Shorpy | Old Photos - Comments

Highway Lighthouse Ad

Dave — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 21:37:44 +0000

In reply to Highway Lighthouse: 1926:

These Roads
are full of
Studebakers

Jos. McReynolds
14th at R Street

Object ID, please

davidk — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:26:00 +0000

In reply to Grunge Garage: 1926:

Against the far wall on the left, under those two raised doors, we see a piece of wood paneling laid along its long edge. Poking out from behind, to the right, I spy an object that looks like a chunky bicycle fork with a spoked wheel attached. Anyone know what that is? Thanks. (P.S. I like the No Smoking signs – one hundred years ago!)

No OBD port, no clearcoat.

Maniak Productions — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:44:00 +0000

In reply to Lightly Used: 1926:

I can feel the sheen of that polished nitrocellulose from here! Back when a mechanic didn't need a degree in computer science.

As Is

gramey7 — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:17:00 +0000

In reply to Lightly Used: 1926:

Looks like these used cars are displayed just as they came in; no detailing, scruffy looking tires. The days prior to ArmorAll.

Hot Rod Lincoln (not)

Hopsy — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 22:11:00 +0000

In reply to The Great Transportator: 1926:

"My pappy said son you're gonna drive me to drinkin', if you don't stop driving that hot ... rod ... Lincoln." (RIP, Commander Cody)

He sees a car from afar

godlysaint — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 18:54:00 +0000

In reply to The Great Transportator: 1926:

Would Lincoln have driven a Lincoln if he had been around for cars ?

Gorgeous symmetries

davidk — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:16:51 +0000

In reply to The Great Transportator: 1926:

In both the monument and the photograph.

Who was Mary H. Boyce?

jsmakbkr — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 01:43:00 +0000

In reply to Amber Ripples: 1900:

Mary Holbrook Boyce (the namesake of the steam barge on the right) was the wife of Grand Haven, Michigan, entrepreneur Sherman Hoyt Boyce, who was its original owner. Twenty-six years younger than her husband, Mary outlived him by 37 years. The ship, however, was afloat for forty years from 1888 to 1928 before burning at Fort William, Ontario. In her obituary, her husband was referred to as a "pioneering lumberman." One of the lumber mills in Grand Haven was named Monroe Boyce & Co.

Early-day Edmund Fitzgerald

Notcom — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 01:52:00 +0000

In reply to Amber Ripples: 1900:

This looks like it may be the same lineup of vessels as in the earlier (linked) shot; specifically the ill-fated Andaste ("By all accounts the semi-whaleback Andaste was an ugly ship." ... Ouch. Seemingly she gets no more respect in death than she enjoyed -- or didn't enjoy -- during her lifetime.)

Split Decision

perpster — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 22:00:06 +0000

In reply to Split Decision: 1925:

Interviewer: "Mr. Carroll, How did you decide whom to pick?"

Mr. Carroll: "It came down to a split decision."

[What's the title of this post? Hello? -- Dave]

Dave, Sometimes I skip over the small print. Ooopsie!

Nope

archfan — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 07:57:57 +0000

In reply to Split Decision: 1925:

I don't know what they're thinking, but from the looks on some of their faces, I believe they're thinking: "I am not doing that!".

Not saying there's a connection but ...

fanhead — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 21:36:00 +0000

In reply to Split Decision: 1925:

My sciatica is back after seeing this picture yesterday.

What were they thinking?

louJudson — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:12:39 +0000

In reply to Split Decision: 1925:

THIS would be fun to make thought balloons for each person! Some came up for me immediately ... not all printable.

Other thought: How many dancers who did the splits had hip replacements in later life?

Marcelled Hair

Gemgirl — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 17:20:12 +0000

In reply to Split Decision: 1925:

Most of these gals look like they are fresh from the beauty shop with the latest marcelled hair style. I wonder which ones were chosen to be in the chorus.

I seem to remember

Doug Floor Plan — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 06:58:04 +0000

In reply to Split Decision: 1925:

a line from, A Chorus Line -- "Hell, I can do a 180 split and come up dancing the morse code."

Seventy Odd Washington Beauties

Notcom — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 03:16:00 +0000

In reply to An Act With Legs: 1925:

Curiously, I find no trace of the photo having been published, but

How much pulchritude he picked we'll have to guess at.

(And I share Commishbob's thoughts ... particularly the girl second from the right.)

Oh dear! While I was technically correct -- note I said I found no trace, not that it didn't happen -- it would seem a shame to leave it there; so the rest of the gang

I was under the impression that the National Photo Company was independent; the fact that the Herald published the (same) photo under its own credit makes me think it was a cooperative ... more like the AP.

[Look closer. The two photos, while similar, are not identical. -- Dave]

Noted. (I never get all six in the "Hocus Focus" either).

