Category Archives: Photos Without Names

A Beautiful Family

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Real Photo Postcard, unused. AZO stamp box. Circa 1910 – 1930.

Price:  $2.00

This postcard was found in Salinas, California, in an antique shop, next to the photos from the prior post. It was thought, at the time, that there was a link between the two (as in maybe the man in this postcard was the photographer) but, on second thought, I don’t think so (just based on the research from the prior). But anyway, a lovely family. I love the mom’s dress with the embroidery, the daughter’s delicate cotton dress, the father and son, both wearing ties.

Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, 1940s

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Eleven black and white photos, circa 1940s.

Price for the set:  $40.00       Sizes vary, see each photo.

Here’s a group of eleven vintage black and white photos taken in Alamos and La Aduana, Sonora, Mexico, circa 1940s. They were found in an antique store in Salinas, California. A sticker appears on the back of two of the photos showing, “J. V. Ryan, 3425 Champion St., Oakland 2, Cal.”  He may have been the photographer.

There are multiple possibilities for J. V. Ryan in Oakland, too bad we don’t know the actual given name. Nothing shows up for the name at that particular address in census records or city directories. The person that does come up, at 3425 Champion St., is Charles A. Weck. His census records show him at this address since approximately 1935, occupation mining engineer. This makes sense, as I think these photos have a mining connection, as you’ll see in one of them. The best assumption is that they may have been taken by either Ryan (a possible miner?) or Weck; we imagine an employer sent one or both down to the Alamos area in some type of mining connection.

Sunshine in Alamos…..

Size:  3 and 1/2 x 3 and 1/2″

Three girls and a bell…..

Size:  3 and 1/4 x 3 and 1/4″

A hammock on the porch…..

Size:  About 3 and 3/8 x 2 and 1/2″

An old street…..

Size:  3 and 1/4 x 3 and 1/4″

 

 El Camino Real…..

Size:  7 x 5″

La Aduana, shrine in background. The “fountain has never been dry in 200 years…..” 

This fountain was not found in quick online searches. It’s unknown whether it’s still there and still running. The tower with two bells in the background is believed to belong to the  Temple of Our Lady of Balvanera in La Aduana, based on photo matches online.

Size:  3 and 1/2 x 3 and 1/2″

Cacha Pomba? Center of the big silver mining district…..

Size:  3 and 1/2 x 3 and 1/2″

Shelter from the sun…..

Size:  About 5 x 4″

Casa Ruins, Alamos, Mexico…..

Size:  7 x 5″

Plaza de Armas…..

Size:  7 x 5″

Three Burros…..

Size:  7 x 5″

Sources:  Year: 1920; Census Place: Oakland, Alameda, California; Roll: T625_91; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 129. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1940; Census Place: Oakland, Alameda, California; Roll: m-t0627-00436; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 61-196. (Ancestry.com).

Temple of Our Lady of Balvanera. https://explore-sonora.com/temple-of-our-lady-of-balvanera/ (accessed April 1, 2022).

In a Field of Cabbage

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Vintage photo from film reel, circa 1940.

Price:  $2.00         Size:  About 2 and 1/2 x 2 and 3/8″

I picked this photo up at the same time as the one in the previous post. Presumably, they came from the same person or family. This is an odd one, though. And I’m not sure if that’s really a cabbage field, just my best guess. This group sure seems pretty intent on looking down at….something. The soil, insects? No idea. I pictured maybe the guy in the foreground, in the white sweater, might be the younger guy from the prior post at Treasure Island. (Maybe.) Then pictured he and his uncles (not in this picture, and just my imagination from the Treasure Island one) are sightseeing and ended up in the Salinas Valley or the Central Valley or somewhere else in California, south of San Francisco. (It probably is California.) Was there a “U Pick” kind of thing going on back then, like apples or pumpkins? But nothing shows in old newspapers for advertisement. Or, maybe they were a college group. The one guy does have a college sweater on, hard to tell from where, though. So, maybe they’re all “ag” students and this is a field trip. One thing’s for sure (and I love it), they certainly are all well-dressed!

