Flickr Commons: Southern Methodist University’s Photostream: Trains, Boats

Here are a few more images from Southern Methodist University’s photostream at the Flickr Commons.

Rights: Please cite Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library when using this image file. A high-quality version of this file may be obtained for a fee by contacting degolyer@smu.edu.

Bibliographic material is cut and pasted from the photostream.

The Old Way. The New Way.

Title: The Old Way. The New Way.

Date: ca. 1910

Part Of: Eric Steinfeldt collection of maritime views, Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

Place: Galveston, Galveston County, Texas

Locomotive No. 355, Krauss-Maffei

Creator: Bellingrodt, Carl

Date: 1940

Place: Germany

Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

No. 55. In Case of Emergency. Snow plow.

Creator: Benecke, Robert, 1835-1903
Date: 1873
Place: Kansas

Part Of: On the Kansas Pacific Railway collection, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

 

If you visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, you will find hundreds of artworks donated by “Ima Hogg.” There was a real woman by this name, daughter of a Texas Governor, James Stephen (Big Jim) Hogg. Why did he name his daughter Ima?  Here’s the Wiki take on the matter:

“Her first name was taken from her uncle Thomas Hogg‘s epic Civil War poem The Fate of Marvin, which featured two young women named Ima and Leila.^[4][5][6] According to Virginia Bernhard’s biography of Ima Hogg, “there are some who believe that James Stephen Hogg … named his only daughter Ima Hogg to attract the attention of Texas voters” in a year when he was running in a close race for district attorney of the Seventh District in Texas,^[3]which he won.^[7][8] Alternatively, correspondence from Jim Hogg indicates he may not have been conscious of the combined effect of his daughter’s first and last names.^[9]“

Ima Hogg later recounted that “my grandfather Stinson lived fifteen miles [24 km] from Mineola and news traveled slowly. When he learned of his granddaughter’s name he came trotting to town as fast as he could to protest but it was too late. The christening had taken place, and Ima I was to remain.”^[4] During her childhood, Hogg’s elder brother William often came home from school with a bloody nose, the result of defending, as she later recalled, “my good name”.^[10]

Ruthless or stupid, take your pick.

At least, “contrary to popular belief, Ima did not have a sister named Ura.”

Ima Hogg

Date: ca. 1909

Part Of: Eric Steinfeldt collection of maritime views

Place: Galveston, Galveston County, Texas

Physical Description: 1 photographic print (postcard)

 

Three U. S. Torpedo Boat Destroyers on Neches River, Beaumont, Texas.

Date: ca. 1910

Part Of: Eric Steinfeldt collection of maritime views, Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

Place: Beaumont, Jefferson County, Texas

 

 

Boat deck, Lusitania

Creator: Bedford Lemere & Co.
Date: ca. 1905-1907
Part Of: Photographs of Q.S.T.S. “Lusitania”, Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

Flickr Commons: Southern Methodist University’s Photostream

I’m back, finally, with a new post. Here are some examples of the close to 2300 photos Southern Methodist University (SMU) has placed in their Flickr Commons photostream and labeled as having “no known copyright restrictions.” All that is asked is that you “Please cite Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library when using this image file.” Some of the photos also include collection notes and photographer’s names, so it would be best to include those too.

SMU is located in Dallas, TX, and so unsurprisingly a number of their albums feature topics related to Texas and the Southwest. There are lots covering the oil industry, which is probably the most unique feature of this photostream. But there are some albums that go further afield, Alaska in the early 20th century and German trains, for example.

SMU includes this note to accompany its images: “A high-quality version of this file may be obtained for a fee by contacting degolyer@smu.edu.”

Bibliographic material is cut and pasted from the photostream.

One of the oddest things that caught my eye was a series of postcards — postcards! — depicting firing squads, executed bodies, and disposal of the dead from the Mexican Revolution. Who would choose to send such a thing — and to whom? And what would you write: “Wish you were here, right here, right in the line of fire?”

Here’s a mild example.

Triple execution in Mexico

Creator: Horne, Walter H., 1883-1921             Date: January 15, 1916           Place: Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico

Part Of: Collection of Walter H. Horne photographs, Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

I’m not including the worst. I have some taste. But I will tell you where to find them.

This one – a postcard, remember – of a man killed in battle Nov 2, 1915 1/2 mile south of Agua Prieta, Mexico is really horrid, and this of the dead on the battlefield isn’t much better.

Here’s another view of Mexico altogether.

