Category Archives: Uncle Bob’s Pix

A site for displaying photographs by Bob Lawrence

I Hope We’ll Meet Again in Limestone, Tenn.

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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This is a generic card with the town overprinted.  The postmark is from Limestone on January 28,1915.  Limestone’s had a post office since 1858, seventy-eight years after Washington College Academy was founded there.  Before the Civil War, Limestone was called “Anthem”.

On the back, the credit line on the left reads: Holmfirth Bamforth & Co. Ltd, Publishers (England) and New York. Bamforth’s Locals

The Message reads: “Hello! Guess Who?”  (I thought this was printed on the card, but the ink is smeared on the exclamation point)  The card is addressed to Miss Sarah Stonecipher, Limestone Tenn.  The same lady received the card in the previous posting.  Not particularly surprising, I found both of these in Limestone.

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Deaf and Dumb School, Knoxville, Tenn.

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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This building, on Summit Hill Drive in Knoxville, was built in the 1840s.  In 1925, it became Knoxville’s Old City Hall.  The building currently houses a law school for Lincoln Memorial University.

The postmark is September 12, 1917, mailed from Knoxville.

It was mailed to a Miss Sarah Stonecipher in Limestone TN.

It reads, as best as I can tell, “Hello I will leave for Athens this morning. (suppose?) I will go to school I would rather take a Business Course if I could Will write soon. (Adrian?)

Published by E. C. Kropp of Milwaukee, inventory number 18434

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Smoky Mountains Trailways Bus

Posted on November 17, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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I don’t know squat about pre-WWII buses (or any other buses, for that matter), but I was curious about this Smoky Mountains Trailways bus.  By the shape of the windshield, I think it may be a Mack. I welcome a correction on that. The card was printed in the early 40s (Smoky Mountains National Park was dedicated, by FDR, no less, in 1940.
I read a posting that stated the “founder of Trailways” had a lodge up in the mountains.  I couldn’t track down who that may have been, but there was no real Trailways.  It was Trailways Transportation System, comprising five individual companies, that was set up in 1936.
Darn nice-looking card, though.  Asheville Post Card Company, natch.  It’s linen finish, but borderless.  I thought it might be a Curt Teich, but that inventory number doesn’t match up (I get a lot of that.  APCC used other printers).
As I post this, the Smoky Mountains are actually quite smoky from the numerous forest fires we have going on.

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Natural Tunnel 1937

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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1937.  Same tunnel, same tracks.  Yawn.  Geology is so slow.

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Knoxville Train Stations (there were two?)

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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On the front of this postcard are the Southern station (top) and the L&N station.  The Southern station dates from 1903; the L&N from 1905. They’re both still sitting around in K-ville, but repurposed.  Passenger service persisted until around 1970.
The postcard is a Tichnor Duality Views, published by Standard News Co., Knoxville, Tenn, and dates from the 20s.  I don’t have a way to tie an inventory number to a date (there’s not much of anything about Tichnor Publishing Company – they were in Boston – on the web), but the cars look to be 20-ish.  It has to be from before 1945, since the clock tower on the Southern station was removed in that year.
I won’t say anything about the dealer writing his/her booth designation and price ON THE CARD.  Wouldn’t do any good.

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Northwest Airlines

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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These are two cards that were probably in a folder given to each passenger as they boarded the plane.  You added your message to and address of your BFF back home, give it to the stewardess.  She would then affix a stamp and mail it for you.
They are DC-3 aircraft in NWA livery (at one time, pretty much any airport worth its tarmac had a DC-3 landing there).  Later, NWA became Northwest Orient, flying to Japan and other points oriental.  “Northwest Orient” makes me think of elk and soy sauce…

NWA was around from the late 20s, then was absorbed, eventually, by Delta.

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Nickels Department Store, Gate City, VA.

