Lampy, the Multimillion-Dollar Garden Gnome

Read about Lampy here.

More Gnome history here.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 21, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category: Annoying Things, Cult Figures and Artifacts, Horticulture and Gardens, Foreign Customs, Europe, Nineteenth Century, Fictional Monsters

The Herriges Horror

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Human nature, good or evil, is invariant.

Read the whole story here, in a small book from 1870.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Jun 19, 2013 - Comments (2)
Category: Crime, Family, Horror, Nineteenth Century

Baths, and How to Take Them

Entire small pamphlet here. Learn what you've been doing wrong.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jun 02, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Body, Education, Hygiene, Baths, Showers and Other Cleansing Methods, Nineteenth Century

Antique Homicide Photos from NYC Archives

Over 300 gruesomely fascinating murder victims, at the NYC Archives. Of course, the 800K+ other shots are pretty cool as well.

Posted By: Paul - Tue May 28, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Death, Photography and Photographers, Urban Life, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century, Blood

Dr. Swett’s Root Beer

Despite having an unfortunate moniker, Dr. Swett's product sold from circa 1845 to 1959.

Read the whole story here.

The trademark is now officially dead and unclaimed, if any entrepreneurial WUvie wants to start the business back up.

Posted By: Paul - Fri May 24, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category: Soda, Pop, Soft Drinks and other Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Nineteenth Century, Twentieth Century

You Are Discharged!

1896 ad for Battle Ax Plug Tobacco (from the Oakland Tribune). The context here is that Battle Ax Plug Tobacco was produced by the American Tobacco Company, which was selling it at well below cost in order to drive its competitors out of business. So the ad's claim that it was the preferred brand of cheapskates was actually correct!

Thanks to such aggressive marketing techniques, the American Tobacco Company soon did dominate the market. But in 1907 it was indicted as being in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and was carved up by the government into four separate firms: American Tobacco Company, R. J. Reynolds, Liggett & Myers, and Lorillard. For more info, see The Dukes of Durham and wikipedia.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 28, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Advertising, Nineteenth Century

Who Dat Say Chicken in Dis Crowd?

I learned of this song during a musical celebration of Black History Month on radio station WQXR. Certainly an artifact of its time.

You can mentally combine the instrumental music in the player with the words below.

Who Dat Say Chicken In Dis Crowd

There was once a great assemblage of the cullud population,
all the cullud swells was there,
They had got them-selves together to discuss the situation
and rumours in the air.
There were speakers there from Georgia and some from Tennessee,
who were making feather fly,
When a roostah in the bahn-ya'd flew up what folks could see,
Then those darkies all did cry.

Chorus:
Who dat say chicken in dis crowd?
Speak de word agin' and speak it loud--
Blame de lan' let white folks rule it,
I'se a lookin fu a pullet,
Who dat say chicken is dis crowd.

A famous culled preacher told his listnin' congregation,
all about de way to ac',
Ef dey want to be respected and become a mighty nation
to be hones' Fu' a fac'.
Dey mus nebber lie, no nebber, an' mus' not be caught a-stealin'
any pullets fun de lin',
But an aged deacon got up an' his voice it shook wif feelin',
As dese words he said to him.

Chorus:
Who dat say chicken in dis crowd?
Speak de word agin' and speak it loud--
What's de use of all dis talkin',
Let me hyeah a hen a sqauwkin'
Who dat say chicken in dis crowd.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 18, 2013 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, Music, Stereotypes and Cliches, Nineteenth Century

Horse Odometer

From Munsey's Magazine, 1895. (via Paul Collins)

Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 05, 2013 - Comments (9)
Category: Inventions, Travel, Nineteenth Century

Westphal’s Auxiliator

[Click text to enlarge]

Here's an old-timey hair tonic with a weird name. The strange noun just means "helper."

Composed of "55% grain alcohol," it went down many an alcoholic's gullet, I'm sure.

Believe it or not, the tonic was mentioned in a SIMPSONS comicbook. If you look at their ad below, you'll see why. The mutant female user resembles the famed Springfield three-eyed fish.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 22, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Elderly and Seniors, Comics, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, Nineteenth Century, Hair and Hairstyling

Alfred, Meet Jimmy

Recent scholarship has traced the roots of Mad magazine's Alfred E. Newman back to the nineteenth century. But I don't believe anyone has ever before noted his resemblance to this animated version of Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen, as seen in the 1942 Superman cartoon "Showdown," embedded above.



How fitting that today both Jimmy and Alfred are owned by the same company, Warner Bros.!

Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 14, 2013 - Comments (7)
Category: Humor, Magazines, Twins, Lookalikes & Doppelgangers, Comics, 1940s, Nineteenth Century