Rural Cross Dressing

This is either a picture of a man in a dress or a very ugly woman. I found this in a box of dollar snapshots in a junk shop. One of the interesting things about collecting old photos is trying to guess context. This makes me wonder if these two are a gay couple living in the country.

An Old and Odd Strip of Photos

I'm fairly certain these images predate photo booths, so I would guess it's a contact print from a strip of film.

Swiss Soldier

A nineteenth century cabinet card of a soldier, from Switzerland. On the back, "Alb. Ramstein FRIBOURG (Suisse) Diplome Geneve 1896. Les Cliches sont conserves. Die platten bleiben zu Nachbestellungen aufbewahrt."

Pin-up Slides

Two wonderful 35mm slides from the 1950's of a pin-up model.

A Strange, Hand Painted Tin Type

I try and report the things that are written, stamped, or printed on the backs of photos, but I rarely use up picture storage space to publish them to the blog. Tin types aren't all that uncommon, but finding one like this that has been hand painted is kind of rare.

Rowing Boats

A small collection of, mostly, unconnected photos, all showing boats that are rowed. Only a few are dated or labeled. The one with the little girl, in the foreground, and mother in the background is embossed with the date, "SEPTEMBER 1941" There are two photographs that show the same, dark haired woman. In one she sits in a row boat, alone, and the other has her rowing while another woman sits in the rear of the boat with her legs up, and that one is labeled, "What's the matter grumpy?" There are two square format images of the same row boat, one with a slightly overweight man, and the other with a woman in a two piece swimsuit are each stamped, "Osisee-Drogerie, G. Loscher, SEEBAG BANSIN, Reg.-Nr. 11/1/9" There is an image of a row boat with three kids in the rear of the boat, another kid rowing and an adult man in the front of the boat is labeled, " I'm sending this one along so you can show Willie and your friends how Janc. Co cooks along the creek also so you can see Father Brown. The one boy is a Ditzler. I guess you've seen him around up there already. You know they have Katie's cottage. Mom Earl, Dick, & Fat. " And finally, there is an image of a single person rowing, with nothing else but water to be seen, "Sat. July 10th, 1948 Life Guard-Lake Erie, Peninsula Beach #2-Erie, Pa. By Leonard."

Another French Postcard

I really should have published this real French Postcard with the last one (published 10/6/09) but I forgot that I had two of them. Some time in the near future, I'll be putting up a couple that I've hand printed from glass negatives. Anyway, this is the real deal, a period postcard, not a modern reproduction.