Ambulator

@pmcghee2.bsky.social

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I present real moments in time and space captured in old photographs, mostly stereoviews from the period 1850-1930.

A picture of a steam engine hauling (backwards) a freight train in the direction of Ulverston. This train will later return as the last steam-hauled frieght on the line. The caption from Trevor Ermel's Facebook page reads "Just days before the end, 75048 heads a light train west through Arnside station on 2nd August 1968. I was staying in the nearby Youth Hotel that week and the early morning shadows indicate this was my first shot of the day, before I caught the local DMU to see more of the action at Carnforth."
This photograph was taken by Ian Sutherland Krause, the great photographer of the end of the steam era on British railways. The date date was the day before regular scheduled British Railways steam operations ended in the region. The locomotive pictured, number 75048, was working the final Ulverston-to-Carnforth pick-up freight train of the steam era. The location is Arnside, where holidaymakers often parked on the beach but the tide races in very quickly. A siren warns of its imminent arrival, allowing time to pack up. I lived here until the age of five.
The caption on this stereoview reads: You are near the eastern limits of the city, in the home of one of Kyoto's most distinguished citizens. This room, whose south front is thrown open to the garden by the removal of its sliding screens, is furnished according to the custom of refined and prosperous people. The master of the house whom you see sitting there with a fan in his hand is the chief creator and promoter of one of the most famous art-industries in modern Japan the making of cloisonné ware (colored enamels on metal). In the old days before the abolition of feudal classes, he was a young gentleman of the court, belonging to the household of a Japanese prince. When the Mikado remodelled the whole system of Japanese nobility and removed the court from Kyoto to Tokyo, Mr. Namikawa preferred to remain here and begin an entirely new career. He had, like all well-bred Japanese, a cultivated taste in ceramic art and metal working. and he began to make experiments in the production of colored enamels on a base of copper, silver or brass. As fast as he needed assistants he trained them personally for their share in the work: he invented processes of his own and devised a great number of exquisite enamels. His pride has always been, and still is, to produce what is genuinely beautiful, counting no expenditure of time and pains too great if the result is fuller perfection in design and workmanship. The products of his workshop are known by collectors and connoisseurs all over Europe and America. The lady seated on the mat is Mr. Namikawa's wife. The young girl is his daughter. She is feeding the tame carp that live in a small artificial pond directly before the house. That charming garden with its Iuxuriant shrubbery, dwarf trees. sunny paths and picturesque little bridges is characteristically Japanese.
The Mission San Jose in Fremont California, founded 70 years before this stereoview. It's just up the road from the Tesla headquarters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Jos%C3%A9_(California)
Following the 1906 earthquake, this house was photographed because of its notoriety as a brothel frequented by Mayor Eugene Schmitz and his colleagues. The story can be read here: https://www.dreamstime.com/jackson-street-municipal-crib-image229876176
A stereoview taken from high up in a tall building (possibly the Hobart Building) on Market Street in San Francisco looking towards the Twin Peaks. The tall building on the left may be the Call Building in the form it took before the earthquake.
Keystone stereoview of the 1915 exhibition to commemorate the opening of the Panama Canal and raise support for re-building San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Caption reads C. C. Moore, President of the Panama-Pacific Int. Exp., Speaking, Fraternal Insurance Societies Day, San Francisco, Calif. Events like this are characteristic of the Exposition. It is but natural that great institutions and bodies of men and women should avail themselves of the delights of the Exposition while attending their conventions and holding their conclaves. The view here shows an outdoor meeting of the Fraternal Insurance Societies being addressed by Mr. C. C. Moore, President of the Expo-sition, on Insurance Day, in April. Apart from the band concerts each day and illumination displays each night there are special events for almost every day in the year. Fraternal, military, athletic, educational organizations, patriotic bodies, economic interests and the like are all at the Exposition this year for their "meets," their "congresses," etc. To these must be added the special events under the auspices of separate nations, states, cities and counties. Aside from its displays the Exposition is a liberal education in itself in the varied interests it conserves and fosters. The speaking is taking place on the north side of the South Gardens just west of the Tower of Jewels. In the background is shown the beautiful Palace of Horticulture. On the seats in front of this building is a drill company of some fraternal society awaiting their time for the dress parade and drill on the broad space in front of them. There were numerous such events participated in by the various organizations on Fraternal Day.
