Cooks

Thanksgiving weekend is over and it's time to clean up the mess and figure out what to do with all the leftovers.  Written on the back of this photo, "voc. school"  It looks like these three young ladies are learning what to do with dried up turkey, fatty gravy, cold mashed potatoes, and stale stuffing.  Man, I'm feeling hungry.  Going by the hairdos, I'm guessing the 1920s.

The North Texas State Normal College Album 1

It's time to put up another album and it's a mess.  There are 25 pages with images, a number where the photos have been removed, and damaged pages as well.  In addition there are a lot of  loose photos, some of the period, others newer, that have been stored between the pages.  Because there is so much to see, I'll be putting additional posts up in a when ever I get to it fashion.  I'll be putting NTSNC in the labels section so that those who are interested can click and bring  everything up together.

NTSNC stands for North Texas State Normal College.  It was founded as a private teachers college in 1890 in Denton, Texas.  It held classes above a hardware store and was called The Texas Normal College and Teachers Training Institute.  It changed hands in 1893 and became The North Texas Normal College.  In 1899 it was taken over by the state of Texas and finally became The North Texas State Normal College.  There were more name changes in the future.  In 1923, North Texas Normal College. In 1949, North Texas State College. In 1961, North Texas University.  And in 1988, it's present name, The University of North Texas.

I suspect part 2 is at least a week away, so be patient.

School Days

Just a reminder.  There was a time, in the United States, when we put a higher priority on education than low taxes.  There isn't a date on the  postcard of the New High School, Springfield, Ohio, but I was able to find a similar one on one of my favorite research sites, EBay, postmarked 1913.  Judging by the clothes on the people, I'd say that the hand colored photo was taken some time around 1900.  The population of Springfield in 1900 was 38,253.  Not a big city, but a small one by the standards of 1900.  At a time when schools were paid for by local taxes, the people of Springfield decided to build a large stone building with a cupola.   The Pleasant Home High School of Andalusia, Alabama, dated 1942-44, is a lot more modest, expected from a small town of 6,886 people, (That's from the 1940 census.) but it's still well built and maintained.  (And yes, I do know that a decade before Brown vs Board of Education,  that this would have been an all white school, and that the local black population attended a far less impressive institution.)

I meet a lot of young people in my work, and while they are well versed in modern technology, I'm surprised at how little they've read, and how little they know about government and current events.  I know I'm sounding like the classic old fogy complaining about kids these days, but I went to what was considered a sub standard high school, and our school had a mandatory reading list, and classes in government and current events.  With cuts in funding for education, schools are less likely to educate for the well rounded citizen and more likely to go for job skills.  I'm sure many people think that's a good thing.  I'm not one of them.

The Apprentice

No, not the TV show hosted by America's first narcissist, Donald Trump.

When I was in junior high, the entire seventh grade class (There was only about forty of us.) were forced on  buses for a field trip to Lenape Tech.  Lenape was a county run, trades high school.  The morning sessions were devoted to all the usual classes, math, history, English, while the afternoons were devoted to learning a trade.  I remember that we were divided by sex.  The boys were shown the auto shop, welding, television repair lab, while the girls were taken to the beauty and cooking classes.  I don't know what would have happened if one of the boys had asked about being a hair dresser or one of the girls had wanted to take a run at a welding career.  Oh, how things have changed.

Before trade schools, there were apprenticeships.   Young boys (mostly) would be sent off to learn a trade from a master craftsman.  In exchange for a decade or so of free labor, the young man would be taught cabinet making, or watch repair, or some other useful profession.  Anyone who has ever read Dickens would know that apprenticeships were also offered for business careers.   Keeping those books balanced isn't easy, and in a world where almost no one went to college, a job that didn't involve manual labor, like accounting, was learned by doing.

This is a fairly old picture. But how old?  Is this young man taking a shop class or has he begun his working life as an apprentice?  One thing is for sure.  He's not a recent college grad, working for free as an intern, so that some business can avoid adding an extra pay check to the books.  No wonder recent grads can't find paid employment when so  many of them are willing to work for nothing.  My rant of the day...internships are a scam!

American Surrealism

I can't imagine that either the photographer or printer intended that these photos should look like this. But if they did, all I can say is bravo! These two photographic misadventures are fascinating images.

