Hello and welcome to another round of Friday Favourites! This week I’d like to thank all the users who contributed information that helped us find more precise locations and Street Views of some great photos. A castle bridge c.1890, a railway hotel in 1913, and this Salford UK street are just a few that we’ve been able to improve. If you think that you can ‘suggest more accurate details’ of a particular pin, don’t hesitate to do so. Now on to some great content:

Pin of the Week

Junction, Rathmines, Dublin, 1911.

A closer look

Pin of the Week is a wonderful Street View from the Open University’s MA History program. The course focuses on local and regional history, and is using Historypin as a platform for sharing their interesting finds with the online community.

The turn-of-the century Dublin photo above shows streetcars, horse and carts, and some fashionable dress from the women in the foreground. A contributor on the photo’s Flickr page has done some sleuthing to discover the correct date of the scene, using the poster headlines between Retz and Rooney & Co. as clues: “And I think the poster says Saturday! However, the next word looks like August to me, so I kept searching and this looks fairly promising from Saturday, 26 August 1911:
“MURDER IN A MOTOR CAR.
The trial of Mr. Beattie for the murder of his wife by shooting her while travelling in a motor car, was resumed to-day…”"

Many of the buildings in the present day are for the most part unchanged, which makes for a great Street View overlay with the 1911 scene. Check out a fullscreen version by clicking the first photo.

There are many school projects that utilise Historypin, and OU’s MA History program is just one of great examples.  We really encourage that Historypin become a learning tool in the classroom!

Check out OU MA History Channel here.

Pinner of the Week

Traffic controller agents, Leon, Mexico, 1922.

Pinner of the Week is user David, who has been pinning lots of great material from León, Mexico. In these photos we can see the hustle and bustle of everyday life, from train station scenes, to market shopping, to cycling on the streets. And speaking of the streets, there are so many great Street Views on this Channel, of scenes spanning multiple decades.

He has also taken a great Historypin Repeat, which I encourage anyone with the our Android App to experiment with. It is a fun way to include yourself and have fun with great historical scenes already out there!

Click the photos for a closer view, and have a look at David’s Channel here.

Train station, 1925-1945.

House built in 1883 and demolished in 1971, Leon, Mexico.

One of the many great flood photos that we have on Historypin; "One day after the flood of 1926."

A bonus repeat as well, taken May 2012.

Story of the Week

Bob Dylan at Kronborg Castle, 1966.

In May 1966, Bob Dylan visited Denmark as part of his World Tour, the first in which he travelled with an electric band. He had caused a sensation a year earlier at the Newport Folk Festival by ‘going electric,’ much disconcerting to many members of the folk movement.

While in Denmark he visited Kronborg Castle in Helsingor, a UNESCO’s World Heritage Site and one of the most important Renaissance castles in Northern Europe.  The castle is most famous as Shakespeare’s Elsinore Castle in Hamlet. Hamlet was performed in the castle for the first time in 1816 to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, with a cast consisting of soldiers from the castle garrison. The play has since been performed several times in the courtyard and at various locations on the fortifications.

Dylan wrote a verse for the play’s Ophelia in his “Desolation Row”:

Now Ophelia, she is at the window, 
For her I feel so afraid 
On her twenty-second birthday 
She already is an old maid  

Thanks to Google’s efforts at Street Viewing more ‘inside’ locations, Kronborg Castle is one of the most recent additions to this growing list. This is how we could get this atypical overlay with sweeping sea views and castle grounds below. Click for a bigger view of Dylan contemplating Elsinore:

In Street View inside the castle.

Remember that you too can keep up with the latest Google Street View additions through the official blog. Maybe you’ll find some new and interesting places to pin!

Friday is upon us again, I hope everyone enjoys their weekends! Here is only a small portion of the great content that has gone up recently:

Pin of the Week

The Oldest Surviving Ambulance in Ontario, 1908.

Pin of the Week is from Owlinink, of the oldest surviving ambulance in Ontario, Canada. This is the original ambulance used in the oil town of Petrolia, and was built in February 1908 by the Petrolia Wagon Works Company and was used until it was replaced with a motorized ambulance about 1919. The men working in the oil industry surrounding Petrolia were particularly vulnerable to injury with their dangerous occupation, and the ambulance was often dispatched into the oil fields around town to retrieve injured workers and transport them in relative comfort.

In 2008-2009 the Paramedics of Lambton County EMS raised the funds to give the hundred year-old ambulance a proper restoration, and it is now on display at the Lambton Heritage Museum.

