Two Women on Vacation 2

As promised in my last post, a clue.  In the top photo, "700 LET 1272-1972."  Clearly it's an anniversary of some kind, so I went to Google Translate, typed in let and began searching central and eastern European languages.  Flight came up a few times, and no translation.  It wasn't until I tried Bulgarian that years came up, the only realistic possibility.  But what kind of anniversary.  For the hell of it, I looked up Sofia, Bulgaria's capitol, but Sofia has been around for far longer than 700 years.  After that, I stopped searching.  After all, there are thousands of cities, towns and villages, not to mention castles, forts, and people that could have turned 700 in 1972.

Two Women on Vacation 1

Well, I think they're on vacation.  I bought an envelope of thirty plus photos of these two women wandering around somewhere in Europe.  But where?  Clues are on their way in the next three posts.

Fun In the Forest

Three young couples, a log cabin, maybe some drinking, a bit of cross dressing.

Four Sisters

With apologies to Anton Chekhov.   Dated "AUG 72"

Flirty Germans

No way in hell I'm trying to translate the writing on the back of this print.  The hand writing is so bad that I doubt  even someone from Germany could be sure of what's scrawled here.  Well, I can make out 1964, so that's something.  I did run a search on the printer's stamp.  Linder Platz came up as a main shopping street in Hanover in Lower Saxony.

The Here, There, and Everywhere Collection,-Dearborn

As can be seen on the full album page, this one is dated "Jan.- 1944."  I've actually written about this before, but here it goes again.  During World War 2, millions of young American men were in the service.  There were women in the military, of course, but their numbers were far fewer.  In other words, there were millions of American women, on the home front, with no male companionship.  When I find pictures from the war years, especially mid 43 through late 45, I'm never surprised when there aren't any young men in the photos.

There are no pictures on the back of this page, but it's labeled "Dearborn-Sept-'43."  I've known about Dearborn, Michigan for years, but I have to admit, I've always assumed it was Deerborn.  I figured some early pioneer had founded the city where he had seen a doe and her fawn.  Well actually, I never thought about it all, but I did think it was Deerborn.  It turns out the city was named after  Revolutionary War General Henry Dearborn.  Who knew?

Click on The Here There and Everywhere Collection in labels to see more photos and for information on the lot.

The Here, There, and Everywhere Collection, A Gentleman's Portrait

Wow, the stick-pin, tie and the facial hair.  If I was picking a stereotypical image of the southern gentleman, pining for his grandfather's slaves to bring him a julep, this would be the photo.  Not a good look.

Click on The Here There and Everywhere Collection in labels to get background on the lot.  Also, it saves me from typing for the next ten minutes.

Still a lot to go, but not in the near future.

Port Said, The Queen Victoria Monument

There's no way in hell that I'm going to try and make out what's on the back of this card, so I'm breaking protocol and posting it.  Besides, I like the Arabic lettering. .

This is the last of my Egyptian postcards, at least until I find some more. This one was published by Lichtenstern & Harari.  Joseph Max Lichtenstern was an Austrian photographer who moved from Vienna to Cairo in 1893.  Starting in 1899, he began publishing postcards of his photographs as The Cairo Postcard Trust.  Two years latter, in 1901, he partnered with David Harari.  They expanded into general publishing and also import and export.  In 1912, the partnership dissolved after Harari decided to move on.  The company was sold to Max Rudman. Lichtenstern stayed on in Cairo.  He returned to Austria for a vacation in 1914, was trapped in the country by World War 1, and served in the Austro-Hungarian Army for the duration.

Just a quick, and vastly simplified, historical note.  In the mid nineteenth century, Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire.  After the construction of the Suez Canal, the British more or less manufactured an incident (And this is the simplified part.  There are a a lot of very good books out there for people who wish to follow up.  And no, Wikipedia isn't a good source.)  that allowed them to seize Egypt and control the canal.  When the Ottomans tried to take it back in World War 1, the British allied themselves with the Arab revolt. Lawrence of Arabia, anyone?  After the war, they betrayed their Arab allies by making a secret deal with the French, The Sykes Picot Agreement,  that divided Arab lands from the Mediterranean to modern day Iraq between them.  So no, Virginia, it's less about religion and more about the legacy of imperialism.  The gift that keeps on giving.

Tombs of the Kalifs

Or tombs of the Caliphs if you prefer.

