Disaster Down on the Farm (Cropped Right)
Disaster Down on the Farm (Cropped Left)
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View from the Top of the Washington Monument
Man and Woman on Hammock (Cropped)
Man and Woman on Hammock
Eduardo Abaroa Statue, Plaza Abaroa, La Paz, Boliv…
Harvesting Corn in the 1940s
Mama's Cookin' 'Em
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Middletown Fire, April 9, 1910
Funny Faces at the Redwood Shoe House, Confusion H…
Funny Faces at the Redwood Shoe House, Confusion H…
Two Men and a Big Fish
Sunday School Rally Service Invitation, First Refo…
Halloween Heads—Girl with Jack-O'-Lanterns, 1972
Boy in Halloween Costume with Scarecrow and Jack-O…
Man and Woman with Cow and Calves
Mrs. Fieller's Yard after the Storm, June 18, 1943
Fred Duenow's Destroyed Barn (Cropped Right)
Fred Duenow's Destroyed Barn (Cropped Left)
Fred Duenow's Destroyed Barn
Posing with Pigeons for a Plebeian Picture on the…
Dover Gutter Band, Dover, New Jersey, ca. 1960s
Girls and Women on a Rustic Bridge
January Jubilee Sale at a Mohican Market, ca. 1950…
Anna Sokamp (1854-1915), Aurora, Indiana
Anna Sokamp (1854-1915), Aurora, Indiana (Cropped)
Snacking in the Living Room, 1960
Little Farmer Boy with Wheelbarrow, Lancaster, Pa.
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Eight Guys in a Row on a Hill (Cropped)
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A Big Dog and a Little Kid
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" Cartes postales et photos historiques de partout dans le monde / Historische Postkarten und Photos aus aller Welt "
" Cartes postales et photos historiques de partout dans le monde / Historische Postkarten und Photos aus aller Welt "
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The Mighty Nelsonian (One-Man Music Machine Mystery Solved)


A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of extraordinary (anything).
A few years ago I posted the following image of a real photo postcard featuring an unknown man playing an extraordinarily complicated One-Man Music Machine:

The photo was a mystery—I wasn't able to determine who the man was or what kind of contraption he was playing. Later I bought what I thought was a duplicate of the card and filed it away without inspecting it too closely.
More recently I was looking through a copy of Real Photo Postcards: Unbelievable Images from the Collection of Harvey Tulcensky (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005). To my surprise, there on page 97 of the book was the same man and machine, and the caption indicated that there was writing on the other side of the card that provided a description:
"Handwritten: Nelson's 32 piece one man band, took 35 years to build, has 6,000 ft. of rubber tubing, 50,000 parts, weighing 2,800 lbs. Albert Nelson, Buffalo, NY."
When I pulled out my two copies of the card to compare them with the one in the book, I realized that I had two similar but different photos. Both showed the man seated at the machine, but in the second one I purchased the man is looking to his right so that his face is visible in profile. The machine is configured differently, too. For one thing, in this photo the fan-shaped shield at the lower right has one belt coming out of it while the image I previously posted has two belts.
With the information from the book, I was able to identify the man as Albert Nelson (1884-1964), who was originally from Buffalo, Minnesota (not Buffalo, New York). He spent many years working on different versions of his machine—called The Nelsonian—and became famous when he was hired to play it at the Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium during the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.
A history of the man and his machine was published in 2006. Gary Albert Hukriede, Nelson's grand nephew, authored the book, The Mighty Nelsonian: The Story of Albert Nelson, Inventor of "The Nelsonian One-Man-Band," 32 Musical Instruments Played by One Man (Minneapolis, Minn.: LifePath Histories). Although Albert Nelson, who passed away in 1964, was the only person who could play and maintain the Nelsonian, his remarkable music machine is on display today at the Wright County Historical Society Heritage Center in Buffalo, Minnesota.
A few years ago I posted the following image of a real photo postcard featuring an unknown man playing an extraordinarily complicated One-Man Music Machine:

The photo was a mystery—I wasn't able to determine who the man was or what kind of contraption he was playing. Later I bought what I thought was a duplicate of the card and filed it away without inspecting it too closely.
More recently I was looking through a copy of Real Photo Postcards: Unbelievable Images from the Collection of Harvey Tulcensky (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005). To my surprise, there on page 97 of the book was the same man and machine, and the caption indicated that there was writing on the other side of the card that provided a description:
"Handwritten: Nelson's 32 piece one man band, took 35 years to build, has 6,000 ft. of rubber tubing, 50,000 parts, weighing 2,800 lbs. Albert Nelson, Buffalo, NY."
When I pulled out my two copies of the card to compare them with the one in the book, I realized that I had two similar but different photos. Both showed the man seated at the machine, but in the second one I purchased the man is looking to his right so that his face is visible in profile. The machine is configured differently, too. For one thing, in this photo the fan-shaped shield at the lower right has one belt coming out of it while the image I previously posted has two belts.
With the information from the book, I was able to identify the man as Albert Nelson (1884-1964), who was originally from Buffalo, Minnesota (not Buffalo, New York). He spent many years working on different versions of his machine—called The Nelsonian—and became famous when he was hired to play it at the Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium during the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.
A history of the man and his machine was published in 2006. Gary Albert Hukriede, Nelson's grand nephew, authored the book, The Mighty Nelsonian: The Story of Albert Nelson, Inventor of "The Nelsonian One-Man-Band," 32 Musical Instruments Played by One Man (Minneapolis, Minn.: LifePath Histories). Although Albert Nelson, who passed away in 1964, was the only person who could play and maintain the Nelsonian, his remarkable music machine is on display today at the Wright County Historical Society Heritage Center in Buffalo, Minnesota.
Smiley Derleth, Deborah Lundbech have particularly liked this photo
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