The ambulance today.

According ambulance’s website, “Preservation of this ambulance has now ensured that the citizens of Ontario and all of Canada will be able to see how the sick and injured were brought to hospital so many years ago.” This is a great effort to preserve a piece of history that is now available for the community to see. To learn more about the ambulance and its restoration, visit http://www.horsedrawnambulance.com

Pinner of the Week

Neuman's Market Building, 1950.

Pinner of the Week goes to Walk With History, who have pinned some great photos and stories of historic downtown Kennewick, Washington. This compilation, together an effective walking tour, is a collaborative effort amongst the Digital Technology and Culture Program at Washington State University, the City of Kennewick, the East Benton County Historical Museum and the Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership. Each building photo has a lovely nostalgic story to go along with it, such as the one above: “Historical records showed that back in the day pricing for grocery items (at the Market) were: coffee $1.00/lb., pancake flour $0.49/lb., and bulk macaroni noodles $0.29/lb. No double coupons necessary!”

Cox Building, 1950. Opened for 41 years and associated with important civic leaders.

Kennewick Transfer Building, 1915. Owned by the mayor at the time, who eventually had to relocate due to financial difficulties in the town.

I like how what at first seems like a mere photo of a building makes way for wonderful anecdotes about the people and culture the make-up community life in a small American town. Experience them for yourself at Walk With History’s Channel here.

 Story of the Week

Young Love, July 1948.

Story of the Week is a nice vignette from Kerr and Porter Family Histories. Heather Acton, daughter of Bob and Betty Porter Kerr of White Bear, Saskatchewan, has pinned this wonderful photo of her parents when they were dating in 1948. Taken at Clearwater Lake, Saskatchewan, the photo is such a nice snapshot of a meaningful family memory. Bob and Betty are learning against the round dancehall that used to be right at the beach, and are about 16 or 17 in the photo. Heather writes that they saw their 50th wedding anniversary in 2002, a wonderful milestone. Here we get to see where it all began!

If you have any memories of your parent’s while they were dating like Heather’s, we’d love to see them pinned and tweeted about.

Hello and welcome to a special Monday edition of Friday Favorites! It has been hectic here at Historypin, but I still wanted to get the word out there about some of the great content that went up in the past week. Check them out:

 Pin of the Week

Fourth of July Parade, Colorado Street, Telluride, 1895.

Pin of the Week comes from the Telluride Historical Museum, with a scenic photo of a Fourth of July Parade in Telluride in 1895. Located in the beautiful mountains of Colorado, Telluride has a rich history as a mining town; from the local Native American Ute culture, the discovery of gold and silver, and the arrival of the railroad, the museum aims to chronicle this diverse history. The world is familiar with Telluride through the the Telluride Film Festival, held for the past forty years and on parr with Cannes and Sundance. I myself knew about Telluride through my love for film, but am glad to be able to explore the town’s history.

Unfortunately there is currently no Street View available for Telluride (get on that Google Maps!), but looking at the photo below, it seems that the intimate small-town feeling still remains:

Downtown Telluride, present day.

Telluride, surrounded on all sides by mountains

I look forward to seeing more pins from the Telluride Historical Museum; in the meantime, visit their Channel and their website.

Pinner of the Week

South End kids pose on a stone lion, Boston, MA, 1933-1943.

Pinner of the Week is user binarydreams, a self-perscribed “local history nut” from Somerville, Massachusetts. With over one-hundred pins, binarydreams shares an array of photos from not only Somerville’s past, but other cities in Massachusetts such as Boston. From sledding on underwater ice to raids on speakeasies in the latter, to child laborers in 1912 Somerville, decades of local history leading up to the present are brought vividly to life.

A yard full of homework, Sommerville, MA, 1912.

A city farmer tends his vegetables in the Fenway, Boston, 1973.

I love individuals that are so enthusiastic about their local history; there is so much to discover and learn, and the potentially more personal element involved can instill a sense of belonging and participation in the timeline of local culture. Binarydream’s Channel certainly has the scope that allows not only locals, but those from around the world to see how much has changed (or what has not) in the area, and reflect on “remember how we used to…”

Check out the Channel’s wonderful collection of photos here.

Story of the Week

Harry Houdini preparing for an escape stunt, 1912. (Library of Congress)

In the weeks leading up to Halloween, Story of the Week comes from the mysterious magician Harry Houdini. A master at his craft, Houdini defied the efforts of experts in almost every part of the world to devise a restraint from which he could not escape. He escaped from iron boxes, paper bags, bank safes, and coffins buried six feet under.

