The German American Collection, Adults Only

To recap...A dealer had purchased a number of photos from an estate, sold some of them separately, and then bundled up what was left into several lots, and then put them up on line, on EBay. I bid on all of the lots, but was only able to get one. Because it's so broken up, and because it covers such a great span of time, I'm putting the photos up in a catch-as-can manner, when I get around to it. I call it the German-American Collection, because there was a real photo postcard of a wedding with a German photo studio's name on the back (already posted), and a partial album from Germany (still to come). As usual, click on German-American in the labels section to bring up the lot. The picture of the woman on the stone wall is dated "Sept. 1936."

When There Are No Pigs To Ride...

Tricycles will do.

I See You

Don't sneak up on us with that damn camera!

Tongue

Sneaking a photo? Be careful, someone might stick out their tongue at you. Stamped on the back, "OCT 14, 1940 NEVER-FADE PHOTO PRINTS"

Up On the Roof

The roof is a place to escape the mundane aspects of our lives. This picture has been cut form a larger print. Written on the back, "...ent it...on't lose this...f you have one...March 21-3-3..." And of course, those little dots represent the parts of the message that have either been torn off or cut off.

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.

Shadows and Suits

When I was in college, I wanted access to the university darkrooms. To get that access, I was required to take an introduction to photography course. My teacher stressed that anyone who took a picture with the sun behind them, flunked. I rather like it when the photographer's shadow stretches into the frame.

Running In the Snow

I think it's the same little girl. In any case I found them together. Judging by the cars it looks like these are from the mid to late thirties. It makes one wonder how this girl and her family did during the depression. A lot of people ended up loosing everything in that decade, but many others survived with their lives barely changed. And after those years, a world war. Perhaps her father or an older brother fought, and perhaps died.

Lady Hobos

Yes, I know. They're not actually hobos. The Erie Railroad was chartered in 1832 as the New York & Erie Railroad to build a line from New York City to Dunkirk, NY, on Lake Erie. Construction began in 1836 and finally reached Lake Erie in 1851. The line would change it's name to the New York, Erie and Western Railroad as it built lines that would eventually reach as far west as Chicago. In 1895 it, once again, was renamed as the Lake Erie Railroad. In 1960 it merged with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad and became the Erie & Lackawanna Railroad. So we can know that this picture was taken after 1895. Hey, it's something. More info can be found on the often unreliable Wikipedia.

The German American Collection, Winter Transportation

Written on the back of the car photograph, "A Bent Fender Feb. 7, 1939." I guess that's why they need the horses.

Child Labor at the Hotel Gloria

When this photograph was taken, child labor was common. Guests at the Hotel Gloria wouldn't have thought twice about the morality of a ten year old staying up all night just in case an early morning newspaper was wanted, or if a lady needed her shoes cleaned for an early morning carriage ride. Went to Google and punched in Hotel Gloria and found hotels of that name in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Springwood, Australia, Jerusalem, Israel, Beatenburg, Switzerland, Chisinau, Moldova, Budapest, Hungary, Gran Canaria, Spain, and others.

The Epworth League Album 5, Two More Pages

Anyone who has ever tried to scan in a mis-exposed print will share my frustration. There is a side of me that wants things to look pretty much they way the originals do. There is a side of me that wants them to look better. The problem is that, after the programing has tried to correct exposures, I often get neither.

The Epworth League Album 3

I have a theory, completely unsupported by an facts, that photo albums are almost always put together by women. My other theory is that photo album are often put together by someone, for someone else. This album starts somewhere in the middle west and ends in California. Looking at these last two posts, makes me wonder if this album was made by a daughter for her mother, and if her mother is this lady. A mystery I would love to solve. Click on Epworth league in the labels section to bring everything up.

A Girl and Her Trike

Did you know....The tricycle was originally designed and built for women. It was thought to be both immoral and undignified for women to ride bicycles, but the trike would allow a woman to join the cycling craze while keeping her legs covered. Women preferred bicycles.

Roads in the Desert

The California desert is criss-crossed with dirt roads. When I hike across the Mojave, more often than not, I'll spend at lest some time following an old jeep route. But where do they go? I'll follow the track across the desert and it'll just end, way out there, in the middle of nowhere. At one time there was a logic to all that road building. Mines now filled in, old homesteads, blown away by the desert winds, World War 2 bombing ranges and observation posts. I'm sure this road was well used when this photograph was taken, and there was a reason for these three people to be there. But what was it? There is a small building in the depression in the background.

Rural Glamour

I was born in 1955 in a small coal mining town in western Pennsylvania and when I was a child there were still a lot of these old metal framework bridges with wooden decks still standing. On back roads, many unpaved, the wood planking starting to rot, we still used them and so did a lot of coal trucks. I'm still amazed that they didn't collapse killing the poor guy who just happened to be heading into town that day. In 1921, when this picture was taken, this bridge was probably only a few years old. A year or so after Prohibition went into a effect, I like to think that this young lady was headed off to a roadhouse, thumbing her nose at all the moralists who tried to solve the real problem of alcohol abuse with legislation that had no chance of working. When I was in my early twenties, I worked at a mine in West Virginia. The older residents had a saying, "Coal mine, moonshine, or movin' on down the line."

The German American Collection, Until Death do us Part

Written on the back of the first picture, "Our Wedding Day April 18th 1942 Until Death do us Part." I've scanned in the back of the second. Click on German-American in the labels section to bring up more images.

All of Us

I picked up this photo here, in southern California, so it's tempting to write that it's a shot of an outing to Catalina. (Click on Catalina in the labels section to pull up some examples.) Then again, the 1920s when this picture was most likely taken, was the era of passenger ships. Travelling from Los Angeles to San Fransisco, Seattle or Victoria, British Columbia was more likely to be done on a coastal steamer than by car. Too, liners were the main way to get to Hawaii, Asia, Europe or any place else not in North America. Then again, the twenties was also the era of gambling ships. With prohibition in force, and no handy casinos, southern Californians took small boats to ships anchored just outside the three mile limit where they could gamble to their heart's content and drink all the booze they could pay for. Written on the back, "All of us." Is it just me, or does the guy in the upper left look a lot like Eugene O'Neill?

12/2/44

From Pearl Harbor to V-J Day more than 16 million Americans, mostly men, served in the military. Many of them, about to be shipped overseas, rushed into marriage and left behind pregnant wives. (And a few pregnant girlfriends as well.) In for the duration, not given passes home, a photograph was all they would see of their young children until the end of the war. Those who didn't come back would never see anything other than photos. This picture is dated "12/2/44" The Battle of the Bulge was only two weeks away. The invasion of Okinawa was only four months in the future.

By the Pool in Sunny Southern California

I doubt this is a public pool. It's a little free of the teaming masses looking to cool down on a sunny day. While it's possible that this could have been a private pool, because of it's size, I think I'm going with either country club or hotel. What an age when ladies dressed to sit by the water. I suspect that the women in the top picture enjoyed eying the pool boy. Click on the second to get a bigger and better look at the trio in the background. The blond starlet type is wearing a hell of a swim suit.