Desktop Background Images

The images on this page are related to my Grandfather's store or taken from old IBM mainframe reference cards. The other pages are:

• images taken from a map of the Dominion of Canada published in about 1900.
• images taken from a series of antique colour prints
• images all derived from a single 1815 steel engraved print of Bow Church, Cheapside Street, London
• clippings from antique black and white prints
• clippings from a set of antique road maps (click here for more info on the antique maps).
• photographs of the stones at Avebury taken on a family vacation in England during the summer of 2000.
• photographs of Stonehenge also taken on a family vacation in England during the summer of 2000.
• photographs of Glastonbury Tor also taken on a family vacation in England during the summer of 2000.
• photographs of Wells Cathedral taken on business trip to England in the spring of 2000 and on a family vacation in England during the summer of 2000.
• photographs of London statuary taken while on a business trip in April of 2002.
• images of antique cameras (these are taken from a 1923 Kodak Canada Catalog and of a No. 3A Autographic Kodak Junior in my camera collection).
• postage stamp montages.

1. Except as noted, none of the images are distorted (i.e. if your pixels are square then you're seeing the image in the correct aspect ratio).
2. The maps and antique prints are old enough that any copyrights have expired.
3. The images related to my Grandfather's store are of documents which are recent enough to still have copyrights associated with them although I doubt (but don't guarantee) that anyone is likely to try to assert the copyrights.
4. The 1280x1024 images aren't quite the same as the other sizes due to the obvious fact that 1280x1024 is a 5x4 aspect ratio whereas the others are 4x3.
5. The IBM mainframe related images might be Copyright © IBM Corporation although I can't find any copyright notice on the reference cards.

If you use any of these images for commercial purposes or display them on your WWW site, please include a reference back to http://www.bouletfermat.com/backgrounds/ (using the IBM mainframe related images for commercial purposes is probably inappropriate without written permission from IBM).

Speaking of my Grandfather's store, I'm looking for photos, drawings, maps, paintings or any other documentation dealing with Dumas, Saskatchewan, Canada. Please contact me if you've got anything (danny@BouletFermat.com). I suppose that I should add that Dumas had less than 100 people living in it at its peak and, although there's a sign on the highway and a couple of houses left, Dumas doesn't really exist anymore.

Here's a 573x600 image of a hand-written invoice for automotive parts probably issued by the traveling salesman for Art Riddell and Son, a Ford Mercury and Lincoln dealership in Regina, Saskatchewan. The invoice was written on May 19, 1947 for parts sold to my Grandfather in Dumas, Saskatchewan. My Grandfather ran a general store in Dumas. He also had a blacksmith's shop out behind the store. If anyone in town had car problems, they'd bring the car to my Grandfather who'd fix it for them. Consequently, from the perspective of Art Riddell and Son, my Grandfather ran a garage. Hence the description "A. Boulet (Garage)" on the invoice. Note that the invoice shows the unit price, the list price that the end-customer would pay, the discount that my Grandfather was given and the amount that my Grandfather actually paid. This set of images don't have the aspect ratios required to properly fill your desktop screen although they still look pretty good even if a bit of the underlying desktop pattern shows through. The 573x600 image is intended for an 800x600 screen. The 734x768 version (intended for 1024x768 screens) is here. The 979x1024 version (intended for 1280x1024 screens) is here. The 1147x1200 version (intended for 1600x1200 screens) is here.

Here's an 800x499 image of an invoice issued by A.E. McKenzie Co. Ltd. to my Grandfather's store in Dumas, Saskatchewan. What makes it somewhat interesting is that it was issued over fifty years ago on May 20th, 1947 (I also find it somewhat interesting that the order consists of just one pound of beans and that one third of the invoice amount is for postage which suggests that this was some sort of special order). This set of images don't have the aspect ratios required to properly fill your desktop screen although they still look pretty good even if a bit of the underlying desktop pattern shows through. The 800x499 image is intended for an 800x600 screen. The 1024x648 version (intended for 1024x768 screens) is here. The 1280x799 version (intended for 1280x1024 screens) is here. The 1600x999 version (intended for 1600x1200 screens) is here.

Here's a 800x600 image clipped from an IBM green card (green card was the colloquial term for the circa 1960s fanfold IBM System/360 reference card). This clipping shows the Program Status Word (PSW) description. Folks familiar with IBM mainframes might want to compare thie 360's PSW format to the 370's PSW format shown in the next section. The 1024x768 version is here. The 1280x960 version (intended for 1280x1024 screens) is here. The 1600x1200 version is here.

Here's a 600x600 image clipped from an IBM gold card (gold card was the colloquial term for the circa 1970s fanfold IBM System/370 reference card although a lot of the old timers stubbornly referred to the gold coloured 370 cards as green cards). This clipping shows the two Program Status Word (PSW) formats (Extended control mode to take advantage of the System/370 features like virtual memory and Basic control mode for roughly 360-style operation). Folks familiar with IBM mainframes might want to compare thie 370's PSW format to the 360's PSW format shown in the previous section. The 600x600 image is intended for an 800x600 screen (the 600x600 image doesn't really have the resolution required to get a crisp image - the higher resolution clippings are a fair bit better). The 768x768 version (intended for 1024x768 screens) is here. The 1024x1024 version (intended for 1280x1024 screens) is here. The 1200x1200 version (intended for 1600x1200 screens) is here.

Here's a 600x600 image clipped from an IBM gold card showing the 370 instruction formats (gold card was the colloquial term for the circa 1970s fanfold IBM System/370 reference card although a lot of the old timers stubbornly referred to the gold coloured 370 cards as green cards). The 600x600 image is intended for an 800x600 screen (the 600x600 image doesn't really have the resolution required to get a crisp image - the higher resolution clippings are a fair bit better). These images are slightly distorted in order to make them square (compressed vertically by about 3%). The 768x768 version (intended for 1024x768 screens) is here. The 1024x1024 version (intended for 1280x1024 screens) is here. The 1200x1200 version (intended for 1600x1200 screens) is here.