Older Than Me

Olympic Athletes Smoke Camels! (1935)

2009-09-26T20:04:00.003-05:00

From the July 21, 1935 San Antonio Light (San Antonio, TX). Notice that this ran in the comics section of the paper...

Free Movie Film Library (1932)

2009-09-20T15:11:00.001-05:00

This article appeared in the February 14, 1932 San Antonio Express (San Antonio, TX).

How Will Christopher Columbus Be Seen In 2362 A.D.? (1927)

2009-07-04T11:35:00.004-05:00

From the July 4, 1927 Fresno Bee (Fresno, CA):

It is to wonder what the people of the year 23;62 A.D. will make of the exploits of Byrd over the North Pole and Lindbergh over the Atlantic.

The year 2362 is 435 years hence: 435 years before 1927 Christopher Columbus was making his voyage and getting his name into history. Of Columbus' mysterious past there has been much speculation. Obscure as have been his antecedents, his deed remained glorious until now, when a French biographer, Marius Andre, comes forward with the charge that Columbus was no navigator, that he was no sailor, no captain, no hero, no conquistador -- nothing but a fraud, a profiteer, a slave dealer, a liar of no mean ability, a discoverer whose major achievements were in his imagination.

All this finding is in style with the newer trends of historical research -- to tear down any glamour that any man has acquired through the centuries. Defenders of Columbus will of course rush forward to clean the smudge from the shield of their idol, but it is really unnecessary. The accomplishment of the man, which can not be effaced by any besmirching of character, make his position secure.

See also:
How Experts Think We'll Live in 2000 A.D. (1950)

Happy Birthday America? (1976)

2009-07-02T19:58:00.005-05:00

Since I was just a twinkle in my father's eye in 1976 (that's creepy-speak for "not born yet") I'm always amazed when I come across bizarre "down-but-not-out" advertisements celebrating the U.S. Bicentennial.

This ad for the Grand Prairie State Bank appeared in the July 4, 1976 Grand Prairie Daily News (Grand Prairie, TX). Are there any comparable ads being put out today, given the tough economic times we face?

Dial 911 For Help! (1968)

2009-06-29T19:30:00.002-05:00

Remember the days before 911? Neither do I.

This edition of the long-running strip Our New Age by Athelstan Spilhaus ran in the June 16, 1968 Progress-Index (Petersburg, VA)

You're Never Going to Get Married Without Colgate (1958)

2009-06-27T23:34:00.002-05:00

Advertisement from the June 15, 1958 Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)

Because it's not smart to cancel on Mom (1977)

2009-06-21T12:23:00.004-05:00

It's like a TiVo that always flashes "12:00."

November 2, 1977 Winnipeg Free Press (Winnipeg, Manitoba)

Ten Golden Rules (1931)

2009-05-13T19:48:00.003-05:00

These "ten golden rules" for health and happiness appeared in the Dec 6, 1931 Daily Capital News and Post-Tribune (Jefferson City, MO).

1. Eat slowly.

2. Be Cheerful.

3. Brush Your Teeth Daily.

4. Learn Something Each Day - Do Your Best.

5. Avoid Contagious Diseases.

6. Qeep Clean - Body, Clothes, Mind.

7. Always Cover a Sneeze or Cough.

8. Drink at Least Four Glasses of Water Daily.

9. Sleep Eight Hours in a Well Ventilated Room.

10. Play Hard and Fair.

Boonson[?] quarter[?] [...] (1921)

2009-05-04T23:44:00.004-05:00

Apparently this image confuses the Library of Congress as well. The title to this photo is listed as: "Boonson[?] quarter[?] [...]" Can anyone shed some light as to what's happening here? Is it a Bocce photo shoot?

You can download a high quality version of this image at the Library of Congress Prints and Photos website.

Working Wives Change? (1959)

2009-05-03T23:09:00.006-05:00

The August 24, 1959 Tri-City Herald (Pasco, WA) ran this gem by Douglass Welch.

A prominent psychologist says that the working wife probably is not as much in love with her husband as her counterpart, the non-working wife. This is because she is not as much dependent upon him for her livelihood. And her workaday tasks require her to think of her boss, her job and her own relationship to the world of business.

The fact is, the working wife is more of a realist and less a romanticist. She has less need of continual reassurances that she is loved. And the woman who earns more than her husband may love him, but in time that love tends to become the kind you lavish on an awfully nice but ineffectual relative.

Homestead in Montana (1909)

2008-11-15T20:05:00.004-06:00

The December 17, 1909 Le Grand Reporter (Le Grand, IA) ran this ad for land in Montana.

