Background
One of my New Year's resolutions (every year!) is to clear out more old photographs, files, and papers from the house. We have an overwhelming amount of stuff (junk) that has followed us around the world. After retiring, I donated, sold on eBay, and sold via a New Orleans auction house family souvenirs that we had accumulated over the decades. It felt good to lighten the load. The worst thing you can do to your children is leave a mess for them to clean up. They end up resenting you.
Over the 2025 Christmas-New Year holiday, my wife and I spent many evenings looking at my dad's slides. He was a prolific photographer. Oddly, he did not record dates and places on most of the cardboard slide mounts. We had a general idea where most were taken, and his diaries sometimes provided a date. But some of his photos remained a mystery.
We discarded "pretty" pictures. No one cares about a colorful flower, sunset, Old Faithful, or a garden. The exception is if the subject covers a topic that no longer exists. (Following this subject line, I no longer take "pretty" photographs.)
Most of the slides from 1947 to about 1960 were Kodachrome film. Many from before 1950 were marginal technical quality, possibly taken with a Perfex camera. I think he did not buy a light meter until 1950. For the older photos, he may have used the Kodak printed exposure recommendations.
In 1950, he bought a Leica IIIC camera with a 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens at the Post Exchange on Guam (Marina Islands). This was a major upgrade in optical quality. I still occasionally use this camera and lens.
Here is a short collection of some of my dad's more interesting Kodachrome slides. We will start in North America in 1949, when he flew to Guam for his second contact there. When the contract ended in late-1950, he returned to Massachusetts the long way, moving west across Asia, Africa, and Europe. I will approximately follow his 1950 trip west around the world. His travel book was very handy to check dates and locations (see scans below).
The earlier article shows Celilo Falls (now underwater) of the Columbia River in 1949. My dad took those pictures on the return from his first Guam contract.
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| Mexico City to San Francisco |
Mexico City
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| Self portrait at Teotihuacan, Aug. 2, 1949 |
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| Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Zócalo |
Monterrey, Mexico
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| American Airlines DC-4, Monterry, Mexico |
The DC-4 was a robust and reliable airplane. But it was not pressurized, so the cruising altitude for passenger use was between 8,000 and 10,000 feet. Cargo versions of the DC-4 played a major role in the Berlin airlift.
Reno, Nevada
The flamboyant signs of Reno, Nevada. Recall, in the 1940s, gambling was illegal in most of the USA except Nevada. So Nevada was the destination for excitement and naughtiness, although easterners could also fly to Cuba for some Latin indulgence.
San Francisco
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| Oakland Bridge, August 1949 |
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| Downtown San Francisco, August 1949 |
In the 1940s, San Francisco had a working waterfront with warehouses, railroad, and cargo docks.
Honolulu, Hawaii
In the era of propeller airplanes, it was a long flight from the mainland to Hawaii. The US Coast Guard stationed patrol ships along the route in case of emergencies. My dad wrote that he flew in a Mars flying boat! That was a monumental 4-engine flying boat of which only seven were ever made.
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| Honolulu and Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii. Where are the hotels and highrises? |
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| On the waterfront, Honolulu, August 1949 |
Hawaii was still a US Territory in 1949. It was an exotic tropical destination for mainland tourists in the post-war tourism boom.
I scanned these slides with a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000ED film scanner running Nikon Scan 4.03 on a Windows 7 32-bit computer. Many of the colors were off, and I made minor color corrections using Photoshop CS6.
