And We Just Went Smashed

I found this set of images interesting because of how mundane it seems, and also the information printed on it.

Ingersoll View Company St. Paul, Minn.  U. S. A.
High Grade Original View Sold only by Subscription.

I created three frames in this GIF, the first is background, the second slides the left photo over the right, the third slides the right photo over the left. I aligned the photos using the tree in the center of the frame. The overlap of the photos and the text really shows how misaligned the original photos were.

The Library of Congress has several stereograph cards by this company, but I didn’t find this particular one. I don’t know how often subscription photos were sent out. or what the general quality of the subscriptions may have been.

“And We Just Went Smashed–(illustrated.)

The Courtesy in those gallant Colonial Days

The Courtesy — in those gallant Colonial Days.

We’s mast burdlars

An interesting thing I’ve figured out while playing with these animated gifs is the importance of picture alignment. If the pictures are simply swapped, it sometimes only adds movement. In this example I aligned the picture frame in the top left portion of the picture. you can see how much difference in overlap the photos have by the edge of either picture.

To achieve reasonable alignment, I changed the opacity of the layer to 50% while I was positioning it, then after I had positioned it changed it back to 100%.

“We’s mast burdlars, where ‘oo keeps ‘oo cookies?”

 

The Birthplace of Avalanches

The Birthplace of Avalanches — Mont Blanc from the Planpraz, Switzerland

Blowing the Alpine Horn, Grindelwald Switzerland

I had to look this up, as I have especially fond memories of the mountains in Switzerland. Grindelwald is the valley near the Eiger mountain. I spent much more time in Zermatt and was mistakenly remembering the Gornergrat. I don’t remember ever seeing an Alpine Horn in the early 1990s.

Blowing the Alpine Horn, Grindelwald, Switzerland

Grindlewald, one of the most beautiful of the high Alpine valleys, is about twelve miles long and four miles broad. It owes its celebrity as a resort for travelers to two great glaciers, branches, or arms, as it were, of the immense ocean of ice which covers the Bernese Oberland. The village of Grindelwald consists of a number of widely scattered cottages with about 3,500 inhabitants. There is probably no more popular tourist headquarters in Switzerland than Grindelwald. Not only does it lodge summer guests, but it enjoys a carefully planned winter campaign, which it really deserves. As the traveler approaches the village, spread out over the quiet valley, the surrounding mountains are often heard to echo and resound with the long drawn notes of the Alpine horn, blown by some enterprising yodler who comes into view as we round a curve in the mountainous ascent, and who now with great assurance demands a fee for his voluntary entertainment.

Irrigating an Orange Grove, California

I don’t think about California for orange production after years of Florida marketing while I was growing up. According to United States Department of Agriculture Florida produces almost twice as many oranges as California, but California still produces a very large number.

Irrigating an Orange Grove, California

Irrigating an Orange Grove.

Southern California already supplies the American Market with nearly 80 per cent of the entire orange demand and promises within a very few years to not only increase this percentage but to extend its markets throughout the entire civilized world.

A few years ago the surface of this great natural park was a wretched waste of cacti and sage brush, the haunt of the tarantula and rattlesnake. Warmth, equable climate, sunshine, absence of frost and generous soil, this section had naturally, but insufficient water. The average rainfall is slight and is confined to a few days in the winter months. The mountains gather up the rains as they fall and send them downward in rushing torrents to the vast reservoirs which are now constructed to hold the excess water in check. From the reservoirs the water is piped down the valleys to the fruit ranches. At the entrance of every ranch is a meter which measures the quantity used. The payment for rental is placed at a certain rate per inch which means as much water as will run through a hole one inch square in one hour. The pipes are opened several times a year and the water allowed to flow between the rows of fruit trees in little rivulets. Moisture and strength is thus given to the roots making fruit growing possible in a region which would otherwise be a desolate waste.

Even now in southern California are vast areas baking in the sun and barren except for cacti, and water is only needed to make them teem with fruitfulness.

 

The Presidents Private Dining Room

The Presidents Private Dining Room (White House) Washington, D. C., U. S. A. This is the room in which the president and his family dine on all ordinary occasions. It is a pleasant, home-like place.

Billy Swallowed the Music Box

“Billy Swallowed the Music Box, and we can hear it play, ‘There’ll be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night.'”

Garden of Gethsemane

Garden of Gethsemane and Mount of Olives from the eastern Wall Jerusalem, Palestine.

3D GIFs from old pictures

I scanned some old pictures I inherited.

Among the pictures were several stereoscope plates. This gave me the opportunity to learn to make animated GIFs in photoshop, which turned out to be a lot easier than I expected.

Volunteers on transport “Rio De Janeiro” Leaving San Francisco for Manila.

Here’s some further details on stereoscopy.