Category Archives: Boats and Ships

The Dock At Patchogue, Long Island

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Héliogravure or Photogravure. Postmarked July 23, 1914, Patchogue, New York. Publisher:  H. O. Korten. Panel Card No. 174. Printed in Germany.

Price:  $8.00            Size:  About 6 and 1/8 x 2 and 1/2″

An interesting image, though a big chunk of the right-hand upper corner is missing. It might be relevant for anyone interested in the history of Patchogue, and definitely so if their ancestor owned a sailboat christened Nancy Hanks.

Originally I listed this one as a Real Photo Postcard, but many thanks to Jim, who commented, for the correction. It’s a héliogravure or photogravure.

What degree of separation….mother, horse, sailboat…?

One naturally assumes the boat may have been named after a then present-day (1914) person, maybe a relative of someone who lived in Patchogue. So, we went to census records for Nancy Hanks, but found nothing; then went to historical newspapers and found a reference to someone running off at “a Nancy Hanks trot.”  Intriguing…..Ahhhh, a little further searching revealed that Nancy Hanks (named after Abe Lincoln’s mother) was a Standardbred trotting mare, a record-breaker that was later inducted into the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame.

The trotter Nancy Hanks circa 1892, photo by Schreiber.

As for the card’s sender and recipient…..

Addressed to:   “Miss Elsie Blum, 481 E – 11th st., Brooklyn, N.Y.”

The sender wrote:   “Dear Ones, just got mother’s letter & will write soon. Wieder[?] is very very happy with you. Love & a big kiss. Tanta Lahy.”

The Blum family were of German origin, and maybe “Tanta” is a nickname for tante (aunt). It sounds like the sender’s son received a gift from Elsie and was thrilled with whatever it was. As for the addressee, there’s an Elsie Blum on the 1910 Federal Census that might fit for the addressee of this card. Born in Ohio about 1890, parents Adam and Elsie, address 812 Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn, with a near cross street being E. 7th. Nothing coming up for the address on the postcard in city directories at either 481 11th (apt. E) or 481 E. 11th, which is surprising. But it is an address today, if the numbering is the still the same, 481 11th St., a condo, and so beautiful on the inside! ( If Elsie could see it now!)

Sources:  Photogravure. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogravure (accessed February 7, 2021).

Year: 1910; Census Place: Brooklyn Ward 29, Kings, New York; Roll: T624_983; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 1023; FHL microfilm: 1374996. (Ancestry.com).

Nancy Hanks (horse). n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Hanks_(horse). Accessed September 15, 2019.

Young Man And Wooden Fishing Boats

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Old photo, circa late 1910s – 1920s.

Price:  $5.00         Size:  5 and 1/2 x 3 and 1/4″

No writing on the back of this one:  a young man posing for the camera perched on the bow (well, maybe stern) of a wooden fishing boat, one of several grouped together. He wears a suit and tie and a somewhat unusual striped hat. And this could have been taken in so many possible places. The shot reminds me of Ireland though, because of the old wooden boats that Mom and I saw one time, having gotten out of the car to take a stroll by the sea. So, naturally, I had to look up coastal photos of Ireland….not with any hope of finding the location (because one would need psychic abilities on this one!) but just because I’m always compelled. Once you get that idea in your head you find yourself typing something in Google no matter what the odds are…..so this image of Skerries in County Dublin, with it’s similar look of sweeping coastline came up right away, by chance having a chance 🙂  to fit the criteria in our image. (If you click to enlarge ours you can see the background better where maybe some mistiness makes the land seem lower than in the “what-are-the-odds-Skerries-photo” or maybe it’s the angle at which it was taken.) Here’s Skerries, Fingal, County Dublin.

And wouldn’t that be hilariously something if it were indeed a match?…..On the other hand, maybe this is Massachusetts….

Source:  “The Top Ten Most Beautiful Seaside Towns in Ireland.” (www.irelandbeforeyoudie.com). Accessed September 7, 2019.

Mrs. Minnie Perreault

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Old photo, circa 1930s, white border.

Price:  $10.00        Size:  2 and 3/4 x 4 and 1/2″

Continuing with a very short theme of “woman with oar or paddle” 🙂 here’s a photo circa 1930s, and we’re guessing (though not certain) that the woman in the canoe is the “Mrs. Minnie Perreault” as written on the back. She was the wife of Ludger Perreault, and their address given is 479 Ann St., Hartford, CT. The 1930 Federal Census for Hartford shows them at this address, along with their daughter Lillian, age 9, with several lodgers living also in the household. This photo was found in a box of loose photos at the vintage paper fair recently visited in San Francisco.

Source:  Year: 1930; Census Place: Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0039; FHL microfilm: 2339999. (Ancestry.com).

Girl With Boat Oar

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Lithograph, printing company unknown. Circa 1870s – 1890s.

Price:  $6.00       Size:  1 and 3/8 x 2 and 3/4″

Nothing printed on the back but one assumes this small card may have been part of a series, maybe of seaside scenes or women in regional dress or bathing attire. And it’s a colorful outfit she wears:  peach skirt, sleeveless top with wide vertical stripes in wine and light blue. And the lighter rose-colored material that encircles her hips, is this part of the skirt or top? Note the emblem of some sort on the skirt, and the peach tam o’shanter hat. Was that a mistake by the printer to have that line going from the hat to behind the girl’s back? And we can’t also help but wonder at the small landmark (like something manmade – a statue perhaps) that appears on the distant horizon; as if this card was fashioned after a specific location, somewhere well-known to the lithographer but that leaves us in the dark today. Lots of questions without answers on this one but maybe that’s part of it’s charm!

