Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: Cumberland

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of pick your own (post a photo depicting your favorite theme from the past year) . As my favorite of the year, I'm choosing the theme of pick a particular format (daguerreotype, cabinet card, CDV, real photo postcard, cyanotype, slide, Polaroid, or what have you?) . And among those formats, I'm selecting real photo postcard , as I did previously in March (see Foursome Flying over Long Beach, California, 1914 ). I took a quick look at my postings to the Vintage Photos Theme Park during 2023, and I discovered to my surprise that the majority of my weekly contributions -- more than thirty! -- were real photo postcards . This photo postcard, captioned "One Minute Churn, L. H. Chambers, Cumberland, Md.," shows Lorenzo Hazell Chambers (1877-1958) standing next to a mechanical butter churn . He has a wide grin on his face, and he's resting his left hand on top of the churn. Perhaps Chambers intended to use this card as an advertisement for selling churns (the One-Minute Churn Company solicited sales agents -- see the company's ad below), even though the photo quality is poor and the image seems quite cloudy. This real photo postcard is unused, without any address, message, stamp, or postmark. The Kruxo stamp box design on the other side suggests a possible date that may be as early as 1908 to 1910. Also printed on the verso: "The C. C. Bickert Post Card Co., Hagerstown, Md." The following advertisement for the patented One-Minute Churn appeared in Hardware magazine, April 10, 1905, p. 11. Butter in One Minute The only perfect milk and cream aerator churn in the world, making the best granular butter from sour or sweet cream in a minute -- which we guarantee -- is the One Minute Churn. Protected by 57 patents. Its construction is perfect in every detail. All parts interchangeable and carried in stock. Easy to run, holding 1 quart to 13 gallons. For farm and family use. Our Catalogue tells all. Mention Hardware . Agents wanted. Cable address: "Minute" or "Murphite" New York. I. M. Murphy, president. The One Minute Churn Co., Inc., 9 Old Slip, New York, U.S.A.

Caption on this real photo postcard: "A wonderful view, 15 m. E. of Cumberland. Yonker's Tower, top of Polish Mt., U.S. 40. Elv. 1340 ft." Sign at the top of the tower (to the right of the flag): "Yonkers." Sign on the tower below the Yonkers sign: "Mountains of Imperial, The Cream of All Ice Creams. Greatest View in Md." Yonker's Store and Observation Tower was a place where motorists could gas up, get a bite to eat, and enjoy the view at a high point along U.S. Route 40 in Maryland. Mouse over the image above to see a close-up of the building and tower .

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

Caption on front: "Labor Day, Cumberland, Md." Printed on back: "C. E. Gerkins, Cumberland, Md." A real photo postcard of men marching in a Labor Day parade along Baltimore Street in Cumberland, Maryland, circa 1900s or 1910s. The sign for "J. Gross, " a clothing store with an address of 169 Baltimore Street, is visible on the building at left, and a close examination of an enlargement of the photo reveals that "The Kenneweg Co., Wholesale Grocers" occupied the building on the right. The steeple that's visible at the far end of the street belongs to the historic Emmanuel Episcopal Church , which--as Wikipedia points out--was "built on the foundations of Fort Cumberland, where George Washington began his military career."