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Monthly Archives: June 2019

A Couple o’ Subs

oldsubfront

oldsubback

This is a K-class sub.  Distinguished service between 1914 and 1923.  The spray, no doubt added in the retouch department, conveniently obscures any identifying marks.

nautfront

nautback

And this is the mighty Nautilus, decommissioned in 1980 to become a museum ship.

These “Defenders of America” cards came to you via boxes of shredded hay, er, wheat between 1958 and 1959.

Look, Ma! No Pods!

cometfront

cometback

All the skinny on this aircraft is here.

After a disastrous, but highly educational, experience with its first Comet iteration, de Havilland has a 30-year success with this 4B.

Sleek aircraft, but there was some concern (from aircraft manufacturers who preferred engine pods) about the engines and the fuel tanks buried in the wings.  Flew right well, though.

The card has been folded along its vertical axis.  Still a good-looking card, I think.

Eight Names, One Ship

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shipback

Before this ship was launched as a troop transport in 1944, it was briefly named General R.M. Blatchford (Spanish-American War, WWI).  Upon launch, though, it was the General W.P. Richardson (explorer and geographer for the U.S. Army in Alaska).  Then it was the LaGuardia, then the Leilani then the President Roosevelt.  After that it was the Atlantis, then this Emerald Seas (1972 – 1992), and, finally, the Ocean Explorer I before it was scrapped in India in 2004.  The full history is here.

I think the card dates to between 1963 (when Zip Codes went into effect) and maybe 1970.  It was printed by Koppel Color Card Company in Hawthorne NJ, which operated in the 1960s, and distributed by the Color-Ads Productions noted on the reverse.

Elvis ’68

This was RCA doing a little promotion for the Elvis comeback tour of ’68. Size is 3.875″ x 2.25″.

U.S.S. Ranger

rangerfront

rangerback

Behold the U.S.S. Ranger, the first U.S. Navy vessel designed to be an aircraft carrier.  Plopped in the water in 1934, the ship made it through WWII (though, due to its relative lack of speed, it stayed in the Atlantic) and was scrapped in 1947.

Vrrrrm! 1932 Marmon

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MARMONFRONT

MARMONBACK

This card was light damaged, so I have changed brightness/contrast parameters to make it more viewable.

Another Cinderella Stamp

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fifth

This a more developed Cinderella.  It apparently came as part of a perforated sheet of stamps.  It has glue on the back.

In May of this year, a second well had just opened up in the Permian Basin in Texas…on land owned by the University of Texas.  Whoopee!  Break out the bubbly!

I browsed the AGA monthly issue that had notice of this convention in 1923.  The proceedings looked…well (pun intended), interesting to them what was there, I’m sure.

Nice poster design, though.  The stamp is 2.25″ x 3.5″