A week after the disastrous raids on the City of Coventry, a stray Luftwaffe bomber, on its way home, attempted to jettison four bombs on Bletchley railway station. Missing by about 200 metres, it accidentally dropped them on Bletchley Park. Three exploded and one didn't. One hit the requisitioned Elmers School, home of the Diplomatic Section and destroyed its telephone exchange and typists' room. One exploded in he vicarage garden and a third almost hit Hut 4, adjacent to the main house, the blast shifting it two feet on its foundations. A fourth failed to explode outside the cottage in the stable yard, which was fortunate for Dilly Knox and Mavis Lever who were working the night shift decoding Italian naval ciphers at the time. There were no casualties and work continued as usual. Had the bombs hit Hut 8, where Alan Turing worked, however, the war might have turned out differently
Sergeant Harry Oakes took this picture to record the railway bridge over the river at Celle, destroyed 6 days previously by a massive American air raid. He's looking southwards toward the railway station and sidings about six hundred metres away where the destruction of an ammunition factory and its trains involved one of the greatest tragedies of the war. The exploding ammunition train was adjacent to a train full of prisoners on their way to the Belsen Bergen concentration camp which was liberated only two weeks later. Nearly three thousand of them were killed in the blast or after being rounded up as survivors. Sergeant Harry went on from here to record the Belsen liberation on 22nd April. He later had quite a life in the movie industry as you can read here. https://www.belsen.co.uk/harry-oakes-afpu/
The Prince of Wales, Albert Edward (seated on floor, center) is visiting his friend The Maharajah Duleep Singh (portly figure seated centre right) at his fabulous Mughal-inspired country house in Elveden, West Suffolk. Local photographer J W Clarke of Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds has been called out to picture the shooting party on the sunlit back terrace of the house. An open door leads into the marble halls where I think they will shortly have lunch. Prince Albert Edward will finally sit on his throne of the United Kingdom in 23 years time. Duleep Singh, rightful ruler of the Punjab, Kashmir and Jammu, had lost his potential throne 28 years earlier, when the British East India Company annexed his empire to be absorbed into British India. Incidentally, the Koh-I-Noor diamond, of perennially questionable ownership, which once graced the arm of Duleep Singh as a child, was re-cut to fit the crown of Edward Albert's mother, Queen Victoria. Poor Duleep Singh died a few years later in Paris, thwarted by the British from returning to his kingdom. Although he converted to Christianity whilst in England, he reverted to Sikhism in later life, but he was actually buried with Christian ceremony in the nearby Elveden Anglican church on the estate along with family members. The house is mostly closed to the public, but the church is by the public road. British Sikhs and foreign visitors frequently visit to lay flowers on their graves. You can find them outside the east end of the chancel
This stereoview image of the Old North Church in Malden Mass is taken from what is now Hull Street, a narrow thoroughfare enclosed on both sides by high buildings, so this view is no longer so harmonious. Famous, of course, as the church where Paul Revere was a bell ringer, it has been rebuilt several times, but it has preserved its iconic spire and bell tower. This image shows a much quieter time, at ten minutes past 12 on a hot summer's afternoon. You can see the signboard of a painter and glazier to the left of the church by an elegant colonial house. I expect he is having lunch. His home, on the corner with Salem Street, is now the site of the Lil Italia Cafe.
This view is taken from the observation platform of the Old Windmill Observatory on Spring Hill. It is looking through the huge mast used in time past to hoist signals to communicate between ships arriving in Moreton Bay and the traders in the business district below. The focus of the picture is the Central Railway Station opened in 1889. This is now submerged in a huge redevelopment and the whole district is replete with skyscrapers. The windmill itself was vital to the survival of the Moreton Bay settlement, grinding all its corn, using a convict treadmill when wind was not available. Later it was centre for the development of signalling, from flags and semaphore to the first broadcast TV signals in Queensland.
