Casper, Wyoming

.

.

.

.

.

Stamped on the back, "Made at The Picture Shop, Casper, Wyo." Hotel staff from the 1920's I would think. Anyone out there from Casper that can identify the hotel, or tell me it's something else, please leave a comment.

Oval Portrait

Well, someone took a razor blade to the card on which this photo was mounted. Too bad, the whole card might have had some info on it. Maybe a photographer's mark, studio logo, or subject's name. Nineteenth century, perhaps very early twentieth.

Scare Crows

Hand printed on postcard stock, but not printed well. The drop off on the right side of the print was either caused by the use of the wrong focal length lens or a variable condenser put in the wrong position. I've got several versions of this postcard, and of the three, this one is the one with the most image and strongest focus. One of the things that fascinates me about old photos is what they can show us about life so many years a ago. It's nice to see what kind of clothes people wore or what kind of cars they drove, but an image like this goes far beyond that. In a time before radio, television, and the Internet, if a person wasn't able to entertain him or herself, life could be very, very boring. People would get together and sing around parlor pianos, they'd form town bands, and amateur theatrical groups. I doubt that the Scare Crows were professional actors. These people probably did nothing more complex than getting together and working out some entertaining acts to amuse themselves. It looks like they preformed in a barn, and their audience was probably no larger than their own friends. Now, how did I entertain myself today? I surfed the web, watched TV, and listened to the radio. I really had no need to go out and interact with other people. And that brings us to the big question: Has our society, dominated by electronic communication mediums made us more isolated as people?

Old California 3

This is the third and last part of the old California estate collection. Again, this one seems to be a travel collection. There is a lot of emphasis on the ocean. The navel officer is the only picture in this group that is labeled, "P.S. himself." Post script or the initials of the person, and is he a friend of the photographer or the man himself? I've noted before that I love the mystery of old photos, and trying to make some sense of them, but other than service aboard a ship that was armed, there isn't much to learn here. All the harbor shots are more focused on commerce with an emphasis on tugs and harbor transport. Note that behind the steam launch photo, the masts of a sailing ship can be seen; the four masts of a clipper. The paddle wheeler is almost certainly on the Sacramento River, one of the few rivers in California that had commercial boat traffic. The shot from the beach has a flotilla of war ships. The Great White Fleet? The railroad picture is of a crane of the S.P.L.A.& S.L Railroad. That's the San Pedro, Los Angeles, & Salt Lake Railroad, whose main line connected the harbor at San Pedro, now part of Los Angeles to Salt Lake City in Utah. The company no longer exists, but the rail line built by the company is still used. The main visitor's center for the Mojave National Preserve in Kelso, California was a station for the line. While it operated under different names, the S.P.L.A.& S L. name was only used from 1901 to 1916. The antelope picture only made it because of my no editing policy. If a location had been written on the back I might have been able to find out when the last animal died there or if a few still survive, but no location, no research. The twenty mule team shot is interesting. The famous borax wagon teams carrying the mineral from Death Valley to the rail head at Mojave, California only operated from 1883 to 1889 and had two box wagons and a water tank. Same idea for the wagon depicted, but a different set-up. And the flood picture, my guess is the Sacramento delta.

Versailles

I always assume, with these old souvenir photo folders, that if it's from New York City I'll be able to dig up something on the club. Imagine my surprise when nothing popped on Versailles. Of course, that could be because there are thousands of pages about the city in France, the treaty, and a nightclub of the same name, still in business, in Ohio. Dated "6-26-45," about seven weeks after VE-Day (Victory in Europe) and about seven weeks before VJ-Day. (Victory in Japan) I'm sure the celebrations were around the clock, and clubs like Versailles did turn away business. Printed on the back, "For extra copies write to: VERSAILLES 151 East 50th Street, New York 22, N.Y. Use Number on back of Print along with description of Photo. No. 6050." Well if nothing else, it gives us an address. This is the second post of nightclub folders from the same source. The first was published on 2/8/11. I think this lady may be Evelyn. As usual, click on nightclub, souvenir photo, or souvenir photo folder in the labels section to pull up lots of other classic nightclub related photos.

Pre-Digital Fun

This one is for all those too young to remember a world without photo-shop. In olden times, if you wanted a photo of yourself with a better body or a nicer car, you went to someplace like the Atlantic City Boardwalk, stood behind a cardboard cut-out and stuck your head in the hole. Printed on postcard stock, this one has been scuffed up and dirtied. Not great condition, but still fun.

Foltz & Fowler Cabinet Card

Go back through the collection and there will be a lot of photographs that have a brown tone to them. Most are brown because the printer did not give the print an archival wash. Fix, or hypo, is the chemical used to harden the print emulsion. If the printer doesn't wash the print long enough, the hypo that remains behind leaches out of the print and turns a yellowish brown. An albumen print, a nineteenth century medium that used egg whites as a solution, mixed with the light sensitive salts and applied to the paper that was then used for printing had a natural rich brown tone. Sepia tone.