Souvenir Spirit Photograph from the Johnstown Flood

I discovered this photograph in an old album we rescued from an abandoned house a few years ago. (That's a long story in itself, for another day...) I was thrilled to realize I had found my first "spirit photo." These images of "ghosts" created through various tricky means were all the rage during the heyday of Spiritualism in the Victorian period, and again in the 1920s.

In the photo, the young woman with the upraised arm and the old man on the left are real, while the two large, transparent figures are the "ghosts." One of the most remarkable things about this photo is that it accidentally reveals the process of making the "spirit" effect. The old man on the left simply stepped to the side before the lengthy exposure process was complete, which left his ghostly imprint in the center. The "real" old man shouldn't be in the finished photograph at all, but the photographer didn't crop the picture properly. This was a pretty sloppy spirit photo, clearly churned out at a fast clip for the tourist trade.

Original, antique spirit photos are highly collectible, and several books have been written about them.  This one is extra-special, in that it is also a souvenir photo. The back of the picture bears a stamp which reads:

"Steven Studio 318 Broad St. Johnstown PA." Pencilled on the back is the caption, "Anna and Spirit pechirt (picture?) April 1924".

This photo proves there is no event too terrible for a shameless huckster to profit from. Johnstown, Pennsylvania is famous as the site of a horrific flood that killed 2, 209 of its citizens on May 31, 1889. A dam broke during a tremendous storm, and the resulting torrent all but swept Johnstown away. The disaster was so heart-wrenching, it was commemorated country-wide in lithographs, poetry, sheet music, books, and stereograph cards all the way into the 1920s, when Hollywood released a major motion picture based on the event.

You can learn more about the Johnstown flood at the Johnstown Flood Museum, and see more spirit photographs at the American Museum of Photography.

Antique Photo of Child With Garden Gnome

I've been wanting to do a little theme on garden gnomes for awhile (I adore gnomes), and I thought I'd start with this: a 1920s German photograph of a little boy with his gnome.

Kind of a creepy-looking gnome, no?

Garden gnomes got their start way back in the mid-1800s in Germany. The earliest were made of terracotta and were finely sculpted. Travelers to Germany took the gnomes back to France and England, where they became very popular with hobby gardeners. In America, these ornamental figures are often referred to as lawn, not garden, gnomes, perhaps reflecting the suburbanite obsession with their little plots of grass.

To learn more about gnomes, check out Garden Gnomes: a History, by the oddly yet aptly named garden historian Twigs Way.

Antique Photo of Child with Stearns Automobile and Chauffeur

Over the summer, I found this antique photo of a child playing in a magnificent automobile while a tolerant chauffeur looks on. Usually I only collect old photos of children with toys, a natural extension of my antique toy collecting. But this picture was just too captivating to pass by. And after all, the child is playing in the car, so perhaps we can consider it a toy, albeit a very expensive one.

 It took me awhile to get the car identified, but I'm told by my local "car guy" that it's a Stearns, made by the luxury automobile manufacturer F.B. Stearns of Cleveland, Ohio. Stearns cars were originally in production from 1898-1925, when the company was sold to J.N. Willys of Willys Overland fame. Willys continued making Stearns models until 1929, when they liquidated the company. I'm not sure of this car's date: I've seen pictures online of similar Stearns ranging from 1908-1920s. (Any Stearns experts out there who can identify it, feel free to write me!) In 1906, a typical Stearns auto sold for an astronomical $5,200, which explains the presence of the chauffeur: if you could afford this car back then, you probably had an estate with a substantial domestic staff.

The picture has a label on the back saying it was framed at Crowley, Milner & Company, a Detroit department store that was founded in 1909, so it's a pretty safe bet that this photograph was taken in a posh area of Detroit like Indian Village or its luxurious neighbor, Grosse Pointe.

That's one happy, happy kid. I would be, too, if I had a chauffeur to drive me everywhere!

A Photogenic Family...Not.