The Observatory, Chichen Itza

Creator: Medellin, Octavio    Date: 1959    Place: Yucatan, Mexico

Cite: Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

The oil industry has long been interested in Mexico, or so it appears from many of the shots here, including this dramatic one of a oil well fire.

 

Potrero del Llano No. 4  burning

Date: ca. 1914-1915   Place: Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico

Part Of: Manning Texas and Mexico Collection,  Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

Meanwhile, back in the US:

Climax-Molybdenum Co., Iowa Colony, Texas, rough neck and fish tail bit on drill collar

Creator: Robert Yarnall Richie          Date: November 2, 1938        Place: Iowa Colony, Texas

Part Of: Robert Yarnall Richie photograph collection, Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

Gulf Oil Corp., #1 F. C. C. Unit

Creator: Richie, Robert Yarnall         Date: July 15, 1956            Place: Port Arthur, Texas

Part Of: Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection, Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

Did you know that before Texas was a state it was a nation, the Republic of Texas? Here’s an example of its currency. I’m amused by the Venus figure in the upper left corner. Somehow, I doubt in Texas’s 21st century political climate that its lawmakers would suffer the presence of a nude woman on any document, let alone money.

Republic of Texas $50.00 (fifty dollars) ”redback” note

County of Origin: Travis County    Town of Issue: Austin

Currency Type: “Redback”        Denomination: $50.00

Bank Issuer: Republic of Texas

Imprint: Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson. New Orleans.; Rawdon, Wright & Hatch New-York.; Engraved by Geo. [W.] Hatch.

Date Issued: May 22, 1839

Vignette: (L) Nude Venus standing. (C) Steamship (three-mast side-wheeler) and sailing ship (brig). (R) Bust of Stephen F. Austin. Lower center: Lone Star seal.

Notes: This ”redback” note was issued in Austin by the Republic of Texas. Redbacks were issued from late 1839 until 1842.

Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

A True Girl of the West.

Creator: Cornish, George Bancroft               Date: 1906

Part Of: 101 Ranch and Burroum Ranch, Del Rio, Texas, Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

Did you ever see The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, a 1972 feature starring Paul Newman and introducing Victoria Principal (later of Dallas fame) and a cast including Ned Beatty, Anthony Perkins, John Huston, Roddy McDowell, Ava Gardner and so on and on? You ought to. It was based on a real Texan.

Judge Roy Bean, Justice of the Peace, Law West of the Pecos Building

Creator: Studer Photo

Part Of: Lawrence T. Jones III Texas photography collection, Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

Finally, we have this guy, who, it seems, for reasons best known to himself, thought it a fine idea to ride a  longhorn steer from Brownsville, TX to New York City.

Ralph Sanders and ”Jerry.” May 12, 1930.

 Place: Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas

Part Of: Collection of real photographic postcards of Texas, Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library

Flickr Commons: National Archives, UK: Artwork and Illuminations

A few examples of the contents of the Artwork and Illuminations collection of the UK National Archive’s photostream on the Flickr Commons.

Chest made to hold the Treaty of Calais, signed between Edward III of England and John II of France. Edward agreed to give up his claim to the throne of France in exchange for the territory of Aquitaine. 1360. http://flic.kr/p/6Gp7WW

Sample Child’s Ration Book. Throughout the 1940s (and for nine years after the end of the war) every man woman and child in Britain owned ration books of coupons for food and clothing. The Ministry of Food’s carefully formulated diet is generally believed to have improved the nation’s health. http://flic.kr/p/5Rc3AD

Unidentified Flying Object sightings. c.1969. http://flic.kr/p/5zY1uM

Central Office of Information’s copy of the official poster advertising the 1948 London Olympics. http://flic.kr/p/5DhZwF

: “A West-End London Street Scene” by Grace Golden. Clearly depicting Regent Street, Golden imagines future post-war prosperity. In reality shoppers had to endure rationing in Britain into the 1950s. c.1945. http://flic.kr/p/5DhZwB

Official war art by W. Krogman, gouache on board. The painting imagines a bombing raid on the German city of Cologne. The city’s cathedral is clearly visible. It survived the war, despite being hit dozens of times by Allied bombs. WWII. http://flic.kr/p/7uWG8n

Print of the royal barge carrying Admiral Nelson’s body along the River Thames from Greenwich to Whitehall. Date: 1806
http://flic.kr/p/5D6Akn

Flickr Commons: Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands, 2

More from the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands collections in the Flickr Commons.

