Ellis Island -- U. S. Immigration Station

 

Ellis Island was was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States and was the country's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The peak year for immigration at Ellis Island was 1907. An Immigration Act was passed in 1924 that greatly restricted immigration and allowed processing at overseas embassies. After 1924, Ellis Island became primarily a detention and deportation processing station for displaced persons or war refugees

The postcards above are from "An Educational Series of Postcards." I chose these two cards for this post because of the Sepia Saturday prompt photo of children playing. The postcard series includes both exteriors of the buildings and interiors showing what the immigrants encountered there. You can see the rest of the series on my website here.

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Corning Glass Center & Steuben Glass

Steuben Glass was a luxury glass made in Corning, New York for more than a century. It was founded in 1903 and became a division of of Corning Glass Works in 1918. The early focus of Steuben was on colored art glass. In the 1930s the focus shifted to making pure lead crystal.

Corning sold Steuben to Schottenstein Stores Corp. in 2008. The business had become unprofitable, and Schottenstein was not able to turn it around. They closed the Steuben business in 2011, and Corning bought back the Steuben brand name.

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Greetings For National Postcard Week -- May 5-11, 2013

One of the types of postcards I collect is "Postcards About Postcards." This week is National Postcard Week. Although I am not making and mailing postcards, I thought it would be fun to add some greetings to an old comic postcard I bought at a postcard show last week.

the original comic postcard

Cigarette Factories - Durham, North Carolina

 

Above are two postcards of cigarette factories in Durham, North Carolina. I got these postcards when I was in Durham MANY years ago. Both companies welcomed visitors, but I didn't actually visit either of them. The description on the back of the Chesterfield card invited you to "take a fascinating tour, conducted by attractive hostesses."

The cigarette industry has changed a lot since then. Neither of these factories are still making cigarettes. The brands still exist, but they are owned and manufactured by other companies.

For your amusement, here are some videos of old Lucky Strike and Chesterfield commercials.

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The Can Pile

This picture of The Can Pile in Casselton, North Dakota is printed on the 1-cent Jefferson postal card of 1914-1951. The cars appear to be late 1940s and earlier. At that time the size of the pile was listed as 20 ft. diameter and 50 ft. high. The Can Pile was a tourist attraction created next to a Sinclair gas station in 1933 by Max Taubert. It looks like one could fill up on beer as well as gas there.

For a recent history of The Can Pile, see the post on the Eccentric Roadside blog, No can do: The late, great world's tallest used oil can stack of Casselton, North Dakota.

Hillbilly Rest-Runt Comics

 

 

These three comic hillbilly postcards were compliments of the Hillbilly Rest-Runt, Hillbilly City, Ashevile, North Carolina.

 
Smorgasbord Sundays (SS) restaurant and food postcards

The Black Forest Village - Century of Progress 1934

The postcard above has a panoramic drawing of the "Schwarzwald Dorf" which was a representation of  a German country village in the winter. The German Black Forest Village was one of the foreign villages at the 1934 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. (Merrie England was one of the other villages and was featured in last week's Sepia Saturday post). Buildings had synthetic snow banked on roofs and artificial icicles hanging from eaves. There were a toboggan slide, a frozen mill pond, and air-conditioned buildings.

Here is how the Black Forest Village was described in the Official 1934 World's Fair Guidebook:

Ice skating exhibitions are given continuously on the mill pond. Surrounding the mill pond are picturesque village houses and shops in which are carried on German home industries. You see cuckoo clocks made, canes carved and a village blacksmith hammering out small useful articles. Home manufacture of Kirsch is one of the village activities. German orchestra and strolling musicians give the musical entertainment. The villagers are in the quaint German mountaineer costumes.

The postcards below show some of the Black Forest Village scenes published by Western Photogravure Co. of Chicago. Put on your walking shoes and join the fairgoers for a walking tour of the village.

Exterior View

North Gate

Street Scene

Old Watch Tower

The Promenade

Ice Pond


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