Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: crossed arms

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of at work . A real photo postcard showing three fellows standing around the type cases in the composing room of a print shop. The upper cases typically contained capital letters, and the lower cases contained small letters, leading to the terminology we still use today to refer to letter case .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of crossed arms . A real photo postcard postmarked in Groton, South Dakota, on August 23, 1909, and addressed to "Mrs. Lottie Larson, [Westley?], [Wis.?]." Handwritten message: "This Is what we did last Sunday. What do you think of it? Frank." For another photo with crossed arms, see Girls and Women on a Rustic Bridge .

A triple-exposure photo for the theme of photographic tricks and amusements during the free-for-all week of Wild Card Month in the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Printed on the other side: "If it's a photo we make it. Empire Photo. Co. 815 Westchester Ave., Bronx." A triple-exposure trick photo of "Fred W. Hopping" (or possibly "Happing"), whose name is written on the back of a second photo that I purchased along with this one. While this photo shows three Freds--as he checks his wallet, faces the camera, and crosses his arms--the other is a mirror photo (or multigraph) showing five Freds seated around a table . Both of the images are real photo postcards with identical AZO stamp boxes that suggest a date as early as 1904-1918. For more fivesomes, see my album of Mirror Photos . For another triple exposure, see Man Playing Checkers with Himselves .

A photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park with a discussion of the flip side (what’s on the reverse of a photo) . Handwritten description on the back of this photo: "Morro Castle, H.B. L. H. Miller, H.B. Two Has Been's. Asbury Park, 1934." I purchased this photo after noticing how the young man, identified on the back as "L. H. Miller," was posing in front of what seems to be an almost ghostly ship. I didn't really understand what "Morro Castle" referred to, but I liked how the location-- Asbury Park , New Jersey--and year--1934--were written on the back. When I checked Wikipedia later, however, I discovered that Morro Castle was the ship's name, and I found out how it ended up at Asbury Park in 1934. As the Wikipedia article explains, " SS Morro Castle was an ocean liner of the 1930s that was built for the Ward Line for voyages between New York City and Havana, Cuba. The ship was named for the Morro Castle fortress that guards the entrance to Havana Bay. On the morning of September 8, 1934, en route from Havana to New York, the ship caught fire and burned, killing 137 passengers and crew members. The ship eventually beached herself near Asbury Park, New Jersey, and remained there for several months until she was towed off and scrapped [on March 14, 1935]." The burning ship drifted until it was just yards away from the Convention Hall pier at Asbury Park, where it became a macabre tourist attraction. An article on the History Bandits site, Dark Tourism and the SS Morro Castle as a Visceral Seaside Attraction , provides further details about the disastrous fire and includes aerial photos that reveal how close the doomed ship came to colliding with the Convention Hall. Given such a terrible tragedy, though, it's hard to imagine why L. H. Miller thought that he was such a " has-been " that he could compare himself to the Morro Castle . Or could it be that someone else wrote on the back of the photo, intending it as a tasteless joke to suggest that Miller was past his prime? Whatever the case might be, the photo reminds us of the fate of those who died or were injured aboard the Morro Castle more than eighty years ago and leaves us wondering what happened to L. H. Miller.

"Best Easter Wishes." Not to be confused with Girls with Guns .

Happy Halloween! Restless kids dressed in their Halloween costumes pose for the photographer in order to demonstrate their participation in the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF fundraising program, which has been taking place since 1950 (I'm guessing that this photo may date to the 1960s). The mom and dad are placing coins in the UNICEF collection boxes that the kids are holding. It looks to me like the kids are impatiently enduring this interruption to their evening of trick-or-treating (the girl in the center, who's grudgingly holding a collection box with her arms crossed, seems to be barely tolerating the situation). And the forced smile on the mother's face is certainly different from the pleasant expression on the father's--he seems to be the only one who's actually getting into the spirit of things!

"A Happy New Year, 1876. Mary A. Bacon. New Year's cards. 2 styles. Same price as emblematic. No. 2. Plaisted-Farwell."