Winter fashions are featured in one set, Herfst- en wintermode / Autumn- and winter fashion, and winter sports in another:

Wintermode 1914 / Winter fashion 1914

 

Ski-zeilen / Ski-sailing, ‘Ski-sailing’, a new sport invented in Austria, demonstrated in St. Moritz, Switzerland, January 1938.

Then there are some sets of other nations and places, such as Japan and New York City:

Bedelmonnik / Mendicant. Mendicant with staff, begging bowl and pointed hat. [Photo, hand coloured albumine, from series of 42 prints at Spaarnestad Photo by Felice Beato, Kusakabe Kimbei or Raimund baron von Stillfried. Japan, around 1868-1874.]

 

Luchtfoto Manhattan / Aerial photograph of Manhattan.
Aerial photograph of Manhattan, New York (10.000 feet). The street pattern is based on the (in those days) revolutionairy parce; pattern of the Dutch municipality Beemster polder.

And then there are a number of images of WWI and WWII; here are some from the First World War.

Eerste Wereldoorlog, mobilisatie. First World War, mobilization, declaration of war: a group of soldiers with a cloth to throw one of them into the air during preparations for the battle at the front. England, 1915

 

Eerste Wereldoorlog, loopgraven. First World War. A French soldier wearing a kind of armour as protection against flying bullets above the trench. France, 1915.

 

Eerste Wereldoorlog, oefening Eton College. The Great War. First World War, mobilization, declaration of war: pupils of Eton college exercising in suit and high hat, rifle over the shoulder. England, 1915.

 

Eerste Wereldoorlog, legerhond sergeant Stubby. The Great War. First World War, United States of America, the American army dog Stubby, rank of sergeant. Stubby died in 1926.

 

Eerste Wereldoorlog, krijgsgevangenen. The Great War. First World War, Russian army. The Russians teaching the German prisoners of war the cossack dance. The Eastern front, Russia, 1915.

 

Eerste Wereldoorlog, luchtoorlog. The Great War. First World War. German Taube-plane hunted down by a French plane with a machine gun. France, 1914.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Public Domain Review

I’ve been so negligent recently — but here’s something to make it worth your while coming back today. I just found a really interesting looking site, The Public Domain Review, that has all kinds of lovely and useful images, as well as public domain films, text, and audio. Enjoy!

Once More to the National Archives’ Vaults: Flying Machines, a Life-Preserving Coffin, Harp Guitar, and More!

Back to the National Archives’ Public Vaults, this time looking at patent office drawings, found by refining the search to yield only Architectural and Engineering Drawings.

First, a few flying machines.

Printed patent drawing for a flying machine invented by W. F. Quimby, 1869. ARC Identifier 594412

 

What do you make of this poem, “Aspiration,” accompanying the drawing here? 

Drawing of a Device by Which a Person Can Fly, 1902. ARC Identifier 594758

 Have you ever been worried about being buried alive? This inventor must have. I like the revision to the subtitle of this “life preserving coffin” in which actual has been marked through. After all, no coffin design will help the actually dead.

Drawing for a Life–Preserving Coffin, 11/15/1843. Invented by Christian H. Eisenbrandt. ARC Identifier 595517

 

 I don’t know what to make of these next two.

Drawing of Submarine Explorer, 02/18/1830. ARC Identifier 595884

Drawing of Diving Dress, 12/24/1810.ARC Identifier 594916

 

Lots of puzzling things going on in the next diagram. What is the man at the top of this staircase doing? And the second guy in the top hat? What is that chair doing at the base of the stairs? Why did the inventor call his mobile staircase a ladder anyway? etc.

Drawing of Fire Ladder, 04/18/1831. ARC Identifier 593886

 

Time to rest, but how fast would you have to rock in this chair to make a breeze strong enough to justify expending your energy?

Drawing of Rocking Chair and Fan, by Charles Horst, 08/07/1847. ARC Identifier 594932

 

 Here’s something to listen to while you rock:

Drawing of a Harp Guitar, 10/06/1831. ARC Identifier 594917

 Rock on.

Back Into the Public Vaults, National Archives

Back into the Public Vaults of the National Archives today, this time selecting for artifacts, maps and charts, and textual records for an eclectic collection ranging from stamps showing a skull-like profile of Hitler to an Air Force department’s chart illustrating reports of UFO sightings in the summer months of 1952.

Counterfeit Stamps with Skeletal View of Adolph Hitler. ARC Identifier 594871

Real stamps. ARC Identifier 594864

 

Abraham Zapruder Camera. ARC Identifier 305171

Who, you want to know, is Abraham Zapruder? He brought his home movie camera along on November 22, 1963 when he went to watch President John F. Kennedy’s motorcade through Dallas, and he ended up filming the assassination of the president.

