Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: Iowa

This early postcard nicely captures the hustle and bustle of trains, cars, and wagons at a railroad station in Des Moines, Iowa, during the early twentieth century. Building signs provide some additional details. Below the sign for the "Passenger Station, Chicago and North-Western Railway" is another one that indicates that the "American Express Co." was based there as well. Barely visible signs on the brick buildings on the other side of the railroad cars identify one as the factory for "Garr Scott & Co " which manufactured threshing machinery, and another--the tallest building in the distance--as the Grand Hotel.

"Excursion to Ft. Madison, given by Benevolent Union. Steamer W. W. Saturday, June 29, 1907. Adults, 50c."

"Davenport Ice Chipping Machine Co., manufacturers of the Little Giant Ice Chipper for hotels, restaurants, saloons, and ice men. 923 West Fourth St., Davenport, Iowa. Phone 6201. Represented by ________." Stamped on the back of this card: "F. A. Goff, 211 W. 2nd St., Davenport, Iowa." The following announcement about this ice chipping machine appeared in The Iron Age , May 7, 1903, p. 77: "The Davenport Ice Chipping Machine Company, Davenport, Iowa, are placing on the market the Little Giant Ice Chipper, shown herewith [with the same illustration that's on the card], a machine designed to take the place of hand tools for shaving or chipping ice. The special features of the machine, according to the manufacturers, are simplicity, compactness, strength, and durability. Brackets are provided for attachment to a wall post or to a portable stand, by bolts or lag screws. The fly wheel has a detachable handle, the spout at the bottom is made to be turned, on the swivel plan, to either side or to any desired position, and the cylinder is of heavy cast iron. Upon the sectional wheels, which are firmly attached to the shaft, are mounted toothed blades of tool steel, fastened by heavy machine screws, allowing the blades to be adjusted and easily replaced when necessary."

"John Pecinovsky, the famous Half & Half Man, owner and operator of the Bonair Tavern, 4 miles west and 3 miles north of Cresco, Iowa. We serve Fitger's Beer, Walt Rush, distributor. Ice cream, soft drinks, and candy. Half & Half, Bonair, Iowa. Souvenir post card." As one brief obituary explained, "For years Pecinovsky wore suits in which half of the coat was white and the other black, one trouser leg white and the other black. One side of his face was always kept shaved smooth while the other was permitted to support a luxuriant crop of whiskers" ( Waterloo Daily Courier , April 7, 1942).

"9704. Fire Headquarters, Creston, Ia. 1902. C.F.D."

This rotated version makes it easier to read the handwritten message: "We tended the Iowa Picnic here last Saturday. Saw lots of folks from Iowa that I knew. 10,000 people there. I can't tell when we will leave here. Too many places to go & too much to see to get away very soon. We expect to visit an old friend of mine that lives at Santa Ana, 30 miles south. We may move out here some time. Love to all. Goodbye, Leni & Mame" For more information about this real photo postcard, see a full version and a cropped version of the card:

Here's the message that's written on this real photo postcard (to read the original handwriting more easily, see the rotated version of the card): "We tended the Iowa Picnic here last Saturday. Saw lots of folks from Iowa that I knew. 10,000 people there. I can't tell when we will leave here. Too many places to go & too much to see to get away very soon. We expect to visit an old friend of mine that lives at Santa Ana, 30 miles south. We may move out here some time. Love to all. Goodbye, Leni & Mame" At first glance, it seems like Leni, Mame, and about 10,000 others attended what must have been a huge "Iowa Picnic," which presumably took place somewhere in Iowa. But what about their plans to visit a friend located thirty miles away in Santa Ana? Isn't Santa Ana a city in California? Fortunately, the results of a Google search for Iowa Picnic and California provided the answer. I found a posting about Iowa Picnics - Long Beach and Elsewhere that gives a brief history of the get-togethers that were held beginning in 1900. So many Iowans moved to California that the picnics attracted thousands of transplanted Midwesterners--as many as 100,000 attended during some years in the 1940s! So it sounds like Leni and Mame were enjoying their stay in California as they visited friends and met fellow Iowans at the picnic. Although there's no date on the card, I suspect they were traveling sometime in the late 1900s or early 1910s. For additional views of the handwritten message and photo, see a rotated version and a cropped version of the card:

"Northwestern Hotel, Sioux City, Iowa. John Ross, proprieter."

See also another Eat Pallister Bros' Candies trade card.

See also another Eat Pallister Bros' Candies trade card.

A harvest photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Kansas photographer and postcard publisher William H. Martin (1865-1940) used pre-digital photomontage techniques to create amusing real photo postcards like this one that purported to show farmers with giant fruits, vegetable, and grains. Other Martin postcards with harvest scenes include Bringing in the Sheaves , Harvesting Wheat in Missouri , and Pumpkins Grown in Kansas Soil Are Profitable (see below). Corn and other crops also appear in other Martin cards, such as The Land of Big Corn , Good Corn Makes Good Hogs , Our County Fair Contest on Nebraska Corn , and Prosperity (see below),

A real photo postcard, probably from Iowa, circa 1910s. There are newspaper pages underneath the ears of corn that the guy is holding, and details from the top corners of two pages are barely visible under enlargement. The headline of an article on one page begins with "Iowa M," and "[In]heritance" seems to be part of a section header on another page. At the top of the Inheritance page, the partial newspaper name and date looks like: "and Leader, Sunday Morning, November 14, 1910" (Leader, Sunday, Morning, and November are the only words that I'm reasonably sure about; another problem is that November 14 in 1910 wasn't a Sunday). If "Iowa" is a clue about the newspaper's origin, then perhaps the paper was the Davenport Democrat and Leader or the Des Moines Register and Leader .

"Iowa State Fair, Des Moines, Iowa, September 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Complimentary Pass: H. H. Harris, Lady, a/c C.B.&Q. R.Rd. Number 539. John R. Shaffer, secretary. Wm. T. Smith, president."

Posted as a "reading" photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park group, this real photo postcard shows two Iowa sisters, Lilly and Mazie Hitzemann, who are reading--or maybe just looking at--a magazine. The girls are dressed nicely for the photo session, and Lilly, left, is wearing a necklace while Mazie, right, sports a bow in her hair. Both girls are staring intently at the magazine they're holding. From what I could make out after enlarging the image, the front cover of the magazine displays a young child's head, and a full-page advertisement for "1847 Rogers Bros." silverware appears on the back cover (1847 is part of the brand name and doesn't indicate when the magazine or ad was published). Visible under enlargement on the front cover of the magazine is a date that includes the year "1912," and the title of the magazine looks like it ends in "-n-ator" (I couldn't determine the letter between n and a). One possibility is that this was an issue of The Delineator , a popular women's magazine published by the Butterick Publishing Company of sewing patterns fame. The covers of Delineator issues from this time, however, typically featured illustrations of fashionably dressed women rather than children's heads. Additional information from the back of the postcard: Handwritten message: "From Mazie to Grandma." Postmarked: "Columbia, [Iowa?], Jan. 13, 1913." Addressed to: "Mrs. Henry Hitzemann, Box 202, Akron, Iowa." Later handwritten annotation on back: "Right - Mazie Hitzemann. Left - sister Lilly. Daughters of Chas. and Mabel Hitzemann."