Sightseeing in Days Past

The earliest long trip or vacation that I recall happened ca. 1952 or so.  I was about 10 years old.  We drove from our home in Jackson Michigan all the way to Sidney Mines Nova Scotia both to 'sightsee' and visit my stepfather’s family along the way.  There weren’t any expressways, motels were rare and most nights we stayed in roadside cabins.  We returned to Jackson via a route that took us through Greenwich Connecticut where we visited my mother's sister and her family…

Even today, that trip would take a minimum of 6 hard driving days…10 hours per day with stops and over 3,200 miles.  My stepfather, Hugh Thomson, managed that drive, sightseeing and the family visits along with my mother Elizabeth, my grandmother Estelle Weed, my brother Robert and me…in just 16 days!  

So…thinking about that early adventure, I started perusing my old time travel related collectibles just to see what I had been given or purchased here and there, items showing what North American travelers might have seen should they have hit the road or taken a train on vacation ca. 1943 and earlier.

One of the old-time souvenirs I’d acquired was this little packet of photos showing a number of views of New York City…a long time tourist draw for people around the world.

This packet of photos of New York City landmarks was published by Alfred Mainzer.  His address at this time was at 118 East 28^th Street…but later his then postcard and greeting card company operated out of an address in Queens at 39-33 29^th Street. 

Based on the automobiles in the second photo, it appears that this photo folder was from the late 1930s.  I’m guessing that this souvenir packet effort preceded Alfred’s later success with his greeting card/postcard company.  Both the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building are in the first photo…and they were completed in 1930 and 1931 respectively.

Even today, at 1,454 feet to the tip of its spire, the Empire State Building is the 6^th tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere.  As for tourists, the observation decks are visited by over 4,000,000 visitors per year!

FYI, Alfred Mainzer’s card company was founded in 1938.  Mainzer’s cards featured artist renditions of ‘dressed dogs’, ‘dressed mice’, ‘dressed hedgehogs’ and most famously, ‘dressed cats’.  They were published from the 1940s into the 1960s.  From what I can tell, the company still exists, (Alfred Mainzer, Inc.), now operating out of Astoria NY.  

To view some of the cat pictures, (human bodies with cat faces, paws, etc.), you can just go to https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=alfred+mainzer+cats&id=DE34811474B9CCC421232FCE2FCDF1609A868153&FORM=IQFRBA.

Staying with New York City, this World’s Fair souvenir and advertising card depicts the Murray Hill Hotel.  It was located at 112 Park Avenue.  The hotel was built in 1884 with 600 rooms and 2 courtyards.  It was part of the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels chain.  The hotel was torn down in 1947. 

The card with its horse-drawn carriages doesn’t seem appropriate for the 1939 World’s Fair.  More likely but still questionable, was the Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and Industries, which was held in 1918.  Partially due to the ongoing struggles of World War I, it was considered a failure.

The Murray Hill Hotel was advertised as being practically fire-proof due to its construction…with stone, iron and cement almost exclusively used plus the exclusion of wood in the walls, floors, staircases, etc.  The hotel also had a powerful fire safety system with roof-top tanks holding 14,000 gallons of water with a hose on each floor for fire suppression. 

I was interested to find one of these Murray Hill Hotel advertising/souvenir cards for sale on the Internet for $69.99.

Talk about sightseeing!  This giant chocolate 2,200 lb. sculpture was on exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair aka The World’s Columbian Exposition…  I wonder how they kept visitors from chipping off a piece of goodness here and there!

Stollwerck Chocolates was founded in Germany in 1839.  By the early 1890s there were over 4,000 of its vending machines in New York train stations! Its US branch, Volkmann, Stollwerck and Company was founded in 1894 and by 1900 the company was the second largest producer of chocolate in the USA. 

FYI…Chicago’s Columbian Exposition attracted 27,300,000 tourists from around the world… They came by foot, carriage, horseback, boat and train.  Consider this.  The population of the USA in 1890 was only 62,979,766.  Today our population is around 329,500,000.

This tourist packet or folder contains 16 views in and around Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) and Lake Mead.  The dam is located on the Colorado River on the border between Arizona and Nevada.  It was completed in 1936.  The dam was called Boulder Dam from 1933 (during construction) until 1947.  In 1947, Congress renamed the Dam to honor President Herbert Hoover.

