Film Processing Envelopes from the 1930s

Film processing was an enormous business for most of the 20th century. Thousands of companies around the country and around the world handled sales of film and supplies, processing, printing, and reprinting for professionals and amateurs. For many companies in the USA, the customer walked up to a counter and gave a clerk his/her rolls of film. After a day or two, the customer returned and picked up an envelope or folder containing the prints and negatives. Here are some of the envelopes that I found among my father's boxes of negatives. He became an enthusiastic photographer around 1928, when he was in college in the Boston area. 

Boston Area

1929

1929 or 1930

1939

1939

Approx. 1944

Huntington, West Virginia

No phone number printed on the envelope? From 1930, when my dad first moved to Huntington. He had not traveled far beyond Boston and Rhode Island, so West Virginia must have been an adventure.

Note how Premier Studio prominently wrote "Kodaks" on their envelope in an attempt to confuse customers. Premier may have used Kodak paper or chemicals, but the term on the envelope was deceptive. Premier was more modern than Hoback's and listed a 4-digit telephone number, 9197.

St. Louis, Missouri

1935 but a 1931 price list

This information sheet appears to be from a legitimate Eastman Kodak store. Notice that they developed film packs. These were popular mid-century because a user could take 16 pictures in quick succession. My dad's Certo-Sport used film packs. I tried it once around 1970, so at least then, the 16-exposure packs were still sold new.

This Agfa box states Made in USA and includes a yellow insert showing "Speedex Ansco Film." It was size 116 for impressive size negatives. Mike Eckman dot com summarized the complicated history of Ansco, Agfa, and GAF company, which made film and several models of cameras. I do not know if my dad had an Ansco camera.

Worcester, Massachusetts

Approx. 1936

Hartford, Connecticut

1938

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1940

My dad never lived in Philadelphia, so I do not know why he had film developed there.

Providence, Rhode Island

I believe these negatives were from a shop in Providence, Rhode Island, because they contained some photographs of seawall damage caused by the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. I will post some of them in a later article.

This ends our quick tour of processing envelopes. If I find more in the family archives (= endless stuff), I will post them later.

Small Towns in Washington: Packwood

Packwood is an unincorporated community in eastern Lewis County, Washington. It is popular with tourists because of the proximity to Mounts Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens. Many travelers probably zip on by on US 12, but there are some oddly painted houses and shops along 12.

Maybe Bigfoot will pump gas and clean your windshield.

This is just a hint of the local architecture. The overcast light and drizzle helped make the colors stand out. I need to return and do another pass through town.

I took these pictures on Kodak Portra 160 film with my Pentax MG camera and a 50mm ƒ/2 Ricoh Rikenon lens. This is a 6-element double Gauss design, quite conventional for the 1980s. Some elements may be multicoated. This was a $25 lens that really surprised me. Some of these 1980s optics are fully functional and still remarkable bargains. Eventually, these bargains will run out.

The Leica IIIG in Oregon and Eastern Washington (May 2025) (Abandoned Films 13d).

We were restless after a very wet March in Olympia. It was time for a road trip. And I wanted to exercise my Leica IIIG camera and try Kodak T400CN film again. Some of these expired rolls have looked fine, but others have deteriorated. The rolls I used in Greece looked great. I should give up on this long-expired film forever, but thought I would try one last  roll. I loaded a roll in the IIIG for some of the great expanses of Washington state east of the Cascades (plus an overnight in The Dalles in Oregon). 

The Dalles, Oregon

The Dalles is a busy rail junction. But areas of this rail yard now have bare sections and unused tracks.  Still, an interesting place. The mill became a winery?

Waiting for a horse

Columbia Hills State Park

Cross the Columbia River, drive past Dallesport, and ascent a gravel road up into the Columbia Hills. In contrast to the forested mountains of the Columbia Gorge closer to Portland, these hills are in the rain shadow and are a dry terrain. The area is famous for wildflowers in early spring.

Dalles Mountain Ranch (50mm ƒ/1.8 Canon lens, yellow-green filter)

Farmland and the Palouse, Washington

Head east out of Richland, and you drive through miles and miles of beautiful rich farmland. As you continue east, you enter a land of hummocky low hills composed of loess (wind-blown silt). This is the Palouse. It encompasses parts of western Idaho and central east Washington. 

Rail junction, Roosevelt (Canon 50mm ƒ/1.8 thread-mount lens, orange filter)

Pasco-Kahlotus Road north of Pasco (50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens)

Historic schoolhouse, Pasco-Kahlotus Road (Jupiter-8 lens)

Silo, Kahlotus (Jupiter-8 lens, yellow filter)

Grain terminal, Oaksdale (Jupiter-8 lens, yellow filter)

The Grain Train, Oaksdale

This roll of T400CN was thin, and once again, it may have been mis-development by Photoland at The Evergreen State College. I will not use their services ever again. This old T400CN is grainy, probably much more so than when it was fresh. But I still like the tonality, and the ICE scratch removal in my Nikon Coolscan 5000ED scanner is a great convenience. As a substitute, I can try Ilford XP2, which is the only C-41 black and white film still in production.