Mother and Son

I should have put this one up yesterday.  We're supposed to be patriotic on inauguration day, and we do equate the military with patriotism.  Every time I see an image of a soldier with his mother,  I always wonder if he came back alive.

The Lady Violinist

My favorite violinists are Stuff Smith, Stephane Grappelli, and Regina Carter.  If you don't know who they are, you're not a jazz fan.  From the forties or fifties, I would think.

Come on in the water's fine.

It's the middle of winter, so I thought I'd just put up a reminder of the summer ahead.  This real photo postcard was addressed to. "Miss Alberta Simmonds, Clinton, Tenn." but never stamped or mailed.  I guess Clinton was small enough back then that a street address wasn't necessary.

Strike Up the Band

No names, dates, or locations on this one, and it's hard to guess based on a band uniform.  

Writing Away

This one is strangely fascinating to me.  It's dated "12/25/71" and with the open gifts strewn around, you'd think she's writing thank you notes.  But then I took a second look, and I wondered who would write a thank you note on a legal pad.  Anyway, in an age when writing cursive is a disappearing skill, I like looking at pictures of people writing.  In my grade school, one of the exercises we used to learn cursive was the writing of letters.  Another disappearing skill.  Now it's all a couple of quick lines in an email.  The tech age doesn't know what it's loosing.

The Camera Couple and The Third Wheel

I do love my photographs of photographers.  I've just gone through one of my favorite reference books, 500 Cameras, 170 Years of Photographic Innovation by Todd Gustavson and the closest match I can find to the lady's camera is a No. 4 Screen Focus Kodak, Model A, first made in 1904.  Of course, once a company made a nice camera, it wasn't long until another company came up with a copy.  And the man's camera, a bit difficult to see down there between his legs, looks like it might be a Kodak Autographic first made in 1916.  I have one in my collection and a number of others that look pretty much the same.  Oh well.  Now, is the third person their model, or just the guy that they couldn't ditch before heading out on a camera outing?  Maybe his camera is on a tripod with a self timer.  Either that, or there's a forth person and with luck the third man's date.

Hotel Semiramis, Damascus, Syria, 1955

I admit it.  As postcards go, this one isn't all that impressive.  But, when I saw that it was from Syria, I thought I should pick it up.  The Hotel Semiramis is still in business and, as of right now, taking reservations.  Of course, how much longer that will last is any one's guess.  I've got a funny feeling that a good portion of Damascus will be in ruins before the last of the Assad family flees or is killed.

Printed on the back, "Damascus-Semiramis Hotel"  "Reproduction Interdite Photo Deposee"  Vraie Photographie Printed in Lebanon"  "Photo Sport-Bab Edriss-Souk Seyour-Beyrouth"  The French shouldn't be too surprising.  During the first world war, France and Great Britain publicly supported the Arab revolt, but secretly negotiated the Sykes-Picot Agreement that divided the non Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire into French and British spheres of interest.  In a nutshell, modern day Lebanon and Syria became de facto French colonies. Lebanon and Syria wouldn't gain their independence until 1948.

There are a number of Semiramis hotels in the eastern Mediterranean and Arab states.