Old Picture of the Day

Indian Maiden

2013-05-24T06:04:00.002-05:00

We wrap up Indian Portrait Week with this photochrom print from 1904. It shows an Indian girl beside a lake and canoe. Her Tipi can be seen in the background. We are not given any information on the location of the photograph, but are told the girl's name is Minnehaha.

Crow Indian

2013-05-23T07:12:00.004-05:00

Today we have a photochrome print from 1902. It shows an Indian Man in front of his Tipi on the Great Plains. His horses look great, and it also looks like he has a couple of dogs. The man is from the Crow tribe.

Hopi Indian Woman

2013-05-22T05:56:00.002-05:00

Today's picture was taken in about 1900, and it shows a woman carrying a bundle. The woman is from the Hopi Indians. The picture was taken in Arizona. Again, this looks like a very tough area to be a farmer.

Old Indian Couple

2013-05-21T05:47:00.000-05:00

This is another really nice photochrome print of an Indian Couple. The picture was taken in 1899. We do not know where they are from, but the man's name was Jose Jesus, and the woman is his wife. I love how sophistication of their clothing, and the cane is a nice touch. It really makes you wish you knew more of their story.

Indian Couple

2013-05-20T05:42:00.001-05:00

Today we have another splendid photochrom print. The photograph was taken in 1899 and it shows an Indian man and his wife. The man's name was Pee Viggi. His wife's name is not recorded.

Indian Farmer

2013-05-19T07:16:00.000-05:00

Today's picture is from 1902, and it shows a Hopi Indian Man with a hoe. The man is a farmer, and it looks like he is growing corn. The picture was taken in New Mexico. If you have ever tried to garden, you know how hard it is to grow things. I sometimes wonder how mankind survived before mechanized farm implements and pesticides. When I grow things it is an enormous battle with bugs, the weather, and the soil. Even in the picture above, the man has the incredible resource of a steel hoe. Imagine trying to farm before steel implements.

A Comment on Comments:
I think that over the years one of the things that has made this blog successful is the wonderful participation by readers. The insightful comments always add interest to the post. I also understand how unpopular the Word Verification requirement is to post a comment. I have tried hard to make it as easy as possible to for people to comment.

The issue now is that I am getting overwhelmed by spam comments. It is not unusual to get hundreds of spam comments a day. My email becomes almost unusable because my inbox if filled with notifications of these spam comments. Also, as I sort through all this I inadvertently delete real comments.

So, regrettably I am going to have to go back and turn word verification back on, where you will be asked to type some letters in a box when you comment to show you are a real person. The choice was to do this, or only allow registered users to comment.

I know this is a hassle, but hope you will understand there is really no way for me to manage things otherwise.

Indian Brave

2013-05-18T07:57:00.005-05:00

First, we need to follow up on yesterday's picture. On the question of what the string and tab was coming from the cowboy's pocket . . . many of you recognized right off that it was a pouch of Bull Durham tobacco. This was the old roll your own smoke brand. When I was growing up, it was a common sight, and it was quite amazing watching the guys that used it make a cigarette. Truly it was an art form.

Now, on to this week. This will be Indian Portrait week. I have found some really amazing photochrom prints from 1900 that I would like to share with you. The picture above is the first in the series. The man was Arrowmaker, and he was an Ojibwa brave. I love the buckskin and beadwork. He really looks like something you would expect to see in a movie.

Cowboy

2013-05-17T05:56:00.001-05:00

We wrap up Ranch Work week with this picture of a cowboy relaxing at the end of the day, having dinner on the ground. The picture was taken in 1939 at the Three Circle Roundup in Powder River, Montana. I really like this picture, and have this little trivia question for you . . . what is the little tab hanging out of his pocket? It is something you never see any more, but was common when I was growing up.

Horse Corral

2013-05-16T05:45:00.001-05:00

Today's picture shows a cowboy working horses in a Corral. He has roped one of them with his lariat. The picture was taken in 1939 on a ranch near Spur, Texas.

Throwing Lariat

2013-05-15T05:55:00.002-05:00

Today's picture is from 1905, and it shows a cowboy throwing a lariat. Cowboys would "rope" cattle so that they could be branded, dehorned, or other routine maintenance. The picture is from a ranch in Colorado.

Branding

2013-05-14T05:46:00.001-05:00

Today's picture shows a group of cowboys on the XIT Ranch in Texas branding cattle. The XIT was a very famous ranch. XIT stood for Ten in Texas, and it was a group of investors who agreed to build the Texas Capitol Building in exchange for 3,000,000 acres of land in the northern part of Texas. The land became the XIT ranch. The XIT had very strict rules and cowboys were not allowed to drink or gamble. If you look at today's value of the 3,000,000 acres, it would likely make the Texas State Capitol Building the most expensive building ever built.

