Alan Mays' photos

A colorful print by Vredenburg & Company, Rochester, N.Y., that appeared in an advertising leaflet from W. P. Rupert & Son, a nursery that was located in Seneca, N.Y. See Nineteenth-Century Rochester Fruit and Flower Plates , by Karl Sanford Kabelac, for more information regarding Vredenburg & Company and other printing firms that supplied illustrations to nursery businesses like W. P. Rupert & Son.

See also Good for a Ride Only on Ridge Avenue Railway :

"Good for a ride only on Ridge Avenue R.W. Good for a ride over Penn'a R.R. from Ridge Avenue to Centennial Station." See also Good for a Ride on Ridge Avenue Railway :

"A. B. Tack, practical paper hanger and decorator, 1210 N. 3d St., Harrisburg, Pa. Full assortment of wall paper and window shades always on hand."

"Thos. W. Durston & Co. Booksellers and stationers, Vanderbilt Square, Syracuse, N.Y."

"Geo. B. Weast, dealer in stoves, tinwate, &c., R.R. St., Newville, Pa." This may be the same George B. Weast (1862-1946) who's identified as a "retired sheet metal worker" in an obituary reprinted in his Find A Grave entry.

"Canoodling" plus "canoeing" equals "canoedling" in this early twentieth-century postcard.

A photo of buildings in the garden/backyard (sheds, summer houses, pigeon coops, etc.) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. "Bill's Old Backhouse" was the men's outhouse located in the backyard at Bill's Place, which was a roadside stop and service station along the Lincoln Highway (U.S Route 30) in south central Pennsylvania. Bill's Place was situated on Rays Hill at an elevation of 1,958 feet, and travelers who stopped there could climb a tower for a 40-mile view out over the surrounding area (or they could drive a little farther west on the Lincoln Highway to see the view from the Grand View Ship Hotel instead). For another outhouse featured on a real photo postcard, see Mr. Santa Claus Outhouse, Santa Claus, Arizona :

Check out the back , too:

Identification. Name ________ Address ________ Employed by: ________. Taken by the Photomatic .... See patents listed on our daylight loading magazine. Made in U.S.A. International Mutoscope Corporation, New York City." Take a look at the front :

St. Roch's Carnival, Weona Park, Pen Argyl, Pa., August 10 to 15, 1942 Free attractions. Fleetwood Jack and His Nevada Ranch Barn Dance Gang. Flo Irwin's Society Circus. Servais Sylvester the Magician. Doc Hudspeth and Mme. Iris. Rides and concessions. War stamps awarded nightly. Queen contest. Patriotic pageants. Amateur contests.

"Ithaca Journal Extra. D.B.S. Manufactured by D. B. Stewart & Co. Ithaca Journal."

A cigar box label featuring an artist's conception of what Conrad Weiser might have looked like. According to Wikipedia, Conrad Weiser (1696-1760) was a Pennsylvania German "pioneer, interpreter, and effective diplomat between the Pennsylvania Colony and Native Americans. He was a farmer, soldier, monk, tanner, and judge. He contributed as an emissary in councils between Native Americans and the colonies, especially Pennsylvania, during the 18th century's tensions of the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War)."

Carlisle, 12/1, 1904 My dear little Carrie: Honestly now aren't you also on the pig? When you kill yours, save me a nice piece of ham, and I'll be up and take dinner with you. You may also keep a few young chickens handy. (If you're "on the pig's back," it apparently means that you're lucky or well off.)

A disembodied heads photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Could this be a surreal scene from some horror film? Has some mutant creature from the North Pole dropped the head of poor Santa Claus into the laps of these gloating family members with their sickening smiles? Or is it just some silly Santa mask that they're using as a prop for their Christmas photo? You'll have to decide for yourself! While you're making up your mind, here's a bona fide Santa mask for comparison:

"Filene's, No. 18 Market Street, Lynn." A nineteenth-century advertising trade card for one of the early Filene's department stores. This one was located in Lynn, Massachusetts.

This comic postcard, which was postmarked in Oswego, N.Y., on August 27, 1932, reveals that frustration with the complexity of income tax in the United States is nothing new. In fact, this amusing account of how to calculate your tax was circulating in magazines and newspapers as early as 1919. For one example, see " It's Easy ," published in the Santa Fe Magazine , August 1919, p. 58. Take My Advice–The Next Time You Make Out Your Income Tax Report It can be easily done by observing these simple rules. It may be worked out by algebra, astronomy, trigonometry, or syntax and then your answer may be correct or it may not be. If your income is $2,400.00 a year and [you have] a diamond ring or an automobile and you are married to a brunette girl, 26 years of age, you take the amount of the income and add your personal property, subtract your street number, multiply by your wife's height, and divide by your telephone number. If you have a child in the family, you subtract $200.00 from your income, add your collar size, add the child's age, multiply by your waist measure, subtract the amount of funds you have given to the church in the past year, and then divide by the number of your automobile license. If there is a second child you deduct $400.00 from your income tax, add the weight and age of the child, and divide by the date of your birth, multiply by the size of your hat, and subtract the weight of your mother-in-law. After you have it all figured out you won't have to pay any tax of any nature, for they will have you in the booby hatch and strapped down.

"Davenport Ice Chipping Machine Co., manufacturers of the Little Giant Ice Chipper for hotels, restaurants, saloons, and ice men. 923 West Fourth St., Davenport, Iowa. Phone 6201. Represented by ________." Stamped on the back of this card: "F. A. Goff, 211 W. 2nd St., Davenport, Iowa." The following announcement about this ice chipping machine appeared in The Iron Age , May 7, 1903, p. 77: "The Davenport Ice Chipping Machine Company, Davenport, Iowa, are placing on the market the Little Giant Ice Chipper, shown herewith [with the same illustration that's on the card], a machine designed to take the place of hand tools for shaving or chipping ice. The special features of the machine, according to the manufacturers, are simplicity, compactness, strength, and durability. Brackets are provided for attachment to a wall post or to a portable stand, by bolts or lag screws. The fly wheel has a detachable handle, the spout at the bottom is made to be turned, on the swivel plan, to either side or to any desired position, and the cylinder is of heavy cast iron. Upon the sectional wheels, which are firmly attached to the shaft, are mounted toothed blades of tool steel, fastened by heavy machine screws, allowing the blades to be adjusted and easily replaced when necessary."