This vintage real photo postcard features an image of a young boy riding a donkey. The boy is well dressed and is wearing a shirt and tie. He is seated on a saddle, holding the reins, and his feet are in the stirrups. Neither the boy nor the donkey appear happy. The reverse of the postcard identifies the boy as being Ralph W. Ruck and indicates that the boy was eight years old at the time of the photograph. Research reveals that Ralph was born in either 1906 or 1907 in Pennsylvania (this dates the image to about 1914). The 1930 US census finds Ralph living in Middlesex, New Jersey with his parents and sister. A 1936 business directory lists Ralph as living in Somerville, Jew Jersey with his wife, Bertha S. Ruch. Social security information reports that Ralph died in 1994.. This postcard is addressed to a boy in Jamison City, Pennsylvania. The postcard paper was produced by AZO sometime between 1904 and 1918. (SOLD)
This interesting Cabinet Card is a photograph of an African American man posing for his portrait at the studio of W. A. Apcar in Somerville, New Jersey. This gentleman looks quite dapper and intellectual. He appears professorial but his biographical information is lost in history.
This Cabinet Card was found with 76 other Cabinet Card photographs in an album of members of the class of 1882 at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. It is believed that this image was taken in 1878. The subject of this photo is Sam Foss who was born in New Hampshire. After graduation from Brown he became a librarian and poet. His works include The House by the Side of the Road and The Coming American. In 1898 he became the librarian at the Somerville Public Library in Massachusetts. He wrote a poem a day for then newspapers and published five volumes of collected poetry. Until 2003, his words were on the granite wall at the Air Force Academy. He wrote “Bring me men to match my mountains, Bring me men to match my plains, Men with empires in their purpose, And new Eras in their brains” (from Coming American 1894) The photographic studio that produced this Cabinet Card is Hambly and Shoal in Providence, Rhode Island.
THE CABINET CARD GALLERY 