You have, an opportunity to-day to secure a farm In Montana that you will not have in two years from now. You can get 160 acres of free government homestead land for the trifling cost of the filing fees. You can get 320 acres of land free in Northern Montana under the enlarged homestead act. This land is pronounced by Professor Thomas Shaw to be the best In the Northwest. It will grow 30 bushels of Turkey Red Wheat to the acre -- from 60 to 100 bushels of oats. It will grow large crops of barley, rye and flax. It Is rich soil and only needs an intelligent farmer to make It yield enormous crops. You can not get this land two years from now, it will be taken up. You must act quickly -- as filings are being made rapidly. Most of this land lies In Montana, north of the Great Northern Railway and between the eastern boundary and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Much of it is in the fertile Milk River Valley, where the government is constructing one of the largest Irrigation Projects in the country.

In the Flathead Valley land is cheap.

If interested in exchanging your high priced land or your rented land for free land or low priced land, write for our "New Book on Montana, which gives full information about the conditions, and opportunities for farmers. Write to-day.

Kentucky (1916)

2008-06-25T23:40:00.005-05:00

"Driving boy" taking pigs to market. Says he is 14 years old and has been working with pigs for 9 years. Goes to school in Paris, Ky. Horace Harpe, 320 West 8 Street. Location: Winchester [vicinity], Kentucky / Lewis W. Hine.

A higher-resolution download of this 1916 image can be found at the Library of Congress website.

Kansas (1943)

2008-06-19T22:27:00.003-05:00

This photograph from March, 1943 was taken in a Santa Fe R.R. locomotive shop in Topeka, Kansas. A higher-resolution download of this image can be found at the Library of Congress website.

See also:
Illinois (1943)

Iowa (1940)

2008-05-19T21:24:00.005-05:00

Civil Liberties in War Times

1940 Poster for a lecture by Max Lerner at Roosevelt High, Des Moines, Iowa, showing an armored guantlet clenched in a fist.

A high-resolution image of the poster can be downloaded at the Library of Congress website.

See also:
How Experts Think We'll Live in 2000 A.D. (1950)

My Robot's Birthday Party (1994)

2008-05-18T22:35:00.002-05:00

The Robot

I found the robot pieces. I put the pieces together so it looked like a robot. I named him Zachary. The next day it was Zachary's birthday party. One day Zachary snorted because it was his birthday party. Zachary was 18 years old.

First-grader Lisa Stamp wrote this story, which appeared in the March 19, 1994 Daily Register (Oelwein, IA).

See also:
My Robot (1994)
The Robot From Outer Space (1994)
My Robot Gets Lunch (1994)

Indiana (1908)

2008-05-17T17:55:00.005-05:00

Jack, A Bright Indianapolis Boy of 13: Was a Messenger at the age of 11. Indiana has no age limit for mes'grs. Aug., 1908. Wit., E. N. Clopper. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana.

You can find a high-resolution version of this image by Lewis Wickes Hine at the Library of Congress website.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)
Arkansas (1935)
California (1943)
Colorado (1859)
Connecticut (1961)
Delaware (1910)
Florida (circa 1910)
Georgia (circa 1940)
Hawaii (1902)
Idaho (1941)
Illinois (1943)

My Robot Gets Lunch (1994)

2008-05-15T19:48:00.003-05:00

My Robot Gets Lunch

My robot's name is Kyle. He gets me lunch every day. He fixes my car. When he's done, he finds a new job. He gets a new home. He got a new son. He got four more children.

First-grader Nick Palmer wrote this story, which appeared in the March 19, 1994 Daily Register (Oelwein, IA).

See also:
My Robot (1994)
The Robot From Outer Space (1994)

Illinois (1943)

2008-05-15T00:54:00.003-05:00

This photo by Jack Delano was taken in April of 1943. It is titled, "Daniel Anastazia, blacksmith's helper, Rock Island R.R., Blue Island, Ill."

You can find a high-resolution version of the image at the Library of Congress website.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)
Arkansas (1935)
California (1943)
Colorado (1859)
Connecticut (1961)
Delaware (1910)
Florida (circa 1910)
Georgia (circa 1940)
Hawaii (1902)
Idaho (1941)

The Robot from Outer Space (1994)

2008-05-14T23:31:00.004-05:00

The Robot from Outer Space

My robot flew down from outer space. My robot found some people to talk with. My robot talked with the president. Then my robot started walking to get something to eat. It was ice cream. When he was done, my robot flew back to outer space because my robot was tired. The end.

Zachary Stocker wrote this story, which appeared in the March 19, 1994 Daily Register (Oelwein, IA).

See also:
My Robot (1994)

My Robot (1994)

2008-05-14T23:29:00.002-05:00

The March 19, 1994 Daily Register (Oelwein, IA) published the short stories of local first-grade students. Wings Park teacher, Barb Ehlers, asked her students to write about their robots and received some pretty awesome responses.

Nowhere is there any indication that the aforementioned robots are imaginary, so I will assume that these robots actually exist. I expect this series to be more interesting than the A-Z states experiment.

But no promises.

These stories seem to be crying out for drawings. Feel free to submit any that you are inspired to create: matt[at]paleofuture.com

See also:
The United States (Alabama to Wyoming)
Rosie the Robot (1962)

The Photoscope (1904)

2008-05-14T22:11:00.007-05:00

Apparently this photoscope, (a photobooth sans booth), was all the rage at the St. Louis Exposition. The ad above was found in the June 4, 1904 Ogden Standard (Ogden, UT).

