Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: springs

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of smiling faces of yesteryear - photos of smiling people . A Silver Springs souvenir folder with a photo positioned so that it looks like we're peering into the front of the boat to see the smiling passengers inside. Silver Springs is a Florida tourist attraction -- and now a state park -- known for its artesian springs and glass-bottom boat rides. For an earlier example, see another Glass Bottom Boat Ride photo and folder.

Caption on the front of this real photo postcard: "Lithia Spring Park, Temple, [New Hampshire]." Sign on larger, nearer building: "Pack Monadnock, Lithia Spring, Bottling House." Sign on far building: "Pack Monadnock, Lithia Spring, Temple, N.H." Two men and two women pose for a photo in front of the bottling house at Lithia Spring Park, which was located on Pack Monadnock Mountain near the town of Temple , New Hampshire. During the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, visitors to the park could partake of the lithia water that was available from the spring. The lithium salts in the water were thought to have medicinal benefits. A book by authors Michael G. Dell'Orto, Priscilla A. Weston, and Jessie Salisbury about the New Hampshire towns of Wilton, Temple, and Lyndeborough (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2003) explains what eventually happened to the park: "People flocked to Pack Monadnock Lithia Springs, which operated from 1891 until 1911, to enjoy picnics and slides and teeters free of charge and to take the therapeutic waters. 'Contains more Lithium than any other Lithia Spring known,' claimed proprietor Sydney Scammon. 'Best Remedy for Kidney Trouble and Indigestion.' The popular (and profitable) enterprise went out of business abruptly when Scammon was observed adding bottled lithium to the 'natural' spring water."

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of your most popular vintage photo (post one of your most viewed or liked vintage photos that you haven't previously added to the Vintage Photos Theme Park) . With 2,884 visits, this is currently my most viewed vintage photo on Ipernity, I'm not sure why a photo of snakes turned out to be so popular. For other photos with lots of views, see my album of Most Viewed Vintage Photos, Dec. 22, 2019 . I was surprised to hear from "MJFTampa" about this photo a couple of years ago (see comments section below). He said, "This is an incredible find for me: This is my father, he worked for Ross Allen from 1962-1965; he was also on a billboard in Panama City Beach promoting Ross' reptile show during the summer season. Amazing what we can find on the internet!" ________ Signs on the wall: "Kinds of poisonous snakes milked at Ross Allen's: 47. Date: 12-31-59. Number of snake-bites, institute personnel: 47. Number of fatalities, institute personnel: 0. Snake-proof boots manufactured by Gokey Co., St. Paul, Minn. Coral. Scarlet king. Gokey snake-proof boots." This is a Kodachrome slide dated January 1964 that shows a man "milking" a rattlesnake at Ross Allen's Reptile Institute in Silver Springs, Florida, in order to obtain venom, which would then be used to produce antivenom . Several other snakes are lying on the floor near the man, who's evidently wearing a pair of the "Gokey snake-proof boots" that are advertised on the wall behind him. According to Wikipedia, Ross Allen (1908-1981) was "an American herpetologist and writer who was based in Silver Springs, Florida for 46 years, where he established the Reptile Institute. He used it for research and education about alligators, crocodiles and snakes, also sponsoring and conducting collection expeditions." See also a linen postcard that shows a scary close-up of the rattlesnake milking :

A linen postcard with a close-up of a rattlesnake being "milked," which supplies venom for use in making antivenom . For another view of the procedure, take a look at a slide of a rattlesnake milking demonstration that also took place at Ross Allen's Reptile Institute in Silver Springs, Florida:

A watching photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. "Viewing fish from 'Walk Under Water.' Nature's Giant Fish Bowl, Homosassa Springs, Fla. 2-E-540." Visitors to Homosassa Springs, a Florida tourist attraction promoted as "Nature's Giant Fish Bowl," could watch the fish swimming in the waters of the springs through glass panels--as we can see in this real photo postcard--in a "'Walk Under Water" observatory that was located below water level. (In this day and age, the glass ashtray there on the ledge seems a bit out of place.) Today, the state of Florida has preserved the site, which is now known as the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park . The park still has a "Fish Bowl" underwater observatory, where visitors can view fish as well as manatees. For photos and postcards from other Florida springs, see my images tagged with Silver Springs and Weeki Wachee Springs .

"My Glass Bottom Boat Ride at Silver Springs. Walter Ray." A cleverly constructed souvenir folder and photo, positioned together so that it seems like we're peering into the front of the boat to see the passengers inside. Silver Springs is a long-standing Florida tourist attraction (and more recently a state park ) known for its artesian springs and glass-bottom boat rides. Walter Ray, for whom the boat is named, was one of the co-owners of Silver Springs. For a similar image, see PopCulture's glass-bottom boat photo .

This red-border Kodachrome slide (undated, but probably from the late 1950s) shows an underwater performer at Weeki Wachee Springs. She's holding food to attract fish in one hand, while she hangs on to the air hose that she uses for breathing in the other hand. As Wikipedia explains, " Weeki Wachee Springs is a natural tourist attraction located in Weeki Wachee, Florida, where underwater performances by 'mermaids,' women wearing fish tails as well as other fancy outfits, can be viewed in an aquarium-like setting in the spring of the Weeki Wachee River."