First Die of the Great Seal of the United States, 1782. ARC Identifier 596742

 

Track Chart of Bombing Mission to Schweinfurt, 08/17/1943. ARC Identifier 596346

 

 .This chart, Appendix I to Project Blue Book Status Report No. 8, was produced by the Technical  Intelligence Division of the US Air Force. It shows the frequency of unidentified flying object (UFO) reports during the months of June, July, August, and September 1952. ARC Identifier 595542

 

Map of the Battles of Bull Run Near Manassas, 1861 - 1862. ARC Identifier 594732

 

 

 

 

A Random Browse in the National Archives’ Public Vaults

These photos are all from the Public Vaults collection found under National Archives Exhibits in the ARC Gallery of archives.gov.  Once I reached the Public Vaults page, I refined my search by de-selecting all but “Photographs & Other Graphic Materials,” which dropped the number of results from 1,049 to 504. 

The 504 images are not, as best I can tell, organized in any particular way. This makes for a random browse. To preserve the feel of visiting these pages, I haven’t imposed any order on the images I’ve selected for this sampling, either. 

Credit pictures to National Archives/ARC ID number. 

Photograph of a Lifeboat Carrying Titanic Survivors, 05/14/1912. ARC Identifier 278337

From ARC: This is a photograph of a lifeboat carrying Titanic shipwreck survivors. Original caption: “Boat No 6, 16, 11 women, 6 men, Miss Bowerman, Mrs. J. J. Brown, Mrs. Candee, Mrs. Cavendish, Mrs. Cavendish (Maid), Mrs. Meyer, Miss Norton, Mrs. Rothchild, Mrs. L. P. Smith, Mrs. Stine & Maid, Hitching Q. M.”

 

This is the grimmest wedding party I have ever seen: 

Photograph of a Group in Front of Metlakahtla Christian Mission Church Following a Wedding Ceremony in Metlakahtla, Alaska . ARC Identifier 297667

 

This next one looks like a cross between a junior high science fair project and an audition for a “Price is Right” hostess, but it is neither: it’s advice on stocking your personal bomb shelter. 

Survival Supplies for the Well-Stocked Fallout Shelter. ARC Identifier 542103 /Local Identifier 311-D-9(2)

 

No one is keeping his eyes on the man climbing the ladder, and even he is more interested in the photographer than in doing whatever made him climb that rickety ladder. 

Photograph of Men Testing the Subsurface by Drilling with Diamond Drills, 08/1910. ARC Identifier 596095

 

 Most of the time you see “Whites Only” signs in pre-Civil Rights era photos. But here’s one with: “Colored Only Police Order.”

Photograph of a Shack for Negroes Only at Belle Glade, Florida, 04/1945. ARC Identifier 594942

 

Don’t those hands look weird? I’m not convinced that the hands belong to the heads, if you know what I mean. 

Enemy Ears Are Listening. ARC Identifier 514209

 

I don’t know what the story is behind this: 

Jell-O Box Exhibit Used in the Espionage Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Morton Sobell, 03/06/1951 – 03/29/1951. ARC Identifier 278774

 

Yet another example of an exercise in futility: 

Photograph of Prohibition Agents Destroying a Bar. ARC Identifier 595674 / Local Identifier 306-NT-727-16

 

 Workman on the Framework of the Empire State Building. ARC Identifier 518290

 

Photograph of Sketch of a D-Day Dress – Platoon Leader. ARC Identifier 596375 / MLR Number NM3 427 

Photograph of Flag Bearer for Women’s Rights Standing Near White House. ARC Identifier 594266

 

Photograph of Richard M. Nixon and Elvis Presley at the White House, 12/21/1970. ARC Identifier 1634221 

 

Still Looking for Public Domain Images of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall keeps coming up among the search terms that bring people to this blog. I posted images of the wall back in November 2009, but I thought I’d have another look around. Pre-unification (11/9/89) images are surprisingly hard to find, but I found a few more that don’t repeat what is in the November post.

This first image from the Library of Congress  is chilling. The photographer, Toni Frisell, was a high society fashion photographer when World War II broke out. She volunteered her services to the Red Cross, the Air Force, and the Women’s Army Corp, staying on after the war’s end to document its aftermath. When you just glance at the picture, what you see is a smiling, seeming relaxed young man. But look up and to the right and you see he has a gun pointed at his head.

