Domed Building in the Middle East

Old photo, white border. Circa 1910s – 1930s.

Price:  $5.00        Size:  3 and 1/4 x 2 and 7/16″

Continuing with sort of an archway theme from preceding posts…..In an unknown location, a goat herd directs his charges up the road.

We’re guessing this scene was somewhere in the Middle East due to the architecture of the stone building with dome. (Tunisia comes to mind but I’m not too certain if the terrain matches.) And, perhaps this was a mosque however we don’t see a minaret which would often be in evidence. We can see that there’s been some additional work on the building:  a half-circle arch was filled in with stone (a lighter color or less weathered by time) and a window added; and maybe some earlier work was done there, too – that portion may have initially been an entrance way.

To Bobby From Aunt Lorilee

Divided back, used postcard. Postmarked July 21, 1951, Interlaken, Switzerland. Publisher:  Photoglob-Wehrli A. G., Zurich. Number or series z 2525.

Price:  $6.00

Berner Bueb

“07/21/51     Hi Bobby! You should have been with us today when we had lunch on the Jungfrau, one of the highest mountains in Europe. You would have loved to play in the snow in the summertime! Have fun! Love, Aunt Lorilee.”

Addressed to:   “Master Bobby Burkhardt, 10629 Garden Way, Spring Valley, California, U.S.A.”

The Jungfrau is in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. The postcard caption “Berner Bueb” might be translated as Bernese boy. You can find numerous Swiss postcards with “Berner Bueb” and “Berner Bueb und Meitschi” (Bernese boy and girl, we’re guessing.) This postcard appears to be an artist-signed card per the front lower left corner which shows “Blank.” Checking in Ancestry.com Blank shows as a German and Swiss surname. According to another postcard site, this card was produced at least as early as 1946.

Sources:  Jungfrau. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfrau (accessed April 20, 2019).

“Ziege Kuenstlerkarte Blank Berner Bueb Kat. Tiere.” https://oldthing.de/Ziege-Kuenstlerkarte-Blank-Berner-Bueb-Kat-Tiere-0024001456. (accessed April 20, 2019).

Colorado State Fair Postcard Ad, 1908

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Undivided back, used postcard. Postmarked September[?] 1908 from Pueblo, Colorado. Publisher:  Clark Eng. Co., Pueblo. [?]

Availability Status:  SOLD

This is the only one of its kind found online, at the time of this posting. Great graphics on this postcard ad showing a goat pushing a blindfolded guy off of a high board into a big wooden tub of water. And at the top right, an enticing bag of money with coins all around. It reads as:

“Don’t fail to visit the big Colorado State Fair at Pueblo, Colorado on Fraternal Day. Sep. 14 to 19 1908. William will be there. $3,000.00 to be given as prizes to drill teams and attendance.”

Who was William?

Stamped at the bottom of the card is  “W. R. McFarren, clerk.”  The 1908 Pueblo city directory shows Wm. R. McFarren, clerk, Woodmen of the World (Camp No. 2) Office 218 W. 4th, residence 1420 E. 9th. Ahhh, makes sense, a clerk for a fraternal organization for Fraternal Day. Per the 1920 Federal Census for Pueblo, William Rush McFarren was born in New York, about 1849, married to Annette, born Missouri, about 1846. And the 1920 shows he’s still working for this organization.

This card is another in the Alice Ellison Collection, a large group of  postcards that we’re still scanning and adding. It’s addressed to:   “J. M. Ellison, 26th and Cheyenne, City.”

Last but not least, our best guess on the publisher is Clark Eng. Co. of Pueblo, appearing in very small print on the front of the postcard.

Sources:  R. L. Polk & Co.’s Pueblo City Directory, 1909. p. 305. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.

WoodmenLife. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoodmenLife. (accessed October 23, 2016).

Year: 1920; Census Place: Denver, Denver, Colorado; Roll: T625_158; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 11; Image: 170. (Ancestry.com)

The Mascot

The Mascot

Black and white photo, circa 1950. Photographer:  Allan Rosenberg, San Francisco, California.