The US naval officer and explorer Robert Peary from Pennsylvania, visited Upernavik on several voyages round the west coast of Greenland. Here is the description on the back of this stereoview picture: "Upernavik is the northernmost Danish trading post in Greenland. Greenland, as you recall, belongs to the Danes, as does also Iceland. Little is known about the northern regions of the country; but the brave sailors of northern Europe early discovered Iceland and Greenland, and probably planted colonies on some of the other islands north of the mainland of North America. The word Greenland hardly describes the country. Whiteland would be a better name because most of it is covered the greater part of each year with ice and snow. Still, on the southern parts some farming and a bit of stockraising are carried on by the inhabitants. The center of interest here is the Eskimos. These girls are in the native costume that the Eskimos wear about trading-posts. Where white men have not yet come they dress themselves altogether in the skins of the animals which they kill. They are a very simple people in their mode of living and in their thinking. They are found in the northern regions extending entirely across North America from Greenland to Alaska. They are supposed to number not more than 40,000, one-fourth of these being in Greenland. They call themselves "Inweet," which means, in their tongue, native men. In winter their houses are made of snow and ice. In summer they hunt the reindeer, and in winter they get their food from the sea. They are very fond of fats and eat tallow candles as greedily as an American boy would eat a piece of chocolate. They have boats called "kayaks" made sometimes of a framework of bones covered with skins." Lat. 73 degrees N.; Long. 55 degrees W. The history of these expeditions is long and contentious. You can find most of it via the biographical page for Robert Peary here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peary
The scene shows a large crowd of people gathered in an open park outside the Central High School in Minnesota to witness the lynching of itinerant scissor grinder, Frank MacManus, seen hanging from a tree in the background. Mac Manus was arrested the previous day for the alleged rape of a 4 year old girl, Mina Spear, on the testimony of several small children. The police found blood on his clothes and he confessed to the crime in police custody. Citizens then broke into the jail and took him to be lynched. This picture is known to have been taken at a precise time. His lynching took place at 4.00 am and this was 3 hours later. The exact location and direction is hard to pinpoint because the school moved "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_High_School_(Minneapolis,_Minnesota)" and the original site is now a large road interchange. Lurid details of the case may be found in the link below, but I can't help thinking that if Mr MacManus had been an Irishman with a lawyer rather than an ex-slave hobo named after his owner, or that the police had paused to consider the credibility of the witnesses' story, things might have turned out differently. “https://www.mostnotorious.com/2016/06/03/the-lynching-of-frank-mcmanus/”
Hotel Buol Davos-Platz that existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Robert Louis Stevenson stayed near it during his second winter in Davos from October 1881 to 1882, living in the Villa am Stein chalet near Hotel Buol, and he frequently visited the hotel to write letters It no longer exists. The site is now occupied by the Waldhotel Davos, which is located on Buolstrasse. The Waldhotel Davos has its own fascinating history. It was built in 1911 and operated as a forest sanatorium until 1957. The building became famous as the inspiration for Thomas Mann's novel "The Magic Mountain" after Mann visited his wife there while she was being treated for tuberculosis in 1912.
An animated group of people is gathered in the courtyard of the historic site which, now much rebuilt, which houses the Parliament and Supreme Court of Denmark. A carriage pulled by two horses and with uniformed drivers is passing. This is where decisions about the future of Greenland have traditionally been decided. Greenland was a colony of Denmark for over 1000 years. The history of its increased self-governance and independence is long and complicated and can be read here "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenlandic_independence" I905 was also a pivotal year for Norway, up until then a part of the Danish kingdom, which achieved independence and established a policy of neutrality in war. The facade of the palace in the picture now looks very different. "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiansborg_Palace"
I think this building, the old town hall on Main Street just south of the Carnegie Library is the inspiration for the Mayor's Tower in Steve Legge's GasTown illustrations.
Burnaby refinery near Vancouver today
The Gastown aesthetic in Steve Yegge's vision is a mixture of "Gastown" in Vancouver, (a tourist area named after an early citizen, a bar owner who talked a lot called Gassy Jack Deighton) with nods to the movie Mad Max which has a crazy city which looks like a vast refinery. This is a picture of the refinery built near Vancouver for Standard Oil in 1935 and is now a vast refinery owned by Sunoco LP.
