George Nelson's Christmas site?

[Tim]

Anyone know what happened to http://www.oldchristmaslights.com/ ?  I've noticed the site has been down for a while now.  I would sure hate to see this wonderful resource disappear.

[Christmas Lamp]

I Was there Not So long ago.... Looking at the Bubblers... Like You I REALLY Hope the Site is Not Gone for Good 

[Yulelights76]

I noticed George Nelson's site was down as of the new year, but the notebook hasn't been updated since December 2007.
There was a person in Anchorage, Alaska who had archived an earlier version of the site done by the late Bill Nelson, but that site is gone too!
At this point, I wouldn't even speculate as to what happened.

Found the following information from whois.com regarding webmaster and contact information for hosting service.
I hope it's not too late for the site to be archived.

Registrar: FastDomain Inc.
Provider Name....: HostMonster.Com
Provider Whois...: whois.hostmonster.com
Provider Homepage: http://www.hostmonster.com/

Domain Name: OLDCHRISTMASLIGHTS.COM

Created on..............: 2000-08-15 21:47:41 GMT
Expires on..............: 2017-08-15 21:47:41 GMT
Last modified on........: 2009-07-17 21:26:57 GMT

Registrant Info: (FAST-12785295)
Attn: oldchristmaslights.com
HostMonster.com INC
1958 South 950 East
HOST UNLIMITED DOMAINS *FREE*
Hosting Accounts starting at ONLY $6.95 per month -
Provo, Utah 84606
United States
Phone: +1.8017659400
Fax..: +1.8017651992
Email:
Last modified: 2009-04-10 18:20:59 GMT


J. S. Pilliteri

[Tim]

Disregard my last comment (that I just deleted).  From reading the above, it would seem the domain has not expired...

[G7OLT]

No idea what happened to George but his website pages are archived in the 'waybackmachine'.  See:-

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://oldchristmaslights.com

Regards,

Ian

[christmasnut]

Hello. It,s been awhile since I have looked at the forum.
  Was looking for information about the Old Cnristmas Light site.
 Does any one have George Nelsons contact information.
If he's not able to house the site.I have room on mine for It.
 I have a Christmas forum.
The information is copyrighted, He would have to approve of it being done 
The Christmas Nut
ronald@circlef.net

[Tim]

Those who remember Bill Nelson may also remember items from his collection suddenly appearing on eBay soon after he passed away.  They were being sold by another family member.  Well, I had that same gut wrenching feeling when I found this seller and looked at the Christmas items being sold.  Note the seller's Knoxville location too:

http://shop.ebay.com/boxesallovertheattic/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Sadly, I fear the worst has probably come true and I can only wish the family my sincere condolences.

[G7OLT]

Those who remember Bill Nelson may also remember items from his collection suddenly appearing on eBay soon after he passed away.  They were being sold by another family member.  Well, I had that same gut wrenching feeling when I found this seller and looked at the Christmas items being sold.  Note the seller's Knoxville location too:

http://shop.ebay.com/boxesallovertheattic/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Sadly, I fear the worst has probably come true and I can only wish the family my sincere condolences.

I think you're correct.  Compare the pictures of that set now on eBay with this picture from George's archive on the 'waybackmachine'.  As far as I can see, they're of the same set. . . .

http://web.archive.org/web/20061209223356/www.oldchristmaslights.com/images/1946+1950/4+Bubble_1947_NOMA_Box_inside.jpg

Regards,
--
Ian

[jonathan cassiday]

After reading about the e-bay auctions of the contents of George Nelson's collection i re-examined a recent purchase and can identify it as part of the former collection. The item I bought was the American Decorative Lighting Outfit . the interior is in NM condition but without its original bulbs and the exterior is in very good condition. I am glad to have been able to aquire this peice into my collection that will once again be on display this year at the Gerogia Museum of Agriculture, but I too am sadended by the loss of this great collection. I think it would be of great value if a group could get together to salvage this collection or at least the information from the previous site and reconstruct a new website to once again display the intormation. It is kind of difficult to find the archived site now, and if it wer not for the link the pervious poster had added I would have never run across it. If I had the time or resources I would love to better document my own collection and create a site for this information but at this time I am a student and must be relegated to a somewhat active collector. As I said earlier I will once again be presenting my collection for display at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture (formerly the Agriama)in Tifton Ga (Where I currently attend school at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, who will soon be acquiring the Agriama) I am working with the agriama to create a seasonal display upon my leave using proffesional scans of my current collection and helping the agriama in acquiring peices to be used in future displays and for professional preservation. the peices from the collections of Bill and later George Nelson are in great condition and are being offered at a very reasonable price at this time (outside of bubble lites). At this time I believe this will be the only piece of their collection that I can purcahse at this time, but hope other collectors can preserve and present these peices as their former owners did.