The newest novelty in Nickel-in-the-Slot Machines. Takes your photograph, develops and delivers to you in one minute. The only Nickel-in-the-Slot Machine that aside from affording amusement gives permanent value for your money. Always a perfect likeness. Takes but a minute, costs 5 cents. Be sure to try the first one you see.

200 in operation at the St. Louis Exposition.

Idaho (1941)

2008-05-13T18:10:00.004-05:00

This photograph by Russell Lee was taken in 1941 on the main street of Cascade, Idaho. The Cascade Club looks like it's hopping. You can find a higher resolution version of the photo at the Library of Congress website.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)
Arkansas (1935)
California (1943)
Colorado (1859)
Connecticut (1961)
Delaware (1910)
Florida (circa 1910)
Georgia (circa 1940)
Hawaii (1902)

Hawaii (1902)

2008-05-13T01:19:00.003-05:00

Melvin Vaniman took this panoramic photo on July 3, 1902 at a Haleiwa Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. It can be found at the Library of Congress website and must be viewed in a larger version to be truly appreciated.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)
Arkansas (1935)
California (1943)
Colorado (1859)
Connecticut (1961)
Delaware (1910)
Florida (circa 1910)
Georgia (circa 1940)

Delivered Twins in 20 Minutes, With No Pain! (1895)

2008-05-12T23:05:00.006-05:00

Let me get this straight Mrs. Anna Gage; you delivered twins, in 20 minutes, with no pain? I guess there was no Federal Trade Commission to investigate your claims back in 1895. This "Mothers' Friend" was, of course, sold by ALL druggists.

The ad appeared in the July 18, 1895 Cambridge Jeffersonian (Cambridge, OH).

See also:
Anti-Fat (1878)

Spy Pen (1967)

2008-05-11T22:41:00.005-05:00

This advertisement for a "Spy Pen" appears to be encouraging less-than-wholesome endeavors. With a money back guarantee, no less! It seems that one might have to order a "Spy Drill" in order for that pen to work properly.

The ad appeared in the October, 1967 issue of the comic book Strange Suspense Stories.

Cheeks Like Pomegranates (1952)

2008-04-30T22:24:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure why I was struck by the phrase, "cheeks like pomegranates," but I was. The photo ran in the September 18, 1952 Idaho State Journal (Pocatello, ID).

A Grecian girl with cheeks like pomegranates has come to Idaho State College. Maria Skoulfkaris, center, tells fellow freshmen, Ann Reed of Filer, and LaMar Muir of Idaho Falls, that she has never been kissed but expects to be a threat when they study Greek drama.

A Ballad for the Fair (1964)

2008-02-21T11:28:00.002-06:00

The 1964 film A Ballad for the Fair gives a tour of the 1964 New York World's Fair, with a heavy emphasis on communications technology. Produced by Bell System, you are even treated to a taste of the Bell System ride. You can watch the entire film below or just check out the futurism aspects at Paleo-Future.

And did we mention the folk singing? Oh, the folk singing!

The DVD set 1964 World's Fair at Extinct Attractions contains the film.

Georgia (circa 1940)

2008-02-20T10:23:00.000-06:00

Georgia oat field? Southern U.S.

Early color photography of the 1940s certainly has a unique quality that is difficult to describe. Such interesting saturation is what seems to be the most striking. You can find out more about this image at the Library of Congress website.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)
Arkansas (1935)
California (1943)
Colorado (1859)
Connecticut (1961)
Delaware (1910)
Florida (circa 1910)

Florida (circa 1910)

2008-02-12T22:43:00.001-06:00

Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla.

You can find out more about this image at the Library of Congress website.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)
Arkansas (1935)
California (1943)
Colorado (1859)
Connecticut (1961)
Delaware (1910)

Delaware (1910)

2008-02-10T13:40:00.000-06:00

2 newsgirls. Location: Wilmington, Delaware.

Connecticut (1961)

2008-02-08T21:39:00.000-06:00

[Managers office, parking garage, New Haven, Connecticut. Scheme A ("square"). Rendering]

This proposed New Haven, Connecticut office was rendered by architect Paul Rudolph in 1961. You can find out more about this image at the Library of Congress website.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)
Arkansas (1935)
California (1943)
Colorado (1859)

Colorado (1859)

2008-02-08T10:37:00.000-06:00

Drawing shows a dirt trail among pine trees leading toward a heavily forested pass between snow-capped mountains. This pass, near present-day Ft. Collins, Colorado, heads north toward the Oregon and California Trail. This was camp 59 for Jenks' party on Tuesday, June 7, 1859. He wrote of that day's camp, "Our wagons had to be chained to keep them in their places, the hillside was so steep."

