PICTURES IN TIME

10,000 Bottles of Whistle

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Washington, D.C., 1921. "Whistle car." A truck filled with Whistle, the "beverage wrapped in bottles." National Photo Company glass negative.

May 1892 - 302 mile stilt walking contest.

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In May 1892, the French newspaper La Petite Gironde sponsored a unique contest: The first man to travel on stilts the 302 miles from Bordeaux to Bayonne and Biarritz and back would win 1,000 francs.

Sometimes the stilts broke, although they were made of strong ash. The men would then halt for repairs and seize the opportunity of taking a meal–soup and fried eggs, perhaps, with coffee and white wine. … First arrivals at various control-posts were presented with bouquets, laurel wreaths, and more substantial tokens in the shape of free rations and money. Others frankly touted for contributions in the towns, and made a grand thing of it.

Of 69 starters, 32 covered the course in the allotted time of eight and a half days. The prize went to 31-year-old Pierre Deycard, who finished in 4 days 7 hours — after which he was treated to a banquet of 15 courses “and then made to parade the town with a bank note for 1,000 francs pinned on his chest.”

Strand, January 1898

Oldreive's New Iron Horse tricycle, ca. 1882

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View of Charles W. Oldreive's new tricycle, or the New Iron Horse, with a gentleman inside, ca. 1882.

Before Lady Gaga wore her meat dress, someone wore a side of bacon suit in 1894.

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George J. Nicholls was such a lover of bacon that he dressed himself up as a side of bacon, and won first prize at the Covent Garden Fancy Dress Ball in April 1894.

Ostrich rides...Americas first theme parks.

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Women's fashion beginning in the 1880s favored ostrich feathers for muffs, hats, and boas. At the time exceptional ostrich feathers could fetch as much as five dollars a piece on the market, while a single mature bird could produce $250 worth of feathers each year.

Ostriches arrived in Southern California in 1883 when an English naturalist named Charles Sketchley opened a farm devoted to the birds near Anaheim. The farm, the first of its kind in the U.S., sought to capitalize on the hot trend in women's fashion.

Although Sketchley had brought the birds to Southern California for their plumage, they soon attracted the interest of local sightseers who were transfixed by the sight of the unusual birds. By October of that year, 100 to 150 visitors from across the region were touring his farm each day. Though tourism presented Sketchley with operational challenges the farmer soon grasped the opportunity for profit and began charging 50 cents for admission.

Feeding time at Southern California's ostrich farms was often a highlight. Vistiors enjoyed watching whole oranges slide down the birds' gullets. Postcard courtesy of the David Boule Collection.

Sketchley's enterprise attracted national attention. The New York Times, Chicago Daily Tribune, and Scientific American all ran reports from awestruck correspondents who seemed to delight in describing the high-strung and ungainly birds.

Ostrich farms prospered in Southern California, aided by region's climate and booming tourism trade. By 1910, Southern California boasted ten ostrich farms.
Before theme parks like Disneyland and Universal Studios. Southern California's first amusement parks offered visitors up-close encounters with the ostrich. Among the most visited was Edwin Cawston's farm, which opened near Norwalk in 1886 and in 1895 relocated to South Pasadena. Located conveniently along a Pacific Electric interurban rail line, the farm attracted many visitors. Also popular was the Los Angeles Ostrich Farm, which opened in 1906 next to the California Alligator Farm in East Los Angeles.

Visitors rode in ostrich-drawn carriages and wagons or even, in some cases, rode the birds bareback. One highlight was feeding time, when tourists would gawk at the birds as whole oranges slid down their gullets. Before leaving, many guests stepped into the farms' gift shops, which sold boas and other souvenirs made of ostrich feathers. Eventually, tourists found new sources of diversion, and the ostrich farms gave way to amusement parks with more elaborate and thrill-seeking themed attractions.

"My Vodka cocktails brings all the boys to the yard"

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"My Vodka cocktails brings all the boys to the yard
And they're like, it's better than yours
Damn right, it's better than your's"

"They call me.......Senor Whiskers"

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"They call me........Senor Whiskers"

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

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Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

c.1915 Men on the Moon.

