US diplomat Alvey A. Adee riding to work (1914)

This 1914 photo by Harris & Ewing shows 72 year old US diplomat Alvey Augustus Adee, Second Assistant Secretary of State, riding to work on his bicycle. My colorization of a picture in the Library of Congress archive.

An article by Peter Bridges in the American Diplomacy web gives us this information about Adee´s bicycle hobby:

"At some point in the 1890s Adee began annual cycling trips to Europe. He took as much as two months’ leave each spring—which successive Secretaries of State granted, presumably on the basis that the reliable Adee would be in charge of the department during their own summer vacations—and he would do between 1,500 and 2,000 miles on his ‘wheel’ through Europe, alone or with a friend or two. His most frequent companions were Alexander Thackara, a senior American consular officer, and Thackara’s wife, who was the daughter of General William T. Sherman, the Civil War commander. France was Adee’s favourite cycling ground, but he also toured Italy, Germany and the Alps. At least once, in 1895, he cycled through England and Scotland, where he is said to have met Woodrow Wilson, then a professor at Princeton University, and to have continued his tour together with the future President."28

"Adee also cycled to the State Department while living in Washington, and was the only official permitted to bring his bicycle into the State Department building and stand it in a particular place in the corner.29 But Adee did not always live in Washington." 

If you are interested in US diplomatic history, the article by Peter Bridges is well worth reading:

http://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2001/12/an-appreciation-of-alvey-adee/  

The Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State in the early 1920s

Unfortunately I never came to visit the Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State when I lived in the US in the late 70s and early 80s. It certainly is one of the most scenic places anywhere:

An early 1920s image of Mount Rainier.

A 1908 New York street musician

A 1908 New York street musician, playing the cello and the violin at the same time:

One could speculate about what he was playing. Perhaps e.g. Beethoven's Rondeau Concertant No.2, Op.51
 for violin and cello ? Probably not, as the cello part would have been rather difficult to play with the technique
used by the musician in the picture.

Sacred water from the river Jordan exported to the US in 1905

Armenian businessmen pose together with an orthodox priest and a police constable (?) in front of barrels filled with sacred water from the river Jordan, which were to be exported to the US in 1905:

In December 2010 it was reported that the export of sacred water had resumed after a pause of 100 years:

For the first time in almost 100 years, Jordan is resuming the export of consecrated water from the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been baptized, officials said Tuesday.
The export of sacred water from the Jordan River came to a halt with the defeat of the Ottoman Turks, who controlled Jordan and other Middle East countries before the outbreak of World War I.
For much of the past century, the area on the eastern side of the river has been a military zone.
"Jordanian firms have been qualified for the bottling and packing of consecrated water from the baptism site," said Dia Madani, chairman of the Baptism Site Board.

The Cliff House Restaurant in San Francisco in the early 1890s

This picture of the famous Cliff House restaurant in the San Francisco Bay area is included in the book "Jorden Rundt" (Around the world), published by the Swedish publishing company Bonnier in 1898:



The Cliff House in the early 1890s, before it was destroyed on Christmas night 1894.

The Cliff House has had five "incarnations" since the first one was built in 1858. The one on the picture must be the second one, built in 1863 and destroyed  on Christmas night 1894 due to a defective flue.

In 1896, the owner Adolph Sutro built a new Cliff House, a seven story Victorian Chateau, which burned to the ground on the evening of September 7, 1907, after existing for only 11 years:

The Cliff House Chateau, which burned down in 1907.
(image by wiki)

The present Cliff House is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service.

Two Japanese peace delegates in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1905

The defeat in the 1904 - 1905 Russo-Japanese War was a major blow to Imperial Russia. Tsar Nicholas II chose a negotiated peace, brokered by American President Theodore Roosevelt (which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize). The Treaty of Portsmouth was signed on 5  September 1905 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, New Hampshire.

The Japanese delegation at Portsmouth was led by Foreign Minister, Baron (later Marquis) Komura Jutarō - a Harvard graduate -, assisted by another Japanese nobleman, Baron Takahira.

The Japanese peace delegates, Baron Komura (on the right) and Baron
Takahira on board President Roosevelt's yacht Mayflower. Komura is said
to have inherited massive debts from his father, which he had difficulties with
repayment. As a result, he wore the same frayed coat for years, regardless of season
or occasion. Whether the coat on this photo is the frayed one, is difficult to tell.

Two North American transportation pictures from the early 1920s

 

 

These two Ontarian horses were pulling a load of 306 logs.

Cotton bales transported in North Carolina.

A Walk Down Memory Lane (4): Wine tasting at the Inglenook Winery in 1978

My first and only visit to the beautiful Inglenook Winery in Napa Valley - now owned an operated by Francis Coppola - took place in 1978. The winery had been founded 99 years earlier by the legendary Finnish Sea Captain Gustave Ferdinand Niebaum (originally Nybom), who already in the late 19th century managed to create world class wines, winning gold medals at the Paris World Fair in 1889.