You can learn more about this image, as well as download a larger version, at the Library of Congress site.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)
Arkansas (1935)
California (1943)

California (1943)

2008-02-07T23:21:00.000-06:00

Loading oranges into a refrigerator car at a co-op orange packing plant, Redlands, Calif. Santa Fe R.R. trip

You can find out more about this image from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)
Arkansas (1935)

Arkansas (1935)

2008-02-04T09:35:00.000-06:00

Son of destitute Ozark family, Arkansas

You can learn more about this image here.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)
Arizona (circa 1885)

Arizona (circa 1885)

2008-02-03T17:26:00.000-06:00

Bird's eye view of Phoenix Maricopa Co. Arizona, view looking north-east / sketched by C. J. Dyer, Phoenix, A.T. ; W. Byrnes, litho. S.F.

You can find out more about this lithograph, along with an enormous downloadable version (214 MB), here.

See also:
Alabama (1940)
Alaska (1940s)

Alaska (1940s)

2008-02-03T09:49:00.000-06:00

Poster for Thirteenth Naval District, United States Navy, showing a rat representing Japan, approaching a mousetrap labeled "Army Navy Civilian," on a background map of the state of Alaska.

This colorful/racist poster was created for the WPA Art Project between 1941 and 1943. You can read more about the image here.

See also:
Alabama (1940)

Alabama (1940)

2008-02-02T22:09:00.000-06:00

Aunt Harriet McClintock, dancing for John A. Lomax as she sang "Shing, Shing," at the crossroads near Sumterville, Ala.

I really don't know what to make of this image. But the blurriness of the image coupled with the ambiguous and distorted expressions of both figures is somehow captivating.

You can find more info about this photograph here.

The United States (Alabama to Wyoming)

2008-02-02T21:40:00.000-06:00

I've decided to post (alphabetical by state) interesting images from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Collection. Hope it's not as boring as it sounds.

How Experts Think We'll Live in 2000 A.D. (1950)

2008-01-26T16:46:00.001-06:00

The December 27, 1950 Robesonian (Lumberton, NC) ran an Associated Press article titled, "How Experts Think We'll Live in 2000 A.D." The entire piece has been transcribed below. For a scan of the original article check out Paleo-Future.

The last half of the 20th Century dawns with fantastic promises shining through dark clouds.

Amid war and rumors of war, new terrors grip the world, but hopes and dreams of the future prevail.

The year 2000 looms nearer in the accelerating pace of modern life than 1950 ever could have seemed at the beginning of this century.

If the past fortells the future and the present trends point the way, many millions of persons alive today will live to see peace, prosperity, health, longer life, more leisure and greater luxuries than ever were known.

A woman may be President!

These are some of the rewards envisaged for the year 2000 by Associated Press experts looking ahead.

Here is how they size up prospects:

WORLD AFFAIRS: Price of Peace

Students of history in the year 2000 will probably look back on the 20th century as the era of blood and money.

Blood because the earth will still be reeking from the third world war.

Money, representing the material resources of the western world, because it will have outweighed the unfulfilled promises of Russian imperialistic Communism in unifying the world, or at least will be on the way to that end.

More importanly, but bearing on both, will be the recognition that a new world unifying power - the United States - will have taken it splace in the center of international affairs: forging a new "empire," different from Britain's, different from Rome's, indeed not an empire at all in the old sense, but [nevertheless] a new core, a new catalytic force.

This central position of the United States will grow out of its already-demonstrated willingness to base its relations with other nations on a community of interest; out of its capabilities for lending aid to the underdeveloped out of its refusal to divide the world after World War II, into spheres of influence for the benefit of the great powers.

The Third World War - barring such a miracle as has never yet occurred in relations between countries so greatly at odds - will grow out of Russia's exactly opposite attempts to unify the world by force.

By the year 2000 some sort of world federation idea should have taken real form, with the United States, because of its commercial interest in the development of other lands, because of the blood it will have shed in their behalf, holding a lot of votes.

SCIENCE: A Man-Made Planet

The first man-made star will be circling around the earth by the year 2000.

This star's light will be like that of the moon, reflected sunshine. It will be visible before sunrise and after sunset. It will circle 400 to 500 miles away from earth, or possibly farther.

This little planet is likely to be the first of the space ships, because there are a lot of practical reasons for building it, regardless of the future of interplanetary travel. It will be the nose of a step-rocket, one which fires in sections, each part dropping off to fall back to earth, until the final piece attains the speed of seven miles a second. At that velocity the end piece will not fall back, but will become a satellite of earth.

Practical uses are numerous. One is a radar beacon. Another to reflect radio signals, for scientific study. Three of these small ships, high enough and evenly spaced around the earth might become relays to serve the entire world with television.

The first ship is unlikely to be manned. But it may get power enough from the sun's heat to drive electronic equipment indefinitely.

In 2000 we shall be able to fly around the world in a day. We shall be neighbors of everyone else on earth, to whom we wish to be neighborly.

The atomic age should be getting under way. Atomic power will become useful in those areas where coal and oil are expensive and where water power is not available.

ECONOMICS: New Living Standards

The nation's industrial and agricultural plant will be able to support 300 million persons 50 years from now - twice the present population. Land now unproductive will be made to yield. Science will steadily increase crop production per acre. Technological, industrial and economic advances will give the American people living standards eight times as high as now.

Dr. Harold G. Moulton, president of the Brookings Institution, in his book, "Controlling Factors in Economic Development," predicts that in the next century the nation's expenditure for food will be eight times what it is now.

The total expended each year for housing will be 16 times the present outlay; for apparel 20 times more; for health and education 30 times more, and for recreation and travel 33 times more.

Technical advances will be well distributed throughout the economy. For example, a housewife may use an electronic stove and prepare roast beef in less time than it takes to set the table.

Other economists agree with Dr. Moulton. The Twentieth Century Fund, looking ahead only 10 years, forsees an American population of 155 million (a conservative estimate) who, as consumers, will be spending 159 billion dollars annually into additional capital goods, for further expansion of the industrial plant.

WOMEN: For President!

The woman of the year 2000 will be an outsize Diana, anthropologists and beauty experts predict. She will be more than six feet tall, wear a size 11 shoe, have shoulders like a wrestler and muscles like a truck driver.

Chances are she will be doing a man’s job, and for this reason will dress to fit her role. Her hair will be cropped short, so as not to get in the way. She probably will wear the most functional clothes in the daytime, go frilly only after dark.

Slacks probably will be her usual workaday costume. These will be of synthetic fiber, treated to keep her warm in winter and cool in summer, admit the beneficial ultra-violet rays and keep out the burning ones. They will be light weight and equipped with pockets for food capsules, which she will eat instead of meat and potatoes.

Her proportions will be perfect, though Amazonian, because science will have perfected a balanced ration of vitamins, proteins and minerals that will produce the maximum bodily efficiency, the minimum of fat.

She will go in for all kinds of sports – probably will compete with men athletes in football, baseball, prizefighting and wrestling.

She’ll be in on all the high-level groups of finance, business and government.

She may even be president.

POPULATION: Growth Will Slow

The population of the United States, which rose from 76,000,000 in 1900 to 130,500,000 in 1950, may not double again in the next half century. U.S. Census Bureau experts doubt that it will reach 300,000,000 by the year 2000, but they are not hazarding predictions that far ahead.

Population may reach 200,000,000 before the end of the century and will keep on increasing well into the 21st century.

While population doubled in the last half century, it more than tripled in the previous 50 years between 1850 and 1900. Between 1800 and 1850, it had more than quadrupled.

Three shifts in U.S. population that have been tremendous in the past 10 years are expected to keep going strong. These are:

Movement of people from farms to town, migration from the center of the country to the border states, particularly the Pacific coast and the South, and the movement of city dwellers to the suburbs. These trends will be further stimulated by industrial production needed for the new, long-range defense program and by farm mechanization.

MEDICINE: A Longer Life Span

Medicine by the year 2000 will have advanced the length of life of women to an expectation of nearly 80 and of men to over 75.

The record will be better if the cause and cure of cancer is discovered. Cancer is a form of growth. It is part of metabolism. Concerning growth, nothing is now known. Metabolism is not such a complete mystery, but is complex. Most of the chronic diseases, except infections caused by germs and viruses, are based on metabolism gone wrong.

Growth, metabolism and cancer studies will make the first break into clearing another mystery, the causes of aging. After that is known it will be possible to control aging so that elderly persons will be healthy to nearly the end of their lives.

Hope is very good for restricting cancer’s attack before 50 more years, but not for eradicating it. For it now appears that cancer is not a single disease, but takes many forms.

The prevention of baldness depends on studies of growth, aging and death more than on any other now known factor.

Public health will improve, especially the knowledge of how air carries infections, like the common cold, from person to person. Before 2000, the air probably will be made as safe from disease-spreading as water and food were during the first half of this century.

Surgery, which has been the fastest-moving side of medical science, will by 2000, be able to repair bodies damaged by disease, by accidents or by heredity so that the “lame and the halt” will nearly disappear. Polio probably will be stopped well before 2000.

AIR WAR: New Terrors Ahead

Space will replace speed as air war’s big problem before the world rockets into the year 2000.

Distance between points should have disappeared as an element of military planning. Optimum speed up to the so-called “escape speed” of 25,000 miles an hour, at which a flying object would sail out of the earth’s gravitational pull, will be available. Space for maneuvering will be an important factor, and scientists will be striving for better control to permit use of top speeds.

Long-range military thinkers speak now in terms of some newer source of propulsion, still undefined except in such broad terms as simpler, cheaper, universally available, inexhaustible. It may be solar radiation, atmospheric decomposition or some new nuclear fission process.

Space platforms, sent out from earth, will end mid-century’s “iron curtain” era by bringing the entire globe under constant surveillance.

The 5,000-mile range intercontinental atmospheric missile will be in service long before 2000 A.D. There likely will be intercontinental ballistic missiles, capable of being shot out of the atmosphere and descending meteor-like on a target.

Guided missiles to seek targets in flight or on the ground will have been developed to extreme sensitivity. They will be launched from continuous patrol aircraft, able to stay aloft as long as ships stay at sea. Electronic eyes will eliminate errors in detection and identification.

An air attack of the next century will be as relatively unstoppable as today. Effectiveness of airborne weapons will have become such that the first problem will be survival of “round one” – the initial attack.

AVIATION: Foolproof Flying

Civil aviation in A.D. 2000 will be accepted by the public as readily as mid-century’s automobile and train.

Flight will have the precision of control found in ground vehicles and should be more independent of surface weather conditions. Piloting will be as simple as driving a shiftless car and ringed with safeguards to reduce human error. Safety will be greater in commercial air transportation than in any of today’s travel methods.

Atomic engines for large civil aircraft will do away with the problem of range and speed. Electronic airways and landing systems, combined with electronic eyes in the planes, superior cabin pressurization, new structural designs and materials and complete aircraft anti-icing will eliminate weather factors in schedules.

Cruising speed of 1,000 miles an hour or higher are probable of deluxe travel. Air mail and high priority cargo are likely to move much faster, traveling pilotless missiles controlled from ground stations.

New principles of lift and development of designs already begun will end mid-century’s struggle with giant airports. Combinations of rotating and fixed wings and conventional aircraft with high lift helicopters can eliminate long runways.

Detachable fuselages, interchangeable between types of aircraft, will provide door-to-door air freight service.

Combination automobile-planes will have been perfected.

Civilian scientists will have begun their study of the outer space and will be preparing for interplanetary explorations, using methods already understood in mid-century.

CONSTRUCTION: Push-Button Home

Current trends are already sketching blueprints of what will be called modern in homes, apartments and office buildings at the end of this century. Signs point to vertical cities and flying suburbs – little airport communities 100 miles and more from skyscraper clusters rising in the midst of acres of parks and playgrounds.

People will live in houses so automatic that push-buttons will be replaced by fingertip and even voice controls. Some people today can push a button to close a window – another to start coffee in the kitchen. Tomorrow such chores will be done by the warmth of your fingertip, as elevators are summoned now in some of the newest office buildings – or by a mere whisper in the intercom phone.

Rigid zoning in small towns will insure yards, gardens and trees for each house, where window walls will slip down in slots to merge outdoors with indoors in favorable weather. City dwellers will bask on individual balconies high above the treetops of parks surrounding elevator apartment houses. All homes will have temperatures maintained at constant comfortable levels the year-round for human efficiency. Heat will be tapped from the bowels of the earth and refrigeration will cool houses in the same process.

Skyscrapers will stage a comeback because of the demand for premium space afforded by light and airy tower floors. But few office buildings will exceed 50 stories or so – the economic height created by elevator and utilities cores.

Improved lightweight building materials will be readily prefabricated to make the construction or replacement of homes or skyscrapers almost as flexible as changes in partitions in existing office buildings.

TELEVISION: Walkie-Talkie-Seeing

Third dimensional color television will be so commonplace and so simplified at the dawn of the 21st century that a small device will project pictures on the living room wall so realistic they will seem to be alive. The room will automatically be filled with the aroma of the flower garden being shown on the screen.

Radio broadcasting will have disappeared, for no one will tune in a program that cannot be seen. Radio will long since have reverted to a strictly communications medium, using devices now unheard of and unthought of.

Wireless transmission of electric power, long a dream of the engineer, will have come into being. There will be no more power lines to break in storms. A simple small antenna on the roof will pick up the current for lighting a house.

The telephone will be transformed from wire to radio and will be equipped with the visuality of television. Who’s on the other end of the line will seldom be a mystery. Evey pedestrian will have his own walking telephone – an apparatus by a combination of the X-ray and television. Electronic appendectomies will be performed with an X-ray-TV camera, projection screen and electric “knives” – the latter actually being electrodes functioning without puncturing the skin.

MOVIES: Fourth Dimension Views

Some movie theaters of A.D. 2000 may be dome-shaped, with ceiling and walls arching together like the sky. These surfaces would be the “screen.” Most action would still be in front of you, as now. But some could be overhead, some at the sides, and some even on the wall behind. A little girl steps into a street in the action before you – and you turn around and look behind you to see if an auto is coming.

Three-dimensional photography is likely – the kind of pictures-with-depth that parlor stereoscopes used to offer. Almost all movies will be in color. People will still laugh and cry at the same things. Sex and westerns will still be with us.

Televisions influence will be tremendous. Industry leaders like Cecil B. DeMille and Dore Schary cautiously predict a “marriage” of films and TV. Some think television will kill only smaller theaters. But if there’s a system whereby viewers can be charged for parlor video pictures, others say, there’ll be no theaters left.

AGRICULTURE: A Golden Age

A golden age of agriculture – providing greater economic security for farmers and better eating for consumers – may become a major accomplishment of the last half of the 20th century.

Giving support to the possibility of attaining this goal is the remarkable progress made in agriculture during the first half of the century. At the start of the century it required the efforts of two-fifths of the nation’s population to supply the demand for farm products. Today – at the century’s half-way mark – it takes only one-fifth of the population.

What has made it possible has been largely the work of science – new and better farm machinery and biology.

Foreseeing a national population of 200,000,000 by the end of the century, these leaders predict less than one-tenth of the people will be needed to supply markets for farm products.

Through the extended use of better plants and animals, improved fertilizers, new growth regulators and more efficient machinery, it should be possible, leaders say, for farmers to produce future crop needs on much less land than today.

A major byproduct of the expected need for fewer farmers and for possible new scientific developments, leaders say, should be greater ability to stabilize agricultural production and supplies at levels which would provide and maintain greater security for those on the land.

POLITICS: Freedom Will Survive

How will this land of ours be governed in 50 years?

Much as today, perhaps – with two parties contending against each other and within themselves, with the people free to choose between them, with the winner pressured from all sides yet curbed and guided by a constitution little changed since George Washington’s day.

And yet it is easy to scare ourselves with other possibilities.

Some see us drifting toward the all-powerful state, lulled by the sweet sound of “security.” Some see a need to curb our freedom lest it be used to shield those who plot against us. And some fear our freedom will be hard to save if a general war should come.

What then?

A military dictatorship to restore the nation’s body, if not its soul from the ravages of atomic attack? Some sort of Fascism? Or, in the name of Socialism, some mild or strong control of what we do; directive here, big red “Thou-Shall-Not’s” there?

Some fear the worst. And yet:

We’ve feared the worst, while hoping for the best, ever since we have been a nation. We’ve come through wars and depression. And we’ve come through – free.

Today, almost alone among men, we have the strength – as we may need to prove – to hold the course we choose.

LABOR: A Short Work Week

There is every reason to believe that the steady growth of organized labor in the first half of 1950 will continue along the same trend in the second half of the century.

Labor developed to where it is today from practically nothing at the beginning of the 20th century. It’s still in the process of growth. The various elements and cliques making up the American economy – labor is just one of them – are learning more and more that the national security and well-being requires them to remain strong and work together.

So as labor comes closer to reaching maturity it is likely to win greater acceptance from other elements of American life. This in itself would tend to eliminate some of the great labor-management struggles and create a smoother-working American team.

From every indication labor is in politics to stay, probably playing an expanding role as the years progress. By the end of the century labor may have its own party, as is the case in several European countries.

It’s a good bet, too, that by the end of the century many government plans now avoided as forms of socialism will be accepted as commonplace. Who in 1900 thought that by mid-century there would be government-regulated pensions and a work week limited to 40 hours? A minimum wage, child labor curbs and unemployment compensation?

So tell your children not to be surprised if the year 2000 finds 35 or even a 20-hour work week fixed by law.

The piece was written by the following specialists of The Associated Press: J.M. Roberts, Jr., foreign affairs; Howard W. Blakeslee, science; Sam Dawson, economics; Dorothy Roe, women; Alexander George, population; James J. Strebig, aviation; David G. Bareuther, construction; C.E. Butterfield, television; Gene Handsaker, movies; Ovid A. Martin, agriculture; Ed Creagh, politics; Norman Walker, labor; David Taylor Marke, education.

For Tighter Marriage, Just Button Your Lip! (1959)

2008-01-17T16:52:00.000-06:00

The December 6, 1959 Chicago Tribune ran an article titled, "For Tighter Marriage, Just Button Your Lip!" An excerpt as well as the entire article appear below.

An American sociologist suggests the best way to get along with your husband is not to talk to him very much. Dr. Ezra F. Vogel, 29, of Cambridge, Mass., also implies that a lot of friction can be avoided if husbands get home later, go to bed earlier, and spend weekends with the boys from the office. To get the good doctor off the hook, he does not necessarily advocate this as the right approach to marriage. The suggestions, however, are firmly based on Vogel's impressions of the sociological differences between Japanese and American marriages.

Blu Kross Paper Cloth (1929)

2008-01-05T15:47:00.000-06:00

I realize that the iron cross is not solely a Nazi symbol, but I can't help thinking about Nazi toilet paper when I look at this ad for Blu Kross paper cloth from the July 12, 1929 Lima News (Lima, OH).

Won a Divorce with Movies of His Faithless Wife (1939)

2008-01-05T10:42:00.001-06:00

The January 8, 1939 San Antonio Light (San Antonio, TX) ran this article about a suspicious scientist who filmed time-lapse photography of plants. He thought his wife was cheating on him, so he set up a camera in his living room when he was away. He caught his wife cheating and played the movie in court to win his divorce. Pretty awesome use of technology for the late 30s.

Odd Ogg (1962)

2007-12-28T00:22:00.000-06:00

This ad for Odd Ogg ran in the December 14, 1962 Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM).

