World War 1, Battle Damage

At the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918, the armistice that ended fighting in World War 1 went into effect.  Some of the heaviest fighting of the conflict were in the hours before the armistice.  The Treaty of Versailles, that actually ended the war, wouldn't be negotiated until 1919, and generals wanted to be in the best position possible, just in case fighting began again.

Written on the back, "O. D. Caldwell."  More photos from Mr. Caldwell in the next post.

El Kusto

A bit faded, but overall a nice photograph.  But, it wasn't the ladies in the foreground which drew me in.  It was the building.  A cigar manufacturer in Minnesota, and the very Cuban sounding name, El Kusto.  I tried one of my favorite research sites, eBay and found a number of El Kusto cigar bands for sale, all of which identified El Kusto as a fine Habana Cigar.  Anyway, I  found the name of the distribution company, which may have also been the manufacturer, in an  article from the Wednesday, April 14, 1915 edition of The Duluth Herald

NEW CIGAR ON MARKET, "EL KUSTO" BEING INTRODUCED BY RUST-PARKER COMPANY

Duluth men who have trouble in picking out the brand of cigar they want to smoke will have a new one from which they may choose in the future.  It is the El Kusto, now being introduced by the manufacturers through the Rust-Parker company.

Nate Ellis, the St. Paul representative of the makers was in Duluth today arranging of the new smoke.  Added inducements are offered by the company who will give premiums for the bands.  They will be sold in three sizes.

I'll bet the women were employees of cigar maker.

Berlin

I've been saving these photos for today.  For those unaware, today is the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  After the war, Germany was divided into four major zones of occupation.  Soviet, French, British, and American.  Berlin, Germany's capitol, while within the Soviet zone, was also divided among the four powers.  Until 1949, the zones were ruled by military governors.  From 1949 until 1955, civilian High Commissioners.

Take a look at the soldier's shoulder patch, (I needed a magnifying glass, you might have  to click on the image for a bigger window.) to see the word, "Berlin."  Until 1961, U.S. troops in the capitol were known as the Berlin Brigade, after 1961, when construction of the wall began, U.S. Army, Berlin. American troops left Berlin in 1994, after Soviet troops left East Germany. I looked up the insignias, and they're almost identical.  I'm fairly certain, that our soldier is Berlin Brigade, although I'm basing that on the women's clothing.

Now for the fun part.  When the occupation began, it was decided that fraternization between occupying troops and German civilians would not be permitted.  That policy lasted less than a year.  Basically, it was unenforceable.  Single men, single women, the inevitable happened. Go to my Fair Use blog-www.fairuse-wjy.blogspot.com-to see a U.S. Army anti-fraternization poster.

Sailing

Love this picture.  I bought it here, in southern California, so let's assume the Pacific.

Fancy Dress

No name or date.  This one was part of a lot.  Anyway, at first I thought of it as a throw in, the type of photo that gets thrown in a box and forgotten.  But, after awhile, it grew on me.

On the Flip Side 2

If there's a one, there has to be a two, too.  Anyway, purchased from the same seller, and almost certainly from the same album.  And, yes, that is some sort of bird in the second photo.

On the Flip Side 1

I've written about this before, but what the hell, let's repeat.  I hate it when antique dealers break-up collections and cut up photo albums for fun and profit.  Any snapshot, any album has context.  I love looking at all the old photos I've purchased, over the years, but I'd enjoy it even more if I could see the whole life of the people in the images.  Seeing snapshots, thumbing through albums, form beginning to end.

 Too, every collector of old photographs dreams of finding the complete work of a great, but unknown, photographer.  It happens.  Vivian Maier spent forty plus years as a nanny, taking pictures in her spare time.  After her death, thousands of negatives and prints were purchased at a storage locker auction.  Fortunately, the buyer understood what he had found, and didn't sell off one print or one strip of film, at a time.

 Many years ago, on a vacation, I found some great glass negatives being sold at an antique store in Montana.  The owner had bought crates of them at an auction, and broke up the collection.  (Go to my very post and look at the few I was able to buy.)  I can still remember how excited I was when I looked at the few that were left, and how disappointed I was when I was told those few were all that were left.  The man had broken apart a collection of what could have been the work of a significant artist.  Alas, we'll never know.

Anyway, it was the top image of this post that I wanted.  It was cut out of an album, and the second photo was pasted on the backside.