NYC 1933

16 Friday Dec 2022

Posted by in Picture postals

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This week on ‘Picture Postals from Lovecraft’, another hazy New York City skyline from the 1930s. In this case an early spring 1933 view from Hotel Bossert, by Samuel H. Gottscho. The original negative scan is at the Library of Congress. I’ve here flipped it so the view is correct, cleaned some gunge and colourised.

This is similar to the first view of New York City ‘lit up at evening’ which Lovecraft had from 110 Columbia Heights, near the Brooklyn Bridge. Hotel Bossert was just a short way south of that location. It shows more or less the same view as Lovecraft saw, albeit a little south, not lit up in the evening twilight, and a decade or so later (perhaps a new skyscraper or two).

On the views and relevant addresses see my earlier post on the view from Columbia Heights. I’m still hoping to find a similar ‘early evening + lights coming up’ view from the 1920s or 30s.

Night Gaunts

14 Wednesday Dec 2022

Posted by in Lovecraftian arts

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New on Archive.org to borrow, poet Brett Rutherford’s Night Gaunts : an entertainment based on the life and writings of H.P. Lovecraft, with additional poetica Lovecraftiana.

I see it can also be officially had free on the Poet Press website in HTML.

I further see that his Tales of Terror: The Supernatural Poem Since 1800 – Supplement 1, appeared in 2021 and is available on Amazon UK. Currently Amazon UK’s useless search only finds Volume 1 for a title-search for “The Supernatural Poem Since 1800”, but Volume 2 on is also available there. Click on the author’s name-link.

A map of early Providence

12 Monday Dec 2022

Posted by in Historical context, Maps, Scholarly works

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A map of early Providence by Richard F. Barlett, from Arthur E. Wilson’s popular history of early Providence Weybosset Bridge (1947). The combination of cover view and map allow one to orient oneself in similar pictures that look down on the very early bridge in Providence. Such as the 1762 one Lovecraft was enamoured enough to ask for a copy of, when he visit the private Shepley Library and Museum in Providence. Such views lack almost all modern landmarks and so are difficult to place. There are starred numbers on this particular map, and the key is found in small lettering on the ornate title plaque.

A twit no longer…

11 Sunday Dec 2022

Posted by in Odd scratchings

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Oh well, that didn’t last very long…

A bizarre and abrupt ruling, and difficult to fathom. So far as I know I’ve only ever had this one Twitter account and have never been suspended. Hardly used it after set up, let it go dormant for years, then started using it again when Elon took over. I guess some AI flagged that ‘re-activation’ as suspicious? Or perhaps there really was a ‘Harry Magic’, who got banned once decades ago? Oh well, ‘easy come, easy go’. I’ll be taking my talents to LinkedIn instead.

A dip in the Reservoir

10 Saturday Dec 2022

Posted by in Historical context, Picture postals

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My thanks to Horace, who has left a link in the Tentaclii comments. His link leads to a 2021 YouTube upload of “Providence, R.I. in the 1910s and Early 1920s”, a compilation made by the Rhode Island Historical Society. Here are my notes on it…

[09:12] Good to see there was ginger-ale in Providence!

[static 11:36, static close-up 12:09, moving 21:04] Frontage of Keith’s Vaudeville, a known haunt of the young Lovecraft (then “Keith’s Continuous Vaudeville”, circa 1900). Not a great angle, but the ‘moving people’ third instance adds something. It was evidently a far busier street than static postcards might imply.

[16:43] It’s possible we see Lovecraft’s High School, but very dark and brief? Looks similar.

[17:55, 18:13] The plaza in front of the Post Office has a couple of very distant lookalikes, who vaguely evoke Lovecraft’s walk downtown for stamps and parcels. It’s winter (leaves are off the trees, heavy overcoats on) but it’s also mid-day and very sunny. So it’s not impossible he would have ventured out to the Post Office. So far as I know he had no other more local Post Office option, on or near College Hill. Though there were collection boxes for letters.

[20:49] Weybosset Street. As usual the view is too far down into the commercial centre to see the “Uncle Eddy” bookstore. That store is further up and behind the cameraman.

[20:59] We do see the Crown Hotel though, on Weybosset St. Sonia stayed there when she first came to the city, and she treated Lovecraft to a sumptuous dinner at the Crown in September 1921. So it’s only a few years distant from that moment, given that the footage is perhaps from about 1919/1920 or so.

[22:27] The Hope St. Reservoir, and full of water (it was drained and decommissioned circa 1927-28). Possibly the most interesting bit of the video, as it shows the reservoir that rose opposite Lovecraft’s old High School and Barnes Street (not that he was living there until 1926). Three quick views across the reservoir lip are shown. One with what looks like the State House dome in the distance, but it seems too close… and thus could well be a church with the same type of dome.

This is as good as restoration gets for these three views, with the current state of AI…

These would likely have been streets Lovecraft knew, both from his High School days, and later when living at Barnes Street. Here we can see a bird’s eye view. At Barnes Lovecraft lived just off to the left of the picture, a touch further along Barnes Street.