Captioned “Sue Ann 5 months” on the front, “For Grandma” on the back.
Tag Archives: early 20th century farm photos
Sittin’ on Grandpa
On a hot summer day, sittin’ on grandpa is the funnest thing for a pixie-cut girl to do. This photo hails from the late 1930s in rural Minnesota, and is the kind of candid real-life photo you hope to see out of dozens of posed, dour pictures of family members. It’s also a part of […]
Riding the Red Comet
From an overexposed image, adjusted with Photoshop. This Red Comet, a fine steel wagon with rubber wheels, was probably a big gift for a kid back ‘in the day’ – no Toys R Us, and not a lot of money, meant not a lot of toys to go around. A wagon gave a kid transportation: […]
Martin’s Junk Truck
A well arranged photo of Martin and his buddies — Martin, for whatever reason, had a bunch of junk to haul. Eagle-Eye Billy got to ride shotgun, literally. Probably taken in the 1940s, pulled from this set of rural Minnesota farm life.
Armour Stockyards, West Fargo ND, 1938
More of the Scenic Red River Valley of the North — about the same time period as yesterday’s photo, but from one of the tallest structures for quite some distance, the water tower at the Armour Processing Plant in West Fargo, North Dakota. This view is of the stockyards — each of those tiny dots […]
Farm Funeral, 1930s
I don’t know who passed away, but they were important to this family. Note the lack of scenery; this graveyard is probably at the bottom of glacial Lake Agassiz, now a nearly-flat, low plain along the border of North Dakota and Minnesota. For centuries this area was grasslands, save some hardwood trees along the creeks […]
The Troublemakers
These are the Troublemakers — I only call them that because they look like those reckless teens that were only out to start trouble. You know, the ones that listened to jazz and watched boxing and didn’t give a horse’s patootie about what their fathers had to deal with, what with fighting the Kaiser overseas […]
Took The Roof Off
The idea that a tornado could take the roof clean off sounds like an exaggeration — but there’s ample evidence that’s exactly what happened here. These photos were from the 1950s at the latest — 1920s at the earliest — all of which are on the early side when it comes to rural infrastructure in […]
More 1960s Halloween
Sing along with me: “One of these things is not like the other; one of these things is not quite the same…” I really hope this photo was taken around Halloween, otherwise Gunther has got some ‘splaining to do. If you look closely, he didn’t just grab some kid’s mask and put it on for […]
Scary House In The Woods
I really don’t have any proof that this house is haunted, or contains a murderer, or was built on an indigenous-peoples burial ground, but it sure looks Halloweeny. [more photos in this series]