Album Lancaster County, Pa. from Alan Mays

Harvesting Grain, Landisville, Pennsylvania

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:56:49 +0000

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of fields (cornfields, football fields, academic fields, or any other kind).

Handwritten note on the other side: "Landisville, Pa. Nissley Rd."

An early twentieth-century scene of men harvesting grain in a field near Landisville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. A reaper pulled by four horses is cutting the grain, and sheaves of cut wheat that have already been stacked into shocks are visible in the background.

This is an divided-back real photo postcard with a type of Azo stamp box (featuring four upward-pointing corner triangles) that suggests that the photo may date to sometime between 1907 and 1918. The card is unused with no message, address, or postmark on the other side.

Intercourse Sign, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 03:46:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of on vacation.

Sign: "Intercourse. Formerly 'Cross Keys.' From a Noted Old Tavern Stand. Founded 1754."

Taking a photo of the town sign for Intercourse is a popular activity for visitors on vacation in the Amish Country area of eastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Intercourse and other seemingly suggestive local place names in the county, such as Blue Ball, Bird-in-Hand, Bareville, Fertility, and Paradise, also appear in photos and on postcards and other tourist souvenirs.

This Intercourse sign is an example of the "Keystone markers" that are still familiar sights along the roads throughout Pennsylvania and helped to reinforce its "Keystone State" nickname.

Telephones and Stoves

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 03:05:34 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of telephones.

This is a real photo postcard used as an advertisement by the Keely Stove Company of Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The card dates to 1920, and it shows a woman with a candlestick telephone. She's getting married and wants a Keely Columbian Stove just like her mother has, so she's telephoning Herr & Co. in Lancaster, Pa., to order one. In other versions of the ad that I spotted online, the same woman is phoning J. A. Best & Co. in Allentown, Pa., and Bennett & Billington in Canajoharie, N.Y.

I have another copy of this postcard that was addressed to Miss Fannie Groff, Kirkwood, Lanc. Co., Pa., R.R.#1, and mailed in New Providence, Pa., on Nov. 3, 1920. The handwritten message on that copy doesn't refer to the advertisement itself but the writer does mention "phoning" and "call[ing] . . . on the phone":

"Tue. eve. [Nov. 2]. Dear Fannie, I received your letter this morning. I guess you think I am a great one for not phoning to you, but I was so busy today. And Jacob came up to vote [Warren G. Harding won the U.S. presidential election held that day], and because it rained he is staying up so I was not at Margie's to stay all night. Fannie, I won't be down this week, but I will come next Fri. eve. as far as I know now, if it suits you. We are invited to a kitchen shower on Sat. eve. Write to let me know if it will suit. And I will write later or call you up on the phone. R.E.M."

History of this Genuine Photo

The mother of this young lady has a Columbian Stove manufactured by The Keely Stove Co., Columbia, Pa. She is about to get married and telephones to Herr & Co., 7 E. King St., Lancaster, Pa., for she wants one just like Mother's.

515. Schaefer Ross Co., Inc., Rochester, N.Y.

Lititz Truck Service, Lititz, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 03:57:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of perched precariously (on a chair, ladder, roof, tower, cliff, etc.).

Lettering on the side of the truck: "The Lititz Truck S[ervice]. Levi H. Y[erger]. Both Phones. No. 8."

Seven men and two kids pose with a truck overloaded with furniture and other household items. One fellow is perched atop the perilous pile, while another is standing precariously on the top step of a ladder at the back of the truck.

A Cyko stamp box ("Cyko - Place Postage Stamp Here") is printed on the back of this divided-back real photo postcard, which indicates that it may date to sometime between 1907 and the 1920s.

Grand Spelling Bee, Fair View School, Mechanicsville, Pa., March 24, 1906

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 03:09:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

Katharine Hostetter Kauffman, later known as Katharine “Katie” Kauffman Herr (1886-1986), was the teacher who organized the spelling bee advertised on this handbill.

For a similar item from a later event, see Spelling Bee, Terre Hill, Pa., April 3, 1925.

Come One! Come All! To a Grand "Spelling Bee"

To Be Held at the
Fair View School
Near Mechanicsville
along Manheim Trolley Road

Saturday Eve., March 24, '06

Classes are as follows:
Class I. Open to Pupils of 11 years and under.
Class II. Open to all Public School Children.
Class III. Arithmetical Contest, open to all.
Class IV. General Information, open to all.

