Still More Odd, Ends and Treasures.
I’m putting these up to collect them.
NYC
Even More Treasures, from research odds and ends
The internet continues to provide.
Telephone stuff.
Boston in 1930
Flying boats.
http://www.messynessychic.com/2017/12/15/the-long-lost-world-of-the-luxury-flying-boat/
Two Coney Island videos.
Transcontinental air service.
https://www.americanheritage.com/content/transcontinental-air-transport-inc
Public baths in NYC?
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2018/03/19/this-church-was-once-the-1905-allen-street-baths/
https://ny.curbed.com/2014/7/7/10078888/what-became-of-new-york-citys-ubiquitous-public-bathhouses
https://untappedcities.com/2017/09/06/vintage-nyc-photography-nycs-public-baths/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asser_Levy_Public_Baths
1929 Boston Marathon.
Fourth Ave bookstores.
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/solitary-browsing-on-fourth-avenues-book-row/
More NYC stuff.
http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-lost-louis-stern-mansion-no-993.html
Some construction videos.
1920’s farming.
Antique machines.
Speed boats
More Research Odds and ends.
Here’s some more link and related stuff. In this post I’m going to do things like link to books in my library as well. Do I think that everybody will be able to access naval academy textbooks from the 1930’s? Not really, but I never expected to find them either, but when I did I bought them. and the set of The History of Technology and that book on farm life in the Nineteenth Century. The reason I have those references is that that I was open to buying them in the first place. As a writer the goal to be to write a book that Sarah Hoyt will not throw across the room. Your goal should be to not insult the reader’s intelligence, not go so far off the deep end that reader never wants to come back. You should do enough world building that the reader will feel comfortable living in that world.
Research Odds And Ends
A while back I wrote a post about doing research for fiction. since I’m actually writing something right now I thought that I would share some of the things I found. I didn’t choose the early 1930’s they sort of chose me. Still the period of the early Depression is sort of an early one. A large chunk of the things of the things I’m putting in the book are the result of a lifetime of talking to people who were alive back in the 1930’s and their experiences.
Here’s my earlier post:
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2017/02/19/i-am-the-voice-that-cries-in-the-desert/
Any way here’s some of the stuff that I have run into while writing the mermaid story. while this is urban fantasy, being able to use the historical landscape as a template can make things easier when inserting my story into it. While I still have to do some world building I can use what already existed to give it verisimilitude. The idea is to add just enough atmosphere that you can have a reader relate. The interesting thing is that to us the 1930’s could be as alien a world as the wildest science fiction universe. I’m enjoying finding stuff like this to fill in Tom and Chrissie’s world.
http://www.historicmapworks.com/Map/US/40321/Boston+Harbor+1930c+Bird+s+Eye+View+++Boston+to+Cape+Cod/Boston+Harbor+1930c+Bird%27s+Eye+View+-+Boston+to+Cape+Cod/Massachusetts/
I think that I will just update this post with new material as I go along.
Read More
Hell Gate Bridge Is 100 Years Old
The First Restaurants In NY
I ran into this post recently. It’s interesting how early that the dining and eating patterns in NYC were established. Delmonico’s in the financial district is perhaps the most famous example. It’s still there, but it may not be the same Delmonicos.
The RMS Queen Mary
Starting it’s career about the same time as the Normandie, Cunard’s entry into the super liner competition had a much longer more illustrious career before ending up as a museum/hotel in Long Beach CA. That, in spite of a rather rocky construction and some thinking for a time that the ship would end up being scrapped in the slip before ever touching the water.
Yes Things Can Get Better
Glenn Reynolds talks about how New York Got Better.
The Last Day Of Hot Type At The NY Times.
Here’s a film of the last day of using linotype machines at the NY Times.
It’s interesting to see the two stage process for manufacturing the Times printing plates in 1978. At the time the Times was probably the largest newspaper in the world. It was also beset by the ongoing woes of NYC. In any case, the ongoing evolution of technology has made everything in this film, including the new typeset system at the end, obsolete and long gone.
Rethink NY? It’s Time
At least for the Commuter rail System. All too frequently it doesn’t do what you need it to do and doesn’t go where you want to go. This is especially true for making connections at airports. It’s time for a rethink.
The Arts Mechanical 