Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: disembodied heads

For the message accompanying this picture, see the full version of this real photo postcard.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of unique or outrageous hats . This is a real photo postcard sent from Jacksonville, Florida, to Newton, New Hampshire, on March 31, 1906. Printed on the other side: "Post Card, Souvenir, Jacksonville. J. A. Hollingsworth, Tourist Photographer, Hogan St., Opp. Park Hotel, Jacksonville, Fla." Message written on the front: "Jacksonville, Fla., March 31. Whatever you do, don't come to Florida. Look at this picture and see how we have 'fallen from the crust.' Am so weak that I can hardly manage my auto . Hope to be better by tomorrow. Will." If Will could afford an automobile like the one he's pretending to drive, then he must not have "fallen from the [upper] crust ," as he jokingly suggests. See a cropped version for a better view of Will and his wife, their hats, and the automobile.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of tricks and treats for Halloween . A cute and amusing Halloween snapshot that's a little out of focus. Although the photo was developed in "Feb. 73" (as indicated on the left-hand border), the girl evidently posed with her jack-o'-lanterns during the previous October. For a similar picture, see I Love My Jack-O'-Lantern!

Caption: "Beat us if you can." Printed on the back of this unused real photo postcard: "Slater's Interurban Post Card Studio, 430 Superior St., Toledo, Ohio." Judging by the design of the stamp box on the other side (it has the initials "PMC" and diamond shapes in each of its four corners), it's possible that the date of the photo may be as early as 1907 (see Playle's How to Identify and Date Real Photo Vintage Postcards ). For similar photos, see Two Jolly Good Fellows , Aunt Lora and Uncle Will Are Coming Home, March 10, 1908 , and Men in Bowler Hats .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of adage illustrated (a photo illustrating a common adage—please identify the adage) . The old adage about two heads being better than one turns out to be true when it comes to a photo like this one. This is a nineteenth-century CDV showing two young women with their heads sticking out through the torn pages of a newspaper. And why did they pose like this? They were perpetuating a photographic joke that was popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. They're literally breaking the news or perhaps just looking through the paper . For other examples, see Breaking the News, Lititz Express, July 4, 1907 and Looking through the Newspaper .

Agnes Conrad circled her high school portrait (in the lower right-hand corner), which was part of a montage of 98 photos that formed the letters "NCHS" on a real photo postcard in 1915. For more information, see the full version of this real photo postcard.

For more information, see the full version of this real photo postcard.

For more information, see the full version of this real photo postcard.

"NCHS, Class of 1915, Photo by Seavy." The heads of 98 members of the class of 1915 at New Castle High School in New Castle, Pennsylvania, form the letters "NCHS" in this remarkable photographic montage by Edgar E. Seavy (for information about the photographer, see Seavy's Photo Studio - New Castle PA , a Lawrence County Memoirs article by Jeff Bales, Jr.). It must have been an exacting task to cut out and assemble the 98 portraits to form the letters and then re-photograph the whole thing in order to produce a real photo postcard like this one (mouse over the image to see enlargements of the left half , right half , and letter S ). Although the card is addressed on the back to "Miss Edna Wenger, Berlin, Pa.," there's no stamp or postmark, indicating that it was sent through the mail in an envelope rather than separately as a postcard. In addition to the address, the back of the card is filled with various notes, one of which says, "Here are the pictures of the class to be graduated this year. You will find me in the letter S [see the circled face]. We are all busy now getting ready for senior parties, junior-senior banquet, commencement, and class night. Agnes." Another note written later in a different hand identifies Agnes as "Papa's cousin, Agnes Conrad Allen. Head of state Rainbow Girls." So it was Agnes Conrad (her marriage to Charles E. Allen took place in 1920) whose photo appears in the S and who was busy getting ready for her high school graduation in 1915. As the note also suggested, she later served for over fifty years as a leader in the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls in Pennsylvania. After high school, Agnes graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, taught elementary school, worked as a newspaper reporter, and participated in several other organizations besides the Rainbow Girls before she passed away in 1983 at the age of 86 ("Mrs. Agnes Allen," obituary, New Castle News , Jan. 7, 1983, p. 3). Here are the rest of the notes that Agnes wrote on the back of the card: "I hope to see you all next year and then I suppose I will be able to tell you everything that has been going on and make up for lost time." "Tell your mother that my mother will write to her some time again. She is so busy now with house-cleaning. She speaks of cousin Lydia so often and how much she would like to see her." "Clara has been sick with tonsillitis but is almost well again. If I keep on writing, this will be a letter."