Size:  About 8 x 10″

Availability status:  SOLD

This vintage photo is from about 1950, and was found in a black wooden frame at a thrift store in Salinas, California; the store owner said that it had come to them by way of an estate sale. The photographer’s stamp appears on the back, which indicates Allan Rosenberg, San Francisco. Likely the photo was taken in the general vicinity north of SF.

And what a lovely moment in time – in black and white and showing two laughing friends, riding in an all terrain Cushman vehicle, with the adorable pygmy goat “Lena Horne” who sits front and center as mascot or navigator!

Rosenberg Photographer Stamp

As a surprise, there was another studio photo (no photographer name) tucked behind the first one. It shows four gorgeous children, ages about one through seven; a family portrait taken maybe in the 1950s or early ’60s, and likely the children of one of the ladies above. I am not posting the photo of the kids for privacy reasons. After all, whoever gave the “Mascot” photo away may not have realized that the other was underneath.

Last but not least, hundreds of online photos of vehicles bearing the Cushman name were browsed but none were found matching the model here. If anyone can identify the make, model and year of the Cushman, do please post a comment.

This Tin Lizzy Makes Some Feed!

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“When a Ford gets sick,

Hit her with a brick,

And she’ll ramble right along just the same.”

Here’s a humorous artist-signed postcard of a drawing of a man tossing a brick at the radiator of a Model T, while the lady in her stylish hat waits unconcernedly in the passenger seat. A billy goat is tugging on the back fender, thinking,  “This Tin Lizzy makes some feed.” 

This is one from a comical series by Indiana native Conrad “Cobb” X. Shinn (1887 – 1951) who produced many illustrations, also including those of the comic “Dutch accent” type that were so popular in the day, and others of profiles of beautiful women. His works can be easily found online.

“The Little Ford Rambled Right Along”  seems to have been the inspiration for Shinn’s Tin Lizzy illustrations. This song came out in 1915 and was advertised as the “Greatest Comedy Song Sensation.”  The music was by Byron Gay, and lyrics by C.R. Foster and Byron Gay, and was performed by Bill Murray. It starts out about a guy named Jones who is out with his girlfriend in his limo. When the limo breaks down, a guy by the name of Nord (to rhyme) comes along “…in his little old Ford.”  And as you can guess, the first guy is quickly out of the picture as Nord and his Ford steal the girl away, whereby guy, girl and car proceed to have a day’s worth of adventures (including meeting up with a mule and a donkey) and bumping into a preacher, who jumps in for a ride resulting in the newly-met couple becoming man and wife. (Heehee) It’s really a clever song; the long and short of it being that the Ford is indestructible no matter what she encounters. The last line of the song is,  “When the power gets sick just hit it with a brick and the little Ford will ramble right along!”  (From Mitch Taylor’s Ford Model T website.)

As to the term Tin Lizzy or Lizzie, it seems to have been around from at least February of 1915 (the earliest date I found online.) The short clip below is dated a little later, June 4, 1915. Wow, it looks like the report indicates Ford’s capital stock had increased from two million to one hundred million dollars, due to the popularity of the affordable car for the masses!

Tin Lizzies Clip

Modesto Evening News, June 4, 1915, Friday, page 1.

But still, the exact origin of the nickname “Tin Lizzy” seems to be unknown. A couple of good guesses found online are that Lizzie was a common name for a horse, or that Lizzie was a slang phrase used for a domestic servant, with the idea being that “Lizzie” ran all the errands for the household which could now be run with the help of the automobile. But the above article does happen to disprove another theory which was that the term was coined at a race in 1922 at Pike’s Peak in Colorado.

Divided back, unused, artist-signed postcard. Artist:  Cobb X. Shinn. Publisher:  Commercial Colortype Company. Circa 1915.

Price: $25.00

Sources:  “Model T Music & Lyrics.”  www.fordmodelt.netWeb accessed March 6, 2015.

1915, June 4. “Tin Lizzies” Prove to be Profitable to the Ford Auto Company. Modesto Evening News, p. 1. Web accessed March 6, 2015. (Newspapers.com)