Underground Loop Station at City Hall, New York

City Hall Loop Station was the original southern terminal station of the first line of the New York City Subway. This station opened on October 27, 1904 underneath the public area in front of City Hall. It was designed to be the showpiece of the new subway. This station was unusually elegant in architectural style,  employing Romanesque Revival architecture. The platform and mezzanine featured tile, skylights,  and chandeliers.


This station was not an important or popular one, and its platforms were not suited for newer longer trains. Passenger service was discontinued on December 31, 1945.

Minnesota Centennial Showboat

This postcard shows interior and exterior views of the Minnesota Centennial  Showboat. The Summer 1960 schedule, with performances on the Mississippi River at Minneapolis, St. Paul, Red Wing, and Winona, is shown on the back. The 1960 play was George M. Cohan's Forty-five Minutes From Broadway.

This boat was originally built in 1899. In 1958 it was purchased from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by the University of Minnesota for $1 and transformed into the Minnesota Centennial Showboat in celebration of Minnesota's centennial. This showboat closed in need of repairs in 1993. It was destroyed by fire in 2000 when undergoing restoration.

Johnny Appleseed Stamp

Here are two maximum cards with the same Johnny Appleseed stamp. This 5¢ stamp was the first in the American Folklore Series. It was issued on September 24, 1966, at Leominster, Massachusetts, the birthplace of John Chapman (1774-1845), who was known as Johnny Appleseed. Johnny Appleseed was both a real person and an American folklore figure. He was a pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

The first maximum card (above) is a regular postcard. The second maximum card is by Colorano. It is the same size as a postcard but does not have a postcard back.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

Three Boys Wearing Hats

This real photo postcard of three boys wearing hats was addressed to Miss Laura Ness in Litchfield, Minnesota. It was signed "From Your Friend Emil." The postcard was in an eBay lot with several other postcards from an estate located in or near Meeker County, Minnesota (Litchfield area).

This postcard is addressed, but not stamped and postmarked. I have two other postcards sent to Laura Ness--one sent to Strout, Minnesota in 1908 and the other sent to Litchfield, Minnesota in 1918. With this information, I thought I would be able to find Laura in a census, but I couldn't. The closest I came was a 2007 obituary for a man who was born in 1928 and was possibly her son.

Addendum--Information about Laura Ness from  dawn-in-nz:
I found her in the 1910 census living in Litchfield, MN, she was aged 18, parents Martin & Hannah. On ancestry she's listed in the index under 'NEAS'. She's still in Litchfield in 1920 & by 1930 she had married Albert Strom.

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Music and Art

  

This maximum card has the American Music stamp on a postcard of a  painting by Fernand Léger, The Three Musicians. The painting is in The Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was painted in 1944 (after a drawing of 1924-25). The painting has been thought to be influenced by little bands of musicians in Paris dance halls. One art historian suggested in an article, The Cubists & the Tubist, that the three musicians represent the three Cubists Braque, Picasso, and Léger himself.

The 5¢ American Music stamp design includes a  lute, horn and music score. It was issued on October 15, 1964 in New York, New York, where the headquarters of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is located. The society was founded in 1914, and 1964 was its 50th anniversary.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

The Dutch Boy Painter

 

Dutch Boy Paint has been around for more than 100 years. It was originally a product of The National Lead Co. which was founded in 1907. This postcard is copyright 1906 by National Lead Co. A Dutch Boy was chosen to symbolize the company's method for creating high-quality paint products known as the "Dutch Process." That process originated with two chemists in 16th century Holland.

The image of the Dutch Boy on the postcard was reproduced from an oil painting by Lawrence C. Earle that was commissioned for promotional purposes. The model for the painting was actually a nine-year-old Irish-American boy who lived near the artist. According to the official Dutch Boy website, the Dutch Boy logo has changed seven times since 1907. The style of the logos varied but all of them featured the Dutch Boy wearing overalls, a hat, and clogs. The current Dutch Boy is like the original.

The other versions of the Dutch Boy logo are shown on the Dutch Boy website, and a variety of examples of its use are shown in the Gallery of Dutch Boy Ads and Posters.

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Hauling Iron Ore to Lake Superior Docks

The back of this postcard has the following description (circa 1942):

60% of the iron ore produced in the United States and 25% of the ore mined in world is mined on the Vermilion, Cuyuna, and Mesaba Ranges of Northern Minnesota.

This trainload of iron ore is headed for docks on Lake Superior, where it is transferred to one of the large freighters plying the Great Lakes.