Tag Archives: USA

August 29, 2015

1911-12 Springfield Medway Collegians basketball team

By C.E. Ryan
1911-12 basketball team. Collegians. RPPC. Private Collection.

1911-12 basketball team. Collegians. RPPC. Private Collection.

These players wore ‘plus fours’ over high socks. Two players are partially IDed as Felix and Harry, with their coach Evan (who doesn’t look too much older).

basketball-collegians-back

Aunt Cary -Please be sure to return this. C.W.H

This is our Medway Collegians. All home boys and graduate of our High School, Olive Branch, and they belong to the YMCA league in Springfield. Play every Wed. night – and we are proud of them.

To note, the game was invented in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts by James Naismith as a way to condition athletes in winter. The YMCA was key to popularizing this sport around the world. During WWI, the American Expeditionary Force brought basketball wherever it went. Together with the troops, there were hundreds of physical education teachers who knew and spread the game of basketball. Naismith spent two years with the YMCA in France in that period.

(There are 38 Springfield cities and towns in the United States. Was this picture taken in the birth city of basketball in Massachusetts? It would be kind of cool but it needs more research.)

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August 22, 2015

Axel in the Bowler Hat

By C.E. Ryan
axel-f-hall

Axel F. Hall of Minneapolis. Private Collection.

Handsome Axel F. Hall chose to have one glove on, the other off for the picture. His collar is extremely high. He reminds me of the bowler hatted gentleman often portrayed by the painter Magritte.

Axel was born in 1871 in Sweden. He immigrated to the United States and settled in Minneapolis where he married a Swiss lady named Anna M. Hall who was 12 years his junior. With her he had three children, Fred W. Hall in 1906, Mabel A. Hall in 1909 and Edgar E. Hall in 1910. On the 1910 census Axel was living with his wife, children and a ‘boarder’, Minnie Christen, 15. Minnie was related to his wife (her sister maybe) with both parents born in Switzerland but herself born in Minnesota. At the time Minneapolis’ population was about 23% foreign born.

On the 1940 census, Axel was 70 and still living with his wife. His children had moved out but his mother-in-law lived with them. Anna B. Christen was 13 years his senior.

Axel F. Hall. Cabinet card. Private Collection.

Axel F. Hall. Cabinet card. Private Collection.

Photographer: A. H. Opsahl. Minneapolis. MN.

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August 20, 2015

He smiles while the forest fire rages on

By C.E. Ryan
Photobooth. Handsome army soldier. Private Collection.

Photobooth. Smiling U.S. army soldier in “forest fire”. Private Collection.

Don’t sit like this and smile! Run!

Seriously…this backdrop looks ominous.

And seriously too, what an adorable smile on this handsome U.S. army soldier!

:)

~*~

It’s one of those days when I post and post! I found out who was behind the Chicago jazz band I posted back in May too. Very exciting!

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August 19, 2015

Johnny lost a tooth

By C.E. Ryan

Three sailors. RPPC. Private Collection.

Three WWII era American sailors. RPPC. Private Collection.

On the back is written “Johnny far left”. He’s more experienced than his two buddies, having completed 3 campaigns.

Did he lose his front tooth banging into something on the ship? Or maybe he lost it less heroically at a port tavern… :) (I recall having somewhat of the same conversation about another picture in this collection!).

A very handsome trio though. They’re covering the backdrop, only a few flying birds showing by Johnny’s face.

RPPC: EKC 1939-1950

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August 18, 2015

The fire’s still burning bright in this old man

By C.E. Ryan

Old smiling man. CDV. Private Collection.

1870’s old smiling man from Algona, Iowa. Burlingame. CDV. Private Collection.

The oldest sitter in my collection!  He must have been in his 70’s or 80’s at the time of this picture, always a feat at a time when the average lifespan was much shorter. I find it fascinating to think this man was born in or around 1800. I cannot begin to imagine what his life was like, the changes he witnessed, what he had seen and experienced, good or bad, and after all that for him to smile like this. So unusual too for a carte de visite of the period.

He looks like someone who led a very fulfilling life. There is fire and a zest for life in his piercing eyes old age did not manage to dim. And to complement the effect he still had a headful of thick, snowy white hair.

There is a different kind of true beauty that transcends age and is deeper than the fleeting skin-deep one of youth; this content looking, dignified old man is proof. (I bet though, that he was quite the gentleman in his younger days too!)

I love his generous neck scarf too, the way he tied it in a nice bow.

CDV back

CDV back

Photographer: D.W. Burlingame’s. Fine Art Gallery, Algona. Iowa.

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