Category Archives: History

Reunion of Gettysburg Veterans, 1913

Posted on by The Old Wolf

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Read about the 1913 Gettysburg Reunion at Wikipedia.

More information and more photos can be found at the Guardian.

I spent a year at Gettysburg College, but given my lack of transportation, spent little time on the battlefields. Later in life, however, I came to get a sense of the power of Lincoln’s words:

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

Those fields are a place of deep contemplation and introspection, and I feel the presence there of those who died, North and South, defending what they believed in.

Gettysburg Monument

The Old Wolf has spoken.

50 Years Later

Posted on by The Old Wolf

MIT graduating class of 1875, shown 50 years later in 1925

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This is an awesome photo. It’s beautiful because they were able to get so many of the class members together 50 years later, given that life expectancies were so much shorter back then.

But such things still happen:

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This is the nursery school class at Hunter College Elementary School, taken at the end of the year when most of us had just turned 4 years old. I’m not going to tell you which one I am, but if you have spent any time at all reading this blog, it’s pretty obvious. Among this group are prominent urologists, television producers, attorneys, psychologists, and a whole host of others. Most of them, by nature of the New York demographic that this experimental school drew from, were Jewish;  the old joke about the mother who points to her three year old and her five year old, “This is the doctor and this is the lawyer” is probably more true than any of us would like to admit. When I say “us,” I mean the class in general – among the boys, I think I was one of two or three goyim in my entire class.

57 years later, the graduating class of 1962 got together again. The quality of this picture is hqiz, but trying to get a bunch of people of this caliber to hold still for a photo is like herding cats.

Best Group Shot (Hal)

 

What astonished us is that even after so long, so many relationships endured the test of time, and conversations were resumed as though graduation had been yesterday. It was an amazing experience.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Strip poker, 1941

Posted on by The Old Wolf

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Found at Shorpy.

Photo by Arthur Siegel in the summer of 1941 in Detroit. One of a 5-part series from the Office of War Information archive seen here.  This photo bore the annotation, “This image in jacket marked ‘Killed’.”

“Detroit, Michigan. Girls playing cards and drinking Coca-Cola.”

I wonder if there was anything else in that Coke…

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Giant concrete arrows: Prehistoric VOR

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Or, “The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid!”

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Recently the Internet has become aware of a string of giant concrete arrows dotting the landscape across the country. Rumors abounded, with the Von Daniken crowd hauling out their tinfoil hats and other, more pragmatic folks doing more scholarly research. It turns out they were guideposts for our earliest courageous airmail couriers, who often flew in abominable weather, at night, in the dark, wet, lonely, and miserable. (How’s that for evocative prose. Thank you! Thank you!)

You can read a comprehensive writeup at Core77, and see some local Utah interest at KSL. I’ll have to get a picture of my own one of these days.

Arrow Tower

Early photo of an arrow with marker shack and lighting tower

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Rome: La Vespa

Posted on by The Old Wolf

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July 1955. “Rome, Italy. Coverage focuses primarily on people, places and historical monuments.” From photos by Philip Harrington for the Look magazine article “Can Catholics Separate Church and State?”

Found at Shorpy.

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My father on a Vespa in Calabria around 1939. These little scooters were ubiquitous in Italy.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Rutland, Vermont: ca. 1905

Posted on by The Old Wolf

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Center Street in Rutland. Notice the eatery on the right: “U Want a Lunch:” prescient spelling.
8×10 glass negative, Detroit Publishing Co.

The trees are barren and coats are being worn; it’s cold, but there’s no way of telling just what season we’re seeing here. But it’s a charming picture; I love old photographs like this.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

“He who saves one life saves the world entire.”

Posted on by The Old Wolf

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On the eve of World War II, Sir Nicholas Winton organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia. While Sir Nicholas gives credit to many others who helped in the rescue effort and endured even greater dangers than he, the UK press dubbed him the “British Schindler.” There is no question that his efforts were pivotal in the saving of many lives.

In 1988, the BBC aired an episode of “That’s Life,” a program that fluctuated between humorous pieces and deadly serious issues. The clip below features Sir Nicholas and an entire audience of people who, directly or indirectly, owed their lives to him.

Hankies at the ready!

The Old Wolf has *snif* spoken.

The title of this post, by the way, is a quote from “Schindler’s List.” It was derived from the Talmud:  “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

-Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9; Babylonian Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 37a

Behind the “Do Not Enter” Signs

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Dutch photographer Niki Feijen specializes in urban exploration; capturing boarded-up buildings and decaying farm houses. His images reveal furniture and clothes that remain in decaying homes where owners have long since departed.

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Layers of blankets remain on the bed in the empty farmhouse, which is still surrounded by crosses and statues of Jesus belonging to its former owner

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Frozen in time: The occupants of this abandoned farm house are long gone, but their belongings remain; from the paintings hanging on the walls to the neatly made bed.

For more such haunting images and further information, visit MailOnline, or Niki Feijen’s own website.

The Old Wolf has spoken.