#FridayReads — Roads, rubber suits, restaurants, rarities and more

Postcard of the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Fort Littleton
interchange, from a November 2011 post.

Spanning the internet to bring you the constant variety of great reads...

• Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission: "Pennsylvania's Roads Before the Automobile"
• Postcrossing: "Ellen Clapsaddle's postcards"
• The New York Times: "Rubber-Suit Monsters Fade. Tiny Tokyos Relax." by Martin Fackler (Godzilla alert!)
• Curbed: "Revisiting The 11 Pools Whose Gala Openings Defined 1936," which examines one of the legacies of Robert Moses, by Hana R. Alberts
• i09: "Lovecraft sketch shows the author's vision for Mountains of Madness" by Meredith Woerner
• English Russia: Not a "read," necessarily, but a jaw-dropping photo gallery titled "1920s: Indigenous Peoples of Kamchatka"
• Brain Pickings: "Natural Histories: 500 Years of Rare Science Illustrations" by Maria Popova
• Smithsonian.com: "Deep in the Swedish Wilderness, Discovering One of the World’s Greatest Restaurants" by Rachel Nuwer
• Bibliodeviancy: "Fear and Loathing in Book-ville" (regarding the intersection of the rare-book trade and the internet)
• The Atlantic: "How to Make Nice With the Call Center" by Deborah Fallows (a short, fun piece on linguistics)
• Colossal: "Secret Fore-Edge Paintings Revealed in Early 19th Century Books at the University of Iowa"

1966 Tulpehocken High School sports schedule tucked inside a book

Shown above are the front and back of a 1966 schedule for spring sports (baseball, girls' tennis, boys' tennis, track and field) at Tulpehocken High School in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

The card was tucked away inside a 1966 Scholastic paperback copy of The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp.

Regarding the schedules, for those of you not from central Pennsylvania, I can tell you that:

• Norlebco stands for "Northern Lebanon County" or, specifically, Northern Lebanon High School
• Elco stands for "Eastern Lebanon County" or, specifically, Eastern Lebanon County High School
• Conrad Weiser (1696-1760) was a Pennsylvania Dutch pioneer, Native American interpreter, farmer, soldier, monk, tanner and judge. Now he has an entire school district named after him.
• On the track schedule, Venzke refers to the Venzke Relays, which were first held in 1939. There was a long hiatus before organizers attempted to restore the event to its former glory in recent years. Gene Venzke (1908-1992) was an Olympic athlete who ran middle distances.

Meanwhile, it does not appear that The Gettle Press of Rehrersburg, which was established in 1933 and offered free white Bibles with purchases of $30 or more, is still in business. But, with this blog post, a slice of the company's history will live on a little longer.

Some vintage maps from an old Bartholomew atlas

Before I dive into today's post, let me state that yesterday was an awesome day for Ephemera Sleuthing on Papergreat.

Yesterday's post was a mystery postcard from an unknown European city. And, within hours, a couple of fine readers helped solve the mystery! Check out the comments section of that post to see how they discovered that Amberg, Germany, was the city in question.

I'm going to do a full wrapup of that detective work in a From the Readers post later this week.

* * *

This is a cover of a slender, undated volume titled Atlas and created by J. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S. It was published in London as part of The People's Books series.

F.R.G.S. are post-nominal letters granted to Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society, which was founded in 1830.

It's hard to know which J. Bartholomew created the maps for this book. The Bartholomews are a family of famed cartographers, and many of them were named John:

• John Bartholomew, Sr. (1805-1861), the founder of John Bartholomew and Son
• John Bartholomew Junior (1831-1893)
• John George Bartholomew (1860-1920)
• John (Ian) Bartholomew (1890-1962)
• John Christopher Bartholomew (1923-2008)

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the J. Bartholomew associated with this book is either John Bartholomew Junior or John George Bartholomew.

Here are a few of the fabulous maps featured within Bartholomew's atlas.¹ With all of these, for maximum viewing pleasure, you'll want to click on them to bring up the magnified version.