http://web.archive.org/web/20070417110108/www.oldchristmaslights.com/images/1920+1930+3/American+outside.jpg
http://web.archive.org/web/20070417090311/www.oldchristmaslights.com/images/1920+1930+3/American+inside.jpg

Jonathan Cassiday

[Chris W. Millinship]

Following hearing of the site`s closure, and presumably the very sad news that has led to that occurring, I have been going through the Internet Archive site and trying to save all the pages and photos that are available while they are still there, mainly for reference but perhaps with the hope that it can be put back online. Although the site appears largely complete (at least as far as I have got), the "Wayback Machine" is painfully slow (maybe it is also trying to replicate how the Web was during the early days of dial-up modems?!) and as such, very difficult to navigate in any detail.

I remember communicating with Bill Nelson nearly 10 years ago, early on in my "serious" lighting collecting. He was very generous to donate a boxed 8-bulb Noma outfit which was my first American light set, and takes pride of place in the collection. Later, he also sent me a CD copy of "Bill`s Antique Christmas Light Site" site as it was in 2001. This is complete, and could be put online quite easily. The big question of course would be who to contact in order to seek permission. Disappointingly, according to the item descriptions, the auction sellers do not appear to want to deal internationally so it looks like I won`t get the chance to own any of the lights being sold now. Perhaps, assuming it is the family organising the sale, they will allow me to host the site as an archive and tribute to Bill and George Nelson. Will have to see about getting in touch to find out.

[Tim]

I have a complete backup of George's site as it was in 2007.  I don't think there were any significant updates to the site since that time.  As Chris said, it would be a simple matter of bringing it back online but I think permission would have to be granted first, and from what I've heard, the family hasn't been very forthcoming with details surrounding the situation.  If anyone wants to pursue this further then I would be happy to provide my copy to them after they have proved they have permission from the Nelson family to host the site in original form.

There is an old "bootleg" copy of the site floating around on the 'net from 2003 (when Bill ran the site):

http://www.telmore.com/christmaslights/index.htm

Be aware that much of that information was revised and expanded upon in later years...

[Chris W. Millinship]

Never know about that one - fascinating. Looks to have been made from the Internet Archive, possibly following the passing of Bill Nelson when the site was taken down originally. There are several missing images and the file system looks like it comes from pages saved individually, same as my own reference copies saved here over the past days.

Made all the more fascinating by an entry to my often-forgotten visitor book at bulbmuseum.net. Every now and then (such as just earlier tonight) I remember it`s still there, and go in to approve the new entries if there are any. The latest one is from that very same Tom Elmore, pointing to the forwarding address oldechristmaslights.com . Although I havn`t had a proper look, it seems he also has a copy of the 2001 CD, and has hosted it alongside that later archive copy. Described as a tribute to Bill Nelson, maybe it has been done with permission, but if not, hopefully it won`t have to be taken down too soon.

I wonder, kept intact with all the original copyright information and no changes made, if permission needs to be sought to host these pages? Of course it is the decent thing to do if at all possible, but the Internet Archive have copies of most pages and images that are available to view as a complete site, even if extremely slowly, and they present it as purely a "library" reference copy. Might be worth pursuing if attempts to contact the family do not succeed.....?

[Tom]

I was sorry to see this site removed.  Ironically, I was looking at it only a few days before it went off line, listening to the c.100 year old Christmas Carols on the Edison cylinders.

[Paul]

I'm not a collector, but I am a web editor/writer with several friends who run web sites about Christmas memorabilia.  We were all shocked to see George's pages replaced by a "placeholder" page with a photo of a smirking girl and paid advertising links to unrelated pages.

Based on materials that I received permission to use some time back, I have restored and republished as much of George's site as I could piece back together on http://www.oldchristmastreelights.com

Hope this helps,

Paul

[jonathan cassiday]

I would like to say a big thank you to Paul for his restoration efforts to the Antique Christmas Lights website, I just had a breif glimpse but can already see that much of the important information regarding restoration and preservation of vintage and antique christmas lighting has been restored. I am thrilled to see the site back up and functioning and I know it must have taken alot of time and effort, but I appreciate all you have done! Job well done! I hope that overtime collectors may be able to contribute more information to the site. Once again I sincerly thank you for the effort to restore the website to a useable form again!

J.M. Cassiday