The sawmill on Granville Island Vancouver, one of many images of the history of industry in the city which form the backstory of Steve Yegge's Gastown aesthetic.
Bicycle rickshaw drivers waiting for customers outside the Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach probably 1920s. Sometimes the same spot can be represented in many old photographs when a jobbing photographer offers souvenir photographs - in this case to guests of the Royal Poinciana Hotel. Many rich and famous people had their pictures taken there, but many similar pictures of lesser- or un-known guests also exist on the internet.
This picture captures the United States team entering the Berlin Olympiastadion during the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games. There is a good piece about how Americans felt about this moment here: https://www.nps.gov/hofr/blogs/the-1936-berlin-olympics-and-the-controversy-of-u-s-participation.htm
Several Hopi native people are sitting on a line of rocks at the top of a cliff in Arizona.One one young man is posed with legs apart in the middle distance and we are looking roughly south east towards the old village of Walpi on the top of the outcrop. "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpi,_Arizona" In the link you can read the interesting history of this much photographed tourist village. It was the centre of the Pueblo Revolt "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Revolt" which in turn was the result of appalling cruelty on the part of the Spanish settlers including the 1599 Acoma Massacre. "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1599_Acoma_massacre"
A stereoview of a man and woman entitled "Face to face with the Esquimaux, inhabitants of the frigid north, Cape York, Greenland." Nearby a 100 ton meteorite was discovered, which provided a source of iron used by the Inuit. Published by Underwood & Underwood
The 1906 Iranian Parliament, known as the Majlis-e Showrā-ye Melli (National Consultative Assembly), was Iran's first parliament, born from the Constitutional Revolution, establishing a constitutional monarchy, limiting the Shah's power, and introducing a written constitution and free press, though it was suppressed in 1908 by Shah Mohammad Ali Qajar before being restored later.
Upton, Benjamin. F, attrib. “Medicine Bottle,” Sioux Indian Executed at Fort Snelling. [pencil inscription on verso]. St. Paul: Martin’s Art Gallery, circa 1864. Stereoview, 3.25” x 6.75” including mount. A stereoview picturing the Dakota brave “Medicine Bottle,” as photographed during his captivity at Fort Snelling following the Dakota Uprising of 1862. The 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux removed the Dakota people from their traditional lands in Iowa and Minnesota, and settled them on land along the upper Minnesota River. Insufficient hunting grounds, cutworm destruction of corn crops, treaty violations, and Indian agent corruption, resulted in near-starvation conditions and provoked rebellion against the treaty. In August of 1862, the Dakota attacked white settlements in the Minnesota River valley, killing hundreds. The revolt was crushed on September 2nd by forces under General John Pope. On 26 December 1862, thirty-eight Dakota leaders were executed in the largest one day execution in U. S. history. Pejuhuta-tha (Medicine Bottle) and Chief Shak-pi (Little Six) fled to Canada following the uprising. They were captured there by Major Edwin Hatch in January of 1864, then imprisoned at Fort Snelling, where they were tried and convicted of war crimes. They were hung in 1865. Text from James E Arsenault & Co website.
The 1886-87 St. Paul Winter Carnival featured a magnificent ice palace, designed by the Hutchinson brothers (hired after Montreal's carnival was canceled), rising over 100 feet tall (around 106 ft), built from massive ice blocks, incorporating skating rinks, warming rooms, and illuminated by early electric lights, showcasing ice sculptures of animals and artillery, and serving as a dazzling centerpiece for the city's first major winter festival, meant to prove Minnesota was a habitable, vibrant place. (Text by Gemini)
A young Sioux man participating in the St Paul Ice Festival. The first St. Paul Winter Carnival in 1886/87 was centered around a massive Ice Palace built in Central Park, located east of the present-day State Capitol grounds, between Cedar and Minnesota streets, north of 13th Street, showcasing toboggan slides, skating rinks, and other winter fun to prove Minnesota was habitable.
A postcard showing the Mausoleum of Abdhur Rahman Khan in the Zanagar Park in Kabul.
The stereographic photographer James Ricalton, wearing a solar topee and sitting on a Bactrian camel, surrounded by other Bactrian camels. A Chinese camel manager stands nearby.