Treasure Island, California, 1939 or 1940

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Vintage photo from film reel. Circa 1939 – 1940

Price:  $10.00          Size:  About 2 and 1/2 x 2 and 3/8″

See the next post for a possible related photo.

Treasure Island, San Francisco, California:  Three very smartly-dressed gentlemen, of Asian descent, pose next to a sign which points the way to the Parisian theater extravaganza, Folies Bergère, which was held at the California Auditorium. In the background is the California Building on the left and the San Francisco Building on the right. (The tips of the “pillars” for lack of a better word, that we’re looking at there, between the two buildings, are cut off in the photo.) And that is what was called the Lake of the Nations, or Pool of Nations, directly behind the flower bed.

Treasure Island is a man made island that was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to host the Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE), a world’s fair, that helped to celebrate the openings of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. The island had originally been scheduled to become an airport, after the fair was over but was instead turned over to the U.S. Navy, who used it for training grounds and education for a number of years. And, it’s very faint, but you can see one of the bridges in the background.

Check eBay for images of Folies program ephemera. For more on the history of Treasure Island and the GGIE, including videos, see the Treasure Island Museum.

Sources: Treasure Island, San Francisco. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Island,_San_Francisco (accessed January 23, 2022).

Folies Bergère. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folies_Berg%C3%A8re (accessed February 14, 2022).

Golden Gate International Exposition. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_International_Exposition (accessed February 14, 2022).

Treasure Island Museum. https://www.treasureislandmuseum.org/media (accessed February 14, 2022).

Three Gents

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Real Photo Postcard, unused. Circa 1908 – 1918. AZO stamp box.

Price:  $5.00

I believe these guys, or at least the two on our left, may be brothers, due to their resemblance to each other, though admittedly, there is a tendency to see family links where there may be none. Human nature, I think. Or, you might just imagine them as buddies or business partners. We wonder where the photo was taken. That looks like an American flag flying from that second story window on the left, crossed with another flag, which we can’t make out. Those could be decorations for some type of celebration draped over the iron balcony, like trimmings in support of an upcoming or just past Independence Day parade. The only wording that’s easily readable on the buildings behind the gents is “Free Reading Room.” Though, some historian might be able to recognize the design on the window to the left of the door to the reading room, which would be a possible clue for location. Oh, then there is some other wording showing – that last line looks like a name that starts with “McShe…” something Irish or Scottish. Easy to miss, but it’s on the building showing between the two guys on our left.

Last but not least, the stories from the background….a guy walking, and two older guys seated, passing the time of day, inside a business probably, some place that needed a large doorway, maybe for deliveries.

Having Fun Yet?

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Old photo, circa 1920s – 1930s.

Price:  $8.00          Size:  About 4 and 1/4″ x 2 and 1/4″

Continuing on with a mini-theme of families or groups of people. This one is a stumper. Where were they? The major clue, if we can call it that, appears on our left….something Ranch. Had the camera been pointing slightly more in that direction (or the photographer further back), we probably could have figured it out. Maybe “something-or-other Ranch” was a restaurant. Do we imagine we see a small outdoor dining table there covered in white cloth? The other clue (for some ingenious person) is the out-of-place looking geometric metal? phone booth-ish (space ship, time portal, 😉 ) thing at the far right, that we only see a portion of. What the heck was it? Then the people depicted here….Looking like, I hesitate to say it, a family of con-artists. Maybe it’s the younger girl – the stony-faced look and the cool octagonal sunglasses, note her grip on her grandma’s arm (yes, we remember that smiling into the camera was not mandatory, like it pretty much is today – refreshing, really – scowl if you want to) and her sister – with that trick of the eye – one eye closed, the other squinting slightly, not a wink though, but different….how did the camera catch that? Now, the dark-skinned gentleman on our right, is he the dad of the girls and the (nice-looking) older brother? Dad sun-bronzed from years of outside work…..or are they a wealthy bunch and this man is their driver (but part of the family) and native to (imagining) Central America. Well, idiotic questions like these are in abundance. Notice, too, how the whole gang is dressed in white except for the matron of the bunch. Makes you think this snapshot was taken in one of the southern states, Florida or southern Calfiornia, perhaps? Anyway, every picture tells a story, as they say, and what this one tells is……open to impression….flashes of insight appearing and disappearing…..in the end, I’d say they’re a nice, very stylish family with a million stories to tell. Oh, and this photo had been in the family album for some time, as evidenced by some of the black paper still stuck to the back.

