Army Photographers

 

I suspect they aren't official army photographers.  The cameras are a bit low end for official U.S. military use.  I have several of them in my collection.  And who is the woman sitting with a camera of her own.  She's not in uniform and neither is the other woman looking off into the distance.  

On Maneuvers

I had hoped that I could get a date range on the uniforms and old style campaign hats, but no luck.  The clothing is too generic, and in fact isn't all that different than that which is used today.  The truck, however, at least from what little I can see of it, looks like it's from the late thirties through mid forties.  In other words, it looks like the two Sargents  in these photos are training men for World War 2.  Even if the United States was still a year or two from the fighting when these photos were taken, it didn't take a lot of insight to know that we were going to get pulled in to the conflict.

Gathering Fire Wood

And maybe some hunting, too.  No date on this one, but going by the truck, I'm thinking sixties or seventies.

Mystery History 2

I've guessed some sort of militia rather than an actual military because of the kids.  These groups always have a youth auxiliary.  The white numbers are easy to explain.  Black ink on the negative prints white and is a common practice when prints are made in volume, for sale.

Mystery History 1

For those who don't like historical mysteries, there won't be much to see for the next week or so.  I've got lots of photos of uniformed men, boys, and girls.  I've got a couple of prints, yet to come,  with Cyrillic writing on the back, and one dated 1938.  On first glance, I assumed Eastern Europe, probably the Balkans, and some sort of militia.  But then, closer looks, and it's Dodge trucks, with English language licence plates, (Third and final photos in the column.) and in another photo to be posted latter,  kids playing baseball.  The buildings are a bit too generic/ institutional to offer a clue on location.  Basketball had become an international sport by the late thirties, so the courts in the fourth photo don't necessarily mean anything.  It's all a mystery.