Daguerreotypes are highly reflective, they have a mirror like quality. You can usually only view the photograph from an angle. Below you can see the reflection of the antique key I was holding. Notice how her image appears as a ghostly negative.

In the early 1900's photograph postcards were extremely popular. Think of them, as the selfies of the day. A lot of them were never mailed or postmarked. Most ended up in scrapbooks. I prefer collecting the postmarked cards, as it gives a more accurate time period, but sometimes a photograph is just too pretty to pass up. The postcard below is of a lady from the mid 1900's. It was never mailed, so there's no information about who she was, but her outfit and hat are gorgeous!


     

I hope you're enjoying this series as much as I am. I've always been interested in history. I'm constantly reading, researching different subjects. Lately my newest hobby has been collecting old postcards, letters, photographs, etc. Mainly from the mid 1800's to mid 1900's.

This postcard from 1912 was the very first in my collection. I was instantly drawn to her photograph. Her hat, her dress. She's so striking and pretty. Her outfit reminds me of something you would have seen on the Titanic.

In the early 1900's photograph postcards were incredibly popular. Think of them, as the selfies of the day! A lot of them were never mailed or postmarked. I prefer collecting the postmarked cards, as it gives a more accurate time period and more information of the sender and addressee.

The postcard says: Dear Mrs. Harvey, How are you all? Well, I hope. Am having a vacation now. Am at Galva Iowa, but shall go back to work soon. Think of you all real often. Best regards to Jimmy & Bob. Are they in New York yet? I like this country fine, am having a dandy time. This is a poor (world illegible- picture?), but I thought I would send one any-way. Wish I might hear from you sometime. Tell Mr. H hello for me. Love & best wishes, Mary E. Pike, Ida Grove, Iowa.


I decided to do some sleuthing with the information I had. A combination of Google, findagrave.com, etc. I was able to locate Mary E. Pike, who became Mrs. Mary Ellen Schrader in 1915. She sadly passed away due to an illness in 1969 at the age of 76. I was able to locate newspaper clippings of her obituaries here & here.

Mary Ellen Pike was born in 1892 in New Hampshire. Her mother passed away when she was 8 years old, and she was sent to live with family in Iowa, though she later lived with an aunt & uncle and attended school in New Hampshire. She later moved back to Iowa and married. I can only guess that the Mrs. Harvey she was sending the postcard to would have been family or a friend in New Hampshire.

If anyone has any more information about Mary E. Pike (Schrader), would love to hear from you below in the comments!

This was one of my favorite finds recently. An antique tintype photograph dated around 1865-1870's.

Some facts: A tintype, is a photograph made by creating a direct positive on a thin sheet of metal coated with a dark lacquer or enamel. There is no actual "tin" in a tintype photograph. It's a blackened iron sheet. They can be identified using a magnet. (My husband and I tried this, it works! The magnet will stick to the glass due to the metal in the photograph. Pretty neat!) 

Unfortunately we will never her know her name or where she lived, as there's no identifying information on the photograph. She looks quite young to me, possibly 15-20 years old. I'm guessing she is young, because of the giant ribbon in the back of her hair.

My guess for the year is sometime around late 1860's to mid 1870's because of the dress style she is wearing. It appears to be a two piece button dress, but it doesn't seem to have a bustle in the back. The skirt/sleeves seem too narrow to be from the early 1860's civil war era. My guess is somewhere around mid 1870's. (This style dress seems similar). Her dress could be mourning style.

I'm curious about the pin she is wearing. It appears to be a ribbon with a dangling chain. It could be something known as a cockade, which was wore worn around that period. If anyone has experience on 19th century fashion, please feel free to comment below! I would appreciate it!




You can see below how the photograph is chipping off of the metal plate underneath due to age. There is no actual "tin" in a tintype photograph. It's actually a blackened iron sheet underneath.

The case is called a 'union case'. It's made out of thermoplastic, an early plastic. Thermoplastic is quite fragile. The hinges and part of the frame are broken on mine, but the design is still pretty. Early tintype photographs were housed in these union cases, while later they were housed in paper sleeves. It's entirely possible the case isn't original to the photograph, but we'll never know.

Hello! I know it's been quite awhile since I last posted. I wanted to start a historical series here on the blog. I've always loved history, and one of my newest hobbies has been collecting vintage and historical items. Photos, Postcards, Vintage Advertising, Coins, Tins, Clocks, Books, etc.

The vintage postcards are fascinating, because if there's enough information you can actually research and locate the person. I prefer collecting postcards with visible postmarks of their age, mostly from the early 1900's.

I've started looking for early Philadelphia items lately, (being my hometown). The thing that caught my eye on this postcard was who it was addressed to.... F.B. If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you'll know my husband's name is F.B. (which is his father's initials, but his legal name is F.B.) so I couldn't pass up getting this postcard addressed to a Dr. F.B. Davison, postmarked 1910 sent from a friend named Natalie who was visiting Philadelphia.

*Note: If you haven't read part 1 of our trip, please click here to read.

