… sort of.
This 1903 video shows a mail delivery vehicle waiting for bags of mail to be thrown off a passing streetcar in Washington, DC.
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history
Archived Posts from this Category
June 23, 2011
June 22, 2011
From the Library of Congress: a video clip of a rural mail wagon in 1903.
Either there’s a driver hiding in the front of the wagon, or those horses really know their job and their route!
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June 19, 2011
In the office last week, I was pretty well consumed with laying out this year’s edition of the CAA’s annual journal, World on Wheels.
One of the articles is about the popularity of coaching among members of New York “society” during the Gilded Age. Coaching at the time was not just a sport for the idle rich; it was quite a “spectator” sport as well, with thousands of people lining the streets to watch the New York Coaching Club’s parades. According to contemporary newspaper reports, the onlookers gathered to admire the vehicles, the horses, and the fancy outfits on display.
It’s difficult to imagine that happening now, I thought: so many people avidly watching that sort of parade … not horses and/or horse-drawn carriages IN a parade, but a parade OF horse-drawn carriages.
But then I remembered that it’s really not such a strange thought in this day and age after all. When our CAA group was in Sevilla last month, the annual carriage exhibition in the bullring didn’t take place as planned. Instead, it morphed into a carriage parade, with thousands of people crowding the streets and sidewalks to see nearly a hundred horse-drawn carriages and coaches. In a way, it was like stepping back in time.
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June 17, 2011
In honor of the weekend, let’s find (and don) our sepia-toned glasses and head west …
Here are some wonderful old photos of “Wild West” cowboys … having their portraits taken and both at work and at rest. And, don’t worry, there are a few vehicles in there, too! I counted three Chuckwagons.
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June 16, 2011
Before leaving the British Pathé site, let’s watch a few more video clips, shall we?
First: some unused newsreel footage from the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Next: newsreel footage from U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s state visit to England in 1918.
And, finally, just for fun: newsreel footage from World War I, showing American servicemen riding around London, packed onto coaches, and George V and other dignitaries attending … a baseball game!
The Slower Road 