Old photo, man in Oldsmobile, circa 1917.
Price: $5.00 Size: 5 x 3″
Youngish gentleman in suit, tie and Newsboy-type cap, posing for the camera in a circa 1917 Oldsmobile. (We presume it’s his. He looks proud.) That would likely be the toolbox that is resting on the running board. The shape of the rear window seems uncommon: like a long, narrow rectangle with the edges rounded off, we’re not seeing an exact match online.
Divided back, used postcard. Postmarked April 17, 1940 in Detroit, Michigan.
Availability status: SOLD
Built in 1910 and demolished in 1981, “Dodge Main” as it was commonly called, was the largest of the Chrysler plants, and located in Hamtramck, Michigan. The card’s caption in the “cloud” or maybe that’s factory steam 😉 shows, “Where Dodge Passenger Cars Are Built – The Home Of Dependability. Detroit, Michigan.”
The postcard’s condition is poor due to the big crease down the middle, but the message on the back is a wonderful example of when a person could drive to the factory to pick up their new car. A. E. Schweitzer, the author of the article in the link above, mentions that many would plan their summer vacations around the purchase of the new vehicle. Whether this was common with car companies at this time or was exclusive to Dodge is a good question to research, but in any case, our sender writes:
“Dear George. We are at the Factory. Will get our car in a short time now. Hope every thing is O.K. at home. Regards to all. Tony[?]”
Sent to: “Mr. George Hume. Truckee, Calif. Nevada co.”
Source: Schweitzer, A. E. “Inside the Dodge Main plant: 1910 – 1981.” Allpar. (Web accessed June 25, 2016).
Set of 2 sepia-toned mini-photos. Renault and driver. Circa 1924.
Price: $10.00
Size of top photo: About 2 and 5/8 x 1 and 5/8.” Size of bottom photo: About 2 and 3/4 x 1 and 5/8.”
While out one afternoon with my friend, Tina (thinking it may have been last year, time flies, good grief!) we stopped at a thrift store, and I found a cool-looking book My Father Mr. Mercédès by Guy Jellinek-Mercédès (copyright 1961 and translated by Ruth Hassell). Someone (thank you!) had placed these two old photos within the pages. I think we were in Pacific Grove at the time, so it’s possible that the photos were local or at least taken in California. There is no writing on the back of either, so the name of the young man proudly showing off his car, is unknown. Though grainy, the shots are perfect for being able to identify the make, model and year, as in: there’s the front on a nice angle, and a full side view. We’re looking at the steering wheel on the left, a horn on the outside, the hood coming to a point with a small round grill in the center, side vents and five characters in the license plate (018 – M3). But after browsing through hundreds of images online yesterday, the match was not found. My brilliant mechanic techno hubby is all into the newer stuff (we’re opposites) and he tells me he’s seen the model before but just can’t place the name. Maybe someone out there will recognize this car immediately and will comment, but if not I’ll try to hunt down some local experts who will know….
Update: Thanks to the lightning-quick help on the forum from one of the members of the Antique Automobile Club of America: This car is a Renault, circa 1924. In searching for Renault in this time period the word Torpedo shows up quite a bit, but FYI, the “torpedo body” style was not exclusive to Renault, and is a term that shows up in old newspapers at least as early as July 25, 1909 per the article below:
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri) 25 Jul 1909, Sun. Main Edition, p. 2. (Newspapers.com)
This gallery contains 63 photos.
Here are a bunch of old photos from someone’s family album, that have been waiting around to finally get scanned and posted. This is WWI Era (the date from the army barracks photos appears to be 7/20/18) and several show … Continue reading
“704 – Entrance Hotel Del Monte, Monterey County, Cal., Coast Line, S. P. R. R.”
There’s so much going on with this postcard…
Early autos
Well, for starters, this continues the topic from the prior post – early American cars – steering wheel on the right. You can see that the first two vehicles from the right – have their steering wheels on the right, while the third one in line, has it’s wheel on the left. The card was postmarked in 1910, and it may have been produced from a newspaper photograph of that year or within several years prior. However, if you’ll notice – the “driver” in the third car is a woman, while the man next to her looks more “geared up” in coat and hat, to drive. Maybe they switched places for the photo, or maybe the image was altered for the postcard, and the wheel was drawn in on the left. (We’ve seen similar alterations on other old postcards.)