The German American Collection, Althea Hope Risebake

Written on the back of the school photo in a childish hand, "Althea Hope Risebake" Stamped, "SCHOOL PROJECTS PHOTO CO. 309 MAIN ST. ORANGE, N.J. Tel. OR. 5-5286 Res. OR. 5-5622."

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The problem I'm having with the German American collection (Click on German American in the labels section to get more information and more images.) is that it's so broken up it's almost impossible to build a real narrative of this family. What I do know is that a German family immigrated to the United States and made a life in New York and New Jersey. These two pieces both have education as a theme, but they don't come from the same time or place. Was the District Number 13 souvenir tag from the Andes, New York School District given to the child of a German immigrant, and a parent of Althea Hope Risebake, or was it given to someone born and raised in the U.S. who would eventually marry into that immigrant family? Was Althea born in Germany, struggling to learn English along with her math and geography, while her American born class mates made fun of her accent? Of course, when this picture was taken, an accent may have been common in this school. While it's frustrating not to know, it also allows for a freedom of speculation that makes collecting old photos endlessly fascinating. .

Miss Rathburn

Written on the back, "Miss Rathburn. Pacific School, Seattle, Wash." When this picture was taken, teaching was about the only profession a woman could enter. For some odd reason, being a married woman was considered a bad example for the children. My first grade teacher (1960), Miss Snyder was born in the nineteenth century and never married. I wonder if she thought it was a good deal.

First Grade

Dates written on the back of pictures can be wrong. Often those dates are when the print was made rather than when the negative was exposed. I think we can be pretty certain of the 1936 date written on the small slate, though. North Versailles Township is about 12 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, PA in Allegheny County. And for those not from western, Pennsylvania, we pronounce it Ver-sales.

To Miss Nellie Baker of Clinton, Maine From California

What I'd do to see the letter that accompanied these photos, when mailed, from the San Francisco Bay area to Clinton, Maine. All we know for sure is that someone mailed these photos from somewhere in California on June 23, 1908, that it was then relayed from the San Francisco post office on June 28, 1908, and arrived at Clinton, Maine on July 4, 1908. (TheClinton post mark is on the back of the envelope.) This is where the fun comes in from collecting old photos. While we can't know things for sure, we can speculate, logically. There are two probable scenarios here. The first is that Nellie Baker's friend was on a trip to California. The second, and more likely, is that her friend moved to the bay area. Are the photos of the school house, children, and library work places for Nellie's friend, or is she ( I'd bet money that we are dealing with a woman.) trying to brag to her friend that in California, we've got better schools, libraries, churches, and houses than you do, back home, in Clinton. The picture of the men in the boat, leads me to think that this family didn't live in San Francisco, but the head of the house commuted, by water, to the city. East bay, maybe Oakland, or perhaps from Marin? I think there is a good chance that the church and possibly the old school house are still standing, so if anyone out there recognizes them, please leave a comment.

Prom Queen and Graduate

Three photos of Miss Candy Fickes, very likely from Cloverdale, California. The photo of Candy in her prom gown is labeled, "Candy Fikes, first formal." The two graduation pictures not only have Candys' name written on the back but a photographers stamp, "PHOTO BY C. FRANK TILESTON, Jr. CLOVERDALE, CALIFORNIA." I tried running Candy Fikes on Google and didn't come up with anything. C. Frank Tileston, however, came up with a death notice and dates, March 25, 1918 to December 7, 2002. If these photos were taken in the sixties, that means Tileston would have been in his forties or fifties when taken. I also found a notation of a Chester Tileston, a student at Cloverdale High from 1961-65.

Class Photos

I would have scanned in every photo separately if it had been possible to get the small head shots out of the mounts. Look closely at the class picture. Why do some of the students have an "X" on their faces?

You Too Can Photograph Beautiful Models

Lesson I INTRODUCTION TO ART PHOTOGRAPHY Good art photography is about one-half technical and one-half imaginative. Any good photographer, well trained in darkroom and camera techniques will find the first half quite simple. The second half is considerably more difficult. There are fine points that the photographer must master in order to successfully produce quality art photos. They are posing, lighting, and creative imagination. Post marked Feb. 14, 1955 from Washington, D.C. and sent to Dr. Alfred Thelin, Jr. 208 third St., N.W., Albuquerque, New Mexico from the National Institute of Art Photography, included are a couple of sample photos, and a lesson plan for home nude photography.