This particular tourist souvenir was sent to Nathan and Estelle Weed, my grandparents, by my Uncle Nathan Jr., on July 27, 1943.  Note the 3 cent “Win the War” stamp as well as the cancellation asking recipients to “buy War Savings Bonds and Stamps”.  This folder of images has a copyright of 1935…right after the dam was dedicated but before the final work on the project were finished and the dam was turned over to the government.

Did you know…112 deaths were reported that were related to the building of Boulder/Hoover Dam, including 3 suicides.

I’ve only included 2 of the 16 pictures in this little portfolio.  The first one shows Boulder City.  This town was originally built in 1931 by the US Bureau of Reclamation and Six Companies, Inc. as housing for the workers who built the dam.  Boulder City was controlled by the Federal government until 1959.

Alcohol had been banned since the town’s inception and it wasn’t allowed until 1969.  Gambling is still prohibited within the city.  Boulder City, with an estimated population of over 16,000, is one of only 2 towns in Nevada that doesn’t allow gambling.  Panaca, a town of less than 1,000 residents is the other exception.

The history of Boulder City is fairly interesting.  You can learn more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulder_City,_Nevada.

The second photo shows the boat landing near Boulder City.  It appears that the lake wasn’t quite at capacity when the photo was taken.  Lake Mead was originally called the Boulder Dam Recreation area.  In 1947 it was changed to the Lake Mead National Recreation area.  While 186,000 acres of the Recreation Area are water filled (if the lake is up), the total recreation area covers 1,495,806 acres.  It’s still a very popular tourist destination, with 7,578,958 visitors recorded in 2018!    

This is the photo on the back cover of the picture portfolio.  Even as early as 1935 the lake was filling up and tourists were visiting the area.  Given the enormous demands for water by cities in the Southwestern USA and a long term reduction in rainfall and snow pack, the lake is currently only at about 40% of its total capacity.  Despite this fact, cruises are still offered to tourists and they remain popular.  The type of boat being used has changed just a bit though.  Currently the Desert Princess, a 3-level Mississippi style paddlewheel with the capacity for 275 passengers is plying the lake all the way to Hoover Dam.

To learn more about the cruising options and pricing for a tour of Lake Mead, go to https://www.lakemeadcruises.com/.

Now for a little about the company that produced this collection of Boulder Dam and Boulder Lake views.  Curt Otto Teich (1877 – 1974) was a publisher of popular color postcards, usually depicted scenes from American life.  His company, Curt Teich and Company (Chicago IL) became the world’s largest printer of view and advertising postcards.  Teich employed hundreds of traveling salesmen who sold postcards to homeowners, convinced businesses to create advertising postcard and who photographed and helped idealize the images they created. 

The company closed in 1978 and the family donated the company archives.  Eventually, the collection, comprised of 2,500,000 items with 500,000 post card images, ended up in Chicago’s Newberry Library.  If you’re interested in seeing some of the images Teich’s company published, you can go to http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/nby_teich.

My second New York City souvenir picture folder is at least 10 years older than the first one.  I can’t read the postmark, but it only cost 2 cents to send this portfolio and based on what I can read, it’s probably from 1928.  The publisher was the H.H. Tammen Co. 

Much like Curt Teich, Harry Tammen (1856 – 1924) was a real entrepreneur!  More diverse than Teich, he was especially focused on minerals, selling specimens, collections, decorative products studded with minerals plus he published a promotional journal entitled “Western Echoes” which dealt with natural history, botany, minerals and more.  At some point he included humorous and scenic postcards in his collection of products.   

This particular picture folder was focused on New York City skyscrapers.  The Woolworth Building was completed in 1913 and it stood 60 stories tall!  It was the tallest building in the world until 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building were completed in 1930.  One can only imagine the crowds of tourists that it must have attracted!

By the 1920s, the Woolworth Building had more than 1,000 different tenants who in turn employed over 12,000 people!  Of interest to me is that the New York University School of Professional Studies Center for Global Affairs leases space in the building. (Our oldest grandson attends the University) The building has been completely refurbished and the top 30 floors have been converted to private residences. (Great location!)

This picture from Herald Square looking up Broadway is part of the reason I dated this portfolio ca. 1928.  It’s all about the vehicles in use.  Another picture showing 5^th Avenue at 42^nd Street adds credibility to my dating of this tourist souvenir. 