As for the somewhat mysterious National Photo Company: the LOC listing offers that they "supplied photographs of current news events in Washington, D.C., as a daily service to its subscribers ... The images date between ca. 1850 and 1945; the bulk of the images were created between 1909 and 1932. The photographic files of the National Photo Company, including an estimated 80,000 images (photographic prints and corresponding glass negatives), were acquired by the Library from its proprietor Herbert E. French in 1947."

Going back a bit further to a 1915 promo story in the Herald, we were told that "The company is making a speciality of collecting pictures and photographs from all over the world, covering every subject conceivable". It would seem that they were a cross between commercial photographer and early version of Alamy.

Em ...

Edvado — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 01:11:00 +0000

In reply to Split Decision: 1925:

Many of these ladies are what my mother used to call "plain."

23 Fifth Ave, NYC

Doug Floor Plan — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 08:09:38 +0000

In reply to Walls of Ivy: 1908:

This four-story mansion sat at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and East Ninth Street. It was originally home to the family of Drake Mills. Here is the history of this house and people who occupied it. The house was converted to three expansive apartments in 1914, after the death of Major General Daniel Edgar Sickles, who had lived there since the early 1890s. No mention of Littleton.

OK girls, hike those skirts up ... higher

Doug Floor Plan — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:35:32 +0000

In reply to An Act With Legs: 1925:

Earl Carroll doesn't really need to evaluate the legs of these young Broadway-aspiring dancers. He knows they all have decent gams, and the best dancers will be given the most visible spots. But he needs to make sure none of them are carrying a flask in their garter. It is, after all, Prohibition.

Ethel, Polly, Goldie, Charlotte --

Dave — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:57:00 +0000

In reply to An Act With Legs: 1925:

Click to embiggen:

Unicoif

perpster — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 18:54:28 +0000

In reply to An Act With Legs: 1925:

One of these hairstyles is not like all the others (excluding Earl).

Tempus fugit

Willow_Girl — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:30:28 +0000

In reply to A Brick House: 1900:

The men who built these buildings must have thought they were building for the ages.

Alas ...

It's funny to think that the trailer house I live in has had a longer lifespan than this impressive brick edifice.

Must be the Hair

Sewickley — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:08:00 +0000

In reply to An Act With Legs: 1925:

I had the same reaction: they look just like the ladies of Western Electric Company Christmas party. Maybe everyone with the frizzed hair looks the same.

["Marcelled" hair, or the Marcel wave, was all the rage a hundred years ago. - Dave]

Christmas Party refugees?

Commishbob — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 21:41:00 +0000

In reply to An Act With Legs: 1925:

I swear I've seen these ladies before ... sharing a photo with an oil can and a small bear.

Greatly Exaggerated?

perpster — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:32:00 +0000

In reply to Walls of Ivy: 1908:

23 Fifth Avenue, across the street from some guy named Mark Twain or Sam Clemens:

Douglas Littleton, a young boy and son of Martin W. Littleton, wrote from 23 Fifth Ave. that they would be "very glad to have you for dinner … when you can come to dinner with us?" Note: the note was not mailed but likely delivered. "Was in fragments." A NYC neighbor of Clemens.

From: https://twainsgeography.com/DBD/day-day-volume-iv-1906

Possibly the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street, on which now stands a multistory apartment building a couple of blocks north from Washington Square Park, if the numbering system for Fifth Avenue is the same. If not the same, this comment is, as Mr. Twain might say, greatly exaggerated; apologies.

Unusual

jj14044 — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 17:02:36 +0000

In reply to Golden Girl: 1947:

Did anybody notice that the three buttons are all different?

1950s pasta

mgolden — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:17:00 +0000

In reply to Spaghetti Dinner: 1950:

Given how pasta was prepared in most of the US until the 1980s or so, it's unlikely that what Mr. and Mrs. Dente were about to consume was in fact al dente.

Lovely to look at, but …

AxelK — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 13:01:00 +0000

In reply to Walls of Ivy: 1908:

An ivied brick building is a visual delight, but as the Brick Industry Association (www.gobrick.com) points out, the ivy tendrils that clutch the wall can weaken and dislodge mortar — especially pre-1930 lime-based mortar — and even bits of masonry. I recall many students and alumni being upset when my New England college decided decades ago to remove the ivy from its many 19th-century buildings. The motive was logical, but the denuded walls certainly made for a more severe campus ambience.

Stripes at last!

Lectrogeek68 — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 01:23:00 +0000

In reply to Enter Here: 1910:

When I was a child, in the 1970s, it was the received wisdom that "old-timey" swimsuits all had jailbird stripes. But I've been on Shorpy for 15 years, and I've only ever seen what looks to be basic black. Now I see not one, but two stripey swimmers. I guess someone's particular nostalgia was getting amplified back then?

Edifice Wrecks

louJudson — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:01:00 +0000

In reply to Walls of Ivy: 1908:

Two thoughts occurred to me immediately: How long would (or did) it take for the ivy to crumble the bricks? and

How cool it would be to have "AI" colorize this, and make the leaves shake like the one-footed "ghost" walking by? It could be haunting!

Another thought is how much privacy they need, with all the shades down.

Where is this now?