The car on our right is possibly an early Winton, with that continuous curved fender. I found a four-seat 1904 model displayed at Early American Automobiles, the 9th photo down on the left; you can check out the similarities between the two. Wikipedia’s entry regarding the “Winton Motor Carriage Company” shows the famous two-seat touring Winton “Vermont” (again with that distinctive fender.) It was 1903 that Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, along with his mechanic, made the first successful automobile trip across the U.S. in a “Vermont.”
The Hotel
The luxurious Hotel Del Monte, was built by railroader Charles Crocker, and operated from 1880 – 1942. It was part of a 20,000 acre resort; a playground for the rich and famous, and a big part of the Central Coast’s history. See “St. John’s Chapel, Del Monte, California” for a related post. The hotel showing on this postcard would have been the second of three; the first two being destroyed by fire. The wooden, Gothic first and second hotels were designed by Southern Pacific Railroad architect, Arthur Brown, Sr. and built by S.P.R.R. workers.
The Coast Line
Opening January 1, 1880, the Monterey Branch of the Coast Line of the S.P.P.C. ran from Castroville to Pacific Grove; linking San Francisco to the Hotel Del Monte and Pebble Beach. It included Southern Pacific’s longest running “named” passenger train, the Del Monte, which ran from San Francisco to Pacific Grove, and mainly served wealthy tourists. This passenger train made her last run on April 30, 1971.
The sender wrote:
“Dear Billy, I was very glad to hear from you. Did you get the papers? I will write you a letter soon. Lots of Love from Ada.”
The card is addressed to: “Mr. Will Ingram, Weed, Siskiyou Co. Cal.”
Game hunting for the wealthy
The great thing about this postcard is the added info at the top, which must have been written in later years and by a relative: “Grandpa lived here for awhile. Regina Ingram’s father Maurice Smith. He hunted all the game for the wealthy guests – venison, quail, turkey.”
Regina Ingram was Lilac Regina Smith (Lilac – love that!) born in 1895 in Monterey. She married William Ingram, the recipient of the postcard, born 1885 in Monterey. From research on Ancestry.com, the postcard sender, Ada, was likely William’s sister. Regina’s father, Maurice Smith, was born in New York about March 1865. He appears as early as 1880 (from the census) living in Monterey, and on subsequent census records with his wife and children. No clues were found in records as to when exactly he would have stayed at the Del Monte, perhaps early on before his marriage, which was in about 1892. The town of Weed in Siskiyou County is located almost 400 miles north of Monterey, up Highway 5. The 1910 Federal Census taken in nearby Edgewood, shows William living with some family members: Amy Ingram, William’s sister, was running a hotel; another sister, Mary, was working there as a waitress; and he and brother George, were working for the Weed Lumber Company as bricklayers.
Divided back, used postcard. Postmarked June 8, 1910 from Monterey, California. Publisher: Edward H. Mitchell, San Francisco.
Price: $18.00
Sources: “1904 Winton. Winton Motor Carriage Co., Cleveland OH. 1897 – 1924.” Early American Automobiles. Web accessed April 1, 2015.
Winton Motor Carriage Company. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winton_Motor_Carriage_Company. (accessed April 1, 2015).
California’s Most Historic Resort: Hotel Del Monte. Naval Postgraduate School. Web accessed April 3, 2015. [http://nps.edu/About/Publications/HotelDelMonte_updated_Final.pdf]
Castroville to Pacific Grove: The Monterey Branch. Abandoned Rails. Web accessed April 3, 2015. [http://www.abandonedrails.com/Monterey_Branch]
Year: 1880; Census Place: Monterey, Monterey, California; Roll: 69; Family History Film: 1254069; Page: 252A; Enumeration District: 057; Image: 0505. (Ancestry.com)
Year: 1910; Census Place: Monterey, Monterey, California; Roll: T624_89; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 0013; FHL microfilm: 1374102. (Ancestry.com)
“When a Ford gets sick,
Hit her with a brick,
And she’ll ramble right along just the same.”
Here’s a humorous artist-signed postcard of a drawing of a man tossing a brick at the radiator of a Model T, while the lady in her stylish hat waits unconcernedly in the passenger seat. A billy goat is tugging on the back fender, thinking, “This Tin Lizzy makes some feed.”
This is one from a comical series by Indiana native Conrad “Cobb” X. Shinn (1887 – 1951) who produced many illustrations, also including those of the comic “Dutch accent” type that were so popular in the day, and others of profiles of beautiful women. His works can be easily found online.