Here's the last picture I saved from a stash of antique cabinet photos I came across this week. I don't know if there was something in the local water, the photographer was intoxicated/inept, inbreeding was rampant in the area, or there was a combination of all the above, but for some reason this cache of photos held an enormous number of odd-looking individuals (see the "Crazy-Eyed Baby" and "Funny-Looking Guy" previously posted below).

This example just begs for a retake: Little Brother, on the far left, has his eyes crossed; Big Brother, standing at the back, has a tragic, haunted expression; Big Sister, on the right, looks like she's about to cry; and the bear rug appears to be eating the Baby.

My apologies in advance if someone recognizes these 

as their ancestors.

Funny-Looking Guy Photo From the 1800s

Found recently in the same stash of antique cabinet photos as the Crazy Eyed Baby, this gentleman gave me pause. He's got a New Wave hairdo going on a century early, but even without that, there's just something odd-looking about him, no? He's definitely a keeper.

McKee's Moving Puzzle

A few weeks ago I stumbled across one of the most amazing advertising premiums I've ever seen. Made in 1927, "McKee's Moving Puzzle" in its nondescript, 4 by 3 1/4 inch box holds a remarkable toy inside: a wooden furniture puzzle complete with some clever copywriting.

The McKee Moving & Storage Company was based in the city of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1927 they distributed this puzzle as an advertising premium to potential customers. The box cover reads,
"We can solve all your moving, packing, storage, and shipping problems." 

Inside, the puzzle consists of 9 wooden pieces labelled as various pieces of furniture: piano, chairs, rug, mat, lamp, table, clock, and sofa. The trick is to move the piano from one corner to another without jumping, raising, or turning any piece, one piece at a time. (It's incredibly difficult. I gave up very quickly.) Clever ad copy inside the cover reads:
"Moving is always a problem. Placing the furniture is frequently a puzzle...we can solve this puzzle, as well as your Moving, Storage, Packing or Shipping problems. Write for solution." 

Thank goodness the instructions were included, or I would never have managed it. The text ends with a final advertisement:
"If you have followed the above directions you are now an expert piano mover as far as this puzzle is concerned. However, should you have a real piano or other  household goods to move back, store, or ship don't fail to call on us." 

McKee's is apparently still in business, and if I lived in Saskatchewan, I would definitely hire them to move some of my furniture around, just to show my appreciation for this fantastic toy.

Antique Photo of Crazy-Eyed Baby

Some of the "Other Stuff" that I collect are antique photos of children with toys, a natural extension of my antique toy collecting, and an accessory line common to many toy collectors.

Today I found an old picture of a baby, and, even though it's toyless, I had to have it. It's the coolest Victorian baby photo I've ever come across. The baby, dressed in an immaculate white dress, bonnet, and cape, resting on a bearskin rug, has a stunned expression that I interpret as "Oh my goodness: I just crapped my pants!" (At least, that's what I remember this look signifying, back in my baby-sitting days...)

Antique Photo: Boy on a Riding Bear

As an accessory to antique toy collecting, I'm always on the lookout for interesting old photos of children with toys. I found this fabulous real photo postcard at an antique show last weekend. Dating from the early 1900s, it features a little boy in a sailor suit on a Steiff riding bear. The back of the photo has a penned note with the child's name (Frank) and the comment, "Pretty curls". And indeed they are.

Vintage Cracker Jack Prize: Sideshow Panorama

I was fortunate to grow up in the 1970s, the last decade of really good Cracker Jack prizes, before those pesky "safety regulations" took effect. The best Cracker Jack prizes, though, are even older, like this one which dates from around the 1950s. The tiny paper booklet, about the size of a matchbox, separates into individual pictures, which, when connected via tabs and slots, create an astounding carnival sideshow panorama.

The assembled panorama looks like this:



Here are some closeups of the pictures. Each has a description of the performer and some interesting historical information on the back:

All in all, a pretty amazing "free" prize!

Vintage Travel Souvenir Display

Some Other Stuff I collect besides old toys: vintage travel souvenirs. The kitschier they are, the better I like them. Today is the last day of school here in my town, and the kids are getting ready to start their summer vacation. I thought this might be a good time to post some pics from a display I did at my library, featuring my favorite vintage travel souvenirs. Enjoy the trip!