 

Summary from LoC: West Berliner in uniform in front of Berlin Wall; soldier pointing gun over wall.  Toni Frissell Collection [LC-USZC4-4334]

Man carrying cross on street, Berlin, West Germany.  Toni Frissell Collection [LC-USZC4-4333]

These are not tagged “Berlin Wall” but are related to the Berlin airlift, and so may be of interest. The first from the National Museum of the US Air Force is rather unusual:

DAYTON, Ohio -- Berlin Airlift dog parachute on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Berlin Airlift SCR-658 Radio Receiver on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. (U.S. Air Force photo

I found this on this on the CIA’s website in a document titled ”Turning a Cold War Scheme into Reality: Engineering the Berlin Tunnel”, a formerly classified account of the construction of a secret tunnel ”in a rural area of the American Sector southwest of Berlin known as Altglienecke” to tap into Soviet communications lines. It operated until 1956 when East German telephone repairmen accidentally came across it. Or so it was believed at the time.

 

The next images are from the National Archives‘ German Reunification Day Exhibit :

President Nixon views the Berlin Wall from a platform

Photograph of President Reagan giving a speech at the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, Federal Republic of Germany, 06/12/1987 – 06/12/1987. ARC Identifier 198585

And here’s a post-unification one from the US Army:

Fireworks illuminate Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate as thousands celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nov. 9, 2009. 

Photo Credit: Richard Bumgardner (U.S. Army Europe)

Be They Buffalo or Bison, They’ve No Place to Roam

Rath & Wright’s buffalo hide yard in 1878, showing 40,000 buffalo hides, Dodge City, Kansas. ARC Identifier 520093

A collection of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep and wolf skulls and bones near Fort Sanders, Albany County, Wyoming, 1870. ARC Identifier 516956

When I was looking for National Park images, I came across the shocking pictures above. I hadn’t grasped how intensively the species was hunted in the nineteenth century, but according to the Nature Conservancy, by the early twentieth century, “less than 100 free-roaming bison remained in the world,” when once millions of these creatures, the largest land mammals on the North American continent, could be found coast to coast.  Conservation efforts prevented the extinction of the species, and numbers have increased, but the American Prairie Foundation notes that because of cross breeding with cattle, “of the 500,000 bison alive today, fewer than 7,000 are non-hybridized.” It considers the species “ecologically extinct.”

Blackfoot Indians chasing buffalo, Three Buttes, Montana, 1853. ARC Identifier 531080

The Plains Indians hunted the buffalo (while buffalo is probably the more widely used word, technically, the species is Bison bison, and so some prefer to call them bison), but the differences between them and the newcomers to the hunt are significant. One big difference: guns. And Indians generally — but not always — as Shepard Kreech explains in “Buffalo Tales: The Near-Extermination of the American Bison” on a  National Humanities Center webpage, used every part of their prey they could, unlike the settlers who killed herds to sell their hides on to distant traders.

Arapaho camp with buffalo meat drying near Fort Dodge, Kansas, 1870. ARC Identifier 518892

Kreech begins his overview of the role of the buffalo in the Plains Indians lives by noting that they ate

an incredible variety of bison parts: meat, fat, organs, testicles, nose gristle, nipples, blood, milk, marrow, fetus.But the buffalo represented more than food. For many it provided over one hundred specific items of material culture. Day or night, Plains Indians could not ever have been out of sight, touch, or smell of some buffalo product. It was the era’s Wal-Mart.

Distributing buffalo hides, ca. 1936. ARC Identifier 285666 The creator of this picture is listed in the bibliographic record as Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Rosebud Agency. The Rosebud Reservation, part of the Sioux Nation, is in South Dakota.

Hides with and without fur on were used for clothing, moccasins, bedding, and tipi covers. Other parts and their uses included:

Hair: ropes, stuffing, yarn

Sinew: thread, bowstrings, snowshoe webbing

Horns: arr ow points, bow parts, ladles & spoons cups, containers

Brains: to soften skins

Fat: paint base

Dung: fuel, to polish stone

Teeth: ornaments

Paunch & Large Intestine: containers

Penis: glue

Compare this to the meaningless slaughter of buffalo from trains:

Illus. in: Harper’s Weekly, v. 2 (1867), p. 792. [LC-cph 3b08935]

or the hunter interested in the securing the largest numbers of hides he could:

Illus. in: Harper's Weekly, 1874 Dec. 12, v. 18, no. 937. LC-USZ62-55602

Image with the identifier prefix ARC are from the National Archives; those with LC, the Library of Congress.