Darkness Visible

A small selection of Ferrotype mini-postcards (they measure 3.5″ x 2 .5″ each) taken by a farming family circa 1910. The Ferrotype process used a single chemical solution to develop the photos but the lack of separate toner and fixer is very evident as almost all of the ferrotypes I’ve seen have faded badly. Of course weirdos like me like stuff like this so here’s 25 of them for your viewing pleasure.

Home Recordings

For those of you who don’t know, besides photographs I also collect vintage amateur recordings- mostly Voice-O-Graphs (the coin-op booth where you could record your own record for a quarter) but other home recording devices as well. I’ve started digitizing them and have posted a bunch to SoundCloud (link) if you have any interest in listening. Beware- I do have a fetish for very damaged vinyl!

Names on the Land

In honor of National Poetry Month (and the possibility that we might actually be able to travel this summer) I bring you the travel diary of a young man who took a road trip from Ohio down to the Grand Canyon and then up through California to the Pacific Northwest in the summer of 1928. While there is a fair amount of description, the poetry comes from the long lists of place names he provides- this was pre-interstate so making your way across the country usually meant driving straight through towns rather than bypassing them on via a highway. This will probably be tl:dr for most but for the few who might enjoy such a thing I’ve scanned it in it’s entirety. Click here to see it all!

Deep Dive: Costumes

Okay folks: Here it is, the bulk of my collection of photographs of people in costume. Not necessarily all halloween photos but mostly so. And because I’m not a monster and halloween is just around the corner, I’ve added some spooky non-costume photos as well. Over 250 photos in all- Enjoy!