At the time of my visit the brand and the winery was owned by Heublein Inc. which unfortunately was to start selling cheaper wines produced elsewhere under the name Inglenook. Fortunately Francis Coppola was in 2011 able to acquire the brand and the winery, which again produces some of the best (organic) wines in Napa Valley.

A walk down memory lane: Two signatures on Cat Cay Island in the Bahamas

The signatures of  Edward, the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Windsor on Cat Cay Island.

In 1981 I visited Cat Cay island in the Bahamas, an exclusive private club island accessible only to members and their guests. In one of the traditional club buildings I noticed two interesting autographs above the door, "Edward" and "Wallis Windsor". Whether the fish above the names was caught by Edward, the Duke of Windsor (or perhaps Wallis?), who in 1936 abdicated from the British throne in order to be able to marry Wallis Simpson. The couple's visit to Cat Cay island must have taken place during the WW II, when the Duke was Governor of the Bahamas (1940 - 1945). 

I can see that Cat Cay is still a favored location for American and international members. This is how the Cat Key Yacht Club describes the island:

Over the years the Cat Cay Yacht Club has managed to combine the best features of private island life with the infrastructure of a major resort. Many members own luxurious beachfront homes, play tennis or golf on well-maintained inland facilities, dock their yachts in the modern, protected marina and dine in the island’s first-rate restaurant.

This is how Cat Cay looked in 1981:

The use of private cars was - and still is - forbidden. Golf carts are the preferred
 meansof transportation.

In 1981 you could see several large yachts in the marina. Today they are probably even larger.

The Lady Elinor was one of the yachts in the marina.

The view when entering Cat Cay by boat.

Some golf carts were more luxurious than others.

A golf cart at the building visited by the Duke of Windsor and his wife.

The origin of the Japanese people (as it was seen a hundred years ago)

The origin of the inhabitants has always been a much studied and debated  theme in most countries. That is also the case with regard to Japan. 

In the early 20th century researchers in Japan believed that the Japanese were not of pure Mongolian origin, but a mix of Mongols and Tatars, and that they thus were related to Finns and Turks. The Japanese scientists also believed that the indigenous Ainu people, living on Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands were the "purest" representatives of the original Finnish-Tatar population. 

At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 the Japanese government, in accordance with the international habit of that time, exhibited a number of Ainu people. 

The way the the Swedish Allers Familj-Journal in 1904 reported about the Ainu exhibited in St. Louis, is also typical for the time:

"The inhabitants of these islands are called Ainu, and Japan, which has a large presence in the St. Louis fair, has sent sent a number of these Ainu people, some older and some younger, to the exhibition. They are not very intelligent, and a sharp observer can easily see the similarity between these people and the Finns and the Tatars. Just look at the amazing resemblance of the old man in our illustration and the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. The researchers could really be right when saying that they are of Tatar-Finnish origin."

Japanese Ainu people exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. 

A portrait of Leo Tolstoy, published in the Allers Familj-Journal.

A vintage Oliver 60 tractor in Sweden

This 1947 Oliver 60 tractor belongs to a local collector in Scania, Sweden. The tractor is in its original condition, and still fully operational. The Oliver 60, built by the Oliver Corporation in Chicago, has an 18 hp engine and weighs about 1200 kg.

These two photos were shot with a wide angle lens:

Lady M - the world's largest sport yacht - in Øresund tonight

The world's largest Sport Yacht Lady M going southward in Øresund tonight. The speed was just under 20 knots.

Tonight there was a unique visitor in the Sound - the world's largest sport yacht, Lady M  - on its way from Kristiansand to Copenhagen. The 65.5 m yacht, with a top speed of 28 knots, was launched by US yacht builders Palmer Johnson as late as in May this year.

Palmer Johnson President Mike Kelsey recently gave Boat International this information about the boat and its owner:

‘In that she is the largest Sport Yacht that Palmer Johnson – or any other yard for that matter – has built to date, I would say that [Lady M] certainly represents new cutting-edge design and technologies,’ says Kelsey. ‘We are constantly evolving our product line as evidenced by our new SuperSport Series, which is a very different yacht while sharing many familial attributes.’

Kelsey gives a few clues into the closely guarded owner’s brief: ‘I can say that from the very first conversation I had with the owner, it was clear that he wanted a family yacht to enjoy his rare free time with and to have something which truly no one else has to enjoy with his family and friends.

Luxury yacht Skat in the Sound

M.Y. Skat approaching Helsingør on June 17, 2013.

Late tonight, the luxury yacht Skat, owned by Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian-American former Microsoft software executive, was going southward in the Sound on its way from Gothenburg to Copenhagen. 

The 70.70 m x 13.5 m yacht was delivered by Lürssen of Bremen in 2001 as project 9906. The number is still prominently displayed on the hull, giving the grey ship the look of a military vessel. 

M.Y. Skat and Russian trawler Bratya Stoganovy met close to Helsingør.

Skat is Danish, meaning something like "honey" in English. Simonyi once had a Danish girlfriend who called him "skat". 