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c.1915 Men on the Moon.

John Wilson Webb, in Pittsburgh, weighs 120 lbs at 34 months. April 17, 1909.

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John Wilson Webb, in Pittsburgh, weighs 120 lbs at 34 months. April 17, 1909.

Albert Einstein in Fuzzy Slippers, c. 1950s

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Albert Einstein in Fuzzy Slippers, c. 1950s

Albert Einstein and his puppet

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Attributed to Harry Burnett while Yale Puppeteers were working in their theater, Teatro Torito, on Olvera Street in Los Angeles, California, circa 1931. The photo was taken by Harry Burnett at Cal Tech in Pasadena where Albert Einstein was teaching. Einstein saw the puppet perform at the Teato Torito and was quite amused. He reached into his jacket’s breast pocket, pulled out a letter and crumpled it up. Speaking in German, he said, “The puppet wasn’t fat enough!” He laughed and stuffed the crumpled letter up under the smock to give the puppet a fatter belly. This is a wonderful photograph that Harry treasured. Harry Burnett also kept the letter in a frame and loved to retell the story and at the end give his pixish laugh.

Huntington Beach Oil Boom 1920s

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The Huntington Beach Oil Field is part of rich pools of oil found along the West Coast of the United States in the early 1920s stretching from Huntington Beach, California to Santa Barbara, California.

On May 24, 1920, the first Huntington Beach well, was brought in as a producing well. By October 1921, the field had 59 producing wells. Even with 16 of those 59 wells being idle, the field produced 16,500 barrels a day, with each well producing from 50 to 200 barrels daily.

Albert Watkin, whose family moved to Huntington Beach in 1921, recalls what it was like back then.

"You couldn't, in 1921, find a house to rent in Huntington Beach because the oil boom had started," he was saying last week. "We lived in a tent with a wood floor and about three foot up of wood around the tent, above the floor and that was it, one room."

As the oil well industry was growing, the people of Huntington Beach took advantage of their newfound fame. A national ad campaign brought in thousands of new people hoping to get rich from oil. Land areas the size of a house lot were leased to new oil companies; but soon most of the fields were explored and parcelled out, leaving some company rich and others bust. A smaller oil boom in 1926 brought more profits from oil into the city.

The conflict of coastal oil drilling with beachfront recreation and tourism has been a central theme in Southern California politics. The discovery of oil was followed by a real estate boom in the surrounding communities. For example, as the Huntington Beach Oil Field expanded, the homes in that area that stood in the path of drawing oil from the ground were physically relocated north 6 miles in 1921-1922 to lots in Midway City, California, which "started Midway City".

During the oil boom years of the 20s, the city developed the surrounding territory near the beach. In 1925, Pacific Coast Highway was built, giving the people better access to the beautiful beach. About the same time, the city put a campground area on the beach. They leased property from the Huntington Beach Co., installed restrooms, and put up picnic tables. The campground stretched from Lake Street to Beach Blvd.

There were also plenty of bargains to be found in this growing city. Men could shop at a local clothiers and buy a Palm Beach suit for only $10, while a local grocery store sold pot roast for 15 › a pound.

Victorians losing their heads over new discoveries in photography

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In Victorian times people did like to have some photographic fun once in a while. This set of headless photographs from the 19th century is a great example of the kind of ‘fun’ we’re talking about. Created by combining images from multiple negatives, Victorian photographers looking to wow audiences and make an extra buck offered a service where they could place your head in your lap, or maybe floating in the air beside you.

The text of an advertisement placed by Samuel Kay Balbirnie in the Brighton Daily News on 23rd May 1878.

1800s: The Mad Potter of Biloxi

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“George Edgar Ohr (1857–1918) was an American ceramic artist and the self-proclaimed “Mad Potter of Biloxi.” In recognition of his innovative experimentation with modern clay forms from 1880–1910, some consider him the father of the American Abstract-Expressionism movement”

Marilyn Monroe a secret agent for the D.O.D.

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1954: Marilyn Monroe’s I.D., Was she a secret agent for the D.O.D.?

