Hooverville, Central Park, NYC, 1931-32

On: By: Romeyn

A “Hooverville” was a shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the USA. Named after President Herbert Hoover, who was blamed for the economic collapse. During the 1930s there were hundreds of these slums and hundreds of thousands of people lived in them. One of the Hoovervilles was found in Central Park, New York City where scores of homeless families camped out at the Great Lawn at Central Park, then an empty reservoir. Continue reading “Hooverville, Central Park, NYC, 1931-32” →

Tumba del Caracol, Cozumel

On: By: Romeyn

Tumba del Caracol is a Mayan building found on the southern end of Cozumel, erected during the post-classic period. There are a couple of legends concerning the buildings. One is that it functioned as a weather alarm, producing a whistle via conch shells that would precede the arrival of a hurricane, The other is that the building was used to send a pillar of smoke into the air so that travelers could find their way back to the island, the later is more believable because of the Maya ruins found at San Gervasio. Those ruins were believed to be the home of some sort of fertility ritual, those ruins are unique to Mayan culture as there are no signs that any human sacrifices had taken place there.



Photos copyright paper-dragon, 2018

Iter-Auto, 1930

On: By: Romeyn


In car navigation has its roots back in the 1930s when an Italian company invented the Iter-Auto. The Iter-auto was attached to the dashboard and synced up with the car’s speedometer, the device would use routes printed on long paper scrolls. Besides the route you were taking, the maps would also feature info on hotels, garages, diners and the like.
Continue reading “Iter-Auto, 1930” →

R.I.P. Stan Lee 12/28/1922 – 11/12/2018

On: By: Romeyn

Stanley Martin Lieber started his career as an office assistant at Timely Comics in 1939 (Timely eventually became Marvel Comics in 1961). Lee made his comic-book debut with the text filler “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge” in Captain America Comics #3, shortly after that he became an interim editor for the company in the early 1940s.

From 1942-1945, Lee served stateside in the US Army in the Training Film Division, where he was involved in writing manuals, training films, and making slogans.

As they say, the rest is history…

Goodbye Mr. Lee, and thank you for many years of inspiration and entertainment, you will be missed