Transportation

"Seeing Washington. No. 2. Starting point, Home Life Bldg., Cor. 15th & G. Sts., N.W., opposite U.S. Treasury."

A real photo postcard consisting of a trick photo that uses a double exposure to show a woman simultaneously pulling and riding a wagon. Notice the ghost shafts at the front of the wagon that fade and disappear (they're located behind the woman and below the shafts she's holding). The doppelgänger riding the wagon is pretending to hold the reins (with what looks like a stick with attached string in her right hand). Not to be confused with A Man Pushing Himself on a Wheelbarrow . 8-) For another similar trick photo, see A Man Simultaneously Pushing and Riding a Wheelbarrow .

A 1971 Bus & Car Co. Golden Eagle 05 bus on display at the Museum of Bus Transportation , Hershey, Pa.

"Harrisburg Carriage Repository, Edward Boyer, proprietor, 1017 Market St., Harrisburg, Pa. Manufacturer of and dealer in carriages, surreys, runabouts, Stanhope phaetons, buggies, and business wagons. Repairing and remodeling of carriages a specialty." The Hub , a trade magazine for carriage, wagon, and automobile manufacturers, provided this laudatory description of the Harrisburg Carriage Repository and its proprietor in its August 1901 issue, p. 256: "Harrisburg, Pa., has no better, more strongly established or more popular house in any branch of business than the Harrisburg Carriage Repository, of which Edward Boyer, good man, expert mechanic, and energetic business man, is proprietor. Everyone in the capital, yes, every carriage man in the State, we might say in the trade throughout the entire land, knows Boyer, the man whose word is as good as a United States bond. He handles only the best and carries a stock to meet all demands. Mr. Boyer is general agent for the Richland Vehicle Co. and numerous other manufacturers of twentieth-century vehicles of every description."

"Excursion to Ft. Madison, given by Benevolent Union. Steamer W. W. Saturday, June 29, 1907. Adults, 50c."

A 1970s photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Two couples pose for a photo before boarding their tour bus sometime in 1971 (although the processing date printed on the photo is "Jan. 1972," the bus trip probably took place sometime during the previous year). Some of the background details (mouse over the image above for a close-up view of the motel sign and maple leaf flags ) identify the setting as the parking lot of a Flying Dutchman Motel located somewhere in Canada. The sign also reveals that the travelers may have been able to "Enjoy a cold one in our Anchor R[oo]m Lounge" during their stay at the motel. Although not as groovy or patriotic as the seventies hippie or U.S. Bicentennial photos I had hoped to find when I looked through my collection for this week's theme, this image nonetheless provides a peek back at some of the clothing, vehicles, and signage of the time.

Although this detail from Departing by Bus from the Flying Dutchman Motel, 1971 makes it obvious that the photo is somewhat out of focus, it's interesting to note the Flying Dutchman Motel sign ("Enjoy a cold one in our Anchor R[oo]m Lounge") and the Canadian maple leaf flags.

A flappers photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. The John Cadwalader (note the partially visible name at the upper right-hand corner in the image above) was a steamship built by Pusey and Jones in 1926 and operated by the Baltimore and Philadelphia Steamship Company. This photo shows flappers --three of whom are wearing cloche hats --posing with a cigarette-smoking fellow on the deck of the steamship sometime in the late 1920s or possibly the early 1930s.

As you can see from this real photo postcard, I'm afraid that I'm feeling a bit woozy. Can anyone give me a ride home from the pub? Printed on the back: "Rotary 'Grotesque' Series. Printed in Britain."

"New Port Authority Bus Terminal, 41st Street & Eighth Avenue, Longacre 4-8484, one block from Times Square." Printed on the back of this postard: "Largest in the world, the $24,000,000 Port Authority Bus Terminal to open December 15, 1950, was built by the Port of New York Authority, the self-supporting joint agency of the states of New Jersey and New York, to relieve street traffic congestion in Manhattan and to provide a comfortable central station for 130,000 bus commuters and many thousand long distance bus travelers who daily enter and leave New York. The Port of New York Authority, 111 Eighth Avenue. N.Y. 11, N.Y." Message and name--both printed rather than handwritten--on back: "I thought you would be interested in receiving the above facts about the Port Authority Bus Terminal. With best wishes, cordially, Howard S. Cullman." See also Steve Shook's image of this postcard on Flickr, which has a linen finish that's missing on my copy: New Port Authority Bus Terminal, 1950 - Linen Postcard .

