A Fascinating Face

 

A fascinating face, indeed.  There's something a bit masculine in her visage.  The chin and brow line seem more male to me than female.  I know I'm probably wrong, but I think there is a slight chance that this woman is actually a man.  I spent decades working in photo labs and one of the things that I learned is that if people can think, they'll do it and take pictures, and a lot of men think about wearing women's clothes. But what about when this picture was taken.  I started my lab career after the invention of the Polaroid camera and worked into the digital age granting a certain amount of anonymity to those men wanted to wear a dress.  Did professional studio photographers of the nineteenth century have special times to take photos of special customers?  Probably. 

Forklift Girls

  

I purchased this photo from the same antique store and at the same time as the previous post, and while I can't be sure, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was taken by the same photographer.  There's nothing on the back to confirm that, but from Aubrey Studio, La Puente, California.  Does anyone out there know what those things are in the background.  And once again, going by the hemlines and hairdos, probably from the sixties. 

Pull My Plunger, Please

 

Why is the woman holding up a toilet bowl plunger to one of the models?  Maybe she was Miss Plumbing Supplies.  Anyway, I've been picking up a few photos, either taken by a professional photographer or an advanced amateur.  In the case of this photo, a pro.  Stamped on the back, "AUBREY STUDIO, 120 N. First St., La Puente, Calif., 91744" I went online and ran variations of Aubrey Studios, La Puente, and came up with nothing.  Going by the hairdos and hem lines, I'm guessing the swinging 60s. 

The Cut Down Cabinet Card

 

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. 

English Theater, The Kiltie Show

Ah, those Brits.  It's always a leg show.

Anyway, like yesterdays' post, there's lots of info on the back, including hand written stuff that looks a lot like the writing on, well, yesterday's post.  So, starting on the stamped info, "KIN 5638 ORDER No.  PHOTOCRAFT OF KINGSTON, 3 & 4 EMPIRE CHAMBERS RICHMOND ROAD, KINGSTON-ON THAMES."  And the hand written entry, "Laughing Room Only, Comin' Thru' the Rye.  Finale of Kiltie Show.  Oct. 1951." 

So, if it the same handwriting, rather than an example of a rigid school system that made sure everyone's handwriting looks exactly the same, was it the photographer or a cast member? 

The Waterbury Paper Box Co. Wedding Album 31

Another Girl's Club costume party, but this time the photographer had a few problems with his (or her) lighting.  I wrote his because at the time this photo was taken a professional photographer would almost certainly have been male.  But then again, it was a girl's club, so maybe the effort was made to find a woman photographer.

As always, click on Waterbury  Box Co. Album in labels to see the album, in order.

The Horse Set

This one was printed on 8x10, double weight fiber based paper, and was either shot be a professional or an amateur who was serious about his craft.  I suspect these ladies came from a moneyed background.  At least enough money to keep horses, and to provide enough leisure time to ride.

U. S. Army Air Force

This one is the full 8x10, heavy, double weight, fiber paper print meant to be displayed in the silver frame on the mantle piece.

I had a couple of threads to pursue on this photograph.  There is an embossed studio mark on the bottom of the print, part of which is visible.  "FRANKLIN DUNCAN, HOLLYWOOD, GR 1037."  I thought it would be easy to find something on Mr. Duncan, but sadly, I struck out on that front.  I tried Franklin Duncan, Hollywood, California, as well as Franklin Duncan, Hollywood, Florida and couldn't find a thing.  Who ever he was, he was skilled, but not necessarily talented.  I've seen a very similar pose on many a print.  Even when I was working as a professional photo printer, and I'm way too young to have been working in the World War 2 era, this pose showed up all the time.

The other thread, the shoulder insignia on the young man's uniform.  I recognized it as the mark of the United States Army Air Force, organized in 1941, disbanded in 1947, with the founding of the separate Air Force we know today.  I had hoped to find out who were the officers and who were the enlisted men.  Pilots, co-pilots, and navigators were the officers, like out lieutenant, while gunners, and mechanics were the enlisted men.  The one position I'm not sure of, bombardier.

Nice looking woman.

The Burgert Brothers of Tampa, Florida

Take a close look at the lower right hand corner to see the photographers mark, "photo by Burgert Bros. Tampa 360316"   Photography and the United States have an interesting history.  Unlike Europe, a lot of American history happened after the invention of photography.   There were the big things.  The Civil War was well documented by photographers like Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner who followed the campaigns with their large format cameras, while the individual soldiers went in for tintypes and cartes de visite to send back home.

The Burgert family represented a very different type of history.  The first Burgert, Samuel, showed up in the Tampa area of Florida when it was little more than a local, sparsely populated fishing port.  For ninety years, from the 1870s to the 1960s, the family recorded the rise of a major urban area.  The Burgert Bros, were Samuel's six sons as well as one daughter-in-law.  They took portraits, pictures of businesses, hurricane damage, and anything else that came along.  I found a great article, with pictures, at www.tampapix.com/burgert.htm

The Florida Lumber and Millwork Association was founded in 1920 as a trade group and is now known as the Florida Building Material Association.