ton

i wish i was born in the 1910s and witnessed this orphans going to coney island in autos and have this photos as one of my souveneirs. 'great photos'...

Just like another LOC photo, this was taken on the north side of New York City's Union Square, on East 17th Street to be specific. In fact, I've found a modern photo on flickr (not mine, btw) whose scope and angle closely matches this one! It seems that all of the buildings on Union Square East in this photo--save for the very tall one on the right--are gone, but that many (maybe all) of the ones behind them are still around.

This was the seventh annual auto excursion of Brooklyn orphans to Coney Island, sponsored by volunteer drivers from the Automobile Club, according to this NYT story: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9E04E...

This image has been used in the indicommons.org post First of The Commons, on the first anniversary of the Library of Congress and Flickr's pilot launch.

George Borgfeldt & Company George Borgfeldt & Company was located in New York (1881-1950's) and was an importer and assembler of dolls for the American and Canadian doll markets. Source: www.dollreference.com/george_borgfeldt_dolls.html

Those I think are FWD's

I think that the rear lorry is an American built FWD - you can see the "Diff" on both axles - the rear "diff" is certainly off-set to the left! 55mph too is just a lttle ambitious - a lot less than that, I think!.

This may have been taken at Middle Head:

Yes juilong, it is definitely Middle Head, but I think a couple of hundred metres to the north from the 'normal' group of gun emplacements in your photo, because of the black headland on the right of the cannon in the photo. There are more fortifications on the north end of Middle Head, surrounded by thick bush, which show up on Google Maps (satellite). I am trying to work out the geometry and geography. Field trip required! Can anyone date the uniform?

The black headland at the right of the cannon in the photo is not actually a headland. It is an earthen berm which was created to correct a design fault which would have permitted adjacent cannon to fire upon one another without the presence of the berm. This problem was only recognised after the construction of the emplacements and installation of the guns. I've taken two photographs of emplacements nearby, but not this one: www.flickr.com/photos/lifeasdaddy/2911023023/ www.flickr.com/photos/lifeasdaddy/2909598486/in/photostream/ Not that I can precisely identify this cannon, but I've seen lots of photographs of cannon around Sydney in the 1880 to 1910 period, and this is one of the clearest photographs I've ever seen. That's the wonder of lifting the image from a well preserved glass plate negative.

A BERM ?! I just had an Inspector Clouseau moment ! Thanks lifeasdaddy.

Yet another Tom Roberts coincidence, from the Australian War Memorial website: cas.awm.gov.au/PROD/cas_disp_pkg.pr_detailed_scr?surl=434... "Tom Roberts established 'Curlew camp" at Sirius Cove in Mosman by the end of the 1890s. While camped there, concentrating on painting outdoors, Roberts was commissioned to paint three works depicting the New South Wales military forces, commanded by his friend, Major General Edward Thomas Hutton, from 1893 - 1896" Could this photo be a study for one of the paintings?

The Renault FT, frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the "FT-17" or "FT17" (see Nomenclature), was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first armored tracked vehicle or "tank" to have its armament within a fully rotating turret, The Renault FT's basic configuration - turret in the front, engine compartment in the back and protruding tracks (at least in front) - inaugurated the standard pattern repeated in most tanks to this day. Armour historian Steven Zaloga has called the Renault FT "the world's first modern tank". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_FT

This is the Ford 3 Ton Tank at Fort Knox, Ky. It has been moved to Fort Benning, Georgia. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/us_army_rolling_along/2848595115/]