16 Valuable Prizes to be Distributed
The Program will consist of Music, Phonograph and School Recitations and Dialogues

General Admission - 10 Cts.
Proceeds to be used for the School Library.

Doors Open at 7 o'clock. Exercises begin at 7:30 o'clock.

Katharine H. Kauffman, Teacher.

Should the weather prove too unfavorable the Bee will be held the first fair evening following Monday.

L. B. Herr Print, 51-53 N. Queen St., Lancaster, Pa.

Old Home Week, Locust Street, Columbia, Pennsylvania, 1913 (Cropped Right)

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 22 May 2023 03:51:10 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A boy perches precariously on the base of one of the decorative columns as two men stand together along the edge of the street. Just beyond the two men, a horse and carriage have pulled to the side. In the distance, a wagon is traveling along the right-hand side of the street, and a streetcar is barely visible beyond the wagon.

See also an enlargement of the left-hand side of the photo and the full version of the real photo postcard.

Old Home Week, Locust Street, Columbia, Pennsylvania, 1913 (Cropped Left)

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 22 May 2023 03:51:12 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

That ghostly blur on the right is a woman walking in the middle of the street, and that foot on the left is all that remains of a man moving along the street. Another blurry man is tending to his team of horses next to the sidewalk, and a banner advertising "Oysters in Every Style" is draped across a storefront just beyond the horses.

See also an enlargement of the right-hand side of the photo and the full version of the real photo postcard.

Old Home Week, Locust Street, Columbia, Pennsylvania, 1913

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 22 May 2023 03:51:14 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of blurry motion (someone or something moved as the photo was taken).

A photographer captured this scene along Locust Street in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in 1913. Flags and columns decorated the street and the buildings for the Old Home Week celebration that took place from October 12 to 19 that year.

The image captures the hustle and bustle of people and vehicles in the town. The ghostly blur in the middle is a woman walking in the street, and a foot is all that remains of a man moving along the left-hand side. Another blurry man tends to his team of horses next to the sidewalk on the left, and a banner advertising "Oysters in Every Style" is draped across a storefront just beyond the horses. In the distance, a wagon is traveling along the right-hand side of the street, and a streetcar is barely visible beyond the wagon.

For better views of the activity in the street, see enlargements of the left-hand side and right-hand side of the photo. To see what the same area looks like today, see the Google Street View of Locust Street.

Additional photos taken during Columbia's Old Home Week celebration in 1913 appear in Frederic H. Abendschein's book, Columbia, Marietta, and Wrightsville: Images of America (Arcadia Publishing, 2009), pp. 18-20.

The Deestrick Skule, Strasburg, Pennsylvania, ca. 1910s

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 02 Jan 2023 01:59:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of when I grow up (children dressed as adults or dressed for work, e.g. as policeman, nurse, train driver, etc.). It also fits the monthly theme of group portraits.

Caption in the upper right-hand corner: "The Deestrick Skule." A penciled-in dealer's note on the other side identifies the location as "Strasburg, Pa."

This is a photo of children dressed in costumes to portray pupils, the schoolmaster, school committee members, and local citizens for a play about the funny goings-on at the old-time "Deestrick Skule" or district school -- the one-room schoolhouse of the early nineteenth century (not the school districts that resulted from the later consolidation of these small schools).

Mrs. M. H. Jaquith of Topeka, Kansas, was the author of The Deestrick Skule of Fifty Years Ago (1888) and "Exerbition" of the Deestrick Skule of Fifty Years Ago (1890). Both of these provided scripts and suggestions for producing local theatrical productions that could accommodate fifty or more participants (there are forty kids in this photo).

The Cyko stamp box (Cyko 5, variation A2.66) on the other side of this divided-back real photo postcard has an earliest known usage date of May 2, 1910, according to Brogan and Weseloh's Real Photo Postcard Guide (2006).

The Turkey Hill Experience, Columbia, Pa.

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 15:09:40 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A giant Turkey Hill ice cream container and cow stand guard at the entrance to the Turkey Hill Experience, an attraction in Columbia, Pa., where you can find out how ice cream is made.

Dutch Haven, the Place That Made Shoo-Fly Pie Famous

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 15:09:48 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A fake Holland Dutch windmill on a building full of Pennsylvania Dutch souvenirs in the heart of Amish County, along the Lincoln Highway (Route 30), Ronks, Pa.