Compliments of Domestic S. M. Co.

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Domestic Sewing Machine Company trade card, circa 1880s – 1890s.

Price:  $7.00             Size:  3 and 1/8 x 4 and 7/8″

Here’s a nice restful scene to gaze upon – and one of many trade cards to be found for the Domestic Sewing Machine Company. If you search old newspapers online look for them under the shorter version Domestic S. M. Co. Below, an early ad, from 1872. Love the line directed toward any non-Domestic sewing machine sales reps,  “It don’t pay you to fight the best Machine.” 

For detailed info on Domestic we found a good site for s.m. co.s (Getting into the spirit of the times, lingo-wise 😉  )

Domestic Sewing Machine Company

Sources:  “The ‘Light Running’ Domestic.” Nashville Union and American. (Nashville, TN). November 17, 1872. Sunday, p. 2. (Newspapers.com).

“The Domestic Sewing Machine Co.”. Fiddlebase.com. (Accessed August 3, 2019.)

Forget-me-nots and Seagulls

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Divided back, embossed postcard. Postmarked May 11, 1913 from Elwood, Nebraska. Series or number G10.

Price:  $5.00

“Only a message sweet and true

Saying I think today of you.”

Addressed to:   “Miss Lena Davis, Almena Kans.”

“May 10       Dear Cousin, We are all well having fine weather. I have 109 little chicks my housecleaning done and garden planted. The wheat look fine. Fred is listing corn he has been sick but better now. The boys grow fast and play out doors all the time. From Your Cousin Alice.”

Have been away from posts (alas) for some time. This seems to be a common refrain lately (sigh). Anyway! Here’s one from our Lena Davis Collection (hey, Lena 🙂 ) of a beautiful sunset on a lake (lake as in Great Lakes comes to mind, being a Michigander) with sailboat, seagulls and is partially framed by forget-me-nots. Flipping to the back to read the message from Lena’s cousin Alice, we jump from lakeside to a rural farm setting of chicks, wheat and corn……What woman cannot relate to this sense of accomplishment,  “I have my 109 little chicks, housekeeping done and garden planted.”  Time to kick back on the front porch with an ice-cold lemonade (while of course, keeping an eye on the boys, ever-multi-tasking 😉  ).

And, yes, Fred is really “listing” corn. He would have used a piece of farm equipment similar to the one pictured below, planting the kernels in the furrows (the ditches) so the corn could root deeper in the soil and the roots could be covered later, thus protecting them in times of drought.

Source:  Widtsoe, John Andreas. Dry Farming:  A System of Agriculture for Counties Under Low Rain Fall. New York:  The McMillan Company, 1911. (archive.org).

U.S.S. Richmond At Balboa, Panama

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Old photo, circa 1920s. Balboa, Panama.

Price:  $25.00        Size:  About 4 and 1/4 x 3 and 1/8″

Richmond at Balboa

As it turns out, there are two ships here, one directly behind the other. Which one is Richmond is uncertain, but one might assume she’s the one in the forefront. As to the date, the Wikipedia entry lists Richmond as being at Panama both in 1924 and 1942, but our guess is the earlier decade, both from the look of the photo and the similarity to the following image of Balboa, found online at Library of Congress, which is estimated to have been taken between 1908 and 1919:

Panama Canal Zone, town of Balboa

Sources:  U.S.S. Richmond (CL-9). n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Richmond_(CL-9). Accessed May 27, 2019.

Panama Canal Zone, town of Balboa. , None. [Between 1908 and 1919] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016821455/.

Loch Lomond By E. Longstaffe

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Postcard, unused. Artist-signed by E. Longstaffe. Publisher unknown. Circa 1904 -1905.

Price:  $5.00

Continuing with our short excursion to Scotland….an artist-signed card by English landscape painter, Edgar Longstaffe (1852 – 1933). The few others currently for sale online are dated from 1904 and 1905 (though were put out by other publishers). This particular offering is not in the best shape – the layers of paper comprising the card are starting to peel away from each other, but since Scotland had seemed to be a somewhat neglected area of my collection, I was happy to find this card and include it here.

Source:  Edgar Longstaffe. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Longstaffe (accessed August 8, 2018).

Choose The Best Shade

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Trade Card. J & P Coats. Circa1880s – 1890s.

Price:  $15.00               Size:  About 4 and 1/8 x 2 and 5/8″

Such a pretty card and with a clever caption! The stripes going through the waves remind me of the zigzag pattern in clothes that has materialized (just a happy coincidence on the pun) on the scene in the world of fashion in recent years, and the design on the back of the card that surrounds the lettering in bold, is delicate and almost mechanical-looking.

J & P Coats you will instantly recognize as a mega company in the world of thread. I checked my sewing tin just now and found all the labels as either Coats, under the current Coats Group logo, Clark O.N.T. (Our New Thread) or Coats & Clark.

Sources:  Coats Group. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coats_Group (accessed February 25, 2018).

Coats. TRC Leiden. (accessed February 25, 2018).

Twelve In A Skiff

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Divided back, Real Photo Postcard, unused. Circa 1907 – 1918. AZO stamp box.

Price:  $4.00

A nice family photo made into a postcard, circa 1907 – 1918, showing twelve family members in a skiff named Elizabeth, either just about to head out on the water or just returned. Most likely the latter though because there’s the family dog, laying down in the sand (tired after all the excitement, swimming, etc?) and there’s one of the kids huddled in a towel. This RPPC would be a nice reference for the era’s bathing suits, family outings at the lake, and that type of thing. Love those bathing caps!