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. 

Krystal Gloss Prints 6

 

Time to finish up with a couple of dogs trying to climb a ladder. I suspect it leads to a rickety wooden bridge crossing the river.  It looks like the bottom dog needs some help.  Click on The Crystal Gloss Collection in labels to see the now completed collection. 

Krystal Gloss Prints 5

 

We're getting near the end of this collection.  Only two more images and then it's done.  I tried blowing the top print up, and while I can't be 100% sure, I think that dark spot in the middle of the river is a raft.  And, of course, there had to be one picture of a woman washing clothes.  It's not that men are lazy, it's just that we don't mind being dirty.  Click on The Krystal Gloss Collection in labels to see everything. 

Krystal Gloss Prints 4

 

As a rule, I don't post lab stamps, but I rather like the Bear Photo Service logo.  So, is it a river, or is it a lake?  I'm about 99% certain it's a river.  Look close and you can see what looks like rapids.  As usual click on The Crystal Gloss  Collection to see more. 

Krystal Gloss Prints 3

 

Of the pictures in this small booklet, it's the second one in this column that interested me the most.  It looks like a river ferry.  The top photo looks like a man tending a field, which points to private land.  As usual, click on The Krystal Gloss Collection in labels to see other images from this small photo album. 

Krystal Gloss Prints 2

  

There are only a few photos in this collection that I would have wanted if they hadn't been in this little photo booklet, and the second one in the column is one of them.  Since Bear Photo Service was headquartered in California, I'm guessing these photos must have been taken somewhere in the state.  But where?  The footbridge should give a clue.  Is it on the upper Kern River?  The Truckee?  So far, my research hasn't come up with an answer.  Click on The Krystal Gloss Collection in labels to see the rest. 

Krystal Gloss Prints 1

 

If you're old enough, and I am, you'll have memories of taking a roll of black and white film to the local drug store and coming back a week later for a little booklet of pictures.  The cover usually had the name of the service, the lab's name, and sometimes the name of the local store that took in your film.   I'm not quite sure how I'm going to put up the twelve prints in this booklet, and I'm more interested in the booklet itself than in the prints, which seem to be from a camping trip of some kind.  Click on The Krystal Gloss Collection to bring up the rest of the prints. 

R. E. Stadelman, The Snake Guy

 

Written on the back, "R.E. Stadelman & Todos Santos Indians at 116 Palace Hotel, Guat. City, Nov. 29, 1940.  R.E.S. & T.S."  There's also a processor's stamp, "Foto-Reinet, B766, Guatemala."  Every once in a while, I find a photo where I can actually do a bit of research.  I don't know what the R.E. stands for, but it looks like he was some sort of scientist.  The Smithsonian has at least one collection of gastropod shells in their collection that was found by Stadelman, dated February 1931.  There's also a stereo photo of Stadelman himself in the California state archive, captioned, "Mr. R. E. Stadelman of the laboratory who extracts venom from the snakes. H.K. Mulford Laboratories.  Glenolden, Pa."  Okay, a bit weird grammatically, but that's what it says, and the picture is of the same guy in this photo. The H.K. Mulford Corporation was founded by pharmacist Henry Kendall Mulford in Philadelphia, PA, in the late 1880s, and was sold to Sharp & Dohme in 1929, though the Mulford name was retained.  They had a laboratory complex located in Glenolden, PA, that made diphtheria, smallpox, and rabies vaccines, digitalis, and antivenin, hence the need for a snake guy.  

Rosie

Labeled "Rose between 2 Thorns?"  There is also a processors stamp on the back, "WILLARD'S BOX 3535 CLEVELAND, OHIO June 1940."

 I'm always fascinated by photos from just before the American entry into World War 2.  These three must have been aware that the world was spiraling into chaos and it was only a matter of time before the U.S. was pulled in.  Were they accepting that they'd end up in a war and may get killed, or were they in denial and just assumed that some how or another the United States would stay out of the war? 

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 2

Well, there's certainly enough writing on the back of the second print.  Too bad I can't read any of it.  That second gentleman looks a bit more adult than we've seen before, and once again, I've got wonder if the 1811/40 could be a date.  This time it could make sense, say November 18, 1940.  If so, that would put things during Wold War 2 while Bulgaria was still a neutral country.  That would change in the following year when Bulgaria joined the Fascists.  Even if these photos were taken a few years earlier, I'm sure the students in these photos must have been preparing for war.

Click on The Bulgarian School Boy Album in labels to see more.

Leg Show

This one is labeled "Christmas 1940"  It's nice to know that the holidays had enough room for a chorus line.  If nothing goes wrong, I'll be camping and hiking in the desert on Christmas day, so this one is getting posted a few days early. 

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.