Herald Square is formed by the intersection of Broadway, the Avenue of the Americas and 34^th Street in Manhattan.  It was named for the New York Herald, a daily newspaper that ceased operations in 1924.  Those elevated tracks in the picture used to run up the Avenue of the Americas. (Sixth Avenue)

As for Harry Tammen, he was actually based in Denver Colorado where he had a number of stores operating under the name H.H. Tammen Curio Company.  Currently his historic 10,000 sq. ft. home in Denver is undergoing a full restoration.  To learn more about Tammen, you can go to https://mineralogicalrecord.com/labels.asp?page=1&colid=546 and to learn about his ‘business dealings’ with Buffalo Bill Cody, just go to https://truewestmagazine.com/how-to-steal-a-wild-west-show/.

Finally, the weirdest of all tourist attractions…at least among my memorabilia.  Today we have the Kardashians and a plethora of on-line celebrities and ‘influencers’ but in late May of 1934, the Dionne Quintuplets were born…and the world went wild!

These 5 girls were the first quintuplets known to survive infancy.  The identical sisters were born near the village of Corbeil Ontario…not too far from North Bay.  All 5 girls survived to adulthood with two of them, Annette and Cecile still living today.

The Dionne sisters were born two months prematurely.  After about 4 months with their family, their custody was signed over to the Red Cross, which paid for their care and actually oversaw the building of a hospital/nursery/home for the girls.

…but the story gets weirder, at least by today’s standards.  Less than a year after the agreement with the Red Cross was signed, the Provincial Government of Ontario stepped in and passed the Dionne Quintuplets’ Guardianship Act of 1935.  This act made them Wards of the Crown until they were 18 years old.  It didn’t take long after the government took control of the girls before the provincial government and those around them began to profit by making them a significant tourist attraction.

In the photo shown above, believe it or not, that isn’t the quint’s father, but rather it is Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn posing with the babies.

As the preceding photo shows, finding a parking place to view the girls could be a challenge.  It was all about commerce/tourism!

When the quint’s father Oliva was approached by fair exhibitors to put the girls on display for Chicago’s Century of Progress Exhibition, he signed them up and in 1935, several stage appearances were made.  Note: At the time it was not unusual for so-called “incubator babies” to be displayed at fairs and other events.

Back home in Canada, Oliva operated a souvenir shop and a woolen store across the road from the nursery and the area became known as “Quintland”…hence the name on my souvenir folders.  The souvenirs featured the 5 sisters and included autographs, frame photos, spoons, cups, plates, plaques, candy bars, books, postcards and dolls.  A bin contained free stones from the area that claimed to have the magical power of fertility…and the bins had to be refilled every day.

The quintuplets accounted for more than $50 million in tourist revenue for Ontario. (Equivalent to $872,000,000 in today’s Canadian dollars) The girls were a bigger tourist attraction than the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.  Movie stars that visited the Quints included Clark Gable, James Stewart, Bette Davis and James Cagney to name a few.  The sister’s likenesses and images were also used to promote commercial products.  These included Karo corn syrup and Quaker Oats along with many other items.

The lines at “Quintland” to see the Dionne Quintuplets was every bit as long as one might expect for the newest hottest ride at Disney World.  It is a bit mind blowing!

This was the Dafoe Hospital and Nursery that was built right across the road from their birthplace.  They lived here until they were 9 years old.  The outdoor playground was designed as a public observation area.  Tourists could view the sisters behind one-way screens.  The girls were brought to the playground for public viewing 2 – 3 times a day.  The day to day staff consisted of 3 nurses and 3 police officers plus a housekeeper with 2 maids.  The complex was completely surrounded by a 7’ barbed-wire fence.  About 3,000 tourists viewed the Quints every day from the observation gallery.  Almost 3,000,000 people walked through the gallery between 1936 and 1943. 

In 1942, the Dionne family moved in with the Quints while they waited for their new home to be completed.  In late 1943, they made the move.  The big brick, 20-room mansion was paid for via the Quint’s fund and it was fairly luxurious with telephones, electricity and hot water.  These days it’s a retirement home…

There is a lot more to this story than I could include in this post…and much of it is ugly.  Suffice it to say, once the girls had their eighteenth birthday, they moved out of their parent’s home and didn’t look back.  In addition, the then 3 remaining sisters reached a $2.8 million settlement in 1998 with the Ontario Provincial government as compensation for their exploitation. For more about the Dionne Quintuplets and their long complex, sad and incredible example of financial and personal abuse, go to 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionne_quintuplets.

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Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave