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pmcghee2.bsky.social
Ambulator
@pmcghee2.bsky.social
22 followers 15 following 110 posts
I present real moments in time and space captured in old photographs, mostly stereoviews from the period 1850-1930.
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pmcghee2.bsky.social
What the viewpoint looked like from the ground. 1920s picture from Queensland Museums showing another mast for the TV antenna.
January 31, 2026 at 1:57 PM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
14th April 1945
52.623565, 10.06392
200 Degrees
Celle, Germany
Sergeant Harry Oakes took this picture to record the railway bridge over the river at Celle, destroyed 6 days previously by a massive American air raid. He's looking southwards toward the railway station and sidings about six hundred metres away where the destruction of an ammunition factory and its trains involved one of the greatest tragedies of the war. The exploding ammunition train was adjacent to a train full of prisoners on their way to the Belsen Bergen concentration camp which was liberated only two weeks later. Nearly three thousand of them were killed in the blast or after being rounded up as survivors. Sergeant Harry went on from here to record the Belsen liberation on 22nd April. He later had quite a life in the movie industry as you can read here. https://www.belsen.co.uk/harry-oakes-afpu/
January 31, 2026 at 11:56 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
4 December 1877
52.38499, 0.67967
355 Degrees
Elveden Hall, West Suffolk, UK
The Prince of Wales, Albert Edward (seated on floor, center) is visiting his friend The Maharajah Duleep Singh (portly figure seated centre right) at his fabulous Mughal-inspired country house in Elveden, West Suffolk. Local photographer J W Clarke of Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds has been called out to picture the shooting party on the sunlit back terrace of the house. An open door leads into the marble halls where I think they will shortly have lunch. Prince Albert Edward will finally sit on his throne of the United Kingdom in 23 years time. Duleep Singh, rightful ruler of the Punjab, Kashmir and Jammu, had lost his potential throne 28 years earlier, when the British East India Company annexed his empire to be absorbed into British India. Incidentally, the Koh-I-Noor diamond, of perennially questionable ownership, which once graced the arm of Duleep Singh as a child, was re-cut to fit the crown of Edward Albert's mother, Queen Victoria. Poor Duleep Singh died a few years later in Paris, thwarted by the British from returning to his kingdom. Although he converted to Christianity whilst in England, he reverted to Sikhism in later life, but he was actually buried with Christian ceremony in the nearby Elveden Anglican church on the estate along with family members. The house is mostly closed to the public, but the church is by the public road. British Sikhs and foreign visitors frequently visit to lay flowers on their graves. You can find them outside the east end of the chancel
January 31, 2026 at 7:58 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1890s
42.36654,-71.05503
75 Degrees
Malden Mass, USA
This stereoview image of the Old North Church in Malden Mass is taken from what is now Hull Street, a narrow thoroughfare enclosed on both sides by high buildings, so this view is no longer so harmonious. Famous, of course, as the church where Paul Revere was a bell ringer, it has been rebuilt several times, but it has preserved its iconic spire and bell tower. This image shows a much quieter time, at ten minutes past 12 on a hot summer's afternoon. You can see the signboard of a painter and glazier to the left of the church by an elegant colonial house. I expect he is having lunch. His home, on the corner with Salem Street, is now the site of the Lil Italia Cafe.
January 30, 2026 at 7:57 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1908
-27.46573, 153.02309
92 Degrees
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
This view is taken from the observation platform of the Old Windmill Observatory on Spring Hill. It is looking through the huge mast used in time past to hoist signals to communicate between ships arriving in Moreton Bay and the traders in the business district below. The focus of the picture is the Central Railway Station opened in 1889. This is now submerged in a huge redevelopment and the whole district is replete with skyscrapers. The windmill itself was vital to the survival of the Moreton Bay settlement, grinding all its corn, using a convict treadmill when wind was not available. Later it was centre for the development of signalling, from flags and semaphore to the first broadcast TV signals in Queensland.
January 30, 2026 at 7:13 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1901
72.78357,-56.15135
37.5 Degrees
Upernavik, Greenland.
The US naval officer and explorer Robert Peary from Pennsylvania, visited Upernavik on several voyages round the west coast of Greenland. Here is the description on the back of this stereoview picture: "Upernavik is the northernmost Danish trading post in Greenland. Greenland, as you recall, belongs to the Danes, as does also Iceland. Little is known about the northern regions of the country; but the brave sailors of northern Europe early discovered Iceland and Greenland, and probably planted colonies on some of the other islands north of the mainland of North America. The word Greenland hardly describes the country. Whiteland would be a better name because most of it is covered the greater part of each year with ice and snow. Still, on the southern parts some farming and a bit of stockraising are carried on by the inhabitants. The center of interest here is the Eskimos. These girls are in the native costume that the Eskimos wear about trading-posts. Where white men have not yet come they dress themselves altogether in the skins of the animals which they kill. They are a very simple people in their mode of living and in their thinking. They are found in the northern regions extending entirely across North America from Greenland to Alaska. They are supposed to number not more than 40,000, one-fourth of these being in Greenland. They call themselves "Inweet," which means, in their tongue, native men. In winter their houses are made of snow and ice. In summer they hunt the reindeer, and in winter they get their food from the sea. They are very fond of fats and eat tallow candles as greedily as an American boy would eat a piece of chocolate. They have boats called "kayaks" made sometimes of a framework of bones covered with skins." Lat. 73 degrees N.; Long. 55 degrees W. The history of these expeditions is long and contentious. You can find most of it via the biographical page for Robert Peary here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Peary
January 23, 2026 at 5:08 PM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
07.00 29th April 1882
44.97065,-93.27014,
75 Degrees (estimated)
Minneapolis, USA
The scene shows a large crowd of people gathered in an open park outside the Central High School in Minnesota to witness the lynching of itinerant scissor grinder, Frank MacManus, seen hanging from a tree in the background. Mac Manus was arrested the previous day for the alleged rape of a 4 year old girl, Mina Spear, on the testimony of several small children. The police found blood on his clothes and he confessed to the crime in police custody. Citizens then broke into the jail and took him to be lynched. This picture is known to have been taken at a precise time. His lynching took place at 4.00 am and this was 3 hours later. The exact location and direction is hard to pinpoint because the school moved "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_High_School_(Minneapolis,_Minnesota)" and the original site is now a large road interchange. Lurid details of the case may be found in the link below, but I can't help thinking that if Mr MacManus had been an Irishman with a lawyer rather than an ex-slave hobo named after his owner, or that the police had paused to consider the credibility of the witnesses' story, things might have turned out differently. “https://www.mostnotorious.com/2016/06/03/the-lynching-of-frank-mcmanus/”
January 22, 2026 at 8:06 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
Here is the Hotel Buol in its heyday.
Not to be confused with the Hotel Schatzalp and its Magic Mountain. to which the Russian Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich (Romanov) escaped in 1939.

Davos, Switzerland
January 21, 2026 at 11:43 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1900
46.80211, 9.82744
Hotel Buol, Davos, Switzerland
Hotel Buol Davos-Platz that existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Robert Louis Stevenson stayed near it during his second winter in Davos from October 1881 to 1882, living in the Villa am Stein chalet near Hotel Buol, and he frequently visited the hotel to write letters It no longer exists. The site is now occupied by the Waldhotel Davos, which is located on Buolstrasse. The Waldhotel Davos has its own fascinating history. It was built in 1911 and operated as a forest sanatorium until 1957. The building became famous as the inspiration for Thomas Mann's novel "The Magic Mountain" after Mann visited his wife there while she was being treated for tuberculosis in 1912.
January 21, 2026 at 11:26 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1905
55.67556,12.57911
75 Degrees
Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, Denmark
An animated group of people is gathered in the courtyard of the historic site which, now much rebuilt, which houses the Parliament and Supreme Court of Denmark. A carriage pulled by two horses and with uniformed drivers is passing. This is where decisions about the future of Greenland have traditionally been decided. Greenland was a colony of Denmark for over 1000 years. The history of its increased self-governance and independence is long and complicated and can be read here "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenlandic_independence" I905 was also a pivotal year for Norway, up until then a part of the Danish kingdom, which achieved independence and established a policy of neutrality in war. The facade of the palace in the picture now looks very different. "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiansborg_Palace"
January 18, 2026 at 5:35 PM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1928
49.28072, -123.09977
270 Degrees
Old Town Hall, Vancouver, Canada
I think this building, the old town hall on Main Street just south of the Carnegie Library is the inspiration for the Mayor's Tower in Steve Legge's GasTown illustrations.
January 17, 2026 at 5:10 PM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
Burnaby refinery near Vancouver today Gas Town in Mad Max
January 17, 2026 at 4:02 PM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1936
49.29275,-122.98370
270 Degrees
Burnaby, Vancouver, Canada
The Gastown aesthetic in Steve Yegge's vision is a mixture of "Gastown" in Vancouver, (a tourist area named after an early citizen, a bar owner who talked a lot called Gassy Jack Deighton) with nods to the movie Mad Max which has a crazy city which looks like a vast refinery. This is a picture of the refinery built near Vancouver for Standard Oil in 1935 and is now a vast refinery owned by Sunoco LP.
January 17, 2026 at 3:51 PM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1923
49.2710792,-123.13393853
60 Degrees
Granville Island, Vancouver, Canada
The sawmill on Granville Island Vancouver, one of many images of the history of industry in the city which form the backstory of Steve Yegge's Gastown aesthetic.
