Madeline's Travels

This is the first of what will be many posts about Madeline's travels.  She just loved to travel!  She always said she didn't like to fly.  However, in 1985 she flew to Germany to visit us while my husband was stationed there with the Army.  She wasn't going to miss a tour of Europe!  So I was curious when I came across these items from a trip she made around 1945 with her Aunt Florence.  (Like everything else with this family, she wasn't technically "aunt" Florence.)  Florence deserves a whole post on just herself as she was quite a character.  I'll have my husband write up her bio and try to find a pic of her. 

First we have a series of postcards of Washington National Airport:

Hangars.  Each door weighed 44 tons!

Ticket Counters

Terrace Dining Room

Main Entrance

Here is the packet from American Airlines which held her ticket:

Inside the folder is a large, foldout, colorful map of all the cities AA flew to:

This map is a beautiful piece of history and would look great framed and hung on the wall of someone's library.  That's a room we don't have in our home. 

NBC in 1943

This is a 38 page book written in 1943 which gives a thorough history of the organization at that time.

Board of Directors and Officers

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and their war efforts.

Bob Hope and Frances Langford.  We know what they were doing.

Television in the early stages.

TV and war safety.

The future as they saw it back then.

Partial list of programming

This booklet is a perfect example of "why did she save this?".  But I have to say I find it very interesting to read about the way things were back then.  So, thank you, Madeline!



Movie Story Year Book No 2 1942 Edition

One of many movie star magazines Madeline saved.

"Movie Story magazine's best films awards for 1941 go to the fifteen motion pictures presented, in story form, on the pages which follow."

The magazine is almost 100 pages of photos with stories in very small type.  Fun to look at!



Madeline's Memories Is Back!

Vacations and Life have kept me from posting new memories.  But today I am back with a fun post. 

This is one of Madeline's school pictures.  I'm guessing high school age.  She looks so studious, but don't let that deceive you! 

This is one of Madeline's second grade reading workbooks.  Maybe it's before the mimeograph was invented as my memories of second grade are individual worksheets.  (And that's as far as I will go about second grade; not good memories for me. ) 

"Looseleaf Education, Inc." --love it!  Book was published in 1927.

A sample page

This page goes along with a little story on safety.

The second book in the series.

Things are getting a little harder! 

One of Madeline's drawings from the book.

And here is a bonus photo for you:

I believe the "James" pointed out is Madeline's father, James Farmer.  Here's the back of the photo:

Photo taken at the Elmwood School in Providence around 1895.

Greg Johnson's Button People: Or What to Do with Your Old Family Photographs

For the past several years I have been following Deb Dusenberry's blog about her Kansas store "Curious Sofa".  Even though I live in Maryland I love to see how Deb decorates her store for each holiday and to see her new merchandise.  (Good news:  she now does mail order, too!)

This weekend when I checked in with Curious Sofa I was delighted and amazed to see these photos from her Halloween display from the artist Greg Johnson:

How creative!  I have so many family photos like these of Madeline's family.  I look at each one and wish I could display them all in our home and share them with others.  Never did I think to do something like this!  Greg takes these photographs to another dimension.  Each time I look at his "button people"  I see something different. 

When I emailed Deb to ask her permission to post the photos she referred me to Greg and I have exchanged a few emails with him.  He sent me this fabulous photo:

To quote Greg:  "I love working with vintage ephemera; especially vintage photos, carte de visite & cabinet cards.  I call them all my "instant ancestors"."    I agree with him.  A few years ago my husband and I were browsing in an antique store and came across a photo album of a couple which detailed their travel through the years.  Lots of photos of cruises and holiday parties from the 40's and 50's.  The album even showed them aging, but still taking trips together.  I felt an instant connection to this couple and wondered how this album ended up in this antique store.  When I wasn't looking, my husband purchased the album and presented it to me for a Christmas present.  I love to browse through it from time to time and have even used some of the photos to make greeting cards.  We are so blessed to have all these vintage photographs and paper collectibles from the past.  The digital photos we take today will be some one's vintage collectible tomorrow.  I think being creative with them is a compliment to our ancestors. 

Follow Greg on Facebook here.

1939 World's Fair: Dominican Republic

This is the booklet Madeline picked up at the Dominican Republic exhibit.  I find it fascinating to read through these booklets and read about the history of these countries in 1939.  It teaches us about the progress and initiatives these countries hoped for back then.  Thanks Madeline for collecting them all!

 

Back cover

The booklet is presented in both English and Spanish. 

 

This page has Spanish on one side and English on the other.

This is the centerpage of the booklet.  A very nice map of the Dominican Republic and the surrounding countries. 

Interesting article on the sugar industry of the country.

I discovered a wonderful little gem while researching about this exhibit.  It is a paper written in 2000 by Mitchell F. Portnoy about Mineral Day at the 1939 World's Fair.  If you are curious at all about this subject it is well worth a few minutes of your time to look at this paper.  He gives lots of information about the many exhibits I have posted about previously in my blog.  Click on "paper" to take you there.  Can't wait to see what I will pull out of the box next!