Driving on Queen's Boulevard in 1920, Long Island, New York


I stumbled across this photo on the Duke University site today of some cars driving past a billboard on Queens Boulevard, Long Island in 1920, and figured that it would be fun to dive into it, and do an imaginary history adventure with you. Let's ride!

Now calm down there, I'm no expert on Long Island. All that I know is that it's an island, and it's long. I took a look on a Google map to see if I could at least figure out where Queens Boulevard was, and it looks like it's the road to and from Manhattan (which is also an island). I've heard of the borough of Queens because I've watched situation comedies, and all of this is in New York State. There, that's all I know.


Let's take a closer look at the cars. I wish that I could identify them for you, but other than knowing that they went "A-Ooogah!" I can't tell you anything. Something interesting that caught my eye is that there's a trolley line there on one side, and that someone appears to be walking on the tracks, carrying an umbrella. You can see the electrical wires for the trolley up there, too.


Looks like the billboard is advertising some tires, near the Triple Action Spring Company. I've never heard of Vacuum Cup tires, so I'll probably go Google it later on. And by the way, that billboard is the reason that we are enjoying this image today, the photo was taken by the advertising agency as evidence, and then later on scanned by the nice people at Duke, and is used in the study of historic advertising. How about that?


And in case you're wondering if I'm some kind of mastermind detective, figuring out where and when the photo was taken, it's written on the photo. If you can tell me more precisely, please do!
If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more