The 6th World Congress of Esperanto, held in Washington D.C. in August 1910, had reached its peak with an address by the language’s creator, Ludwig Zamenhof, on August 15th. Entitled “Lando de Libereco,” Zamenhof complimented the United States for being a land without tribe or church, a place of freedom and cooperation. A full English […]
Tag Archives: 1910s
The Rusk Auto-House, 1915
One of the things my Wifey likes about me is that I geek out over weird things. A few summers ago, while we were cruising rummage sales around Fargo, I started to geek out over a small building in an alley in the older section of town. Yes, I’m a garage nerd, but for one […]
WWI Poem, 1948
“Just a thought And just to think – A slap of ink, embroiled the world in War! A fleet of ships through “U” boats slink – A Kaiser is no more.” I tried to find a source for this little, not-quite-rhyming poem, that was near the end of my great-grandfather’s WWI memoir, but I came […]
Bemidji At Night, 1916.
Click for full image Bemidji, Minnesota: home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, but the giant pair were still twenty years away when this postcard was mailed in 1916. In the 1910s, it was still a community on the grow, trying to develop roads and railroad access. A new depot was built a […]
Meeting With A Buffalo, 1910s.
Click for full image “A Terrible Meeting With A Buffalo”, from The Book of Knowledge, 1910s. Caption text here.
Jack’s Wonderful House, 1910s.
Click for full image A whimsical interpretation of the human body as a house, with Jack’s study at the top, and various windows and doors for sensory input to enter through. From a series of articles in The Book of Knowledge, 1910s. The articles may be an adaptation of this book, although I was unable […]
Submarine Point-Of-View, 1910s.
Click for full image My impression of a submarine’s visual acuity was similar to a telescope: Square-jawed 1950s movie stars peering into a binocular-like apparatus suspended from the ceiling, ordering torpedoes to be fired. During and prior to WWI, submarines were just coming into their own, and would soon be the secret weapon to turn […]
Forests, Deserts, and Prairies, 1910s.
Click for full image From The Children’s Encyclopedia, published in the 1910s, and designed by “G.F. Morrell”. This illustrated map, ignoring political boundaries and man-made roads or railways, is pieced together from several smaller maps, depicting the various environments of the world. The caption of the maps engages in some scare-mongering, comparing the expanding deserts […]
Steam-Powered Space-Ships, 1918.
Click for full image If these amazing craft could actually reach the impressive speed of two miles per minute (120mph), how long would it take to reach the sun? Over fifty years, or so says the margin notes in the original. I have never seen such a wonderful portmanteau of craft-shapes compiled into a single […]
The Beautiful Land of Sound, 1900s.
Click for full imageAn illustration of “The Beautiful Land of Sound”, from the Children’s Encyclopedia, 1900s. The Encyclopedia used a theme of fairies and goblins in its music education sections.