Hole in the Clouds

Tag: (Image credit: Detroit Publishing Company via Shorpy)

Short-Handled Shovels

Aug 9, 2011

In 1910, most of the excavation work for the new Michigan Central railroad station in Detroit was still being done with the loathesome short-handled shovels. In the background of this photo, however, we can glimpse the excavators of the future: smoke-belching job-killers, aka steam shovels.

The men are wearing hats, but not hard hats.

The Michigan Central Station survives today, I'm told, "if just barely." Short-handled shovels, too, are still around, in real life but more spectacularly in the blues.

cityscape   Detroit   Michigan   work   Michigan Central Station   1910   (Image credit: Detroit Publishing Company via Shorpy)  

Honeymooning

Feb 17, 2016

They were newlyweds in 1905, honeymooning at the beach in St. Augustine, Florida, when they came across the photographer and his props in the sand. And they decided to get their picture made.

So the bride, in her bathing costume, straddled the donkey. And the groom, in his own bathing garb, settled himself onto the seat of the little wagon hitched up to the goat. The props were obviously intended for small children, but the newlyweds were game, even if they didn't look one bit happy about it all.

beach   1905   Florida   wagon   photography   donkeym goat   St. Augustine   (Image credit: Detroit Publishing Company via Shorpy)