About Those Model Battleships

From the April 25, 2017, Shorpy Photo site "Fireside Cats: 1955."

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1955.  A boy and girl are posing in front of the home's fireplace.  She is holding a car, but the boy is proudly holding a battleship model.

I couldn't tell what model battleship it was, but a comment said it was definitely an Iowa-class battleship and that these were very popular with American boys at the time.  He described these warships as the "last and best true battleships built by the U.S. Navy.  Everything about them is superlative."

I always remember seeing a picture of the hull of the Oklahoma after it was uprighted.  It was tied up next to the new USS Iowa, which dwarfed the older battleship.

As proud as the boy was, he had not done a perfect job putting it together.

I was just four at the time so would have been unable to build a battleship model, but model ships were my favorite things to build by far.  Other friends of mine liked to build model planes or cars, but my forte was ships.

I built models of the Arizona, North Carolina and several of the Missouri, including a huge one.

Give Me a Battleship Model Anytime.  --Cooter

Girding for War in 1917

From the September 19, 2016, Shorpy Photo Site.  DO SPOONS COME NEXT: 1917  A shop at the Washington Navy Yard where the workers are constructing torpedo tubes to be used on surface ships.

--Cooter

Shorpy Photos: Talking Machines: 1914

From the March 3, 2016, Shorpy site.

Richmond, California, 1914.  "Victor Talking Machine display, Hawley Piano Company, Macdonald Avenue."  With Nipper heading the list of the latest platters.

Early, early stereos.    There is an ad poster for Harry Lauder "Lauder Laughs and when you hear his Four New Victor records you will laugh with him.   12 in Purple Label.  Price $1.25.  Come in and laugh with Harry Lauder."

Another poster:  "New Victor Records "The Spring Maid.  Daydreams: Two Little Love Bees.  Sung by Christie Macdonald.  The Rabbit Story ? by Tom McNaugh ?.

Comment:  One of Lauder's biggest hits was in 1911 "Roamin' in the Gloamin." Price of records appears to be 75 cents to $1.25, which was a whole lot of money back then.

RCA did not come into existence until 1919 and bought Victor Talking Machines.

--Cooter

Bathing Is Compulsory-- Part 3: Separate Baths for Colored and White Persons

More pictures and quotes from the bulletin boards.

"Good preventative work during detention."  Photos including inmates in Occupation, Education, Recreation, Playground and Schoolroom.

Telephone calls provided.  Records.

Clients are interviewed to throw light on personal and community problems.

There are eight Bathrooms.  Photos of Boys Bath and Girls Bath.

Also, there are separate baths for colored and white persons.  A towel, wash cloth and toothbrush provided for each inmate.

BATHING IS COMPULSORY!

An Interesting Look at Jail in 1922.  --Cooter

Bathing Is Compulsory-- Part 2: Cleanliness, Sunlight and Fresh Air for All

There are signs set up on movable bulletin boards.  They have pictures and captions.  Some of the others:

HOUSE OF DETENTION    MENTAL AND MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS:  Are essential in order to make intelligent disposition of cases.

There's a bed for every inmate:  Then there are pictures of a white girls bedroom, colored girls dormitory and dining room.  (Apparently there is segregation in D.C. back in 1922.)

Then a bulletin board showing pictures of the employee dining room, shelter for stranded girls.  "There is Cleanliness, Sunlight and Fresh Air for all."

Still More on Those Boards.  --FreshAirCooter

Bathing is Compulsory in 1922-- Part 1: In the Jailhouse Now

From the Nov. 2, 2012, Shorpy "Bathing is Compulsory 1922."

1922.  Washington, D.C. "Women's Bureau The House of detention display at the Social Hygiene exhibit.

The photo shows four people at a table, three women and one man.  They are reading pieces of paper.  The sign behind them reads "WOMEN'S BUREAU-- METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT--  WASHINGTON, D.C.

Citizens are asked to notify the presence of:

I.  Any friendless, homeless or incorrigible girls or boys.

II.  Any condition making for a person's causing delinquency

III.  Any girl or woman who is violating the law.

More to Come.  --Cooter

Shorpy Photos of 1900 Safety Bicycles

From Shorpy Site.

Kind of interesting that I would come across these two photographs right when I was doing entries about bicycling in Chicago 1890-1900.

From the Nov. 17, 2014, Shorpy "Miss Handle Bars: 1900

From the Nov. 18, 2014, Shorpy "Rover Boys: 1900.

See what those bikes looked like.

--Cooter

Some More Shorpy 1893-1904 U.S. Navy Photos

9-19-12 Shorpy "Maine Cook Cat: 1896"  Taken aboard the famous USS Maine before it blew up in Havana Harbor showing the berth deck cooks and their cat.

9-17-12 Shorpy "Georgia in Maine: 1904."  October 1904, Bath, Maine "Bath Iron Works showing the launch of the battleship Georgia..

9-14-12 Shorpy "Russian Fleet Officers: 1893."  New York 1893: "Officers of the Russian fleet i n town for the Columbian Naval Review.

--Cooter

U.S. Navy Shorpy Photo 1908-- Part 2

The USS Columbia (CL12) and USS Minneapolis (CL 13) were in and out of service during their careers.  The Columbia had been decommissioned since May 3, 1907 and returned to service in 1915 where it served during World War I.  It was decommissioned in

June 29, 1921, and sold January 22, 1922.

There was an outhouse perched over the water on the Katahdin's starboard side for relief.  Not too sanitary for the river, though.

The Katahdin was highly innovative in its time, but obsolescent when it was designed after being copied after British 1870s-1880s harbor rams.  She was underpowered and unseaworthy.

It was obsolete when it was launched in 1896 and decommissioned October 1898 after the Spanish-American War.  In 1909 it was struck from the Navy register and designated a target vessel and sunk off Rappahannock Spit, Virginia, in the autumn of 1909.

--Don't Katahdin Me.  --DaCoot

U.S. Navy Shorpy Photos from 1908-- Part 1

From the September 21, 2012, Shorpy "Heavy Metal: 1908."

Philadelphia, curca 1908.  "Ships at League Island Navy Yard.  Cruisers Minneapolis and Columbia and armored ram Katahdin.

One comment quoted the Annual Report of the Navy Department for Fiscal Year 1907 saying that the Katahdin was considered to be of no military value and requested that it be sold.  Its value will continue to decrease and it was last commissioned for service in 1898 for the Spanish-American War.  So far, $54,067.77 had spent on construction and repairs on it.

--Cooter

Shorpy Photo: USNA Class of '92 (As in 1892)

The Dec. 22, 2013, Shorpy had an interesting picture of the United States Naval Academy's Class of 1892, including one midshipman who later became Commandant of the USMC from 1934-1936, Major-General John R. Russell.

These men served in the Spanish-American War as junior officers and were involved with the rise of the Dreadnaught battleships as well as submarines and aviation. Quite a change to naval technology. They served as senior officers in World War I.

--Cooter