Men Don't Make Passes...

...at girls who wear glasses. Dorothy Parker was wrong. Labeled "Marguerite Rice (Martin) Knoxville 1949-50." I'm guessing that Martin is a maiden name and that she had no trouble attracting men with or without glasses. A very attractive lady who, if she is still alive, is probably around 85 or 90.

Who Is the Master?

.

.

Printed on postcard stock. Written on the back, "Master Carl Nugen Harfer, Kans." To the modern mind it reads like some sort of domination cult, but master very likely refers to school master. These may be three couples or the six teachers at a small, rural school in late nineteenth, early twentieth century Kansas.

Trench Warfare

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

Again, I don't know a lot about commercial printing processes, but I think these are rotogravures. (Click on rotogravure in the labels section for other examples.) I picked up a group of these years ago before the photo lab went under, and I made a few copy negs and then went ahead and made conventional black & white photos from them. The trench shot is captioned, "Taking a look at Jerry. Officers and men of the 18th Inf., 1st Div., in the front line, Ansauville sector, Jan. 20, 1918." The snow picture, "Meanwhile, in the states, training was going forward at top speed. Cold! We'll say it was cold. The day in January 1918, when this picture was taken on the Kishwaukee range, Camp Grant, it was fifteen degrees below zero. These are hardy "Blackhawks" of the 343d Inf., Colonel Charles R. Howland commanding. In training the men of the 172d Brigade to which col. Howland's regiment belonged, Brig. Gen. Charles H. Martin rigorously insisted upon the shooting and discipline demanded by General Pershing. He had the earnest co-operation of his regimental commanders, Col. Howland and Col. Benjamin T. Simmons, and the friends of the brigade claimed that there were no finer soldiers in the National Army than those of the 172d Brigade. The training program never took cognizance of weather conditions. Some surprisingly good scores were made the day this picture was taken. We remember that Major Charles Collette made a perfect score at 700 yards. J.C.R." Unlike in World War 2 when military censorship only applied to facts that could jeopardize on going operations, in World War 1, president Wilson controlled the press and only allowed coverage that was supportive of the war effort. These images seem to be part of a press release. Note that on the trench picture, it's identified as an official photo of the Signal Corps.

Los Angeles Way Back When

I found this small collection locally, here in Los Angeles, and it really speaks to those times when people were coming to southern California in search of the good life. No dates on any of these images, but I would guess that they arc from the late twenties to the early thirties.

Home From the War

Drafted during World War 2, not knowing if they'd survive or not, a lot of guys got married before shipping out and came home to children they had never seen.

Aviation

I run across these all the time; collections put together by dealers by theme, but otherwise not related. With my post of the flying family just a couple of clicks back, I thought it would be a good time to put up this aviation themed collection. As usual when purchasing a group like this, I'm drawn to some images more than others, and in some cases, I don't really have an interest in some of the pictures at all. But since I would prefer to err on the side of putting up too much rather than too little, I'm posting them all.

-

To be born in 1955 is to be interested in airplanes. World War 2 had only ended a decade earlier and movies of fighter pilots and bombing raids were still an entertainment staple. Jets had come along, but prop planes were still common commercial air carriers. When I was 14 in 1969 man walked on the moon. A 75 year old person in 1969 would have been nine when the Wright Brothers made their first flight at Kitty Hawk, and would have been old enough to have clear memories of the announcement that man had flown a powered craft for the first time. A fast progression of technology. And too, it didn't hurt that my mother was from England and built Minerva engines for Spitfires during the war.

-

The long shot of the control tower and terminal with the factory smoke stack to the right is labeled, "11/4/39 Broward Field Hartford, Conn." The two color photos are stamped, "THIS IS A KODACOLOR PRINT MADE BY EASTMAN KODAK EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY T. M. REGIS. U. S. PAT. OFF. Aug 20, 1948." Still flying prop planes out of a small airport. Note the cars parked on the edge of the tarmac. There is a date stamped on the picture of the two girls in the helicopter, MAY 1984" but that has to be when it was printed rather than taken. The hair is all wrong for the 80s. The picture that shows a few small planes lined up on a runway is stamped "AMERICAN PHOTO SERVICE NOV 9 1948." The photographer was clearly drawn to the sky since it's the main part of the composition. Written on the back of the Aviation Mechanics School with it's Army Air Force insignia, "Hanger 1510B we use it for school-we work inside, it's a pretty big place." The TWA wing tip, again a prop passenger plane, "Geneva." I suspect that the group picture wasn't taken at an airport but the plane in the background just barely qualifies it as an aviation themed photo, written in the margin, "Lorasine Schleminns, Bill Donlin, Gabriel Pea, Beth Donlin and Becky-Wash, D.C." The old lady with the leis, "Oct 9, 1950." This may have been her first flight. The group of people standing in front of the control tower, "Our group at the Lourdes, France airport before we left for Paris." And the plane on the grass field, "July 12, 1939 Bendix Airport. U. S. Army Bomber." I'm fascinated that so many of these people dressed up to fly. The last time I flew, I wore jeans and an old, comfortable shirt.

Another CDV From C. C. Shadle

Most of the carte de visites I own were purchased when I first started collecting photographs and most are from my home state of Pennsylvania. C.C. Shadle was born in 1817 and learned photography at the age of 45, around 1862. After working as an engineer for three years, he opened a photography studio in Apollo, Pennsylvania, (My home town.) around about 1865, the year that the Civil War ended. He then set up a studio in Tarentum, PA, and then moved to Kittanning, (The town where I was born.) in 1869. For more detailed information on the life of C. C. Shadle go to www.freepages.geneology.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~treasures/pa/.../ccshadle.pdf Written on the back, "Nancy's Grand Pa." Stamped on the back, "C. C. SHADLE, Photographer, TARENTUM, Penna."