Billie’s Bar, First Ave. at 56th

Times Square, 1935

New York 1933

Columbus Circle, 1933

Sikorsky Clipper, 1931. New spires gleam. River traffic, piers, ocean liner in slip.

New York 1931. Fairchild

Times Square from New York Times Building., 1922.

Hester St., Lower East Side, 1901

Lower Broadway, 1899

Broadway, 1894

the making of the Statue of Liberty

Texas en el Corazon de Londres

En la sede de la empresa del mas antiguo comerciante de vinos y licores de Londres, Berry Bros. & Rudd (siglo XVII), en Pickering Place, St James Street, muy cerca del palacio de Saint James en el centro de Londres, se halla una placa con la Lone Star que dice:

TEXAS LEGATION : In this building was the legation for the ministers from the Republic of Texas to the Court of St. James, 1842-1845.

Berry Bros. & Rudd, Wine Merchants ya vendian y comerciaban vinos y licores cuando los representantes diplomaticos de la Republica de Texas tenian sus oficinas en este mismo edificio de 1842 a 1845.
Pickering Place fue la base la legacion de la independiente Republica de Texas hasta que este estado independiente se unio a la Union en 1845. La placa conmemorativa en la pared hace honor pues a la legacion tejana en Pickering Place y se puede ver justo a la derecha de la placa de la calle City of Westminster.

Antique fashion plates

I have a great collection of original antique fashion plates. I did not collect them, in fact, the collection was a gift from my grandmother´s friend and I am very proud of owning it. Many of my fashion plates are well framed and they are hanging on the wall at home. But what is a fashion plate?

Today, we can view the most current runway fashions nearly instantaneously via the Internet, webstreaming of the major fashion shows, television and other media. We can purchase a multitude of fashion and style magazines that keep us up-to-date on the current trends. However, what did women do one hundred or even two hundred years ago without electronic media? One way they learned of new fashions was by examining the fashion plates that were included in periodicals published in the major European capitals. Fashion plates were originally a way of illustrating current dress styles for consumers, dressmakers, and merchants.

They were published in women’s magazines such as La Belle Assemble, Journal des Modes, and the Magasin des Desmoiselles. These periodicals were mostly weeklies that also included fiction, poetry, music and household hints along with the fashion plates. Originally, the plates were engraved and hand colored with watercolors until the 1880s when color printing and chromolithographing became stylish. Fashion plates were popular until the 1920s when photography became the norm for fashion reporting.
my collection belong to the Bustle and Nineties Period series (late victorian) (1870-1899) and includes the three well known fashion plate artists: Anais Toudouze and Jules David and Francois Compte-Calix.
In the Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno, Ca. have an important collection of original antique fashion plates and in the University of Washington Library as well.

How Flagler & Plant Changed the Face of Florida

It wouldn’t have been too surprising if Miami had been renamed “Flagler” at the incorporation meeting back in 1896, since it was in that year that the Florida East Coast Railway, owned by Henry Morrison Flagler, reached Miami.
Before that time, most of the people in the area were homesteaders and the only “towns” were Coconut Grove and Lemon City. Persuaded by land offers from Julia Tuttle and William and Mary Brickell, which were accompanied by fresh orange blossoms to prove that Miami was frost-free, Flagler agreed to extend his railroad south from West Palm Beach, lay out the city of Miami and built a luxurious hotel which the guest register read like a "who's who" of early twentieth century America -Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Astors, Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan vacationed alongside United States presidents and European nobility.
John Sewell, who would later serve as Mayor of Miami, observed, “The Florida East Coast Railroad reached here the latter part of April, 1896, and the passenger trains were soon put on. Then it seemed that the flood gates were opened and people came from everywhere.” Flagler kept his promise by also building the Royal Palm Hotel, constructing houses for workers, dredging a ship channel, and donating land for schools, churches and public buildings. When 368 voters incorporated the city on July 28, 1892, however, the name remained Miami.
Henry Plant’s rails pushed south from Jacksonville along the St. Johns River to Sanford then southwest through Orlando to Tampa. The University of Tampa now occupies Plant’s hotel at the end of the line. Henry Sanford’s lines penetrated the interior of the state.
Henry Flagler acquired the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway, and advanced construction south along the east coast arriving in the settlement of Miami in 1896.
Henry Plant, developing the midlands and west coast regions of Florida, wired Flagler, "Friend Flagler, where is this place called Miami?" Flagler wires back, "Friend Plant, just follow the crowd!"



Historical Museum of Southern Florida
Henry Morrison Flagler Biography
Flagler Museum Palm Beach Florida
Archaeologists hurry to excavate remains of Henry Flagler hotel in Miami