(This next one is my favorite. It's filled with regions that provided source material for many of Ruth Manning-Sanders' retold fairy tales.)

And, hey, if you look closer at that last map, you can see Amberg!

* * *
As an added bonus, this book contains a bookseller label for L.B. Herr's bookstore in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on the inside front cover. This is the second label from Herr that I've come across. The first one was discussed in this July 2011 post.

Footnote
1. Want more vintage maps? Check out these previous posts:

• Maps, maps and more maps
• Detail shots from an old map of Venice, Italy
• Maps for the General Motors Futurama at 1964-65 World's Fair
• Illustrated "mapback" on vintage Dell paperback "Death with Death"
• Saturday's postcard: Illustrated map of Tokyo with taijitu symbol
• Bushkill Falls: "A Delightful One-Day Auto Trip"
• Map to help you find Coppini's Silversmith in Florence, Italy

Mystery postcard: What European city is this?

This never-used photo postcard has only word printed on the back - KODAK.

I'm looking for your best guesses as far as what country and city are pictured here. Also curious what decade you think this street scene is from.

Here are some magnifications of some portions of the postcard.

So, have it at, sleuths! I can't wait to see what you come up with in the Comments section.

1907 postcard of Willow Grove Park, with lights ablaze at night

Here's a festive, hand-colored postcard for your enjoyment as Labor Day descends into dusk here on the East Coast of the United States.

The caption on the front states "NIGHT VIEW OF LAKE AND FOUNTAIN, WILLOW GROVE PARK. Photo. Copyright 1907 J.M. CANFIELD."

Willow Grove Park was a trolley amusement park in Abington Township, Pennsylvania, that operated from 1896 until 1975. For many years, it was one of the grandest amusement parks in the country. In its early decades, John Philip Sousa and his band played there annually.

According to the Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City, J.M. Canfield "established himself there, where he became the official publisher of postcards depicting Willow Grove’s points of interest and vast music programs," from 1907 and 1909. Indeed, the text on the back of this postcard, which was printed in Saxony, states: "This is the only official post card of Willow Grove Park."

CardCow.com is a good place to see some other vintage postcards of Willow Grove Park. Also, there's a neat, detailed post about The Girl from Montana and its mention of Willow Grove Park on GraceLivingstonHill.com.

The best history of Willow Grove Park can likely be found in the Images of America book about the park that was published in 2006.

The former site of beloved trolley amusement park, by the way, is now a shopping mall.

Handwritten recipe: Pineapple Bavarian Cream for Labor Day

Happy Labor Day!¹

Back in 2010, I picked up some well-used old handwritten recipe books, stuffed with all sorts of groovy stuff, at a yard sale in southern York County. And it's just the gift that keeps on giving.

Here are some of the posts I've already written about items tucked away inside those volumes:

• Coupons from the E.H. Koester Bakery Co.
• Did Pop get a Py-sicle after winning this round of golf in Clearwater?
• Partial label from Ecco Tomato Juice and the Tomato Twinkle recipe

Here's the latest recipe from one of these wonderful old books. Feel free to use it for dessert today!

Pineapple Bavarian Cream

• Make 1 pkg. lemon Jello as usual.
• Let sit until slightly thick.
• Beat until stiff & foamy.
• Beat 1 gill whipping cream & ½ pint of light cream until stiff.
• Add 1 can crushed pineapple & cream whipped to beaten Jello & let sit until stiff in refrigerator.

If you're craving more information about Pineapple Bavarian Cream, I suggest you head to Culinary Alchemy² for a January 2013 post titled "Bromeliad Buttressed Bavarois - Pineapple Bavarian Cream." It features some history, some photos and a different recipe than the simple one used on that southern York County farmstead.

Today's recipe, by the way, was written on the back of this map of the United States.

If you look closely, you'll see that at least the student could correctly identify Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida.

