Andrew Rapoza
Sep 136 min read
Hair-Raising Stories: the Bear, the Coconut & the Oil Well
Part 2 of 3: THE COCONUT I remember my mom taking me to the bear cage at Buttonwood Zoo when I was a little kid. I could smell the...
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Andrew Rapoza
Sep 27 min read
Hair-Raising Stories: the Bear, the Coconut, & the Oil Well
Part 1 of 3: THE BEAR I shave in the dark. I don’t need to turn the light on because I know where everything is on my face. My nose and...
35 views1 comment
Andrew Rapoza
Aug 165 min read
The Unforgettable Big Bottle Expo
The FOHBC put on an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime event at Houston24 An upcoming issue of the FOHBC (Federation of Historical Bottle...
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Andrew Rapoza
Jun 291 min read
update to: "Blowing Smoke ..."
Please check out the interesting update (29 June 2024) with new photo at the boom of the 23 March 2024 blog post, "Blowing Smoke on the...
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Andrew Rapoza
Mar 236 min read
Blowing Smoke on the Ideal Victorian Lady
NOTICE: This article has been updated as of 20 June 2024: additional image of a woman smoking in an ashtray - contributed by Sonny...
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Andrew Rapoza
Mar 177 min read
Soule's Eradicator: the Flower or the Worm?
It's so easy for me to imagine the scene in 1885: a young woman of Lynn, Massachusetts, has put in another long, hard day at the dismal...
37 views1 comment
Andrew Rapoza
Mar 97 min read
The Big Green Bottle, Full of Miracles & Tragedy
In the early 1880s, Jacob Welch had accomplished having the biggest furniture store in Lynn, Massachusetts, and he felt he could achieve...
36 views1 comment
Andrew Rapoza
Mar 37 min read
A Tribute to Dreaming Under a Bridge
No one was more driven than Dan Pinkham, even when the world was crashing in on all sides. His once affluent family lost everything...
40 views1 comment
Andrew Rapoza
Jan 275 min read
A Cure for Monsters
Please gaze at the image above and ponder it for a few moments. What kind of animal do you see – perhaps a poisonous reptile, an angered...
42 views1 comment
Andrew Rapoza
Jan 217 min read
A Big Story from a Small Bottle
Several years ago, I went to the illustrious Baltimore Bottle Show. Traveling from Texas to Maryland for a long weekend cost me several...
59 views1 comment
Andrew Rapoza
Jan 134 min read
Curing the 'King's Evil' with and without a King
It could be ugly, painful, and embarrassing. The lymphnodes around the neck would become infected, causing swollen lumps that sometimes...
34 views2 comments
Andrew Rapoza
Jan 73 min read
Cashing in on a Pain in the Neck
I own the little collection of mid-19th century ephemera posted here for a man who went by the name B. M. Kemp. The showcard below is...
32 views2 comments
Andrew Rapoza
Dec 30, 20233 min read
Trademarks: Playing Possum?
It was one of the earliest trademarks registered in the United States - Number 247 - and the very first for a business in Lynn,...
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Andrew Rapoza
Dec 23, 20233 min read
Learn from the Ghosts of Christmas Past ...
Friends, please accept these random flashbacks to Christmases in Lynn from times long past. Just like Christmastime for each of us, some...
55 views3 comments
Andrew Rapoza
Dec 6, 20232 min read
Trademarks: Love in a Bottle
As America moved closer to the end of the 19th century, more and more products loaded store shelves and newspaper pages. Competition for...
21 views0 comments
Andrew Rapoza
Nov 25, 20232 min read
Their World Wasn't Sepia
We tend to get nostalgic when we look at old-time photographs. The world of our ancestors is almost always seen in sepia tones - faces,...
26 views1 comment
Andrew Rapoza
Nov 23, 20234 min read
Quackery - without Question
All health products in days long past were promoted as promising cures; they only became known as “quack” medicines when they didn’t...
30 views1 comment