So, yesterday I went to several garage sales. I picked up a box of color slides that were from the late 1930s and 1940s. That was all I knew when I bought this huge box for $5. What a treasure trove for a historian. First off, are images of Austin from the early 1940s. There is a fantastic shot of a sign on 45th and Lamar which tells the drivers that they are leaving a two lane paved road. There is even two aerial shots of Austin in 1949 and El Paso in 1949 as well. The person who took these shots was close to the Lyndon Johnson family and there are a handful of images of LBJ and Ladybird from the 1940s. The best part however is the World War II pictures and pictures of the Naval fleet returning to a heros welcome in San Francisco in 1945. Of the war images, most of these were of the pacific theatre. There are images of the huge guns in the process of firing and downing Japanese vessels. There are images on land in the Philippines and New Guinea too. (Port Moseby) But there are a few European pictures too. It looks like somehow this person made it to Copenhagen and had some time off. There are images of 1944 Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam and Sweden. They are beautiful shots. Then there are more color images of Austin all the way through the mid 1950s, including a fantastic shot at night of Threadgills. Whoever owned these slides got married in 1956 in the Ozarks and there are pictures of Middle America from that era too. I dont even know how to put a value on these, but as a Historian, I am getting to see pieces of History that have NEVER been seen by the public before........As a bonus, I picked up three devices known as Wheatstone Bridges that were once property of the US Military during the early 1940s. These were electronic devices that measured amperage and were instrumental in the building of military hardware. I dont even begin to know the value of these, but they are in mint condition. Any electrical engineer would know what these are, but to me, at $5 each, they were a must have as well. Pictures to come - I have to find a place that can transfer slides into digital media first.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 20:16:04 +0000
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