
Hot Fireman Calendar

Quagga.
A zebra subspecies.
London Zoo, 1870.
Extinct for over a century now.
Of course, good luck on getting the one Q and two of the three G’s.
I could tell you this pic is from the late 1800s.
That it’s just housecleaning day on a homestead in Seattle, Washington.
We could talk about quilting or how washing pillows in the washing machine always destroys the integrity of the fluff, and you wind up trashing them and going to Ross for a new $9 pillow.
We could even rehash memories of hanging clothes on the line when you were young.
Or maybe even talk about playing Lincoln Logs as kids.
But you already read the word “lice” up top.
So at some point, you’ll scratch your head.
Because lice.
1945 seems like a long time ago, but 1845? Rare is it to find an image dating so far back, and rarer still to see joy and mirth on the faces of the subjects (from Edinburgh ale, no less!), rather than that still, posed dread they usually exude.
To the right is Scottish photographer David Octavius Hill (including himself in this portrait of merriment). On the left is James Ballantyne, who designed the windows in the House of Lords, and Dr. George Bell smugly sits in the center, one of the founders of the “Ragged Schools” for destitute children. Sláinte!
It’s June 2, 1864. Photographer Tim O’Sullivan has taken to the steeple of Bethesda Church in Virginia to capture this image of Ulysses S. Grant (between the trees), listening to a report by Colonel Bowers (reading at the far right, inside the circle). On Grant’s right is General Horace Porter (reading a newspaper), and on his left is General Rawlins, chief of staff. Here’s a closer look.
In the next image, Grant has risen, walked around the church pews, and is leaning over Meade’s shoulders, consulting a map. Shortly afterward, he will write out orders for the battle of Cold Harbor the next day.
It never ceases to amaze me how low-res and dark a Kodak picture from 1985 can be, and yet this image from a wet plate glass negative by James F. Gibson is clear as a bell. Isn’t it amazing to see this group of fellows at Camp Winfield Scott, near Yorktown, Virginia in May of 1862? It’s from the collection of the Peninsular Campaign, May-August 1862.
This is the full image, but I really enjoy zooming in on the details to get a better understanding of life over 150 years ago.
The sober faces, the wayward hairs, the buttons on their shirts, the metal cup that seems like it would conduct the heat and be hard to handle–so interesting!
http://www.reynoldstonnewyork.org/
These cutie patooties in Mrs. Staples’ class sat in an overcrowded classroom in Nome, Alaska in 1904.
A small gathering of folks posed in front of this sod schoolhouse in Custer County, Nebraska in 1886.
Here a family drags all of its belongings into the Yukon Territory near Alaska in 1898. This must have been the granddad of Petey the dog from Our Gang.
And here’s a happy pack dog with his gold-prospecting owner in the Yukon Territory a few years later. He gets to carry the pots and pans.
This group of dogs in Dawson City in the Yukon was responsible for carrying mail in 1898.
Wow! Dogs really are man’s best friend.
*All images taken from Women of the West by Luchetti & Olwell.
Happy new mama and gruff bodyguard at the Hoopa Indian Reservation in 1896.
For more information on Hoopa peeps, visit https://www.hoopa-nsn.gov/, whose site states: “Serving the people since time immemorial.” That’s a long time.