Soldiers and Sailors

  

The man in front is in his army uniform, and the man on the right is all navy.  At least that's what the bit of his collar, the only bit of clothing that can be seen, looks like. How about the man just behind the woman with the fur stole?  An all-military reunion?  Almost certainly from World War 2. 

Cut Down

 

This slim photo has been cut down from a larger photo.   There is some writing on the back, but like the picture itself, some of it has been lost to the scissors.  "Dec. 20/4."  So, from the 1940s.  And, "Taken in Ge."  Perhaps Germany and a soldier on occupation duty.  Or, then again, maybe Georgia, though there isn't that much snow in Georgia. 

All Dressed Up to Stand Next to the Pond

 

Was it Sunday and off to church, or was this the way she usually dressed? 

Desolate Places

 

 I'd love to know where this picture was taken and what it took for these two ladies to get there, dressed as they are.  The woman on the left is wearing a veil, at least when it's blown up, you can see netting over her face.  And the woman on the right is holding a folding camera. 

The Rich Family

 

If you are a fan of silent movies, you've probably seen a film where a family with a large car, drives around a city, and don't do much of anything but run over things, and generally causes a major mess. It's hard to believe, but when those films were made, very few Americans actually owned a car, and those movies were as much about class as they were about cars. There's black construction paper on the backs of the prints, so at some point, they were cut out of a photo album. I thought about trying to peel the paper off and see if anything was written on the backs, but the risk of damaging the prints is too great. 

Christmas Is Coming

 

I haven't lost interest in this blog, nor have I stopped collecting old photos, but I have been very short of money for a while, hence the big gaps in posts.  Anyway, there's a Christmas tree in the background, and we are about three weeks out, so I thought I put this picture up. 

She Knows How to Pose

 

I think the movies taught people how to pose for photographs.  This image was taken in a backyard, but she struck a pose that could have been called for in a Hollywood movie studio publicity department. 

Music To My Ears 9

Dressed up for a night out or for a night on stage?  As a former professional printer I'm insulted that the printer couldn't be bothered to clean the negative.  I'll be taking a break before putting more up from this collection. Click on Music To My Ears in labels to see more. 

What Happened to the Guy in Glasses?

From four to three people in a single photograph.  Well, it looks like the two ladies spent at least some of that day sitting in apple boxes that had been converted to push cars. 

The Key Note

I have no idea what The Key Note is, but whatever it is, it's written on the print, so it's not a sign on the building.  It could be a nightclub, a restaurant, or some sort of social club.  I even thought it might be the name of a play or musical group, but, while I tried, it's too generic to get a match.  There is a date written on the bottom border, "10/29/33" 

Killing Baby Seals

Yes, I admit it.  This is kind of an unpleasant image.  It's not, however, a celebration of seal hunting.  While it was never mailed, it is addressed to "Right Honorable Pierre Elliot Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario Canada KIA OA2."  And the caption, "A Canadian sealer, with club poised, prepares to bludgeon the 10-day old baby harp seal at his feet.  This brutal episode was repeated more than 180,000 times last year."  Clearly this postcard was meant to protest the annual harp seal hunt. 

Na-num

I've written about this before.  I quite often buy envelopes of old photographs.  Sometimes they're related by a general theme, women, people with cars, children, that sort of thing.  Sometimes they're just random snapshots.  I'd never buy anything without at least a few images I really wanted, but, more often than not, there are a number of photos I think of as throw-ins.  It's not that I think they're bad pictures, or photos with no interest whatsoever.  They're just photographs I wouldn't have purchased on their own.  So, over the next few days, some of the throw-ins.

Written on the back, "Back door at 2309 Grand Blvd. Cedar Heights, Cedar Falls, Iowa.  Jan. 1st 1940.  Na-num."  A little less than a year before Pearl Harbor.

Ladies Who Sneer

I admit it.  Identifying a sneering face can be a bit subjective.  Anyway, I grew up in a small, fairly religious town, and as a life long atheist, I was sneered at a lot.  To me, these look like sneering church ladies. Oh, and I double checked, nothing written on the back of this print. 

All Bundled Up

With one winter storm after another pummeling the east coast, I thought I'd publish a photograph of how people used to dress for cold weather.

The Here, There, and Everywhere Collection-Natty Dressers

Then again, what do I know about fashion.  Maybe there not stylish at all.  Click on The Here There and Everywhere Collection in labels to see more images from the lot. 

Another One of the Extras

I've either got to post some of these throw in photographs, the images that came with the photos I actually wanted, or shove then in a drawer somewhere, never to be seen again.

 I'm old enough to remember when owning a fur coat was a pretty big deal.  It was  symbolic of entering a secure middle class.  If the lady, or her husband, could afford to spend so much money on something that was more of a fashion statement than a practical garment, that meant  they didn't have to worry about money anymore.  Think of it as spending a grand on a phone, when a $200 one works just as well.

The Here, There, and Everywhere Collection-The Too Big Album Page-3

Obviously, the flip side of the last two posts.  On this one, the photos aren't all the same size and placed in nice, neat rows.  So, the division is right-left rather than top-bottom.  The bottom photo looks a bit tropical, while all the other photos on both sides of this page have that nice, middle America feel.  Of course, both California and Florida have towns that were made to look like back home Iowa.   P.S., the photos were mounted at angles, the scan is straight.

Click on the here there and everywhere collection in the labels section at the bottom of the post for more pictures and an explanation for the series title.

Ladies In Hats

This is a really small print, about an inch on the long side.  As the title implies, I like the hats.  That and the twenty five cents price is why I bought it.

Women In the Woods

I've done a lot of hiking and backpacking in my life and I don't think I've ever seen such well dressed women on a trail.  Sometimes, things do get better.

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 26

Talk about affluence.  All that fur, captured in a studio photograph.  Kodak made it possible for the average American to record their lives with snapshots but it took a certain amount of money to have a constant stream of studio portraits made.

Click on Waterbury Box Co. Album in labels at the bottom of the post to see everything to date.