On July 7, 1912, Houdini attempted to escape from a wooden crate submerged in the East River in New York harbor. In the photo above, he shows his handcuffs and chains as he stands with the wooden crate that he will climb into, the hook for it visible on the left. The police inspected that his bindings were secure, then the large box was nailed shut and weighted down with lead weights. The box was then slowly lowered into the harbor, to the delight of a huge crowd onshore.

Here Houdini describes the mental strength necessary to complete an escape: “When I am stripped and manacled, nailed securely within a weighted packing case and thrown into the sea, or when I am buried alive under six feet of earth, it is necessary to preserve absolute serenity of spirit….If I grow panicky I am lost. And if something goes wrong; if there is some slight accident or mishap…I am lost unless all my faculties are free from mental tension or strain. The public see only the accomplished trick…”

Within a minute of being submerged in the box, Houdini’s head appeared in the water, unbound and free. When the bindings were inspected back on the pier, they were found in the exact condition they were in before the box was lowered into the water. Hat’s off to one of the world’s greatest escapists!

Happy Friday! Thank you to all the institutions and individual users that have joined and started using Historypin this week, we have come across some wonderful Channels recently. Here in London, where everyone is in denial over the fact that winter has started, let’s keep warm and cozy with some Friday Favourites:

Pin of the Week

Goat stealing a horse's food, April 18, 1895.

For the Pin of the Week, I thought it would be fun to showcase two great Channels through their fun animal-themed photos. This first one, of a goat cheekily stealing a horse’s food, continues the surprising goat-themed week we have been having here at Historypin. The Samuel Butler Project, who have pinned the photo, have many more animal-centric photos from the prolific Victorian photographer of the same name, including sheep and horses on steamers and a man with a monkey. Butler travelled around Europe extensively during the 1800′s and captured the charming, humorous, and poignant slices of life, and this photo is just one great example.

Seal meets man on site of the 'Cities Service Boston' wreck, 1943.

The second is from the Shellharbour Libraries and Museum in New South Wales, Australia, of a man meeting a seal on the beach. The photo was taken on the site of a shipwreck in 1943, in which soldiers from the 6th Australian Machine Gun Battalion AIF rescued the entire crew of 62 Americans, tragically losing four soldiers in the process. A memorial to their bravery now stands on the northern side of Bass Point in Shellharbour. I like the way that this fun photo unexpectedly tells a larger story of local heroism.

Check out the Samuel Butler Project’s Channel here, and the Shellharbour Libraries and Museums’ Channel here.

Pinner of the Week

Fighting boys by the Domestic Economy Building, 1911-1917.

Pinner of the Week is the wonderful Swinburne University of Technology, who have been pinning some great photos of campus life reaching back to the early 20th century. Founded by George Swinburne in 1908, this Melbourne, Australia-based campus holds thousands of historical photographs illustrating the rich history of learning and teaching at the institution. Swinburne’s Channel provides a snapshot of retro learning, from dressmaking and laundry to blacksmith and practical plumbing classes.

Junior laundry class, 1915.

Drum-up some school nostalgia by viewing more photos on Swinburne’s Channel.

Story of the Week

The Battle of Iwo Jima, February 1945.

Story of the Week comes from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library, who have pinned some haunting photos of The Battle of Iwo Jima in February 1945. Many capture Invasion Beach, where 61,000 American marines poured onto in one of the bloodiest and final campaigns of World War II. The battle was marked by changes in Japanese defense tactics-troops no longer defended at the beach line but rather concentrated inland; consequently, the marines experienced initial success but then got bogged down in costly attritional warfare.

The Battle of Iwo Jima, 1945.

These photos were taken by Richard H. Stotz, a combat photographer during World War II who was dispatched to Iwo Jima’s front lines to capture the battle as it was taking place. The job of a combat photographer was very dangerous because they were never heavily armed, usually carrying only a single weapon and their camera equipment. Photographs taken during a combat assault, like Iwo Jima, were rarely developed in the field.  The photographers’ film was sent out by plane or naval ship to an alternate location to be developed.  Interestingly, photographers usually never saw the actual photographs. Photos like these of Iwo Jima were used for training purposes, and to identify any mistakes that may have occurred.  Today, these images of Stotz’s comrades, Japanese prisoners, downed military airplanes and combat operations are valuable historical records and memories.

Check out more photos at their Channel here.