This scruffy, 2.25″ wide pinback is nearing 50 years old.
The history of North Central Air Lines is here.
Be sure to read about Herman the Duck.
Not Too Subtle…
I can’t make out where this was mailed from, but it’s a not-too-subtle message from your friends back in 1910.
- American Post Card Company in New York went out of business in 1910.
- Blue Eye MO got its name, reportedly, from the eye color of the first postmaster.
Dog Show
The original of this Cinderella stamp is 1.5″ x 2″, flimsy paper, blank on the back, no glue.
Btw, “Beaver Chocolate”, a Chesapeake Bay hunting dog, took Best in Show.
That courtesy of the Oakland Tribune, April 15, 1930.
Oh, and a dog accidentally swallowed a diamond from a lady’s ring at this show. Um, everything came out all right…
Toy Roundup
This is a 2″ x 3″ advertising Cinderella stamp on paper that’s a little stiffer than copy paper. The reverse is blank and has never had any glue applied to it. This is one of a collection of trade stamps, mostly from the 20s and 30s that I bought around thirty years ago. I’ve been unable to find out much of anything about them.
Magnet Compass Game
Ah, things were simpler then. Here are the directions:
Yeah, a real thigh-slapper for the under 5 set…
This is probably from the late 40s. The magnet was missing when I bought it. A friend found a magnet at a flea market, but it’s so strong it paralyzes the compass’ needle.
Beechcraft Wichita
Scruffy old postcard from Ellington Field. Published during WWII. Between Beechcraft (whose headquarters are in Wichita KS) and Globe Aircraft, about 2,000 of these A-10s were manufactured.
The Mighty DC-8
The postmark is 1973. The Douglas or McDonald Douglas DC-8 was built from 1958 to 1972. It was in competition with Boeing’s 707 in the new era of jet travel. 556 were made and a few are still in service. In August, 1961, this was the first civilian jet liner to achieve (for 16 seconds) supersonic flight.
Remember the song lyric, “a big 707’s set to go.” (Gordon Lightfoot,”Early Morning Rain”) “Big DC-8’s set to go” doesn’t scan as well…
N. H. D. V. S. Barracks, Johnson City TN
The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers had just recently been built when the picture was taken (note the horse and wagon in the foreground). It’s a lithograph printed in Germany.
Spurlock’s Bluing
Is that a cat or a dog? And that’s one hell of a pompadour on the kid.
Anyway, this is a 4″ x 7″ mezzotint trade card for a company I can’t positively locate; however, the printing company, Brandon Print Co. of Nashville, can be fairly well dated, since they did a lot of state government work. The earliest citing I’ve found for Brandon Print Co. is 1887 and the latest is 1913. The extant Brandon Print Company building, 228 2nd Avenue in Nashville was built in 1892.
The Austin Company
There’s a really good overview of the tobacco industry in Greeneville here.
Look around Greeneville at the smokestacks. See that “A” on the stack? That’s Austin.
This roughly 2.25 x 4″ luggage tag is probably from the mid-60s. The tag is still flexible, but the strap has turned brittle and has broken.
The tag is by Econ-O-Line. On the reverse is a plastic pocket for a provided ID card.
Pretty spiffy. Telex number and all. Also note the 615 telephone prefix. The 615 – 423 split didn’t happen until 1995.
The Queen Mary
I found these cards at a place in Asheville. 25 cents each! It’s been a while since I’ve seen a postcard in any decent shape for 25 cents.
The Queen Mary sailed the briny deeps of the Atlantic from 1936 to 1967, crossing the ocean 1,000 times. It’s now decommissioned and firmly attached to a beach in San Diego.
This is a 3 7/8 x 5 3/4″ card, printed England:
Here’s the back of it:
This is a standard size card. The message on the back is great.
Owl wonders – “How does the poor little thing eat?”USS Shenandoah
This is a modern real-photo postcard with no attribution. The picture, however, apparently depicts the USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), which was launched in 1923 and felled by a storm in Ohio in 1925.
Uncle Bob's Pix 