Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: ladders

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of at the playground . Five girls pose on playground equipment in Mayo Park, Rochester, Minnesota, circa 1910. Caption on the front of this real photo postcard: "The Playground. Mayo Park. 143." Printed on the other side: "Bert Crowell, Rochester, Minn." Postmarked in Rochester, Minn., May 14, 1910, and addressed to "Miss Hilda Swanson, #85 Cambridge Ave., St. Paul, Minn. Macalaster Park, c/o James Beddie." Handwritten message: "Rochester, Minn. Dear Aunt Hilda, I have not heard from you for a long time, but I had a card from Myrtle today and she said you had gone to St. Paul to live. Mama has been sick all the time lately. She seems to have a cold all the time. She has been lying down all morning. I hope she gets better. How are poor little James and William. Mama says that she wishes you would write soon and tell her. With love and kisses, Beth."

I'm trying to imagine what happened at the photo studio that day. Photographer: Well, ladies, I've just received a couple of interesting new props that we can use in your portrait today. There's one here and another one over there. Do you prefer the former or the latter? Ladies: Oh, we'll take the ladder , of course! Otherwise, there are no identifying details that might help to explain the origin of this unique photo.

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

A photo of a dock or a pier for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. This is a 1957 snapshot of the Steel Pier , an amusement pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Billed as "The Show Place of the Nation," the pier hosted a variety of shows and acts, including a diving horse and a bicycle-riding bear. When I purchased this photo, however, I didn't realize that it showed a bear and a woman riding bikes on the high platform visible on the left-hand side (mouse over the image to see an enlargement ). After I spotted the bear, I still couldn't imagine that you could train an animal like that to climb a ladder and ride a bicycle. But a YouTube clip of the Bicycle-Riding Bear that's part of The Nieroslavski Family at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, N.J. --filmed during summer 1960--provides a glimpse of how the bear performed its act. Attitudes toward animal acts have changed over the past fifty years, however, and making a bear ride a bicycle seems inhumane and dangerous by today's standards. As far as I've been able to determine, there are no longer any bicycling bears or diving horses in Atlantic City.

"Greetings from Our House to Your House. The Herr's." A family posing with holiday decorations for a photographic Christmas card.

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

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

A photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park showing how there's one in every crowd (a group of people posing with one silly/goofy person who throws the whole photo off, i.e.: sticking out tongue, bunny ears behind the head, etc.) . Oh, how nice! The carpenters and other workmen in this real photo postcard are posing with saws, hammers, and other tools to demonstrate how hard they've been working on the renovation of this house! But wait a second! One guy is lying down on the job!

"25 Firemans Cards, 20 cts." A card pasted in an "Agent's Sample Book" that was issued by an unidentified calling card company. For an example of another card that was in the "Agent's Sample Book," see Comic Imp Card: I Am ________, Who the Devil Are You? For other firemen's calling cards, see below for C. H. Moscrip, H. G. Phelps Hose Company No. 1, Sidney, N.Y. , Eugene O. Chase, Second Leading Hoseman, Danielsonville, Conn. , and Fireman Calling Card .

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

"Hook & Ladder No. 1, responding to an alarm, Providence, R.I."

Signed by (or noted as coming from) "Grandma" on the front and back, and addressed to "Miss Alma Seasholtz, Red Hill," although there isn't any stamp or postmark. "Serie 319" printed on the back of the card.

A postcard showing New York City firemen with their new motorized aerial ladder truck, probably sometime in the1910s. "Battalion 2" is inscribed in the stone above the arch of the building in the background, which turns out to be a firehouse located at 92 Lafayette Street in New York City. Amazingly enough, the building is still standing one hundred years after the firemen posed with their new equipment, and you can take a look at it using Google Maps view . No longer a firehouse, the building is now home to the Downtown Community Television Center , "a community media center located in Manhattan's Chinatown on Lafayette Street."

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),

"6 Steps to Modern Pool Sanitation." Brochure published by the Mathieson Alkali Works, New York, N.Y., with instructions for using its Sanitation HTH product for proper chlorination of swimming pools.