Interiors

For more information, see the original photo :

Written on the back: "12/29/67 - Bo." Bo on the floor and Tennessee Ernie Ford on the TV. I'm not sure whose legs those are on the couch. For another dogs-TV-legs combination, see Fuzzy Dog (below).

Handwritten note on the back of this real photo postcard: "Austin, Lomah, & Jonas, a musical blow-out."

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 tables photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. More than twenty tables were available for diners amid the rustic wood and stone construction in the dining room of the Bear Mountain Inn when this photo was taken sometime in the 1920s. The inn was built in 1915 and is located in Bear Mountain State Park in Rockland County, New York. A posting on the New York History Blog includes this same photo and reports that the inn was extensively renovated a few years ago. See Bear Mountain Inn Reopening Saturday [February 18, 2012] After Renovations .

A mother and son-—along with a tree and wrapped presents-—seem to be materializing out of the ether in this Christmas double exposure. For other haunted holiday happenings, see The Ghosts of Christmas Past and The Ghosts of Easter Past (below).

A school days photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A young schoolteacher—not much older than some of the students seated around her—stands at the back of the classroom in a one-room schoolhouse. Although the stove and a couple of school desks dominate the foreground, the faces of the students and the items posted on the wall in the background are the most interesting parts of the photo (mouse over the image above to see enlargements of the left , middle , and right sections). Five calendars are among the twenty-seven items on the wall. The lettering on one of the calendars is large enough that I was able to determine that it displays the month of March 1911 and came from the Limestone Mutual Fire Insurance Company in Limestone , Pennsylvania. This suggests that the schoolhouse may have been located in Clarion County or somewhere else in the surrounding area of northwestern Pennsylvania.

Some of the students on the left-hand side of the room are wearing dresses and suits that suggest that they dressed up especially for the photo. Does the pipe extending from the floor indicate that the wood stove has been converted for use with gas? For more information, see the full version of this photo.

Some of the younger students are seated in front the teacher. The boy on the right was caught with his mouth open, as if he was yawning or laughing. Sitting to the left of the teacher are two older female students. Or could they be mothers of the students or friends of the teacher? The calendar hanging on the wall at right is from the "Limestone Mutual Fire Insurance Co., Limestone, Pennsylvania," and the month on the calendar is March 1911. I haven't been able to identify the man in the large portrait next to the calendar. For more information, see the full version of this photo.

The students in this row seem to be waiting impatiently for the photographer to finish taking the photo. Note the amusing illustration at the top of the wall that shows a parrot reading from a book. For more information, see the full version of this photo.

A Halloween photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A Halloween portrait with a kid in a Lone Ranger costume and an eerie (oops, I mean ear-y ) jack-o'-lantern in the window (notice how the lamp ended up on the chair for the picture-taking session). The big ears and toothy smile of the jack-o'-lantern remind me of Alfred E. Neuman . A logo consisting of the numbers "1/55" inside a sideways letter "D" appears on the top border of the full version of this snapshot (see below). I'm not sure what the D refers to, but I take the numbers to mean that the photo was developed in January 1955, which suggests it was taken during Halloween the previous year. The boy's choice of costume reflects the popularity of the Lone Ranger TV series , which ran from 1949 to 1957.

A sideways letter "D" containing the numbers "1/55" (left of center along the top border) suggests that this photo was developed in January 1955. For additional information, see the cropped version :

"Shawsville Store, Christmas, 1907. Wishing your a merry Christmas." A real photo postcard addressed on the back to "Mr. Charles Preston, Rocks, Maryland." The postmark indicates a Maryland origin--it probably came from Shawsville, Maryland --but is otherwise illegible. A separate "rec'd" mark, however, specifies that it arrived in Rocks, Md., on Dec. 26, 1907.

A clocks photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. So, is this a spindle, star, sunburst, atomic, or some other kind of clock?

A photo of banquets, feasts, meals for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Looks like the banquet for the League of Men with Tiny Hats was just about to begin when this photo was snapped (mouse over the image for a close-up view of the men and their miniscule headgear). I have no idea who these guys were or why they were wearing those hats. It doesn't seem to be a festive occasion—no one's really smiling or laughing at the sight of more than 70 heads festooned with funny hats. Ironically, some of the men's regular-size hats are hanging on racks at the back of the room.

For more information about these men and their hats, see the full version of this photo.

A smoking photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. I hope that match didn't burn his fingers as he waited for the photographer to take his picture!

A teddy bears photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. A real photo postcard of a gathering of women along with their dolls, teddy bears (including a Steiff, I'm told), and maybe one or two stuffed lions or dogs. No date, location, or other information, unfortunately. For close-up views, see cropped versions showing the front row and the two back rows