This week I’m right on the theme at Sepia Saturday. In honor of our host Alan, and his trip to New York, I give you Bill and Dick’s Excellent Adventure.
A few years ago, when I could still afford to go to estate sales, I arrived late at one after most buyers had already emptied the house. To my astonishment I found an old photo album on the coffee table. Why was this left? What about it did not entice a buyer?
The album consists mostly of a trip two fellows took across country in 1914 between May 5th and June 5th. Their trip originated in San Francisco. Most of the images are just one or the other, Bill or Dick, sometimes both, posing for the camera. They’re not great photos, just ordinary snapshots. Usually there is nothing significant in the background to indicate where they are; you have to read the handwritten caption across the bottom of each image. What took my eye was the included typed journal; simple log of what they did each day. Nothing special unless we look at it with our eyes 97 years later. Then it becomes a bit of a treasure.
As you look at the images and read the journal remember that at this point World War I had not yet begun. Within weeks of their return to the San Francisco Bay Area the world was at war.
Click on any image to see it larger.
There are two big mysteries never solved about this book:
Who took all of the photos of Bill and Dick together in the various locations? There was no other person traveling with them.And...who are those ladies at Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and at the top of the Statue of Liberty? They are never mentioned.
I may not be able to get around to all fellow Sepia Saturday posters until next week so I apologize for being late with my comments.
UPDATE: I got to thinking about the ship which is mentioned when the fellas toured the harbor. I did a little digging and found the following links about the Hamburg-American Liner Vaterland. Not long after the fellas saw here she was seized by the U. S. and was eventually turned into a troop ship.
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OOps I forgot today was Saturday. This is a great post. I am with you, I guess you were meant to have this album and that is why it was left. A lot of questions here.
ReplyDeleteQMM
Fascinating. Will the mystery ever be solved? Perhaps not and we will have to let our imagination do the rest. If only they had known that nearly 100 yers ago, that their ‘private’ journal would be out there for anyone to read.
ReplyDeleteHow sad that no family memebers thought this to be a treasure to hang on to. What I would not give to have a photo album along with the story of the photos of one of my family members. The Swim suits and clothing styles along with the journal paint a story and we remember how things once were~ this is all pricless. Thank you so much for sharing with us
ReplyDeleteI think the women they met were taking the pictures. I love the idea of the trip so long ago, pre interstate highways.
ReplyDeleteI always have to think twice when I see Brighton Beach because I'm reminded of UK's Brighton where the beach is pebbly. Perhaps it's better if the ladies are nameless.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. That's the first time I heard of a telautograph (Wikipedia has an article about it). I see they visited the Woolworth building which I think was the tallest building at that time.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos. Love the old time bathing suits but can't imagine wearing them. Maybe where the term waterlogged comes from?
ReplyDeleteI did wonder how they would ever get those suits dry in time to pack up and leave New York. They swam at several other places across country. I can only imagine what the wool smelled like after a few days of being bundled up damp.
ReplyDeleteWhat a treasure and a find! I always wonder who kept these albums, until it went into your hands, was it a woman or one of the men, women are more often known to scrapbook and write detail, but men do too, I also wonder if sometimes these types of albums were a part of a mans past, single days, hidden away once he got married and stored in a box somewhere. I have a few myself with a similar vibe, but I agree, the journaling made this album all the more amazing.
ReplyDeleteHeres one I have that says "Our Secret Past" http://savethephotos.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/finding-old-photo-albums/
Looking through the book I do get the feeling that at least Bill ends up with a woman named Edith. There is also the possibility there is a son named Billy. The problem in the book is the photos are sort of all over the place. They were not put in any specific order. Even those from their trip are scrambled, skipping around from location to location, and then back again. It is possible Bill was married to Edith before the trip because there is a photo of him with Edith and Billy at Venice Beach in 1919. Billy is far to old to have been born after the trip.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to your interesting album. I have had you in my Other Sites, Other Worlds list for awhile so that others find you.
How can anyone leave such a treasure behind? What a great pictures. A wonderful glimpse of the life in the 1910s.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness you rescued the album; and share it today so it lives onl. I wondered about their bathing suits too. This is a handsome array of photos. One could write a story about these two adventuresome fellows so long ago, likely riding the rails cross country do you think?
ReplyDeleteAn absolutely excellent post. Medals to you for rescuing and documenting this.
ReplyDeleteThe writer is so careful to make notes every day but scrambles the photographs. How strange.
I agree with Rob. How could anything like this get "lost"?
A fascinating artifact! Thanks for the extra research on the ship, I liked the photos of the decaying ocean liner. Such lavish times and what a great adventure. Today we can't travel without a laptop and then it was a typewriter. Perhaps it was one of the new compact models. I can hear the clattering keys now coming through the hotel walls!
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about those women too. the thought of the bathing suits riding cross country wet...
ReplyDeleteMost of their point to point travel was by train. The sad part is how few shots actually show location. There are images of Mount Vernon, Niagara Falls, Lake Louise, but on the whole it's just Bill and Dick standing somewhere. The better photos are actually what appear in the album years after their adventure.
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos - you had a lucky find. Are there any clues as to Bill and Dick's surnames, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteI believe Bill's last name was Hunt and he was married to a woman named Edith.
ReplyDeleteWonderful and fascinating post. Just think, all the other buyers at the estate sale missed out on these priceless memories. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWhat a pity, there must be thousands of Bill Hunts out there, and a good proportion of them married to Edith, I imagine. Well, you never know - a family member might happen across these articles some time. Regards, Brett
ReplyDeletepity the boat never achieved the glamour it promised. sad destiny...
ReplyDeleteas for your post, love the pics, if not the swimsuits. i can't imagine wearing those and being all wet...
:D~
i hope you've scan each page and keep a copy in the album, as the typed words will fade over time. it'd be a pity to lose the written words completing the photographs. good thing you salvaged this.
:)~
HUGZ
That is so neat that you found the album and gave it a good home. How sad that it was sitting there, for sale, and no family members wanted it. Maybe they were secret boyfriends and nobody wanted to claim the book for family history, but they couldn't bear to throw it away. Maybe not. Maybe no family members were alive anymore to pass it down to long lost cousins. So many possibilities ... you have the making of a great book on this whole thing! (Sorry, I just woke up.)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment about Scotsburg, it made me feel like I did something good by posting the story on SS.
Have a great week,
Kathy M.