Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: authors

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of when I grow up (children dressed as adults or dressed for work, e.g. as policeman, nurse, train driver, etc.) . It also fits the monthly theme of group portraits . Caption in the upper right-hand corner: "The Deestrick Skule." A penciled-in dealer's note on the other side identifies the location as "Strasburg, Pa." This is a photo of children dressed in costumes to portray pupils, the schoolmaster, school committee members, and local citizens for a play about the funny goings-on at the old-time "Deestrick Skule" or district school -- the one-room schoolhouse of the early nineteenth century (not the school districts that resulted from the later consolidation of these small schools). Mrs. M. H. Jaquith of Topeka, Kansas, was the author of The Deestrick Skule of Fifty Years Ago (1888) and "Exerbition" of the Deestrick Skule of Fifty Years Ago (1890). Both of these provided scripts and suggestions for producing local theatrical productions that could accommodate fifty or more participants (there are forty kids in this photo). The Cyko stamp box (Cyko 5, variation A2.66) on the other side of this divided-back real photo postcard has an earliest known usage date of May 2, 1910, according to Brogan and Weseloh's Real Photo Postcard Guide (2006).

Cover of the booklet Men from the Moon in America: Did They Come in a Russian Satellite? , by the evangelist Walter V. Grant, first published sometime in the 1950s. For another out-of-this-world booklet from the 1950s, see We Met the Space People: The Story of the Mitchell Sisters :

Although I originally acquired this card because I liked the border around "Patron" on the front, I discovered that the signature on the back appears to be that of Grace Livingston Hill (1865–1947), a prolific author of Christian romance fiction.

Cover of Francis D. Nichol, Wet or Dry? A Brief, Candid Examination of a Moot Question in American Life (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1932), which was published prior to the repeal of Prohibiton in the United States in 1933.

"Pain's Last Days of Pompeii, Island Park, Harrisburg, Pa. Commencing July 4th, and every Tuesday and Saturday following, except July 5th. Last performance, August 5th." This trade card advertised a "pyrodrama," an elaborate outdoor theatrical spectacle with fireworks, that was based on Edward Bulwer-Lytton's historical novel, The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), and depicted the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii in AD 79. James Pain brought Last Days to Harrisburg, Pa., in 1890, and also produced it at Coney Island and Atlantic City in other years. For more information about Pain's pyrodrama, see the Pompeian Entertainments page of the J. Paul Getty's Museum's The Last Days of Pompeii exhibition.

A home sweet home photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park . Handwritten on the back of this real photo postcard: "How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood." The words written on the back of the photo refer to a line from "The Old Oaken Bucket," a poem written by Samuel Woodworth (1784-1842) that was first set to music in 1826 and has become a popular song that's endured over the years. The poem begins: How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood, When fond recollection presents them to view! The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wild-wood, And every loved spot which my infancy knew! Whoever wrote on the back of the photo presumably had "fond recollections" of living here as a child and must have considered it a "home sweet home" (which itself is a reference to another song that also dates to the early nineteenth century). The namesake "gold elms" are visible just behind the house, which is a Colonial Revival Cape Cod , an architectural style common in the United States from the 1930s to 1950s. I'm not sure whether the dog that's visible among the shadows in the lower right-hand corner is there to welcome or to warn off the photographer.