Novelty real photo postcard, date and location unknown.

"Pomeroy's Juvenile Hour. WEEU. Bernie, program director. Photo by Pomeroy's." Pomeroy's was a department store that had locations in Reading, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre, and other Pennsylvania cities. This real photo postcard, which shows the Reading store in the upper left-hand corner, was used to advertise Pomeroy's Juvenile Hour radio show, which debuted sometime in the 1930s. Various local radio stations carried the show, including WEEU in Reading and WHP in Harrisburg. Pomeroy's ran ads for the Juvenile Hour in newspapers, too, as this excerpt from the Harrisburg Telegraph , Sept. 29, 1932, p. 8, demonstrates: "Pomeroy's, 'Harrisburg's Greatest Department Store,' Saturday, 9:30 a.m. You are invited to attend our first 'Juvenile Hour' radio broadcast direct from our broadcasting studio on the third floor. See and hear Harrisburg's future radio stars as they broadcast over radio station WHP. These performers are all between the ages of 2 and 12, and you'll marvel at their exhibition. If you are unable to attend the broadcast in person, tune in at 9:30 Saturday morning on station WHP and you'll get an hour of radio sunshine and happiness that will thrill you for a long time to come. Pomeroy's 'Juvenile Hour' will be on the air every Saturday morning, 9:30 to 10:30."

"Leave It to Beaver Rocket to the Moon Space Game. Thrills with Beaver on a race to the moon. As seen on A.B.C. television coast-to-coast." The disembodied head of Beaver Cleaver floats in space somewhere between the earth and moon on the lid of this 1958 board game tie-in with the TV show Leave It to Beaver .

The back of this Good Humor Man paper mask from the 1960s gives assembly instructions (push out the perforated ear flaps, attach elastic band, put it around your head) and then advises, "Hi, now you're a Good Humor Man, too. Always remember why Good Humor Ice Cream is by far the best. Good Humors are made from sweet ice cream and delicious fresh fruits.... And Good Humors are covered with a thick layer of rich Dutch chocolate." Yum!

Some bubbly women on a postcard from the early twentieth century. Postmark on the back: Reading, Pa., Aug. 27, 1911. Addressed to: "Mr. Samuel Dittus, 29 Inf M.G.P., Fort Niagara, N.Y." Message: "Dear Brother, I am having a nice time. Wish you were here in Reading with me. Did you get my other post card? Love to you from your sister Nettie, 446 S. Christian St. [Lancaster, Pa.]" Sadly, Nettie's brother was killed in action during combat in France seven years later. As reported in the Harrisburg Telegraph newspaper on December, 17, 1918, p. 2, "Corporal Samuel H. Dittus, 31 years old, a member of the Fourth United States Infantry, was killed in battle on October 12, according to an official message received by his sister, Mrs. Nettie Cramer, of Lancaster. Dittus was twelve years in the service and had seen service in Cuba and the Philippines. About three months ago he was wounded and shell shocked and had been back with his command but a short time when killed."

"The Lititz Express." Printed on the back of this postcard: "Souvenir, July 4, 1907. Power demonstration on Express Printing Company's float." Evidently, the Lititz Express , a newspaper published until the 1930s in Lititz, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, printed this punning illustration with a press on board its Fourth of July parade float in 1907. I've heard of souvenir printings "on the ice" for frost fairs when the River Thames in London froze over in past centuries, and I have some menus and other items that were printed aboard ships during cruises, but I can't recall seeing anything else printed during a parade. Has anyone else encountered any other examples of printing on ice, parade float, ship, train, plane, automobile, or in any other unique circumstances?

Carlisle, 12/1, 1904 My dear little Carrie: Honestly now aren't you also on the pig? When you kill yours, save me a nice piece of ham, and I'll be up and take dinner with you. You may also keep a few young chickens handy. (If you're "on the pig's back," it apparently means that you're lucky or well off.)

A French hand-tinted real photo postcard. For another postcard with a similar image, see Breaking the News, Lititz Express, July 4, 1907 :

Handwritten note on the back of this small cyanotype photo: "Sonny carved this head out of a piece of stone up [in] the garden with an old chisel."