Tag: National Photo Company

Ready for action

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A repeat post from 2013. . .
Ford Motor Co. snow plows, ca. 1910 – 1925, possibly in Washington, D.C., via National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

“Most sources seem to agree that the basic street snow plow (not horse-drawn or built for trains) was created in 1913,” according to the blog Landscape Management Network.

“The first street snow plow, however, wasn’t patented until the early 1920s. At the time, a New Yorker by the name of Carl Fink was the leading manufacturer of plows mounted to motorized vehicles. Today, the company is known as Fink-America and its plows are still on the market.”

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow. . .

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, from “The Snow-Storm“

Life in gardens: boy and book

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Boy reading a book, 1920, Library of Congress“Unidentified boy, seated on park bench, probably in Washington, D.C., holding book,” ca. 1920, by National Photo Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

I wonder if this isn’t a courtyard or garden corner of a college or university, rather than a park. Behind the boy are two adult coats, as well as books and files and at least one briefcase. Maybe he’s the son of a professor?

I love his wonderful sweaters and tweed shorts.

Life in gardens: Mr. Hesse

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2 Mr. Hesse, Wash, D.C. 1928 or 29, Library of Congress“Mr. Hesse, Bot.[anic] Gardens,” Washington, D.C., 1928 or 29, by National Photo Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Years later, did he go back and say, “I remember it as so much bigger. . . “?

1 Mr. Hesse, Wash, D.C. 1928 or 29, Library of Congress

The little boy was almost certainly the son of George Wesley Hess, who was Superintendent and then Director of the U.S. Botanic Garden from 1913 to 1934. There are more photos of the family and the Garden here.

I bless thee, Lord, because I GROW
Among thy trees, which in a ROW
To thee both fruit and order OW.

— George Herbert, from “Paradise”

Life in gardens: standing watch

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Hoeing garden w:music, Library of Congress“W. D. Terrell in garden with radio,” probably in the Washington, D.C., area, July 7, 1926, by National Photo Company, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Mr. Terrell was Chief of Inspection Service of Radio at the U.S. Department of Commerce during the 1920s.

Just as Ariel, in the fables of the Middle Ages, was a spirit guardian of the air, so in this day of wireless, the Radio Inspector, a modern Ariel, stands a silent watch over the ether. But though he may be silent and, indeed, an angel, he is far from a fable, as those who attempt to dispute his wavemeter soon find out.

— from “Guiding the Good Ship Radio,” an October 1925 interview with Terrell in Radio Broadcast magazine