"Landisville Coach Works, C. H. Koser, Prop. Horseshoeing. All Kinds of Buggies and Carriages Built to Order. Automobile work a specialty." An advertising postcard that illustrates how one business in Landisville, Pennsylvania, adapted to the transition from buggies and carriages to automobiles as forms of transportation in the early part of the nineteenth century.

"Conestoga Coffee Blend, one pound net, Lancaster Wholesale Grocery Co., distributors, Lancaster, Penna." Although the landscape surrounding the Conestoga wagon in this illustration from the front of a paper coffee bag depicts the rugged terrain of the American West, early settlers actually used a different type of covered wagon (often just a simple farm wagon enclosed in canvas) to travel westward. The Conestoga wagon originated in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania , and its name may have come from the county's Conestoga Township or Conestoga River ("Conestoga" originally referred to a Native American group now more commonly known as the Susquehannocks ). It was a sturdy vehicle capable of handling large loads over the undeveloped dirt roads in Pennsylvania and surrounding states during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Given the local origin of the Conestoga wagon, it's not surprising that the Lancaster Wholesale Grocery Company chose the name for its coffee. And it's certainly more dramatic--through not accurate--to see the wagon traveling through a mountainous Western landscape rather than slogging through the muddy roads in the eastern United States. See also Howard C. Frey, Refurbisher of Conestoga Wagons .

"Howard C. Frey, East Prospect, Pa., refurbisher of Conestoga wagons, dealer in antique wagons, harness, whips, hame bells, tar pots, jacks, etc." For more information regarding the Conestoga wagon, see Conestoga Coffee, Lancaster, Pa.

A real photo postcard showing "Daddy" (handwritten in the upper left-hand corner) posing on the deck of an "F-6" submarine. Although the postcard is heavily soiled and some details of the painted scene in the background are difficult to make out, it appears that there are two or three ships floating (or sinking?) in the heavy waves behind the sub, while smoke billows from the smokestacks of a ship that's visible on the horizon at left. Meanwhile, two or three biplanes and an airship are visible in the sky above. The "F-6" hull number on the submarine is puzzling, but perhaps it's intended to refer to the U.S. Navy's submarine no. 6, the USS Pike , which saw service between 1903 and 1922. For more information, see the Navy Historical Center's page regarding USS Pike (Submarine # 6, later SS-6), 1903-1922 and Wikipedia's article on USS Pike (SS-6) .

Manufactured by a company called Tombstone Hearse & Trike, this three-wheeled motorcycle hearse is owned by the Harris Funeral Home in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

"Adirondack Steamboat Co. Pass E. D. Bennett, G. Supt., Bennington & Rutland Railway, until December 31st, 1897, unless otherwise ordered. George Sweet, president. No. 1932. American Bank Note Co., N.Y."

"Baltimore Steam Packet Co. Bay Line, 1911. Pass Mr. John F. Auch, Frt Traf. Mgr-–Philadelphia & Reading Rwy, until December 31st unless otherwise ordered. John R. Sherwood, president & general manager. No. 1726. Not valid unless countersigned by W. W. Erdman or myself. Florida." According to Wikipedia, "The Baltimore Steam Packet Company , nicknamed the Old Bay Line, was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962 that provided overnight steamboat service on the Chesapeake Bay , primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia." The steamer Florida , which is pictured on the pass, was a propeller-driven, steel-hulled vessel built by the Maryland Steel Company in 1907. For another illustration of the ship, see Steam Packets on the Chesapeake: A History of the Old Bay Line since 1840 (Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1961), by Alexander Crosby Brown, p. 82. John F. Auch was a freight traffic manager for the Philadelphia and Reading Railway , which later changed its name to the Reading Railroad and was immortalized as one of the railroads featured on the Monopoly game board. Compare this pass with an Adirondack Steamboat Company Pass, 1897 :