“The Little Ford Rambled Right Along” seems to have been the inspiration for Shinn’s Tin Lizzy illustrations. This song came out in 1915 and was advertised as the “Greatest Comedy Song Sensation.” The music was by Byron Gay, and lyrics by C.R. Foster and Byron Gay, and was performed by Bill Murray. It starts out about a guy named Jones who is out with his girlfriend in his limo. When the limo breaks down, a guy by the name of Nord (to rhyme) comes along “…in his little old Ford.” And as you can guess, the first guy is quickly out of the picture as Nord and his Ford steal the girl away, whereby guy, girl and car proceed to have a day’s worth of adventures (including meeting up with a mule and a donkey) and bumping into a preacher, who jumps in for a ride resulting in the newly-met couple becoming man and wife. (Heehee) It’s really a clever song; the long and short of it being that the Ford is indestructible no matter what she encounters. The last line of the song is, “When the power gets sick just hit it with a brick and the little Ford will ramble right along!” (From Mitch Taylor’s Ford Model T website.)
As to the term Tin Lizzy or Lizzie, it seems to have been around from at least February of 1915 (the earliest date I found online.) The short clip below is dated a little later, June 4, 1915. Wow, it looks like the report indicates Ford’s capital stock had increased from two million to one hundred million dollars, due to the popularity of the affordable car for the masses!
Modesto Evening News, June 4, 1915, Friday, page 1.
But still, the exact origin of the nickname “Tin Lizzy” seems to be unknown. A couple of good guesses found online are that Lizzie was a common name for a horse, or that Lizzie was a slang phrase used for a domestic servant, with the idea being that “Lizzie” ran all the errands for the household which could now be run with the help of the automobile. But the above article does happen to disprove another theory which was that the term was coined at a race in 1922 at Pike’s Peak in Colorado.
Divided back, unused, artist-signed postcard. Artist: Cobb X. Shinn. Publisher: Commercial Colortype Company. Circa 1915.
Price: $25.00
Sources: “Model T Music & Lyrics.” www.fordmodelt.net. Web accessed March 6, 2015.
1915, June 4. “Tin Lizzies” Prove to be Profitable to the Ford Auto Company. Modesto Evening News, p. 1. Web accessed March 6, 2015. (Newspapers.com)
Divided back, used Real Photo Postcard. Postmarked May 8, 1921 from Laramie, Wyoming. Series or number a[?] 6.
Availability Status: SOLD
This commercial type Real Photo Postcard shows the east side of Second Street, looking south, in Laramie, Wyoming. The postmark is from May of 1921 so the photo may have been taken that year, or the year before, or so.
The businesses that are showing up in the photo are the First State Bank; above the bank is Dr. Sawyer, dentist – this building is at Thornburg (now Ivinson) and Second St.; next door is the clothing store of Frank J. Terry – the name at the top on this building is Simon Durlacher, a very prominent clothier who died in 1893; next to the clothing store is Bendt’s Bakery; next to the bakery is a business of unknown origin; next to them we can see a sign that looks like it might say Drugs. Further down and on the corner of the next block we can see a large Western Union sign.
A little more detail…
The dentist was Dr. Clifford J. Sawyer, his business address on the 1922 city directory is 202 Thornburg. Simon Durlacher died in June of 1893, but the building bearing his name at 203 S. 2nd St. (built in the 1870s) housed clothing stores for almost a hundred years. Nels Bendt, a Danish immigrant, owned Bendt Bakery (205 S. 2nd St.) …Here’s a great virtual tour of historic downtown Laramie by the Albany County Tourism Board at VisitLaramie.org
We are right there…
The cars are wonderful to look at, are all of them Model Ts? There are a number of pedestrians, including a guy in a cowboy hat, and two boys who are hanging out at the corner on Thornburg. We see a couple of bicycles – one in front of the bank and the other across the street, on the bottom right of the photo. And at the bank’s entrance, tucked inside the protected entrance way, is a baby carriage – assuredly Baby is inside the bank with Mom! We also notice a couple of multi-globed street lights, and a globed traffic divider that says “Keep To Right” that is set up in the middle of the dirt road. The sidewalks are paved though. All in all a wonderful photo. Don’t you feel like you’re right there?
Cold as H…
Not to forget the sender’s message – it’s short but great: “Cold as H and Snowed yesterday – J.” Note that the card is postmarked May 8th. It was addressed to: “Geo. Hume, Box 122, Sacramento Calif.”
Sources: R.L. Polk & Co.’s Laramie City and Albany County Directory, 1922-1923. Vol. 6, p 94. (Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989)
R.L. Polk & Co.’s Laramie City and Albany County Directory, 1920-1921. Vol. 5, p 20. (Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989)
Historic Downtown Laramie: Wyoming’s Hometown. Albany County Tourism Board, 2008. VisitLaramie.org. Web accessed March 6, 2015.