(By the way, SKAT (meaning tax) is also the name of the Danish Tax Authority. Hopefully not too many Danes, who see the ship, think that it is the Tax Authority's new tax enforcement vessel!) 

Offshore drilling Ocean Nomad returns to Øresund

The Ocean Nomad, towed by Tor Viking, passing Hamlet's Kronborg castle.

Exactly a month ago, on May 7, the huge offshore drilling rig Ocean Nomad was going southwards in Øresund on its way to Latvia, where it was about to start drilling exploration wells in the Latvian zone of the Baltic. 

Today, the Nomad was back in the Sound. It is returning to the UK (Newcastle) after a hopefully successful campaign in Latvian waters. 

Unfortunately the haze made it very difficult to get decent images of the drilling  rig, which was accompanied by the Swedish tugboats Odin Viking and Tor Viking. 

The Ocean Nomad is owned and operated by Houston based Diamond Offshore. 

A view of Hood River Valley in the 1920s

The Hood River Valley in northwestern Oregon was a thriving agricultural center already in the 1920s. The mountain in the background is the famous Mount Hood, the tallest peak in the state. 

For comparison, here is a contemporary view of the area:

(image by wikipedia)

Sir Tom Jones in top form at LSO St Luke's in London

Sir Tom singing together with Seasick Steve.

If there would be a world heritage list of the most legendary living popular music vocalists, Sir Tom Jones - or formally Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE - would certainly be on the top of it, perhaps together his American colleague Tony Bennett. 

The fact that Sir Tom still - almost fifty years after his international rise to fame - is in top form is nothing short of amazing. The other day I watched him in action in the wonderful BBC Four Sessions program, recorded in the LSO St. Luke's in London in September 2012. 

Together with an outstanding small band led by his record producer, guitarist Ethan Johns, Sir Tom was back to his musical roots, performing a number of folk, gospel, blues and country pieces. Tom's guests were the young Londoner Josh Osho and the American blues musician Seasick Steve, both of whom mixed very well musically with the host. 

Seasick Steve

Hopefully the BBC Four sessions program with Sit Tom will soon be available on DVD and blu ray!

Meanwhile, you can watch it on YouTube:

A giant floating gold dredge in California in the early 1920s

An early 1920s "monster" gold dredge in California.

This is an early 1920s photograph of a large floating gold dredge in California (unfortonately I have no information about where in California). Monstrous machines like this one scooped up millions of tons of gravels - and a lot of gold - in the early 20th century. Several of these giants still exist in state-sponsored heritage areas.

Today technological advances have again made dredging popular. Small dredges allow a single person to access and process gravel banks that were inaccessible to the giant dredges of the early 1900s. 

Manhattan skyscrapers in the early 1920s

In the early 1920 skyscrapers dominated the Manhattan skyline. Below is a selection of the early skyscrapers and a couple of other photos from New York from that time:

The Bank Trust building, with the Singer tower in the background.

The Equitable Building at 120 Broadway. 15.000 people were working in the 37 floor building in the 1920s. 

The 34 floor Municipal building.

Hotel Pennsylvania. It had 2200 rooms in the early 1920s.

The New York Times building.

Metropolitan Life Tower.

Pennsylvania station.

Broadway.

Manhattan just before the skyscrapers

This is how Manhattan looked just before the arrival of the skyscrapers. (1880s drawing by Bertault, based on a lithograph by Currier and Yves).

Oranges in San Bernardino

Orange trees in San Bernardino in the early 1920s.

The first orange trees were brought to the San Bernardino valley in California in 1857. In the early 1920s there were already a few more of them .....

The National Orange Show website has this information about the history of oranges in the valley:

According to Ingersoll’s Century Annals of San Bernardino County, Anson Van Leuven brought the first orange trees, six in number, to San Bernardino Valley from San Gabriel Valley in 1857. In 1869, Lewis F. Cram was given the opportunity to buy 500 trees, but opted to purchase only enough rootstock to plant 1 ¾ acres. By 1887, he showed a net profit of $1,757 on this meager planting, over $1,100 net per acre–a good fortune in those days. In 1873, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent California’s two original orange trees to Eliza Tibbets. The tree’s seemingly endless oranges won awards at major expositions for their superior quality and taste. Ms. Tibbets soon had a booming business selling buds from her celebrated stock. By 1910, one year before the National Orange Show began, at least 100,000 acres in California were planted with the progeny of her trees and California navel orange sales had reached $200 million.

The economic importance of the oranges has been considerable for the area:

 For example, the 7,511 orange trees in 1872 had grown to 1,347,911 by 1900; the 15,000 boxes of oranges shipped in 1881 stood at 1,562,108 boxes by 1902-03; and the cash value of the orange crop had grown from $2,450 in 1860 to $1,634,783 in 1900. This introduction provided the setting and circumstances for the genesis of the National Orange Show, which has taken place every year since its inception in 1911, with the exception of four years during World War II.