Some favorite pieces:

1950s Quaker Crazy Rings Premium Set

One of the greatest toy ring premiums of the 1950s was the Crazy Ring Set sponsored by the Quaker Oats Company. For only 25 cents, the lucky recipient received a total of 10 crazy rings, one for each finger, including a siren ring, pencil sharpener ring, 2 dexterity puzzle rings, squirt ring, ship in-a-bottle ring, whistle ring, hand-shaking friendship ring, jingle bell ring, and, amazingly, a meteor ring that the ad attested "contains an actual meteor piece from outer space" (mine is missing the stone, so I can't evaluate that claim).

Here's the original ad for the Crazy Ring Set:

And here are the rings:

Some closeups:

The hand shaking friendship ring, open and closed.

The jingle bell ring.

The pencil sharpener ring.

The ship-in-a-bottle ring.

The dexterity puzzle rings.

The whistle ring.

The squirt ring.

The siren ring.

Losing Our Heads Dexterity Puzzles

Here are a few of my latest dexterity puzzle games. From Japan circa the 1930s, they're tiny (only about 2 inches tall) and fragile (made of cardboard with a thin plastic covering). They're also a bit ghoulish: each of the three rather comical characters have literally lost their heads, and it's up to the player to shake them back into place. 

Decapitated.

Un-decapitated.

1966 Batman Button

After finding this vintage 1966 button, guess who is now a 

Charter Member of the Batman & Robin Society?

I wear it proudly every day.

As an aside: I've often thought that Adam West's Batman 

would be the best 

President of the United States ever. 

Don't you think so, too?

1914 Oyster Eating Contest Award Badge

I found this old award badge at an antique mall last month, and have puzzled over it since. It's one of the oddest items I've ever found. Made of die-cut leather, it measures about 5 inches in diameter. There's a small damaged area at the top where I think a ribbon and pin may have originally been attached so that it could be worn.
The text reads: "Presented to Bob Frey   Champion Oyster Eater   Capacity 982 Oysters   Galveston Texas  Oct. 31, 1914". Near as I could tell (thanks to some rather lazy googling) the current world oyster eating record is "only" about 420...so old Bob must really have been something special.

 

Vintage Pranks & Jokes

Happy April Fool's Day!  

Here are some vintage pranks and jokes from my collection.

Rear View Mirror Mailable Joke Box, 1947

This little box is the size of a postcard, with a depth of about half an inch. The front advertises its contents as a "rear view mirror", while the back has space for an address and postage stamp: 

these could actually be mailed.

The joke is apparent once the box is opened:

There were hundreds of different mailable joke boxes like this one available in the 1940s and 50s, when they were all the rage for a time. This one was made by H. Fishlove & Co. of Chicago, a novelty company founded in 1914 which was one of the most creative of the joke box manufacturers.

The Shine Gallery has a large selection of old-store-stock joke boxes for sale, but sadly, I don't think you can mail them anymore...

Bang Gun, 1940s

A classic gag straight out of the old Saturday morning cartoons, the Bang Gun has a barrel containing a rolled up silk flag with the word "BANG" printed on it. When the trigger is pulled, the barrel springs open and the flag unfurls, revealing the words. The open gun measures 8 inches long. Not recommended for use on the easily startled.

Adams Snake Nut Can, 1930s

Another classic, the Snake Nut Can is still being made by the S.S. Adams Company of Asbury Park, New Jersey. This one probably dates to the 1930s. The can is all metal, while the snake features a fabric skin over a very strong metal coil spring. No one is fooled by this anymore; I've tried.

Trick Safety Pin, 1950s

I love the graphics on the package for this Trick Safety Pin Through the Nose gag, made in Japan circa the 1950s. He looks awfully jolly for having a pin stuck through his face.

If you like vintage pranks and gags, you'll love these books:

Cheap Laffs: the Art of the Novelty Item, by Mark Newgarden

and

Life of the Party: A Visual History of the S.S. Adams Company, Makers of Pranks and Magic for 100 Years, by Kirk Demarais.