Dehorning Cattle

2013-05-13T05:57:00.000-05:00

Today's picture is from 1905, and it shows cowboys dehorning a calf. Some ranchers dehorn their cattle to keep them from goring each other. Others leave the horns on as they can offer some protection from predators. This is a great pictures of cowboys from over 100 years ago.

Branding Cattle

2013-05-12T07:16:00.001-05:00

Ranch Work Week continues with this picture from Colorado. It shows cowboys branding cattle. The picture was taken in about 1900. Branding is a very hard job, and not much fun for anyone involved. It is my impression that not a lot of branding goes on any more with most people using ear tags or other easier ways of marking cattle.

Cattle Buyers

2013-05-11T06:49:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Ranch Work Week here at OPOD. We will be looking at the ins and outs of ranching via historical photos. We start with this fine picture of some ranchers buying cattle. The picture was taken at the Big Hole Valley in Montana.

Outdoor Cooking

2013-05-10T05:51:00.000-05:00

Today's picture shows a family cooking in a pot in their front yard. The picture was taken in 1914 in North Carolina. I am wondering what they are cooking, but if I were to guess, I would guess they are making Hominy.

Migrant Worker Camp

2013-05-09T05:39:00.000-05:00

Today's picture is from a migrant workers camp in Texas during the Great Depression. A woman can be seen cooking from the back of a wagon. It looks to be the back end of a truck, converted into some sort of Chuck Wagon type structure.

Colorado Cowboys

2013-05-08T07:11:00.001-05:00

Today's picture is from 1900, and it shows some cooking and eating going on around a chuck wagon. The picture was taken in Colorado, and is a nice vies of a Cowboy Camp.

San Francisco

2013-05-07T05:43:00.001-05:00

Today's picture was taken in 1906, after the earthquake and fire in San Francisco. These people are cooking in the streets presumably because of the damage. It is interesting that even in the midst of the disaster they all appear to be well dressed and groomed.

Roadside Cooking

2013-05-06T05:53:00.000-05:00

This is a depression era picture which shows a woman cooking her meal on the side of the road over a small fire. This was not an uncommon scene during the great depression. The photographer asked her how things were going and she replied, "Do you suppose I'd be out on the highway cooking my steak if I had it good at home?" The picture was taken on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas. The woman was a hotel maid who had fallen on hard times.

Bandit Breakfast

2013-05-05T07:31:00.002-05:00

Today's picture shows the short order cook in the Bandit Camp of Pascual Orozco. I would imagine this would be a rather challenging job for a cook, as I bet the clientele would have a rather low tolerance for food not up to their expectations. The picture was taken in 1911 during one of the Mexican Revolutions.

Short Order Cook

2013-05-04T07:41:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Short Order Cook Week here at OPOD. We start with this fine example from around 1900. The picture was taken in Constantinople and shows a street cafe where food is prepared over a small wood-fueled grill. I note with interest that you still see street vendors like this in many places in the world. In Africa, scenes like this are still the norm. The bread in the foreground of the picture is called "Chapati". It is grilled in an oily skilled and served hot. WOW is it good. One piece of Chapati is a meal.

Messenger Boy on Bicycle

2013-05-03T05:52:00.002-05:00

We finish out Western Union Week with this photograph of a Messenger Boy delivering messages on a Bicycle. The picture was taken in Washington DC. Interesting to note the horse-drawn wagon in the background.

Telegram Operator

2013-05-02T05:54:00.002-05:00

Today's picture shows a woman operating a telegram machine. I am curious at what point Telegrams stopped being sent by morse code with telegraph keys, and started being sent by teletype stations with typewriter keyboards. This picture was taken in 1923, so we can see that at this point keyboards were in use.

Messenger Girls

2013-05-01T06:06:00.000-05:00

This picture is from 1925, and it shows Western Union Messenger Girls at the United States Capitol. A great picture from the "Roaring Twenties".

Teletype Operator

2013-04-30T05:54:00.000-05:00

It is interesting to ponder the progress telecommunication has made in the last 150 years. We have gone from the telegraph all the way to the point that virtually everyone on earth is interconnected via cell phone. I find it interesting in traveling in Africa to see that people who have neither running water nor electricity have a cell phone. One of the steps along the way between the telegraph and the smartphone was the teletype. The teletype allowed an operator at one location to type on a keyboard, and that message be printed out at a different location. The technology was still very similar to the telegraph, but the teletype was like a typewriter and did not require the operator to know morse code.