern Works in York, Pennsylvania, sometime early in the twentieth century. As Wikipedia explains, "In casting, a pattern is a replica of the object to be cast, used to prepare the cavity into which molten material will be poured during the casting process.... The making of patterns, called patternmaking..., is a skilled trade that is related to the trades of tool and die making and moldmaking, but also often incorporates elements of fine woodworking."

A photo of ice skating/skiing/sledging or any fun in the snow for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. This is a photo mounted on cardboard (see the full version below) with the handwritten caption, "On the Normal Campus." Written on the back of the photo are the names of these four young women (mouse over the image above for a close-up view ), who were obviously having fun in the snow as they posed with snowballs: To the left of tree, Catharine Shoup. To the right, and back, Jennie Moyer, Altoona, Pa. To the right, Kathryn Kleckner, Mifflinburg, Pa. In front, Lulu Patton, Warriors' Mark, Pa. I believe that they were studying to be teachers at one of the "normal schools" in Pennsylvania at the time the photo was taken, which was probably sometime in the late 1890s or early 1900s. A normal school , as Wikipedia explains, is simply "a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers." Today we'd typically call them teachers' colleges rather than normal schools. Given the women's names, the home locations for three of them, and the distinctive building with a tower or belfry in the background of the photo, I thought it would be an easy matter to determine what school they were attending when this photo was taken. But I haven't yet been able to place them at a specific school. After searching Find A Grave and other sources, however, I was able to find some information about two of them. Catharine H. Shoup (1883-1977), who's holding a snowball as she stands to the left of the tree in the photo, was a teacher and principal for many years at the Irving School, which I believe was an elementary school in Altoona, Pa. I also located an obituary for Lulu Rose Patton (1881-1932), who's pretending to fend off snowballs as she sits in front of the tree. The Daily News , Huntingdon, Pa., Thursday, August 4, 1932, p. 12, reported the following: ". . . Miss Lulu R. Patton, a missionary in Canton, China, under the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, died on Tuesday night [August 2; other sources give the date as August 3]. . . . Miss Patton was visiting her brother, the Rev. Charles E. Patton, vice president of the Presbyterian board and located at Shanghai, China, at the time of her death. . . . Miss Patton went to China in 1908 as a missionary, coming home about every five years for a vacation. She was last home three years ago. She was identified with the Union Normal School in Canton." When I finally found this obituary and realized that Lulu Patton was a teacher at the Union Normal School in Canton, China, I thought surely that the photo must have been taken there. But then I discovered--alas!--that the city of Canton (now called Guangzhou ) is located in a humid subtropical region, where there is no snow for making snowballs.

For more information, see the cropped version of this photo:

For more information, see the cropped version of this photo:

"Die elft yairlich Fersommling uns Fesht fon da Grundsow Lodsch Nummer Neina on Da Deef Runn. Mittwuch ovet der sivve un zwanzichscht Chanevari om halver siwwa owets im Nei Hilltown Schuulhause, Hilltown, Pa." Rough translation: "The eleventh yearly gathering and feast of the Groundhog Lodge Number Nine on the Deep Run, Wednesday evening, January 27, at 6:30 in the evening in the New Hilltown Schoolhouse, Hilltown, Pa." A groundhog adorns the cover of this 1965 booklet containing the program for a gathering of the all-male members of Grundsow Lodsch Nummer Neina (Groundhog Lodge Number Nine). The lodge is one of several groups that meet to promote the Pennsylvania Dutch language, and get-togethers often take place on or near Groundhog Day (February 2) each year. For another Grundsow Lodsch item, see Groundhog Lodge No. 12, Gathering, Shartlesville, Pa., May 4, 1990 (below). For further information, track down a copy of William W. Donner's book, Serious Nonsense: Groundhog Lodges, Versammlinge, and Pennsylvania German Heritage (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016). By the way, the Pennsylvania German Groundhog Lodges and their gatherings, which began in the 1930s, are distinct from the celebrations featuring the nationally known Punxsutawney Phil , who's been prognosticating the weather for the Punxsutawney, Pa., Groundhog Club since 1886, and other local groundhog celebrities, including Octoraro Orphie, who's the weather forecaster for the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge of Quarryville, Pa. (see below), which has been in existence since 1908.

An anything goes - free choice photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. I'm not sure of the origin of this souvenir "Ocean View" photo, but I have to chuckle over the carefree smile on this woman's face as she pretends to zoom her speedboat over the fake waves. I used a caption--"I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way!"--that I've seen on other postcards and souvenir photos (like the one below ) since it seems that both this woman and Ipernity may be headed into uncharted territory. If you haven't seen Team Ipernity's latest posting about the future of the site, take a look at An association proposes to save ipernity . I'm not sure I completely understand all the pros and cons of the proposal, but I filled out the survey there and indicated my willingness to make a donation to help save Ipernity. My fingers are crossed !