It was low to the floor and scuffed from too many trips. It had two small labels barely readable through the fading and dust on them. The interior was covered in thin fabric the color of muslin. There was a maker’s medallion in the center of the top and some tears in the cloth.

A vintage military-style suitcase up for auction.

The suitcase had two identical labels with ”the Great Northern Railway, Delivered Luggage” printed on them. (I found out later that this had been a Midwest railroad with routes stretching from St. Paul, MN, to Seattle, WA.)

Next to it sat a large black trunk with a wooden tray and some disparate papers and letters inside.

I’m sure most people just walked right past the two in their search for goodies on the auction tables. But not me. I had begun noticing trunks and suitcases over the past few weeks because more and more seemed to be appearing at auctions. A few had baggage labels, most did not.

I was drawn more to the labels because they were pointers to the cities and countries the owners had traveled to, and the vessels that took them there. Today, we throw a few clothes in a small bag with wheels that we can carry onto a plane to avoid paying the horrendous fee to check our luggage. Even if we checked them, there would be no one affixing airline or hotel labels. And if they did, we’d be charged for the service.

Inside the military-style suitcase.

If you get a hankering for vintage baggage labels, I found plenty of sites on the web where you can pick up a few for a couple bucks. Or if you travel abroad, you can just get by with your stamped passport.

Airplanes don’t come to mind when I think of old suitcases and steamer trunks. I think of ocean liners and steamships, which were the most favorite mode of travel between the late 1900s to World War II. The Cunard Line was one of the of the best known shipping lines in the world, and the company prides itself on having some of the most famous people in the world as its passengers.

Labels for ship lines and hotels show where the owner has traveled.

A label for the line was affixed to one suitcase at auction recently. A bit tattered, the suitcase was also covered in stickers for the United States Line; the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Co.; Hotel Metropole Wein; Carlton Hotel, Chamonix, Mont Blanc; Hotel De L’Europe, plus more. There was no indication of when the traveling occurred.

The New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Co. (commonly known as the Ward Line) sailed from New York to Cuba, Mexico and the Bahamas up until 1954. It started out in 1841 as a freight shipper and got into steamship travel in 1877. The name of the company was later changed to the Cuba Mail Line. The United States Line operated ocean liners until 1969; its most famous was the SS United States.

One hotel label on the suitcase became infamous in World War II for its occupants. The once-elegant Hotel Metropole in Vienna was the headquarters of the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police, starting in 1938. Built in the 1870s, the place was bombed and destroyed near the end of the war. Under the Nazis, it was the site of the torture and murder of Jews and others, and a memorial was erected there to honor the victims.

The Hotel De L’Europe may have been the luxury hotel in Amsterdam (five-star) or Paris (“a charming 2-star,” according to the hotel).

This trunk was in the basement at an estate sale.

I’m not sure if all of the trunks had made trips aboard ships or trains. Some may have just spent their time in a basement or closet holding clothes, mementos and other items. I found one such basement dweller at an on-site estate sale recently. The trunk was filled with clean white linens.

Most of the trunks at auction were pretty utilitarian. There are some famous ones, though, including the Jenny Lind trunk, named after the singer dubbed the Swedish Nightingale. And then there’s this beautiful circa 1900s Louis Vuitton antique trunk selling for $22,500 on the web. It still has its stickers from luxury hotels around the world.

Here are some of the other trunks and suitcases I came across at auction:

A sturdy trunk with heavy water stains inside.

A trunk containing papers and letters.

Suitcases waiting to be auctioned. They apparently had traveled many miles because they were not in good shape.

The luggage we use today .

Related posts:

1. Furniture that tells a story
2. Book of photos that tell the Civil War story
3. Buzz is still on story of ‘rare’ slave photo

What I saw were trees and bushes in a low valley, green vegetation on a nice summer day. I was on the turnpike with my friend Yvonne (who writes the Soul Rhythms blog) to pick up her daughter and all her ”stuff” from college. (It’s amazing how much college students buy and accumulate these days; all I remember is a black metal trunk and a few sturdy blue suitcases.)

When Yvonne asked if I’d like to take the trip, I jumped at the chance because I just love road trips. It’s all about seeing this vast country, trying something new, being adventurous – because you never know what you’ll find or come across (just like auctions). Photo above is by drquuxum.