Here’s an unusual circa 1960s black and white photo, showing a woman in a knee-length dress and a cardigan, wearing flats and carrying a somewhat large purse and a newspaper. She may have just gotten off the bus or just be crossing the street. Upon closer inspection we notice she also has her glasses in the same hand as the newspaper. She’s a nice looking, middle-aged lady, wearing a slight smile, eyes downcast, focused on watching her step on the wet street, or maybe not wanting to look at the camera, probably out running errands for the day. A front and partial side view of a bus is prominent in the photo, and we see a couple of gentlemen to either side of the bus. We also notice a woman through the bus window, getting ready to exit. The sign in the bus window possibly states Servicio Nacional [?] That second word is hard to make out. There is a partial view of a tiled roof with what looks like a tiled overhead extension running above the street in the background, plus some cars lined up on the right, probably parked. (Don’t they seem close together!)
This could be a typical street scene somewhere on the Avenida Tibidabo (Tibidabo Avenue) in Barcelona, Spain, or maybe a scene taken on the route up to the mountain of Tibidabo. This mountain overlooks Barcelona, and at 512 meters (1680 feet) is the highest mountain in the Serra de Collserola range. It’s known for both it’s amusement park and Catholic church at the top. Since the word “Tibidabo” is displayed (very prominently) at the bottom of the photo, we wonder if this would be one of the tourist variety; the type where the photographer takes the shot of passersby, and then offers to sell them the photo. There is no photographer or other identifying info on the back, other than what looks like the initials “MY” – who knows what that might be. “Fibidabo?” is written lightly in pencil, and that’s just evidence of probably the last owner of the photo taking a quick guess at the word on the front. (The internet sure makes quick work of searching.) The photo is in fairly good condition except for a prominent crease at the bottom right. If you enlarge the image you can see it.
Pegaso: A Spanish make of trucks, buses, tractors, armored vehicles, and for a shorter time sports cars. Note the logo on the bus and the barely discernible nomenclature in script on the grill work below the logo. (How we love these ah-ha moments!) Pegaso (Pegasus – we are used to seeing the winged horse) was under the parent company Enasa, which was taken over by Iveco in 1990. The Pegaso name ran from 1946 – 1994, and their operations were headquartered in Barcelona.
Price: $35.00 Size: About 4 x 5 and 3/4″
Sources: Tibidabo. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibidabo (accessed October 5, 2014).
Pegaso. n.d. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegaso (accessed October 5, 2014).
Real Photo Postcard, unused. Circa 1941 – 1945. EKC stamp box.
Price: $25.00
Early 1940’s Real Photo Postcard of the Greyhound Depot in Grants Pass, Oregon, showing the depot entrance and café with a small group of several people (a gentleman and three young women) exchanging conversation and to their right, a gentleman in a double-breasted suit, holding a cigarette, on the doorstep of the entrance. This postcard appears to have been manufactured for the Grants Pass station for travelers to purchase. The location and probably the photographer or printer information shows at the bottom left in white as “G13 PAT. [or P^T?] At Grants Pass Oregon.” The partial view of the vehicle in the photo is the best clue in dating this postcard: The car is a 1941 Ford Super Deluxe 2 Door Sedan.
Three pals pose next to their car, which is one of a long line of cars that are lined up at the side of the road. (I feel redundant here but oh, well.) The writing on the back says “Auburn Ski Club 1930.” It looks like this might have been taken on the way back home, after the fellas got some good skiing in. You’ll notice the snow in the background, but that the guys don’t have their winter jackets on. Auburn is Auburn, California, located in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains…. In keeping with the tradition of identifying vehicle types on this website, the car in the foreground will be researched (more) to try to figure it out. (What would you think the rope attached to the steering wheel was for?)
The Auburn Ski Club still exists today. The Western SkiSport Museum was founded in 1969 by the ski club, and there are all kinds of fascinating facts and photos and exhibits to be found there. The second website listed below is The Donner Summit Historical Society: tons of cool (no pun intended) stuff in there, too.
The condition of this 1930 photo is not the greatest: There are some indentations in the photo, and if you enlarge it you will see that it’s a little out of focus. But it’s still a great photo of three friends and a great piece of Western skiing history.
Price: $17.00 Size: About 2 and 3/4 x 4 and 1/2″
Sources and related reading: http://auburnskiclub.com/ski-museum/
http://www.donnersummithistoricalsociety.org/PDFs/newsletters/news12/December12.pdf