Posted on October 17, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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The writing is all in pencil.  The postmark is double stamped and blurry.  The interesting thing is that the card, in the upper left, is dated “Feb. 2, 1912”, but the postmark shows it was mailed on January (something) 1912.
Reading on: “Hurry answer soon  Hello Hazel how are you by this time I am just fine and having a fine old time tell Bess to send me a card will be home in next month”  The author was not big on punctuation.

Mailed to Miss Hazel Lessley, Arcadia, Tenn. Arcadia, formerly known as Reedy Creek Settlement, is one of the earliest clumps of humanity along Bloomingdale Road.  We always used to call it Bloomingdale Pike (indicating at some time in the past it was a private road…you had to pay to have the pike across the road lifted so you could get through).

Anyway, there are 36 men, women and children all lined up across the front.  The photo was maybe taken in April or May, since the people aren’t wearing winter clothes and there’s some sign, perhaps a circus sign, in the show window to the left advertising an upcoming May 30 performance.

As is common with cards of this vintage, there’s no publisher name shown.  There may be an inventory number or other information under the stamp, but I’m not even going to try to steam it off.

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Matching Tools

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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These were at a yard sale in Johnson City. Just sittin’ there lookin’ purty.

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Andrea Doria

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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This is the Italian liner SS Andrea Doria.  The Continental-size (4-3/16 x 5-7/8″) postcard was mailed from Gibraltar on January 17, 1955.  One year and seven months later, this ship went to the bottom, 160 feet down, off the coast of Massachusetts, after a collision with the MS Stockholm of the Swedish American Line.  The story is here.

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Power Up!

Posted on July 8, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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Some AM stations rise power at sunrise.

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Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialties

Posted on June 25, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialties…and an airline?  This is the lowest inventory number I have of the airline series that MJRS issued between the mid 80s or so through to the late 90s.  The company was owned by Mary Jayne and John Z. Rowe of Covington VA.  The MJRS company was incorporated, though, in North Miami Beach FL in 1973 and went inactive in 1999.  Mary Jayne died in 2015 but her obituary doesn’t mention MJRS.  It only states that she and her husband operated a land survey company.  There’s an article in a railfan mag on the web on MJRS, but it’s stuck behind a $43 paywall.  Passed on that.  There is no inventory list of these cards on the web, as far as I know. This is MJ354 and my highest number is MJ1297, but this isn’t a continuous sequence. There are many holes in the numbering.  Either I just don’t have all the cards (likely) or these cards, which changed publisher at least once, were part of a larger print run that included other subjects.  This one was printed by Alleghany Publishers, Covington, VA.  I hope the pinkish hue was intentional.
The cards I have cover an amazing number of airlines and many, many aircraft.  This group was a real find.

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Alf Berry

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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So, here’s Alf.

In the writing on the reverse, there’s one word that I can’t figure out.  It’s the word written over the “P” in “Post”.

Alf Berry picture gave to B (?oo?) B feb 27, 1913 at Roda Va”  Roda is a coal town in Wise County, at the end of what was once an Interstate Rail Road line.  It’s northwest of Appalachia, past Osaka.

Interesting that the person writing this added the “Va”.  It was never mailed.  The writing just serves to identify the person and give a context to the picture itself.

Alf’s not wearing any rings.  The buttons on his jacket have been much used; they’re hanging loosely.  Sturdy shoes.  Looks like some sort of basket hoop by his right foot.  Can’t say much about his tie.

The other writing is when some dumb dealer wrote his buy code and the price of the card.  I wish dealers wouldn’t be so unconcerned about these real photo cards.  They’re one-offs, after all.

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Before KFC, there was

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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This was the first nationally franchised restaurant chain in the United States.
Chicken in the Rough (you ate it without silverware). Read about it here.

This card is from their Memphis location.  I wonder how many people won the $100 cash prize?

