New Orleans snapshot. 2015. Private collection. Of course!
I thought I should sometimes update you with pictures of me, the blogger, and the gents of today who cross my path. We look photo-ready don’t we? *cough cough* And I look like I’m past my bedtime hour (it most certainly was). Hee hee.
Toasting in Frankfurt Germany. Cabinet Card. Private Collection.
A group of friends toasting, one of them a soldier. The one in the middle is definitely the brother of the one sitting to the left.
I have a lifelong friend with the German last name of Kurzendoerfer who looks like he could be a descendant of the chap to the left. I showed this picture to his brother and him and got his go-ahead to post this.
A side by side. Uncanny, hm? A hundred years later and the same exact look in their eyes (and the same love for beer lol).
Click for larger detail.
Sometimes I think there are no coincidences in life.
Photographer: Friedr. Carbons. Frankfurt a/M. Blelchstrasse 2. Germany.
Roosevelt and sons. 1907. RPPC. Private Collection.
The 26th President posing with his four sons.
Clockwise: Kermit (b.1889), Theodore Jr (b.1887), Quentin (b.1897) and Archibald (b.1894). They had a half-sister, Alice, born in 1884 of Theodore’s first marriage.
RPPC: Pach Bros, N.Y. for The Rotograph Company.
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An update on those four Americans in Russia.
1880s teens. 1/6th plate tintype. Private Collection
This is one I acquired recently and there’s everything to love here; how the boy’s frock coat with the short bowler contrasts with the young girls’ elaborate Victorian fashion with the pleats and patterns. The details are amazing too, like the lace collar of the girl in the back and the feathered derby of the one in the front (I want it). The young ladies are all wearing their neatly brushed hair down.
Also, the two front girls are sitting high on the bench; they must be wearing bustle dresses.
These four most likely were brother and sisters who were close in age, or maybe fraternal twins with siblings, or perhaps siblings with cousins. One thing’s for certain, they were all very photogenic and made a gorgeous group portrait.
Some pictures make me want to stare for ages. This is one of those. I have it framed by my computer.
Here’s a CDV of the same era with another teen boy wearing a similar short bowler I find very stylish.
Digital restoration work titled Beautiful Victorian Teen Sisters And Their Cute Brother In A Bowler by Caroline C. Ryan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Polar Bear Expedition Americans in Russia. RPPC. Private Collection.
Updates in italic bold.
Top row: McAver, Krueger
Bottom row: Johnson and ‘Tom’.
With their mix of names, I think these four were Americans. Per the conversation below there’s a good chance these four were of the ‘Polar Bear Expedition’, American infantry soldiers of the 339th Regiment fighting the Bolsheviki in 1918.
The wires on the front of the man to the left (Johnson) are probably to hold a backpack in place. They were in a studio but it isn’t hard to imagine the piles of snow outside.
Universal Postal Union of Russia.
Interesting also that the only translation on the back is in French. I’ve tried to date this postcard but with no luck. There just aren’t too many from Russia floating around that I’ve seen. My guess is this was taken anywhere between 1910-1920.
Here are a few pictures of the soldiers from the book “The History of the American Expedition Fighting the Bolsheviki”, by Joel R. Moore and Harry H. Mead and Lewis E. Jahns. Thank you Mrbflaneur for pointing me in that direction!
Bowlers And High Collars 