Pic Dump

Picture of the Day

From the Anchorage Daily News:

The old Merrill Field tower cap will sit on a one story base under construction on the shore of Lake Hood Float Plane Base on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. The Alaska Aviation Museum plans on having the tower cap opened for visitors this summer with the Ted Stevens International tower radio traffic piped in. The tower will be open fro visitors and can be reserved for parties. In the background is the museum’s Consolidated PBY Catalina which was retrieved from western Alaska in 1987. The museum currently has a grant from BP for free admission for school groups. To the right of the tower cap is the partial fuselage of a 1935 Sikorsky S-43 Clipper flying boat. The majority of the fuselage was converted into a boat by Kenai resident Ted Morris and was acquired by the museum in 1988. (BOB HALLINEN — Anchorage Daily News)

More pix from April found here.

Rare Historical Photos

Rare and interesting photos

Miss America 1924

Helen Keller Meeting Charlie Chaplin

Leather gloves worn by Lincoln to Ford's Theater on the night of his assassination. Blood stains are visible at the cuffs.

Phoebe Mozee (aka: Annie Oakley). Famed for her marksmanship by 12 years old, she once shot the ashes off of Kaiser Wihelm II's cigarette at his invitation. When she outshot famed exhibition marksman Frank Butler, he fell in love with her and they married. They remained married the rest of their lives.

Very young Lucille Ball around 1930

This is one of five known X-rays of Hitler's head, part of his medical records compiled by American military intelligence after the German's surrendered and declassified in 1958. The records also include doctor's reports, diagrams of his teeth and nose and electrocardiograms. He had bad teeth, lots of fillings and crowns.

Two Victorian sideshow performers boxing -

the fat man and the thin man.

Amy Johnson, English aviator 1903-1941 One of the first women to gain a pilot's licence, Johnson won fame when she flew solo from Britain to Australia in 1930.  Her dangerous flight took 17 days. Later she flew solo to India and Japan and became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic East to West, she volunteered to fly for The Women's Auxiialry Air Force in WW2, but her plane was shot down over the River Thames and she was killed.

Prison Garb 1924. Belva Annan murderess whose trial records became the musical "Chicago".

Female photo journalist Jessie Tarbox on the street with her camera, 1900s.

Roald Amundsen was the first person to reach the South Pole.  At approximately 3pm on December 14, 1911, Amundsen raised the flag of Norway at the South Pole and named the spot Polheim - "Pole Home".

The extraordinary life of Maud Allen: Seductive US dancing girl who was sued for being too lewd, outed as a lesbian, and fled London after being branded a German spy who was sleeping with the prime minister's wife.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy 

Caroline Otero, courtesan, the most sought after woman in all of Europe.  She associated herself with the likes of Prince Albert I of Monaco, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Kings of Serbia, and Kings of Spain as well as Russian Grand Dukes Peter and Nicholas, the Duke of Westminster and writer Gabriele D'Annunzio.  Six men reportedly committed suicide after their love affairs with Otero ended.  Two men fought a duel over her.  She was famed for her voluptuous breasts.

Wedding day photograph of Abraham and Mary taken November 4, 1842 in Springfield, Illinois after three years of a stormy courtship and a broken engagement.  Their love had endured.

Billie Holiday at two years old, in 1917

Washington, D.C., circa 1919.  "Walter Reed Hospital flu ward."  One of the very few images in Washington-area photo archives documenting the influenza contagion of 1918-1919, which killed over 500,000 Americans and tens of millions around the globe.  Most victims succumbed to bacterial pneumonia following influenza virus infection.

Filming the MGM Logo

Amelia Earhart, in a deep-sea diving suit for some reason.

Mae Questel ca. 1930's, the voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, Minnie Mouse, Felix the Cat (for three shorts by the Van Beuren Studios), Little Lulu, Little Audrey and Casper, the Friendly Ghost

Bea Arthur (née Bernice Frankel) (1922-2009) SSgt. USMC 1943-45 WW II.  Enlisted and assigned as typist at Marine HQ in Wash DC, then air stations in VA and NC.  Best remembered for her title role in the TV series "Maude" and as Dorothy in "Golden Girls".

In 1911, Bobby Leach survived a plunge over Niagara Falls in a steel barrel.  Fourteen years later, in New Zealand, he slipped on an orange peel and died.

Emily Todd was Mary Todd Lincoln's half-sister.  In 1856 she married Benjamin Helm, a Confederate general.  After Helm's death in 1863 Emily Helm passed through Union Lines to visit her sister in the White House.  This caused great consternation in the Northern newspapers.  Emily Helm took an oath of loyalty to the Union and was granted amnesty.

Three days before his 19th birthday, George H.W. Bush became the youngest aviator in the US Navy.

Market Street, San Francisco after the earthquake, of 1906 (click to enlarge)

All-American Girls Baseball, 1940s

Workplace safety, c. 1943: showing breast protectors for war workers

Mary Ellen Wilson (1864-1956) or sometimes Mary Ellen McCormack was an American whose case of child abuse led to the creation of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.  As an eight-year old, she was severely abused by her foster parents, Francis and Mary Connolly.

Zelda Boden, circus performer, ca. 1910

A Confederate and Union soldier shake hands during a celebration at Gettysburg in 1913. Image from the Library of Congress.  July 1-3, 2013 marked the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Geraldine Doyle, who was the inspiration behind the famous Rosie the Riveter poster.

Vintage Baked Potato Cart.  A legitimate fast food lunch option back in the day.

Cyclists ride in the first running of the Tour de France, in 1903

 

Sergeant Stubby (1916 or 1917 - April 4, 1926), was the most decorated war dog of World War I and the only dog to be promoted to sergeant through combat.  America's first war dog, Stubby, served 18 months 'over there' and participated in seventeen battles on the Western Front.  He saved his regiment from surprise mustard gas attacks, found and comforted the wounded, and even once caught a German spy by the seat of his pants (holding him there til American Soldiers found him).

Nightwitches - Female Russian bombers who bombed Germany during WW2.  They had old, noisy planes and the engines used to conk out halfway through their missions, so they had to climb out on the wings mid-flight to restart the props.  To stop Germans from hearing them and starting up the anti aircraft guns, they'd climb to a certain height, coast down to German positions, drop their bombs, restart their engines in midair and get the h*** out of dodge.  Their leader flew 200+ missions and was never captured.

Marilyn Monroe meets Queen Elizabeth II, London, 1956.  Both women were 30 years old.

Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson plays "Going Home" as FDR's body is borne past in Warm Springs, GA, where the President was scheduled to attend a barbecue on the day he died. (April, 1945)

h/t AJDShootist

And Now For Something Completely Different

My friend Sandi S. takes frequent trips to out-of-the-way places here in Alaska, where that's really saying something, and comes back with awesome photographs.

However, this time she went somewhere close by - the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, only 40 miles from Anchorage, and got some great shots. Here are a few she passed along this morning:

Grizzly cub

Moosey!

Hey - who YOU looking at?

I wonder what's up here?

Is that lunch I see?