Cigar Factory Workers (Cropped)

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 04:57:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

Sixteen men pose in front of a house that served as a cigar factory. Note the two fellows who are perched precariously in the tree.

For more information, see the full version of this photo.

Cigar Factory Workers

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 04:57:04 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of up a tree (person, creature, thing).

This photo, which was labeled as an "unknown cigar factory" when I bought it at an antique mall, shows sixteen men posing in front of a house. Seven of them are standing, two are seated on the wooden sidewalk that runs along the street, five are leaning against a fence, and two are perched up in a tree. Five of the men are wearing striped work aprons.

Similar photos at the same stand at the antique mall were identified as cigar factories in Akron, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, so it's possible that this photo was also taken in Akron.

See a cropped version of the photo for a better view of the men in the tree and on the ground.

Evening Basket Sociable Invitation, Maytown, Pa., October 12, 1895

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 01:40:12 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"Basket. Yourself and friend are cordially invited to attend an evening sociable, complimentary to Mr. Clayton W. Souders, on Saturday evening, October 12, '95. Meet at his home, near Maytown, at 7 o'clock. Committee: Mary K. Felker, Lizzie H. Farmer. Should the weather be unfavorable the sociable will be held the following Wednesday evening."

Sophomore Barn Party Ticket, East Petersburg, October 27, 1920

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 03:10:42 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

David Bachman Landis of Landis Art Press (formerly Pluck Art Printery) printed this Halloween party ticket for the sophomore class of a local high school or college. Perhaps it was for students at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and they may have taken the special 7:00 p.m. streetcar from Lancaster to East Petersburg, which is located about six miles away. Or possibly it was for a group in East Petersburg itself.

Compare this ticket with two others that Landis that printed, one for a dance held two days later--Hell'o'een Masked Dance Ticket, Lancaster, Pa., October 29, 1920--and another for a dance that took place two years later--Black Cat Dance Ticket, Lancaster, Pa., October 27, 1922.

Soph. Barn Party

East Petersburg, October 27, 1920.

Special car leaves square 7:00 p.m.

Price per couple, $.150 [$1.50?].

Spelling Bee Ticket, Camp Grove School, November 27, 1931

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 03:55:04 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

Camp Grove School was located near Bownstown in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The ticket was printed by Landis Art Press, Lancaster, Pa.

Spelling Bee

Camp Grove School, November 27, 1931.

7:30 o'clock. Admission 15c.

The Marietta Dancing Class, Second Sociable, Marietta, Pa., Feb. 22, 1887

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 27 May 2019 05:57:20 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A ticket or invitation for the "Second Sociable" held by the Marietta Dancing Class in Marietta, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 1887. I haven't been able to locate any information about the dancing class or Samuel B. Gramm's role as instructor. The date of February 22 suggests that the dance may have been a celebration for George Washington's Birthday.

The Marietta Dancing Class

S. B. Gramm, instructor,

Invite you to attend their Second Sociable,

on Tuesday evening, Feb'y 22d, 1887, at the Marietta Rink

Music by Taylor's Orchestra.

J. W. Benneman, Manufacturer of Our Principal Cigars, Millersville, Pa.

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 04:43:22 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

"J. W. Benneman, manufacturer of Our Principal 5 cent cigars, Millersville, Pa."

A business card printed by D. B, Landis, Pluck Print, Lancaster, Pa.

A. H. Herr, Mill Creek Dairy, Lancaster, Pa.

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 21:18:12 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

A late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century business card printed by David Bachman Landis, who operated Pluck Art Printery, which was later known as Landis Art Print.

I haven't uncovered any reference to a "Mill Creek Dairy," but it's possible that "A. H. Herr" was Aaron H. Herr (1880-1940), a farmer who lived in Manor Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

A. H. Herr, Mill Creek Dairy.

Pure milk and cream.

Lancaster P.O., Pa.

Woolen Suitings, Dress Fabrics, Housekeeping Goods! Spangler and Rich, Marietta, Pa.

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 05:39:02 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

For the front of this advertising trade card, see Spangler and Rich, Dry Goods and Groceries, Marietta, Pa.

Woolen Suitings, Dress Fabrics, Housekeeping Goods!

Choice styles. Satisfactory prices.

An early visit is respectfully solicited from yourself and friends.

Spangler & Rich.