Description: Army airmail pilot Lt. Torrey Webb receives a celebratory watch from a representative of the Hamilton Watch Company. Each of the pilots flying the first day’s mail between Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City received a Hamilton Watch. Webb flew the Curtiss Jenny JN-4H between New York City and Bustleton airfield near Philadelphia on May 15, 1918.

It is interesting to see Hamilton — a company still giving American made timepieces a good name — doing marketing giveaways all the way back in 1918.

It is difficult to be nostalgic about the Postal Service considering every time I set foot in a post office my blood boils, but these pictures are pretty amazing. It is interesting to see the people that laid the ground work for the modern delivery systems that we all take for granted. Or maybe I just like to look at old pictures. Either way this stuff is pretty cool.

More Flickr Finds can be seen here.

More Flickr Finds can be seen here.

If you look around, there are buildings with old painted signs all over the place. New York’s former warehousing district of TriBeCa is loaded with them. Although most of the buildings have been converted into luxury apartments now. Smart developers leave the signs intact to give the buildings a nice historic look. You can also see a lot of this sort of painted sign advertising on “Main Street” brick buildings throughout the middle west and south. Some favorite painted signs are below. Enjoy!

More Flickr Finds can be seen here.

The Oyster Bar in Grand Central is one of my all time favorite things about New York. The restaurant has been serving seafood — there under the train station — since Woodrow Wilson was in office. Having a solo lunch (including one or two bottles of Brooklyn Lager) at the midtown spot is one of my most treasured and sacred rituals.

More Flickr Finds can be seen here.

The Faroe Islands are a group of picturesque islands in Northern Europe, between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. The small collection of Nordic lands could be the most beautiful place on earth. Add this to my list of places to visit.

More Flickr Finds can be seen here.

From Wikipedia:

A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanised iron having a semicircular cross section. The design was based on the Nissen hut developed by the British during World War I. In 1941 the United States Navy needed an all-purpose, lightweight building that could be shipped anywhere and assembled without skilled labor. The George A. Fuller construction company was selected to manufacture them. The first was produced within 60 days of contract award. Between 150,000-170,000 Quonset huts were manufactured during World War II. After the war, the U.S. military sold the surplus Quonset huts to the public for $1,000 each.

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Aaron Draplin, the designer and lover of all things Americana, picked up a great looking boaters guide at a swap meet in Portland for a quarter. Score! If you are not familiar with Mr. Draplin, he is one of the coolest guys out there — makes me proud to be an American. I always find interesting things on his blog or on his Flickr. Well done sir, well done.

The entire set of images can be seen here.

Is America going to hell in a handbasket? Credit crisis, financial disaster, risky derivatives, bail out, Wall Street sticking it to Main Street? Take solace in good old pre-1962 America in color. Back when George Bailey was saving Bedford Falls and the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association. The entire photo pool can be seen here, which should keep you from checking your 401K balance.

More Flickr Find posts can be seen here.

While browsing the Coudal website this morning I came across this beautiful set of images of typewriter ribbon tins. The packaging and sheer variety make the tins fun to look at, plus the the little metal containers would be the perfect object to start a collection of. Keep that in mind for your next trip to the flea market. The complete set of images can be seen here.

All ACL Flickr Find posts can be seen here.