January 17, 2026 at 8:37 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
911-1925
26.71672,-80.04308
75 Degrees
Royal Poinciana Hotel, Palm Beach, Florida. USA
Bicycle rickshaw drivers waiting for customers outside the Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach probably 1920s. Sometimes the same spot can be represented in many old photographs when a jobbing photographer offers souvenir photographs - in this case to guests of the Royal Poinciana Hotel. Many rich and famous people had their pictures taken there, but many similar pictures of lesser- or un-known guests also exist on the internet. Joe and Rose Kennedy in a cycle rickshaw in 1925 Archaeologist and spy George H. McFadden and banker E.T. Stotesbury in a bicycle rickshaw in Palm Beach, Florida, winter 1921 Retailer Frank W Woolworth and architect Cass Gilbert, who designed the Supreme Court Building in Washington DC in a bicycle rickshaw in 1911
January 15, 2026 at 6:15 PM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1st August 1936
52.51435, 13.24149
290 Degrees
Berlin, Germany
This picture captures the United States team entering the Berlin Olympiastadion during the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games. There is a good piece about how Americans felt about this moment here: https://www.nps.gov/hofr/blogs/the-1936-berlin-olympics-and-the-controversy-of-u-s-participation.htm
January 15, 2026 at 6:25 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1906
35.83913, -110.39068
241 Degrees
Walpi Village, First Mesa, Arizona, USA
Several Hopi native people are sitting on a line of rocks at the top of a cliff in Arizona.One one young man is posed with legs apart in the middle distance and we are looking roughly south east towards the old village of Walpi on the top of the outcrop. "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpi,_Arizona" In the link you can read the interesting history of this much photographed tourist village. It was the centre of the Pueblo Revolt "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Revolt" which in turn was the result of appalling cruelty on the part of the Spanish settlers including the 1599 Acoma Massacre. "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1599_Acoma_massacre"
January 14, 2026 at 3:21 PM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1902
75.909,-66.4557
Unknown direction
Cape York, Greenland.
A stereoview of a man and woman entitled "Face to face with the Esquimaux, inhabitants of the frigid north, Cape York, Greenland." Nearby a 100 ton meteorite was discovered, which provided a source of iron used by the Inuit. Published by Underwood & Underwood
January 13, 2026 at 9:04 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
1921
40.70690, -74.0102
336 Degrees
Wall Street, New York, USA
January 12, 2026 at 9:45 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
August 18th 1906
35.6888,51.42822
Direction (? Working on this)
Masoudieh Palace, Baharestan, Tehran, Iran
The 1906 Iranian Parliament, known as the Majlis-e Showrā-ye Melli (National Consultative Assembly), was Iran's first parliament, born from the Constitutional Revolution, establishing a constitutional monarchy, limiting the Shah's power, and introducing a written constitution and free press, though it was suppressed in 1908 by Shah Mohammad Ali Qajar before being restored later.
January 12, 2026 at 9:37 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
Before November 11th 1865
44.892675, -93.181604
Fort Snelling, St Paul Minneapolis
Upton, Benjamin. F, attrib. “Medicine Bottle,” Sioux Indian Executed at Fort Snelling. [pencil inscription on verso]. St. Paul: Martin’s Art Gallery, circa 1864. Stereoview, 3.25” x 6.75” including mount. A stereoview picturing the Dakota brave “Medicine Bottle,” as photographed during his captivity at Fort Snelling following the Dakota Uprising of 1862. The 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux removed the Dakota people from their traditional lands in Iowa and Minnesota, and settled them on land along the upper Minnesota River. Insufficient hunting grounds, cutworm destruction of corn crops, treaty violations, and Indian agent corruption, resulted in near-starvation conditions and provoked rebellion against the treaty. In August of 1862, the Dakota attacked white settlements in the Minnesota River valley, killing hundreds. The revolt was crushed on September 2nd by forces under General John Pope. On 26 December 1862, thirty-eight Dakota leaders were executed in the largest one day execution in U. S. history. Pejuhuta-tha (Medicine Bottle) and Chief Shak-pi (Little Six) fled to Canada following the uprising. They were captured there by Major Edwin Hatch in January of 1864, then imprisoned at Fort Snelling, where they were tried and convicted of war crimes. They were hung in 1865. Text from James E Arsenault & Co website.
January 11, 2026 at 7:32 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
Winter 1886/7
44.95253, -93.09853
unknown angle
The Ice Palace
St Paul Minneapolis, USA
The 1886-87 St. Paul Winter Carnival featured a magnificent ice palace, designed by the Hutchinson brothers (hired after Montreal's carnival was canceled), rising over 100 feet tall (around 106 ft), built from massive ice blocks, incorporating skating rinks, warming rooms, and illuminated by early electric lights, showcasing ice sculptures of animals and artillery, and serving as a dazzling centerpiece for the city's first major winter festival, meant to prove Minnesota was a habitable, vibrant place. (Text by Gemini)
January 10, 2026 at 6:44 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
Winter 1886/7
44.95253, -93.09853
unknown angle
St Paul Minneapolis, USA
A young Sioux man participating in the St Paul Ice Festival. The first St. Paul Winter Carnival in 1886/87 was centered around a massive Ice Palace built in Central Park, located east of the present-day State Capitol grounds, between Cedar and Minnesota streets, north of 13th Street, showcasing toboggan slides, skating rinks, and other winter fun to prove Minnesota was habitable.
January 10, 2026 at 6:30 AM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
c1900
10.50470,-66.91700
95 degrees
Caracas, Venezuela
January 3, 2026 at 5:08 PM
pmcghee2.bsky.social
c1900
10.4884,-66.84927
75 degrees
Caracas Venezuela
January 3, 2026 at 4:49 PM