This stereoview shows lower Manhattan looking north from Chambers Street, circa 1903. The main boulevard on the right is Centre Street. Continue reading
Hussein Abdel Rasoul, a water boy for an archeological expedition came across something unusual. As he was swishing around sand to make bottles stay upright, he noticed the surface he had uncovered looked like a sculpted stone. It turned out to be a step. The first step leading to a blocked entryway.
Hussein the water boy wearing a scarab necklace found at King Tut’s excavation site
Hussein’s discovery occurred early in the morning of November 4, 1922 in the Valley of the Kings, just outside of Luxor, about 450 miles upstream of Cairo, Egpyt.
The expedition’s lead was archeologist Howard Carter who in the past had other significant finds under his direction. Carter was spending another year digging and looking for treasures, but without progress. Continue reading
Catastrophic storms and weather events are not just a recent phenomenon. This 1927 news photograph has the following caption: Continue reading
Amelia Earhart As A Girl
Boston- Amelia Earhart, the daring Boston aviatrix who with Wilmer Stultz and Lou Gordon is at Trepassey, Newfoundland waiting for favorable weather to hop off in her tri-motored Fokker plane for England, is pictured above as a young girl. At left she is shown at the age of 3 with her sister Muriel Curtis Earhart, who is now a school teacher, and at the right Amelia is shown at the age of 7 years. photo: International Newsreel 6-5-1928
Amelia Earhart (b. 1897) disappeared on July 2, 1937. But she remains today arguably the most famous woman pilot in history. The newspapers that ran this photo back in 1928 were caught up in the birth of Earhart-mania. Continue reading
Library Meeting
In Independence, Mo. – Senator Kennedy, Democrat, Massachusetts, and former President Truman met at the Truman Library. Kennedy later took off on a quick tour of Kansas. Photo: AP wirephoto November 23, 1959
Though Kennedy said it was “a fine meeting,” Scripps-Howard reporter Charles Lucey noted that Kennedy was unafraid to disagree with Truman publicly over nuclear testing. Continue reading
When the Park Row Building was completed in 1899, the 31 story office building was the highest in New York and the world at 382 feet. Less than seven years later it was no longer the tallest, with the Singer Building soaring 211 feet higher than the Park Row.
Today the Park Row Building, converted to residences, is not even among the 100 tallest buildings in New York. And the Singer Building was demolished over 55 years ago.
The constant desire by developers to top one another has continued and accelerated in the past dozen years.
The skyline is being overtaken by mostly nondescript glass boxes dwarfing other buildings and eclipsing many of the classic New York skyscrapers.
As of 2022 the ten tallest buildings in New York are:
Rank Name Height Stories Year Completed Address
1 One World Trade Center 1,776 94 2014 285 Fulton Street
2 Central Park Tower 1,550 99 2021 225 West 57th Street
3 111 West 57th Street 1,428 85 2022 111 West 57th Street
4 One Vanderbilt 1,401 73 2020 1 Vanderbilt Avenue
5 432 Park Avenue 1,397 85 2015 432 Park Avenue
6 30 Hudson Yards 1,270 103 2019 500 West 33rd Street
7 Empire State Building 1,250 102 1931 350 Fifth Avenue
8 Bank of America Tower 1,200 55 2009 1101 Sixth Avenue
9 3 World Trade Center 1,079 69 2018 175 Greenwich Street
10 The Brooklyn Tower 1,073 73 2022 9 DeKalb Avenue (Brooklyn)
Recently looking at the 1939 World Almanac there was a list of the tallest buildings in New York.
All heights listed are the Almanac’s figures which may differ from modern estimates.
1. The Empire State Building is located on the site of the original Continue reading
This 1926 photo by Dickson & Thurber shows the Swim-Easy Girls on their way to Bard’s Bathing Beauty Contest at Bard’s Theatre in Pasadena, CA. Continue reading
credit: Los Angeles Daily News 1953
Elephants in the streets?
It must be for the circus and they’re transporting their pachyderms to a show site.
But this is Los Angeles where movie magic can be the reason behind unusual happenings. Continue reading
Worker at furniture factory, Arthurdale, West Virginia 1937 photo: Ben Shahn via Library of Congress
As the Covid-19 debacle made clear to Americans we are now dependent upon foreign countries for many of the things necessary to conduct our daily lives.”Supply-chain” issues have been one of the main reasons given to explain the shortages of thousands of products. Continue reading
Since 1822 five generations of William Simpson’s ran one of New York’s oldest and most respected pawn shops. The final namesake to run Simpsons Pawnbrokers at 91 Park Row, William Rooe Simpson sold out to his partners in 1937, ending the continuous line of William Simpson’s to own and operate the hockshop. William Rooe Simpson died in 1957 and his son William David Simpson never went into the family pawn business. He became a doctor settling in Shelby, North Carolina.
When William David Simpson died at the age of 64 in 1988 he had this witty epitaph placed on his marker at Sunset cemetery in Shelby.
His wife Barbara “Bobbi” Taylor Simpson however Continue reading
