The Great Smokey Mountains National Park

  

I've got a fair number of postcards in my collection that started out as photographs, and this is one of them.  It's also one of the few that I can actually date.  The original photo was taken at the dedication of The Great Smokey Mountains National Park on September 2, 1940, though the only credit for the original that I've been able to find is the one on the lower border on the front, "PHOTO BY TENN. STATE DEPT. OF CONSERVATION."  Anyway, creating national parks in the West was fairly easy compared to parks in the East.  In the West, land was already owned by the government, in the East, land had to be acquired from private landowners.  In the Smokies, on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, land had to be purchased from both small farmers and large timber companies.  

The caption on the back of the card, "The following inscription appears on the plaque of this memorial: "For the permanent enjoyment of the people, this park was given one half by the peoples and states of North Carolina and Tennessee and the United States of America, and one half in memory of the Laura Spellman Rockefeller Memorial, founded by her husband, John D. Rockefeller."  The card was 'PUBLISHED BY ASHVILLE POST CARD CO., ASHVILLE, N.C." 

Once again, I don't know why, but a bit of the right side of horizontal images gets slightly cropped.  Click on the image and bring it up in a larger window to see it, side to side. 

The Vogels of Artesia, New Mexico 2

   

Another hand franked postcard from "Pvt. Roy R. Vogel, 346th Air Base Sgdn., Municipal Air Port , Memphis, Tenn, Barrack 411 S."  Well, now we know Roy's middle initial and his barracks assignment.  Once again it's mailed to "Miss Dorothy Vogel, Artesia, New Mex, Box #632."  Spelled out a bit differently, but the same recipient. And the message, "Dear Dot, I received a letter from you and one from Jane a week or so ago so will send this on to both of you as I have so much waiting to do.  The pictures are just like the animals in the zoo.  It is the second largest in the world.  I am feeling all all right.  I will be closing for today.  Your cousin Roy."  Well, not too detailed, and I have my doubts that the Memphis Zoo was the second largest in the world, but how much can you get on a postcard, and how much honesty can you expect from a young private who was probably away from home for the first time in his life.

  The postmark is "MEMPHIS TENN, DEC 3, 8 PM DE SOTO STA. 1" The caption, "Scenes from the Memphis Zoo, one of the finest in the world."  Click on The Vogel Collection in labels to bring up the rest. 

The Vogels of Artesia, New Mexico 1

 

Time for another three-part collection, though I don't think I'm going to put them up in a row, so click on The Vogel Collection in labels to bring all three up.

So, all three of these postcards were mailed during World War 2 and all three were hand-franked.  Basically, during the war, U.S. military members could use the mail for free.  All they had to do was write free where the stamp should be and off it went.  This card was mailed by "Pvt. Roy Vogel, 346th Air Base Sgdn., Municipal Air Port, Memphis, Tenn."  It was mailed to "Miss Dorothy Vogel, Artesia, New Mexico, Box 632."   And the message, "Dear Dorothy, I received your letter this morn.  Was glad to hear from you. I had some pictures made the other day.  I will send one in a few days. I feel well at present.  Hope I can continue feeling that way.  Your cousin, Roy." 

So, presumably, Roy Vogel was in the Army Air Corp. (There was no separate Air Force during World War 2)  As a private, he wasn't training as a pilot, co-pilot, or navigator.  Perhaps he was training as a mechanic or as a gunner.  

There is a readable postmark, "MEMPHIS, TENN. NOV 3 4 PM 1942, DE SOTO STA."  The card's caption, "The Memphis Municipal Airport is one of the finest in America.  Made by Curteich, Chicago. 

Mr. Mudge

No, I have no idea what this gentleman's name was.  This portrait is mounted on a card, but the only information "M M Mudge CHATTANOOGA"  is embossed and doesn't scan well, so I just cropped it all out.  I couldn't find any biographical information about Mr. Mudge, but I did find an article he wrote in a nineteenth century magazine.  In Photographic Mosaics he stresses the importance of printer's ink over gallery displays in advertising the photographer's business.  Nice tie and mustache.

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.

At Home and On Occupation

There's a famous story.  Douglas MacArthur,  newly appointed military governor of Japan, arrives at his post, sees the devastation and sends a telegram to President Harry Truman:  "Send food or send guns."

As we've found in the last decade, winning the war is one thing, winning the peace another.  After World War 2,  the United States, Great Britain, and France took an enlightened approach to winning the peace.  First, there was the deNazification program.  While the out right war criminals and major government figures found themselves in the dock, we decided that the minor officials, cultural figures, teachers, and members of the working classes, no matter how enthusiastic they were in their party activities, were dupes, and were allowed to go on with their lives.  And then there was the Marshall Plan, America's commitment to rebuild Europe, no matter the cost.  Any threat of a resistance movement ended, and our post war occupation went smoothly.

The occupation of Germany began right after the war.  Germany was originally divided into four zones of occupation.  The Soviet, British, French and American zones of occupation.  In 1947, the British and American zones were merged, quickly followed by a merger with the French zone.  In 1949, the first post war German government was formed, and the military governors were replaced with a Civilian High Commissioner.  Technically, the Commissioner had governance powers and could over rule the new German parliament, but, by and large, the Germans were allowed to run their own affairs.  On May 5, 1955, the occupation of Germany officially ended.  There are still American military bases in Germany.  

The first four pictures in the column are not labeled in any way, but appear to show our subject through his military training.  The fifth photograph is labeled, "Camp Kilmer, N. J. April 1951."  Camp Kilmer, named for the poet killed in World War 1, was never used as a training camp, but as a mustering point for troops being shipped from the port of New York to Europe.  It opened in June 1942, and closed in the 1990s.  Note that our subject is standing by a car with a Tennessee license plate. Could be coincidence, or could be his home state. The next picture, "Tompkins Barracks, April 1952, Swetzingen, Germany."  This is a misspelling.  Tompkins barracks is outside the town of Schwetzingen, and is scheduled to close in 2015.  The color photo is labeled, Fike Park in Wiesbaden, Germany."  It's also stamped, "THIS IS A KODACOLOR PRINT MADE BY EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY T.M. REGIS. U. S. PAT. OFF. Week of June 2, 1952."  Was their a photo lab on base for the troops?  Too, I think Fike Park might be mislabeled.  I've run a search for public parks in Wiesbaden, and nothing by that name came up.  And the last picture, "Wurzburg-Germany  Bahnhof-train station.  July 3, 1952."  I  wish there were some people's names listed. It's nice to have place names and dates, but being able to identify a person by name is always special.

I wonder what was going through the mind of this soldier.  Was he living the great adventure of his life, using his leave time to explore Europe?  Did he take trips to Paris, the Alps, Berlin, Basel, Switzerland?  (Go back  one post to see a ticket stub from the tramways of Basel sold to American service men on leave.)  Did he learn German or French? Or did he stay close to base, home sick, just putting in time until the end of his service, and a ship's berth back home?  I hope he saw it as an adventure and not a duty to be endured.

The American zone of occupation included Bavaria, Bremen, Hesse, and Wurtemberg-Baden.

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.