I’d never been past Pittsburgh and had never taken a drive in a car through western Pennsylvania, so I Googled to see what was interesting along the way. You can imagine my surprise when I came upon “Negro Hill Tunnel” and “Negro Mountain.”

I just had to know what that was all about. It wasn’t a find in an auction, but it was a “find” nevertheless.

The mountain is part of the Allegheny Mountain range and runs 30 miles from Garrett County, Md., to Somerset County, Pa. Its highest point is Mount Davis in Pennsylvania. The mountain appeared to be more Maryland than Pennsylvania: That state has erected a highway sign and a road-side marker on National Road (US Alternate 40) near Grantsville. Yvonne recalled seeing a sign when she’d taken the trip through northern Maryland to Ohio.

There was not a marker or a sign in Pennsylvania indicating we were on Negro Mountain, so I was watching diligently for the mile post.

The history of the tunnel is intertwined with the history of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In the late 1800s, the New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad were in a tug of war over territory (as in routes). So William H. Vanderbilt of New York Central struck first, deciding to build a railroad between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh in the heart of PA Railroad country. By 1885, he and his investors had spent millions of dollars laying tracks over 209 miles and carving six tunnels into the Allegheny Mountains. J.P.Morgan, after becoming a member of the New York Central board, said enough of this bickering. The project was stopped, and it became known as “Vanderbilt’s folly.”

 Negro Mountain Tunnel – or Negro Hill Tunnel, as it is also called – was one of those tunnels (there were supposed to be nine). When the Pennsylvania Turnpike was proposed in the 1930s, the tunnel was among those bypassed by the state.

How did the mountain get its name? I found various versions of its origin – most of which apparently are legends – and wikipedia offered four of them. It said that the most popular (supported by newspaper accounts) was of a black slave or scout named “Nemisis.” He joined Col. Thomas Cresap in 1756 when he led a team to the mountain to fight Native Americans during the French and Indian War. Nemisis was killed in battle and the mountain was named to honor him.

There have been challenges to the name Negro Mountain. Albert Feldstein, an amateur historian in western Maryland, has several articles about it on the Western Maryland’s Historical Library website. In Pennsylvania, state Rep. Rosita C. Youngblood introduced a resolution in 2007 (and it looks like she proposed re-introducing it last year) to create a commission to study a name change of either the mountain or Mount Davis to honor Nemisis (or Nemesis, as I also found it spelled). Mount Davis is named after the settler who owned the land.

On our drive back through western Pennsylvania, I took out my camera to at least record what I saw at milepost 116.7 on the south side. Basically, the same thing as the north side – except for a hill with what looked like a little building on it.  The website Pennsylvania Turnpike Tunnels says the tunnel is on the north side of the roadway, located under an old coal mine, and that parts of it are in the original condition. Another site said it was also north of the turnpike with an opening about 400 feet into the woods. 

Here’s a photo from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Exit List website of what it looks like.

Related posts:

1. On a search for ‘Negro Motorist Green Book’
2. Negro Leagues pitcher Terris McDuffie
3. Poster for a Negro Leagues baseball game

This is now. Slides were then. Recently, I bid on and got two boxes of slides at an auction. I knew before I looked at them that the images were not African American families. Rarely do I find photos or slides from our families.

I’m always saddened – and intrigued – to find these slides that someone lovingly stored in Kodak boxes and metal slide containers. That same someone took the time to label each slide with the location and date. These memories meant something to them.

The slides I acquired at auction dated from the 1950s through 1970s. I think that there was a box for every year during the 1950s. The slides ranged from vacations to Maine, New York, Chicago, and includes a 1972 trip to Europe.

There were slides of work on the family’s home: a new roof, a new sidewalk. A nice slide of the family’s backyard and snow on the front lawn. Christmas at various times during the 1950s. Kids playing in an inflatable backyard pool. Mom and daughter gardening.

What will happen to all the photos and videos that we are now accumulating? I have several photo albums from years ago, and I’m sure you do, too. Will a son or daughter or sister or brother toss them into the trash when they’re cleaning out our things? Or hand them over to an auctioneer – if you’re lucky enough to have a house full of valuables?

What should we do with other people’s memories? Or better, what should we do with our own before we say good-bye? 

Do you have some you’d like to share with us?

Related posts:

1. Intimate photos
2. A family’s collection
3. A black family’s photo album