Overview: My husband and I recently decided to travel to Fall River, Massachusetts to visit the Lizzie Borden House Bed & Breakfast. It may be a bit macabre, but the case is absolutely fascinating to me. (If you're not familiar with the story, check out wikipedia here for a quick overview).
I became a little bit obsessed with Lizzie Borden about a year and a half ago. I'm already quite addicted to history, and true crime stories. Lizzie's story really fascinated me. Not so much because she "allegedly" committed parricide, but more so because of the time period; (The murders happened in 1892). The way the case was handled (bungled?), how certain relevant circumstantial evidence was left out of the trial, and Lizzie's various stories about where she was at the time of the murders. "I was in the kitchen, I was on the stairs, I was upstairs, I was in the barn, I was eating pears...", and because after all that, she was acquitted! Once you delve into the story, it's really intriguing.

I found out the actual Borden house was turned into a bed & breakfast museum in 1996. (The house was built in 1845, the Borden's were the 2nd owners). I kept looking at the website wishing I could visit. Finally, I found out there's a bus terminal only a 3 minute walk from the bed & breakfast, and that kind of sealed everything for me. I booked the trip!

Hello there. Long time, no blog. :)

My husband and I recently decided to travel to Fall River, Massachusetts to visit the Lizzie Borden House Bed & Breakfast. It may be a bit macabre, but the case is absolutely fascinating to me. (If you're not familiar with the story, check out wikipedia here for a quick overview).
I became a little bit obsessed with Lizzie Borden about a year and a half ago. I'm already quite addicted to history, and true crime stories. Lizzie's story really fascinated me. Not so much because she allegedly committed parricide, but more so because of the time period; (The murders happened in 1892). The way the case was handled (bungled?), how certain relevant circumstantial evidence was left out of the trial, and Lizzie's various stories about where she was at the time of the murders. "I was in the kitchen, I was on the stairs, I was upstairs, I was in the barn, I was eating pears...", and because after all that, she was acquitted! Once you delve into the story, it's really intriguing. 

I found out the actual Borden house was turned into a bed & breakfast museum in 1996. (The house was built in 1845, the Borden's were the 2nd owners). I kept looking at the website wishing I could visit. Finally, I found out there's a bus terminal only a 3 minute walk from the bed & breakfast, and that kind of sealed everything for me. I booked the trip!

Note: The Duck Boat Tours in Philadelphia, no longer operate.

On Wednesday we had our overnight trip in historical downtown Philadelphia, for my birthday weekend! (My birthday is Sept 4th). We had a really nice time and we got to see a bunch of places!

We took the train downtown and the weather was sunny and around 86 degrees both days we were down there which was good, because we walked everywhere! Our hotel was down the street from Independence Hall and right in the middle of all the historical spots, so it was ideal for walking. We didn't need to take any transportation, aside from the train to get us downtown and back home.

Here's a few from our trip! Wednesday before we checked into the hotel, we got to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall!

Liberty Bell

Independence Hall- they were renovating.

Chestnut Street

Best Western Independence Park Hotel

Our Hotel is a historic building.

We took the Duck Boat Tour Wednesday evening. When we got there to check in, they refunded us $12 on our tickets, because they said they weren't going to be going out on the water that evening because of the aftermath from Irene. I don't know what changed but midway through the tour- we did go out on the water after all, lol!

There was a lot of debris floating in the Delaware River but we kept to the side.There wasn't room service at our hotel, so for dinner we walked down to a Wawa on Walnut street and picked up a salad and wraps for dinner Wednesday night.

Benjamin Franklin Bridge

First Congress

Where Ben Franklin had his society for intelligent gentlemen.

Betsy Ross House

First Post Office in the United States.

First Stock Exchange in the United States.

 Video of our Duck Boat going into the Delaware River:



Thursday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and checked out around 12pm.Then we visited the Independence Visitors Center and Christ Church Cemetery. After that we went to Reading Terminal Market and finished up at The Gallery before taking the train home!

Constitution Center- we didn't get to visit.

Christ Church Cemetery- Benjamin Franklin is buried here. There are so many old tombstones, some of which the writing is no longer legible.

Benjamin Franklin's Grave- they throw pennies on his grave. A penny saved, is a penny earned. Sad... Eleanor, aged 5 months, 2 weeks, 3 days. This little girl was only 9 years old. She passed in 1791.

Entrance to China Town. We didn't get to visit, so we'll go back some time.


Reading Terminal Market was crowded! I saw these Chocolate Rats and wanted to get some, but they probably would have melted on the train ride home, lol! Afterwards we headed to The Gallery. We picked up Popeye's Chicken and Cinnabon to take home for dinner/dessert, hehe.




What is your favorite thing about your hometown? (Place, Food, Etc.)
For extra entries- (Leave a separate comment for each extra entry).

-Follow my blog on Google Friend Connect. (You can find the 'Followers' link under 'Contents' on the right hand sidebar. If you follow already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question). 

-Follow me on Twitter: @tunaynamahal82 (Include your user name in the comments. If you follow me already you automatically get an extra entry if you answer the mandatory question- just leave your Twitter username in the comments).

-Tweet about this giveaway (Include your link in the comments).

Giveaway Ends: September 16th, 2011.12AM EST.