A Classy Date in a Model T

All dressed up for a classy evening, including their shiny new1926 Ford Model T sedan.

Tidelands Panarama

This, to me, is a fascinating photograph. I found this 180 degree panaramic print in two pieces (and found the pieces 3 years apart) in the same antique mall in Long Beach, California. This store has a lot of photographs of early Long Beach and the surrounding vicinity, which (along with the San Pedro Harbor) looks nothing today like it did years ago. Massive amounts of land reclamation now accommodate ports that load a gazillion containers from massive ships every day. I don't know for sure that this is a local (to Long Beach) scene, but I suspect it is.

Below, I've digitally cut the pan up into three pieces so you can get a better view:

And I've also digitally zoomed into some key parts:

A coach and two baggage cars suggests a local run that handled mostly mail. Maybe Southern Pacific?

Long Beach had (and still has) a lot of oil and natural gas wells, and the large tank in the background might be part
of that.

Rich School, Poor School

In the same antiques store, on the same day, I found these two mounted photographs, which from the clothing appear to come from about the same time period, but which show quite a contrast. First, the poor school:

And now the rich school. Everything from the quality of the clothes and the shoes (or lack thereof!) to the children's expressions, to the backing board that the photos are mounted on highlight the class disparity. Unfortunately, I have no information on where these schools were, nor any of the names of the children.

On the off-chance that some reader might recognize an ancestor, here are higher resolution crops of all the faces.

A Couple and their Studebaker

For #MotorMonday, here is a proud couple out for a day in their Studebaker.

Life at Moriards Hotel

This photo has been a bit of a challenge, to be sure. It appears to be a hotel or boarding house in the late 1800s, and there's no accompanying information as to where it is.

What struck me, though, was that for such an evidently popular place, there didn't seem to be a sign advertising the place, not even anything in the windows. As I stared at a very high-resolution scan of the print, I realized, though, that there was some writing present: the blank area between the first and second floor windows on the front seems to be a slightly brighter white, and there is evidence of very, very faint writing. So I re-loaded the image into Photoshop and started to work at enhancing the area. The results are on the right.

The difficulty is in making out the first letter. Discounting the first letter for the moment, there are at least five variations that are legitimate names: Boriards, Goriards, Horiards, Moriards, Poriards. Based on what I can discern of the first letter, my money is on Horiards or Moriards, and I'm favoring the latter.

FamilyPhotoFriday

Every Friday we bring you a vintage family photo with character, and this one has it in spades!

Mabel and Irene's Buggy Ride

Behind this very handsome horse ride Mavel and Irene. Hand-written on the back of the photo is this: "Mabel and Irene at the soldier's camp early in the morning." Unfortunately, which camp this would be is forever lost.