Just a nice photo of a sunny Mediterranean Island for all those who are snowed in. Written on the back, "57 Porto Cristo." Porto Cristo is a fishing village on the island of Majorca, one of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, and an autonomous part of Spain.
Does anyone out there get the movie reference, or is it too old? Anyway, I've written about this before. If the title of this blog were 100% honest, it would be Recently Purchased Photography. Almost every picture I post was bought somewhere. Flea markets, antique stores, thrift shops and on-line. This photo is that rare exception, a true found photograph. I was walking around L.A., there was a box full of books on the sidewalk. "Free Books" written on the side of the box. I started thumbing through some of the books, and I found this Fuji Instax wide photo of Susan who is fresh off of something.
A month or so ago, I bought a picture of a couple of ship's officers that had been cut out of a larger photograph. Anyway, I was at the same antique store where I found two more pictures of maritime officers. The first photo I found had them in dress white uniforms, so I was thinking an ocean liner. Of course, they could have been from a cargo ship, or for that matter, a coastal steamer. It looks like the same hat badge from that earlier photo, but different people. I'm still thinking ocean liner, so click on that in labels or just scroll back.
Some people have legible handwriting, some don't. Two people have written on the back of this print; one had good, readable handwriting, the other, not so much. So, the not-so-readable first. "Breyding House-Durand, Mich.-Vera born here." I have no idea if I've deciphered what I assume is a family name, but Breyding is my best guess. I really couldn't make out the town name, but I was sure of the first and last letter, so I scrolled through Michigan town names online, and the only one I found that made sense was Durand, a township with a 2020 population of 3,507. There's no date on the picture, but late 19th century is about right, so how much did the population change in 130 years?
The readable part, "Mother, Vera, Father Roy, Emma, Grandmother, Otto, George, Grandfather."
I hate it when people do this. Someone at some time cut up a cabinet card. Maybe it was so it would fit in a frame, or a wallet. In any case, a bit of history has been vandalized. An unimportant bit of history, perhaps, but a piece of the past, nevertheless. Not all, but many cabinet cards will have a photographer's studio logo on the back. There's just a bit of one left on this picture, but not enough to be worth scanning.
Who are these guys? Academics, maybe. They have that studious look, and college academics to boot. Women have been teaching in elementary and high schools since the 19th century, but all-male faculties? Considering this photo looks like it's from the thirties or forties, an all-male faculty screams university. But then again, maybe these are businessmen of some kind. The writing on the blackboard is difficult to make out, but the word "plant" can be read, and a few dollar signs as well.
Written on the back, "Jan 15, 71. St Therese, Quebec. Darlene & friend of Darlene, Jo-anne & Daddy." Well, I guess a white January rather than a white Christmas. Sainte-Thérèse, Quebec, is a suburb of Montreal, population 26,533 as of the 2021 census. It's also the snowblower capital of the world. Manufacturing, not ownership. Are they skating on the local hockey rink?