Half turtle, half frog, he's the playful Odd Ogg! Turn on the switch, he starts moving backward. Now roll one of the five plastic balls at him, hit him, and he rolls forward making a low, croaking sound. Miss him and he retreats, sticks out his tongue and makes a "razzing" frog noise. But hit or miss, you'll laugh along with Odd Ogg every time. Durable plastic construction, with heavy duty motor. Battery-operated.

Apparently, Odd Ogg was colorful.

Anti-Fat (1878)

2007-12-27T19:08:00.000-06:00

This advertisement for "Allan's Anti-Fat" ran in the July 5, 1878 Daily Star (Marion, Ohio) and claims to "act upon the food in the stomach, preventing its being converted into fat."

Our Friend the Atom (1956)

2007-12-25T22:01:00.000-06:00

The 1956 book Our Friend the Atom, produced by Walt Disney Productions, includes this prologue about the destructive power of the atom:

Deep in the tiny atom lies hidden a tremendous force. This force has entered the scene of our modern world as a most frightening power of destruction, more fearful and devastating than man ever though possible.

We all know of the story of the military atom, and we all wish that it weren't true. For many obvious reasons it would be better if it weren't real, but just a rousing tale. It does have all the earmarks of a drama: a frightful terror which everyone knows exists, a sinister threat, mystery and secrecy. It's a perfect tale of horror!

But, fortunately, the story is not yet finished. So far, the atom is a superb villain. Its power of destruction is foremost in our minds. But the same power can be put to use for creation, for the welfare of all mankind.

What will eventually be done with the atom? It is up to us to give the story a happy ending. If we use atomic energy wisely, we can make a hero out of a villain.

This, then, is the story of the atom. It is a story with a straightforward plot and a simple moral - almost like a fable. In many ways the story of the atom suggests the famous tale from Arabian Nights: "The Fisherman and the Genie." Perhaps this tale even hints at what lies in our atomic future . . . .

Nuns Try Out Guns (1957)

2007-11-24T16:18:00.000-06:00

This image ran in the July 14, 1957 News and Tribune (Jefferson City, MO).

Rat Traps for the Tenderhearted (1935)

2007-11-17T23:52:00.000-06:00

This rather morbid photograph appeared in the January 13, 1935 San Antonio Light (San Antonio, TX) under the headline, "Things Science Discovered in 1934." The subhead reads, "Rat trap for the tenderhearted that makes a rat shoot itself." How tender.

Retired Football Player?

2007-09-15T16:24:00.000-05:00

I found some new glass plate negatives at a surplus store in St. Paul. I'll be posting them to Flickr as I scan them.

Rosie the Robot (1962)

2007-07-06T17:11:00.000-05:00

This screenshot is from the first ever episode of The Jetsons which aired September 23, 1962.

Prohibition Raid (1923)

2007-07-06T00:19:00.000-05:00

If I've learned anything from Wesley Snipes, it's the address to the White House and that one should always pay their taxes. This photo from the Library of Congress collection shows Prohibition officers conducting a raid at 922 Pennsylvania Avenue which, if I'm not mistaken, is remarkably close to the White House.

I suspect the owner of this establishment didn't know President Harding likes his tuna melt on wheat and not white.

Saludos Amigos (1942)

2007-07-02T21:48:00.001-05:00

A close-up of the movie poster for Disney's Saludos Amigos (1942). Makes a great desktop wallpaper.

Miss America receives a permanent wave (1926)

2007-06-21T03:11:00.000-05:00

This image is begging for a caption.

Eager Beaver (1962)

2007-06-18T22:56:00.000-05:00

I found this hilarious image at Dreams of Space.

Chest Developer (1909)

2007-06-17T20:14:00.000-05:00

I found this photo at the Library of Congress website. When you search for "electricity" you get a lot of interesting things popping up. (Terrible pun intended)

Heroes are Made

2007-05-01T01:26:00.000-05:00

Going through newspapers of the 1930s really gives you some perspective on how easy you have it.

From the September 22, 1933 newspaper The Bee in Danville, Virginia.

Taxing Hides? (New York Times, 1890)

2007-04-22T03:40:00.000-05:00

This headline from the March 20, 1890 New York Times gave me a chuckle.

Model Airplane News (July, 1939)

2007-04-22T03:29:00.000-05:00

The cover of Model Airplane News magazine from July, 1939.

Optical Illusion (Popular Mechanics, 1964)

2007-04-21T22:35:00.000-05:00

From the July, 1964 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Dressed As Bear, Man Almost Shot (Charleston Gazette, 1957)

2007-04-21T19:13:00.000-05:00

Kirkpatrick said he had the "bear" in his rifle's sights when he noticed the "bear" was wearing shoes.

From the October 13, 1957 Charleston Gazette.

Hello and Welcome

2007-04-21T18:57:00.000-05:00

While doing research for my blog Paleo-Future I will often come across old newspapers, magazines and TV commercials that aren't paleo-futuristic but still catch my eye. This is the dumping ground for that material. Enjoy.

Thanks for reading,
Matt

matt@paleofuture.com