An editorial cartoon by Jamieson of the Dispatch (click to enlarge) from 1906, when the need for a subway in Pittsburgh was already obvious and urgent. The subway downtown opened in 1985, seventy-nine years later.
Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Archive for June, 2008
Aspiration
June 19, 2008
A smokestack reaches for the sky from the Carnegie Institute heating plant. The picture is teeming with metaphorical possibilities, none of which will be elaborated here.
Dolphin Fountain
June 14, 2008
A classical dolphin in a long-dry fountain at the entrance to Grandview Park, on the edge of the cliff at Mount Washington.
An Intersection in Four Mile Run
June 11, 2008
In neighborhoods like Four Mile Run, nestled in a steep ravine, some of the streets necessarily turn into stairways.
Selling Brookline
June 9, 2008
Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Brookline today is a pleasant city neighborhood whose central avenue, Brookline Boulevard, is the broadest commercial street in Pittsburgh–a fact that will greatly surprise visitors from other cities, where residential streets may well be broader than Brookline Boulevard. In 1905, it was mostly vacant lots, but this advertisement promises a glowing future that–for the most part–actually came to pass. The neighborhood will enjoy even greater advantages when it is taken into the city of Pittsburgh: “the vote has been taken, the matter is officially settled.” The acrimonious annexation of Allegheny was still very much up in the air at that point, and the public would need assurance that Brookline would not present similar difficulties.
Floral Wallpaper
June 6, 2008Rosa multiflora (it has no common name except “multiflora rose” and some nicknames too impolite to repeat here) is a noxious and invasive weed that can take over whole hillsides with its thick, rambling, thorny shoots. In June, it’s also one of our most beautiful flowers, covering itself with clusters of white roses and filling the air with rose perfume.
Here are two versions of a Rosa multiflora picture that will make a splendid desktop wallpaper for your computer. Nothing is more restful, or more conducive to productive work, than a view of green leaves and white flowers. Click to enlarge; right-click to download the full-size version.
The wide-screen version is for typical wide-screen screen resolutions of 1680 by 1050 or smaller.
The standard version is for screen resolutions of 1280 by 1024 or smaller.