San Antonio, Texas, Circa 1929

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Old photo. San Antonio, Texas, Circa 1929 or early 1930s. Printer:  The Fox Company. Copyright by Carl D. Newton.

Price:  $10.00         Size:  3 and 7/16 x 2 and 7/16″

There’s a good story in this moment, for sure. The phrase, “a pointed look” comes to mind – that which the young girl is directing toward her…..would you say, older sister? If siblings, that might explain the hostility 😉 (Paraphrasing the judge from My Cousin Vinny.) Or, do you imagine, that the one girl is just very engrossed in what the older one is saying (is she talking?) Personally, I love these old photos from the ’20s and ’30s, with the front yards (if this is one, sort of) that were not expected to be showpieces and often with old hand-built wooden fences that are leaning. (Actually, that’s a very nice gate, but the fence is falling in, and the gate off-kilter.) Or, maybe if not a front “yard” this is a commercial or semi-commercial street view. I’m now imagining some sort of auto servicing business. When you enlarge the image you’ll see that there is a second car in this photo and then also a third person, who’s standing behind it. We’ll check with the experts on the Antique Automobile Club of America forum, for the make, model and year of the car in the foreground.

Update:  The response from the super sleuths at AACA, is that the car in the foreground is actually a 1929 Nash, and the one in the background a Model A Ford Coupe. Which means that the printer’s stamp on the back of the photo was not an updated one, since it’s showing 1927. Interesting!

Double Exposed Car

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Old photo, white border. Circa 1910s – early ’20s.

Price:  $10.00

Young man posing in front of….perhaps a Model T (just a guess). Looks like maybe he’s going camping, with the gear strapped in somehow on the running board. Though, at first glance, this looks like an x-ray of the car with….surprise, much different innards than expected. 😉 I’m struck just now by the synchronicity of the man and vehicle both sporting a soft “cap” (Yeah, we’re all a little crazy lately, eh? 🙂 )

Gas Pump – Verdun, France

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Photo, white border, deckled edge. Circa mid-1930s, France.

Price:  $10.00

Verdun, France, a man refuels his vehicle, a 1934 or 1935 Peugeot 401.

Two members of the Antique Automobile Club of America came to the rescue (lightning quick responses, as usual) to identify the make, model and year of the car in the photo, and for clarification on the Castrol sign appearing to the left of the large Essences – Huiles.

Of course, it’s one of the first things to do (and so fun) when enlarging old photos – try to decipher any blurry or murky-looking wording, and that word under Castrol had me stumped (was guessing Brewster, haha) but it turned out to be something simple, in french, brevetée, patented. (See link in Sources.) And that’s a Gargoyle Mobiloil sign, to the right of Essences – Huiles. Gargoyle was a brand name under the Vacuum Oil Company. Also, noteworthy in the photo, is the small piece of machinery on the concrete, to the left of the man. Per my mechanic hubby, this is maybe an air compressor or pressure washer. Last but not least, we love the intricate wrought ironwork over the doorway of the Bureau de something, not quite readable – another of those, if you already knew what it said, it would be perfectly clear. 😉

Sources: Photo and video forums. What is it? Antique Automobile Club of America. Response to query of February 7, 2020. https://forums.aaca.org/forum/66-what-is-it/.

Vacuum Oil Company. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_Oil_Company (accessed February 7, 2021).

“French Castrol Oil Double-Sided Porcelain Flange”. Mecum Auctions Road Art. mecum.com. (accessed February 13, 2021).