* * *

As a bonus, here's another piece of ephemera that was tucked away inside the same cookbook: A staplebound booklet titled "101 DRINKS and how to MIX THEM." The booklet is undated and was published by Direct Mail Associates, Inc., of Oshkosh, Wisconsin (affiliated with Dean W. Geer Company).

I'm not so much for the liquor or drinking, but I love the names of some of the drinks and cocktails in the vintage booklet: Bijou, Bishop, Blue Blazer³, Cape Cod Rainbow, Careless Love, Chattanooga Dew, Clover Club, Cream Fizz, Didi Cocktail, Electric Eel, Eureka, Fish Club Punch, Hell-Raiser, Highland Fling, Horse's Neck, Jack Rose, Shandygaff, Snag-Tooth Nell, and Stone Fence.

I wonder if all of those drink names are still used today.

Footnotes
1. Sam Scarlett says hello.
2. Culinary Alchemy has the same background as Papergreat, so it must be great. I suspect Joan will love that site, and maybe she can find some things there that fit in with some of her great stuff on Our School at Home.
3. The Blue Blazer is described as "a very, very swell winter drink — if your Mother let's you play with matches." (Yes, they used let's incorrectly.)

Old Gimbels receipt inside "Huckleberry Finn," plus other notes

The 3½-inch-wide Gimbel Brothers receipt was tucked away inside an old edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

If I'm interpreting the receipt correctly, it's from January 10, 1925. A sale amount of $2.25 in 1925 would translate to about $29.15 today, according to The Inflation Calculator.

The advertising text, which spans the front and back of the receipt, states:

"Double charm in buying at
GIMBELS
the price you pay — that is the first
joy; the satisfaction you get — that is
the lasting advantage.
Gimbels pre-eminent leadership in
fashions has come through years of
international organization and close
application."
Gimbels was around from 1887 to 1987 before being liquidated.¹ It was headquartered in New York City and once had the biggest chain of department stores in the United States. But perhaps its greatest legacy came in Philadelphia (where this receipt is from). It was in the City of Brotherly Love that Gimbels launched the first department-store parade. The first Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade was held in Philadelphia in 1920. It now known by the godawful name of 6abc Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade.²

* * *
NOTE 1: Joan and I had a great time browsing at the oft-mentioned antique store in York New Salem earlier today. She picked up some tiny bottles for her burgeoning collection. And I came out with another wonderful haul of ephemera. I figure this box, by itself, should be good for two or three months worth of blog posts.

* * *
NOTE 2: If you're scoring at home, these were the most-popular posts on Papergreat during the past seven days:

1. Papergreat's star-studded 200th post (plus some chickens)
2. Saturday's postcard: New Jersey trolley line in 1907
3. You never know what you'll find in the "FREE" boxes
4. 1950 ticket stub for Colts-Steelers preseason NFL game
5. Reader comments: Stamp collecting, mysteries solved & Whirley mugs
6. Back-to-school week kicks off with vintage bulletin boards
7. Standard Farmer's Almanac 1905 excerpts, Part 1
8. 1897 Riverside book of works by Poe, complete with footnotes
9. Saturday's postcards: Two neat vintage scenes from Norway
10. The 29th anniversary of the first episode of St. Elsewhere

Also, here are some internet search phrases that have led people to Papergreat recently:

• bell howard projector
• dondi the elephant
• funny mayonnaise pics
• gravity railroad reading pa
• klein candy bar
• advertisements august 1963
• aßmannshausen
• bushkill falls
• inherent vice script³
• masc zywokostowa
• amalfi coast vintage postcard
• flying saucers

So there you have it.

Footnotes
1. Gimbels was mentioned in passing in this September 2012 post: Neat stuff from an 1880 volume of Edgar Allan Poe's works.
2. Other godawful names the parade has had since Gimbels left the picture include: 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade, 6abc Boscov's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Channel 6 Mellon PSFS Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Channel 6 MasterCard Thanksgiving Day Parade.
3. I don't have it.