Before & During

 

Written on the back of the top image, "July / 41 Batavia, Ill."  So, four to five months before Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into World War 2.  Written on the bottom print, "Helen & My Ma taken in the Sunken Gardens just of the hill & the Hotel. August 1944."  Not long after D-Day.  

Mystery Name

 

Written on the back, "Altu Dondok 4/41" So, is that a name or some sort of notation?  I started doing some research, and I came up with Altu as a Turkish name meaning prince, but it's a surname rather than a forename.  I gave Google Translate a try using the detect language function and that gave me Corsican for high, and Turkish for six.  Prince in Turkish, according to Google Translate, is Prens, so that's a bit confusing.  Now, about Dondok, it's a Russian, as well as a Malaysian surname. Once again, I used the translation setting and nothing came up at all.   So, if anyone has any ideas, I'm open to suggestions. 

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 12

It looks like the Bulgarian school boys are all lined up for inspection.  I'd love to know if this album is from a military school or are we dealing with ordinary kids who had to wear uniforms in school. 

There is some writing on the back of the top photo, but it's so faded that I didn't think it was worth scanning, but I could make out the date, "1941."  The bottom photo shows both boys and girls, all in some sort of uniform.  Both scans are from the back of that print, just separated  into two parts for easier viewing.  The logo is from Leonar Werke, a German photographic supply company that was founded in 1893, in Hamburg.  It started manufacturing printing papers for home use in 1907 and quickly became one of the major suppliers in Europe.  In 1943, their factories and offices were destroyed when Hamburg became a target of allied bombing.  After the war, Lenar rebuilt.   In 1964, they merged with Agfa and the brand name was retired. 

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

Sunshin

I've noticed my spelling has gotten a lot worse in our digital age, so who am I to criticize others?  Written on the back, "Gian, June, Nick Sept. 1941.  Just a sunshin day in September. Every body feeling good."  There's also a lab stamp, "McCLELLAN BROS. STUDIO PHOTO FINISHING DEPT PHONE 546, 405 Magnolia St.  Laurel, Miss."  I wonder how long it's been since phone numbers were three digits long? 

The Bulgarian School Boy Album 8

When I start one of these albums, I don't take the whole thing apart before I start posting images.  I disassemble the collection as I go along and discover things as they come.  The top photo has something written on the back,  Three letters, possibly the initials of the young lady and a date, 1941. As can be seen, the second photo in the column has far more information on the back, including a 1944 date.  Rather than thinking of this album as being about students, perhaps I should have thought of it as a memory album of those who either survived or died in World War 2, Bulgaria.  In any case, The Bulgarian School Boy Album remains the common tag for this collection.

A Night At the Movies

Stamped on the back, "MISSION PHOTO SERVICE, 278 Franklin Street, Phone 3571, Monterey, California."  And it's dated, "9/15/41."

The Monterey of today is a town of millionaires, and probably a few billionaires as well.  It's tourists visiting the aquarium and shopping and high end boutiques.  In 1941 Monterey was a working class fishing town, the Monterey of Steinbeck's Cannery Row.

It's hard to know what this gathering was about.  There's a screen and a 16mm movie projector in the background, so they must have been there to watch a film.  The suit wearers have a banker vibe, while the open collar types could be captains in the fishing fleets.  But why were they all gathered to watch a movie?  I wish I knew.