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Canon Snappy

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

This is a counter card for camera shops to advertise the then (1982-83) new Canon Snappy 20 and 50.
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It shows damage from sunlight, otherwise this sturdy plastic card is in pretty good shape.  The item measures 10.5 x 7″.
This first outing for the Canon Snappy series in the United States came in September, 1982.  It cost $72 ($186 or so in today’s dollars).  The Snappy 50 had autofocus.  Which means that, just before you hit the shutter button, a measuring tape would spit out of the front of the camera, so you could measure the distance to the subject.  It was unusual for its day in that the measuring tape would extend to 5,280′, at sea level.  Just kidding, of course.  It was an infra-red system, common in compact cameras then.  Thank you, Google.

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Trailways Token

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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I found this locally.  In 1963, according to an ad in the Kingsport Times-News, Tays Farmer was the parts department manager at Daugherty Bros. Chevrolet in Gate City.  The worn notch at the top indicates it was hanging off something for quite a while.  There’s a blackening around the notch.  In the center front is what remains of a Trailways logo.  On the back it states “Travel Bus Trailways”.  (Only so much you can do within a circle, word-wise)
If that is, indeed, a worn Trailways  logo on the front, it’s the National Trailways Bus System logo and dates this to the ’50s.

Later:  on the ‘net, I managed to find another Trailways token very similar to this one, but from Bybee VA.  On that token, the side with the name on it is the reverse of this one; i.e., the “Travel Bus Trailways” side has the name on it.

This token is considered rare.

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Deltaliner

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

I sloped down to a local antique store this afternoon and, by digging a little bit, came across this tidy gem:

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No publisher is noted, but it has to be a puff piece for Delta, comfortably dated to between 1949 and 1951.  Delta took delivery of their first DC-6 in 1948.  They were retired in the early sixties as jets took over.  Why 1951?  Because, as pointed out on other posts on the web,  postage rates for postcards went up to 2 cents in ’51.  This was printed prior to that.

 

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How to Repurpose a Tailgate

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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This is in Cromona KY.

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Piedmont Racing

Posted on April 23, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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From 1982 to 1988 Piedmont Airlines, apparently feeling flush in good times and with an infusion of cash from Norfolk & Western Railroad, ventured into NASCAR.  They were the first airline to do so.  They sponsored Richard Childress’ team from Ricky Rudd to Sterling Marlin.  This iron-on patch is 3.75″ wide and 2.5″ deep.  Incidentally, Piedmont was the 10th largest airline in the U.S. at the time.  I think United owns the name now.

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McGhee-Tyson Airport

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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A Standard News Agency, Knoxville, Tenn. issue, K-51 “Municipal Airport, Knoxville, Tenn.” (plate #OB-H2467)  It shows an American Airlines DC-3 sitting in front of the terminal building.  This is just eight years after McGhee-Tyson moved to this location in Blount County from a much smaller operation a little west of Knoxville. The boarding ramp is in place but, look, there’s not a soul in sight, except for, maybe, a bit of a person showing beyond the ramp.

It was mailed from Knoxville on March 30, 1943.
On the back in the upper left description paragraph (unusually wordy): “Municipal Airport, Knoxville, Tenn.  One of 36 of the best airports in the United States – on the main Southern Transcontinental Air Route.  Served by American Airlines and Pennsylvania Central Airlines.  Complete with U.S. Weather Bureau and Civil Aeronautics Radio and Communication Station – service night and day.  Cost over one million dollars – paved runways – main runway 5000 ft. long.  All facilities.  Complete lighting for night flying; mail and transport and private operations.”

The written message: “Hello, Mother.  Well, we have gotten this far and our tickets were messed up so we are waiting for a call from Rogersville  Don’t worry about us.  We will leave out in a few minutes  love to all will write you from camp. Boy.

Mailed to Mrs. N.D. Ewings, 122 Hasson St. Rogersville, Tenn.

The post mark says “Buy War Savings Bonds and Stamps”

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Jesse & Irwinna

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Bob Lawrence

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Let’s just say that Irwinna was not happy about something today.  Jessee, however, manages a twist of a smile.

The stories you could come up with…

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