Hoch's Ice Cream Parlor Cow, Patriotic and Industrial Parade, Newburg, Pa., July 3, 1909

An ice cream photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park.

"#1248. A. Hoch's Cow in Patriotic & Industrial Parade, July 3, 1909, Newburg, Pa. Laughlin Photo. Hoch's Ice Cream Parlor."

Photographer and postcard publisher Clyde A. Laughlin originally published a series of real photo postcards showing scenes from the Patriotic and Industrial Parade in Newburg, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1909, not long after it took place. This photo shows a boy riding a cow to advertise "Hoch's Ice Cream Parlor" (mouse over the image for a closer look).

The details in this photo are sharp, but I purchased the card knowing that it does not date to 1909. Unlike other early Laughlin photos, this one is reproduced in black and white rather than sepia, and the Kodak postcard backing was obviously manufactured much more recently than 1909.

Fortunately, I have a copy of the book, Clyde A. Laughlin, "Postcard King of the Cumberland Valley": Biography of the Artist and Photographer and Checklist of His Postcards, written and published by Clyde's grandson, Walter Lewis Cressler, Jr., in 2000. The author explains on page 30 that his grandfather reprinted the photographic cards from the Newburg parade in 1961 when the town celebrated its centennial. So it's likely that this version of the Hoch's Cow photo is one of the cards from 1961.

For another ice cream photo, see Eating Ice Cream at Raise 'ell Camp, Cooks Mill, Pennsylvania, and check out my Ice Cream album for additional photos and items of ephemera.