  Anyway, this one was actually sent to someone, "Mrs A. B. Hildritt, 400 West 10 Street, Newton, Kansas, U.S.A."  And the message, "March 8th 1908.  My dear Mis Hildritt.  This mosque of Amr owes its name to the general of the Caliph Amar.  There mosques & tombs were once provided mitt numerous staff of sheikhs.  during certain festivals reletives of the deceased visit & pray for there souls.  M. Walkentin"

I have used the spelling and punctuation found on the card.  Note mitt for with, so probably the sender was originally from Germany.  Fun fact, go on to a movie set, and if the director wants to film something without sound, he or she will say it's MOS.  German film makers working during the early sound era in Hollywood would say "Mitt out sound," which became MOS.  

The Market Near the Citadel

Yesterday's post was of The Blue Mosque, seen on the right of this postcard.  On the left, The Citadel of Saladin, or if you prefer the correct version, Salah al-Din.  Anyway, he built the citadel to defend Cairo from the crusaders.  Started in 1176, finished in 1183.  He also started a wall meant to surround Cairo, but it took to 1238 to finish that bit of fortification.  For anyone interested, I just posted a painting by Louis Comfort Tiffany, (Yes, the stained glass guy.) of The Citadel on my Fair Use blog.

Credited to "The Cairo Postcard Trust," this card was never used.

The Blue Mosque

Actually, there is more than one Blue Mosque.  The one in Cairo is also known as The Aqsungur Mosque, named for it's builder, Emir ad-Din Aqsunqur.  It was built in 1347, around the mausoleum of Sultan al-Ashraf Kujuk.  It was restored in 1652, when blue and green tiles were added to it's exterior.  In 1908, the Comite de Conservation des Monuments de art Arabe, obviously a French arts organization, did another restoration on the building.  And finally, in 1992, after an earthquake, there was yet another restoration.  And at 670 years old, I think we can expect a few more rebuilds.

For the record, the design is an open courtyard, surrounded by four arcades.  It has five doemes and a minaret.  And that tower in the background is The Citadel of Saladin.

This card was sent to "Mrs. R.M. Dennis, P.O. Box 183, Coscob, Conn USA."  And the message, "Cairo, Have Gotten this far around the world.  Regards."

The Lucky Crocodile

Not very lucky, considering he's dead, stuffed, and mounted on a wall.  This is another one from the studio of Lehnert & Landrock, so navigate back one post for some biographical info on the pair.  This card was used, and the message is, "Hello all.  Hope you & Pop are still well. Joe"  Mailed to "Mr. Al Sweede, 168 West 98th St., New York City, U.S.A."  Hey, when it's New York City, you don't need the state.  The postmark is smeared, so no date.

The Statue of Ramses

Yet another unused card, credited to "Lehnert & Landrock, Cairo"  I've actually been able to find some info on this pair.  Rudolf Franz Lehnart and Ernst Heinrich Landrock were a pair of Austrian born photographers who met each other in Switzerland in 1904.  The two formed a partnership in Tunis, where Landrock had taken a series of photographs, which lasted until 1914, when they were interred by the French as enemy aliens, at the beginning of World War 1.   Their large collection of glass plate negatives were also seized.

They didn't meet up again  until 1920.  With the dissolution of Austria-Hungary,  Landrock found himself a citizen of the new nation of Czechoslovakia, an ally of France, which allowed him to get the partner's negatives returned to him.  Lehnert had returned to Tunis where he photographed nudes for Jouret Studio.  They formed a new partnership, in Cairo,in 1924, where they published postcards from their photographs.  Lehnert sold out his half of the business to Landrock in 1930.  In 1939, fearing another internment, Landrock left for Germany.  He left the business under the management of his Swiss born nephew, Kurk Lambelit.  It's believed that the majority of the negatives from the partnership was destroyed by allied bombing, in Germany, during World War 2.

  Lehnert & Landrock is still in business, in Cairo, as a publisher of guide books.

The Ambulant Barber

Yet another unused postcard from Egypt, credited to "B. LIVADAS & COUTSICOS-CAIRO."  I couldn't find anything about these photographers,on line,  but was able to find plenty of examples of their work, including this one, which is part of the collection from The Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  It's listed as a collotype, date unknown.  And once again, blogger doesn't recognize an archaic photographic process as a real word.

Shadoofs

It didn't take long to figure out that chadoufs is French for shadoofs, which is a phonetic spelling from the Arabic.  A shadoof is the mechanism pictured, not the people.  Basically it's a wooden stand, a rope, and a bucket that's used to move water from one place to another for irrigation.  This card was never sent and was published by "The Cairo Postcard Trust-Cairo."

Egypt via France

I've been picking up Egyptian postcards for a few years now, and I think it's about time to start posting them.  I'm breaking my usual practice of not publishing the backs of cards because I like the Arabic script, and because I'm too tired to try and decipher the hand writing.  And yes, it is Egypt.  Le Caire means Cairo.