Variety of Non-Postage Stamps (1950s)

I picked these up recently at my favorite antique shop in Port Orchard, Washington -- Olde Central Antique Mall -- for a couple of bucks. They were just too fun to pass up. I particularly liked the Alcoa food labels, but the 1958 Publishers Clearing House stamps are pretty nice, too. Enjoy -- or click through for full-sized scans.

Magentic Recording Tape Boxes (1960s)

Here are some wonderful scans I made from some old magnetic sounds recording tape boxes from the 1960s. I've got about 20 reels of tape in one particular storage box, and they all are either Audio-Digest Scotch tape boxes or the more colorful Silvertone. I tried to find the two cleanest boxes for each one, so here they are -- and as always, click through for full-sized images.

Batman Musical Story 45s and Jackets from Synthetic Plastics (1966)

A long time ago, I stumbled on a Robin 45 RPM sleeve and record in a store that I had never seen or heard of before, and I tucked it away for the future. A few years later, I saw another one of these Robin 45s, but it had the wrong 45 inside -- the Batman counterpart. Well, to make a long story short, I basically forgot about them, found them recently when I moved, and started looking for the rest of the collection.  Thanks to eBay, I found the whole set and was able to procure them for a modest fee. Little did I know that these ten songs had later been released on LP and was completely downloadable online -- if you'd like to listen to these songs, find the full download link at Way Out Stuff. They are classic, but definitely kid-centric.

And so, here are the full images of the jackets, front sides first and then the back (blank with no information). I've also added the 45s themselves. Be sure to use the full-screen option for these hi-resolution scans, and click-through for full-sized images (jackets and records).

Hotel Greeters Guide and Denver Daily Doings (1958)

On a recent trip to the Kitsap Peninsula, I picked up this little pamphlet from the late 1950s. The Hotel Greeters Guide and Denver Daily Doings is basically a tourist guide to Colorado with a specific focus on Denver -- everything from sights and amusements to transportation. My favorite images, however, are the wonderful advertisements scattered throughout -- watch for the vintage Coors Beer image towards the end. Watch the slideshow below (and be sure to use the full-screen option in the lower-right corner) or click through for full-sized images.

Gertrude Elliott Color Illustrations from "The Golden Songbook" (1945)

"The Golden Songbook" is a classic songbook for children, and it was just that for my mother. Filled with sixty songs -- from "A-Hunting We Will Go" to "Yankee Doodle" -- and dozens of wonderful illustrations by Gertrude Elliott, this book is a minor treasure. Here's the official description:

Sixty of the best-loved songs of childhood are here, all illustrated in Gertrude Elliott's charming manner. The arrangements are suited to young voices amd simply harmonized for piano accompaniment. A dozen songs may be used for singing games, and the directions for these have been included. Katherine Tyler Wessells has also arrange "The Little Golden Book of Singing Games". Among the books Miss Elliott has illustrated are "The Golden Dictionary," "The Golden Book of Poetry," and a number of Little Golden Books.

And so, from The Golden Library, here are the complete set of color illustrations by Gertrude Elliott from "The Golden Songbook" for your viewing pleasure -- and click through for the full-sized scans if you so desire! And -- though I hate to ask -- if you are getting something out of the stuff here, please throw a few bucks in my donation box -- thank you!

New Postcard Added to "Homes of the Stars" Set

I had a great weekend of hunting on the Kitsap Penninsula, and one of the many items I found was another postcard to add to my "Homes of the Stars" collection -- a great one of Bob Hope and his home. I've added it to the Flickr set and also updated the main post -- while I was at it, I put in the slideshow. Enjoy!

Washington State Tourism Brochures (1950s)

Here's something a little different -- a batch of old tourism brochures from a school project my mother did in high school. We found them in an old scrapbook that she had done the project in, and my grandmother had saved it for posterity, and now we can bring them to you! Enjoy the slideshow below, or click through for full sized images.

Vintage Menus: Part II (1955)

It's time for more menus from restaurants of 1955! If you missed our first post, you can check it out here. In our second of three installments, we'll be featuring six fine dining establishments from across the country.

Hund's was located on the corner of Grand River and Bagley in Detroit, Michigan. The New York Restaurant was located, oddly enough, in Catskill, New York. The Down Under Cafe and Restaurant was located in the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in New York City, though I can find little mention of it anywhere online. Kewpee's Colonial Drive-In was located at 802 Villa Street in Elgin, Illinois. This seems to be part of the famous Kewpee Hamburger chain, but I'm not sure after looking at the Wikipedia entry. Mayflower Coffee Shops were a nation-wide chain. I have no information regarding where this was collected, but I should be getting more information from my family about this. Hot Shoppe Restaurants was a chain located mainly in Washington, D.C., but also in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and strangely, Salt Lake City, Utah. This was collected from one of the locations in Washington, D.C.

Enjoy the slideshow of the images, or click through for full-sized images.

Update: Vintage Menus

Lots of news about our vintage menus! I've also gained a bit more information about the trip and exactly when they were collected, and I've also updated the previous post to reflect this new information.  All the menus I will be posting were collected in the summer of 1955, roughly the end of June into early July. I'm also going to try something new -- rather than have such lengthy posts of images, I'm going to try out the slideshow option.  Let me know which post format you prefer. I've also gotten a few requests for these images which I'll be posting in the round-up post when the menus are all posted. Stay tuned for more!