⛽Ethyl Got Full Service: A Vintage Gas Station Long before self service pumps and convenience stores, a visit to a gas station was a very different experience. A bell rang as your tires rolled across a rubber hose. An attendant stepped outside. Windows were cleaned. Oil was checked. Directions were offered. Today, many of the […]
From Bullet Bras to Magic Fingers: A Mid-Century Motel For travelers in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, pulling into a motel parking lot was its own kind of thrill. The neon sign buzzed and flickered against a darkening sky. A metal key dangled from an oversized fob. The room ran you about twenty dollars a […]
🚬 Collecting Vintage Ashtrays: Full of History and Advertising Not long ago, ashtrays were as common as coffee cups. They sat on kitchen tables, hotel nightstands, restaurant countertops, casino floors, office desks, and airplane armrests. Every bar had them. Every motel room had them. Every waiting room, diner, and department store had them. They were […]
Forgotten Cigarette Machines From America’s Past There was a time, not so long ago, when forgotten cigarette machines from America’s past stood in the corners of American public life as naturally as pay phones and jukebox selectors. You would find them in hospital lobbies, hotel corridors, diner vestibules, and airport waiting rooms. Nobody thought much […]
🍀 Archiving Irish Stereotypes in Newspaper Strips The comics page of an American newspaper from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century was rarely a neutral space. It reflected the attitudes, anxieties, and biases of the society that produced it, often with a frankness that later generations would find uncomfortable. Among the most persistent patterns […]