Crocodile Cart - 1900

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"My friends get a cart pulled by a pony. I get a slow crocodile to pull mine. My parents hate me." 1900c

Man of Steel - 1932 Japan.

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Amateur inventor Yasutaro Mitsui poses with his own steel humanoid, Tokyo, Japan, in 1932.

Robert Pershing Wadlow - The Gentle Giant

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Robert Pershing Wadlow (February 22, 1918 – July 15, 1940) is the tallest person in history. Wadlow is sometimes known as the Alton Giant or Giant of Illinois because he was born and grew up in Alton, Illinois.

Wadlow reached 8 ft 11.1 in. in height and weighed 439 lb at his death at age 22. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to hyperplasia of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone. He showed no indication of an end to his growth even at the time of his death.

When he turned 20 Robert traveled for the International shoe company, visiting over 800 towns and 41 states. His father had to modify the family car, removing the front passenger seat so Robert could sit in the back seat and stretch out his long legs. The father and son team traveled over 300,000 miles on their goodwill tour for the shoe company.
Robert Wadlow is remembered as a quiet young man who overcame a unique handicap, and who was an inspiration to all of those that knew him.

Robert Wadlow compared to his father, Harold Franklin Wadlow (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in).

Post-mortem photography

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The invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 made portraiture much more commonplace, as many of those who were unable to afford the commission of a painted portrait could afford to sit for a photography session. This cheaper and quicker method also provided the middle class with a means for memorializing dead loved ones. Post-mortem photography thrived in the early days of the daguerrotype, when families who could not afford a painted portrait of a lost loved one could opt for a quicker and less expensive option.

These photographs served as keepsakes to remember the deceased. This was especially common with infants and young children; Victorian era childhood mortality rates were extremely high, and a post-mortem photograph might have been the only image of the child the family ever had.

The earliest post-mortem photographs are usually close-ups of the face or shots of the full body and rarely include the coffin. The subject is usually depicted so as to seem in a deep sleep, or else arranged to appear more lifelike. Children were often shown in repose on a couch or in a crib, sometimes posed with a favorite toy or other plaything. It was not uncommon to photograph very young children with a family member, most frequently the mother. Adults were more commonly posed in chairs. Flowers were also a common prop in post-mortem photography of all types.

The effect of life was sometimes enhanced by either propping the subject's eyes open or painting pupils onto the photographic print, and many early images (especially tintypes and ambrotypes) have a rosy tint added to the cheeks of the corpse.

Execution of "Murderous Mary", Sparks Bros. Circus, Man-killing Elephant

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Mary was a five-ton Asian elephant who performed in the Sparks World Famous Shows circus. On September 11, 1916, a hotel worker named Red Eldridge was hired as an assistant elephant trainer by the circus. On the evening of September 12 he was killed by Mary in Kingsport, Tennessee, while taking her to a nearby pond to splash and drink. There have been several accounts of his death. One, recounted by W.H. Coleman who claimed to be a witness, is that he prodded her behind the ear with a hook after she reached down to nibble on a watermelon rind. She went into a rage, snatched Eldridge with her trunk, threw him against a drink stand and stepped on his head, crushing it.

The leaders of several nearby towns threatened not to allow the circus to visit if Mary was included. The circus owner, Charlie Sparks, reluctantly decided that the only way to quickly resolve the potentially ruinous situation was to kill the elephant in public. On the following day, a foggy and rainy September 13, 1916, she was transported by rail to Erwin, Tennessee, where a crowd of over 2,500 people (including most of the town's children) assembled in the Clinchfield Railroad yard.

Execution of "Murderous Mary", Sparks Bros. Circus, Man-killing Elephant at Erwin, Tenn. Sept. 13, 1916.

Queenie, the water-skiing elephant.

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Queenie, the crowd-pleasing water-skiing elephant and Liz Dane water-ski at DeLeon Springs, FL. in 1959.

1910: Out for a carriage ride with Comet

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1910: Out for a carriage ride with Comet

Mr. Spock meets Jimi Hendrix.

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When Mr. Spock met Jimi Hendrix, March 26, 1968 at Cleveland Radio Station WKYC.

Victorian "Batman"

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"The Capped Crusader" Victorian Style.