Very often, notations on the reverse of these found photographs are obscure or too brief or illegible. Most often there is nothing at all.
But now and then there is a message from the past that sparkles.
Back in March of 2009 LOST GALLERY had a full page of photographs and their very interesting reverse sides. There have been many new additions to the collection since then.
Here is a new group of those photographs with mysterious, funny and sometimes puzzling reverse sides; tiny bits of history, reaching out to us over the decades and sometimes centuries.
Can't get enough?
Here are some other pages featuring sometimes common, sometimes strange messages on the reverse of rescued photographs.
Bertha and Katie
August 2012
July 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
Earl G. Hammock
December 2011
November 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
On reverse:
Vella &
Levi Hay
Joanna Boles
Brother
Made in Dallas
Assembly
On reverse:
Bertha Patton
Katie Martin
Berthe Stearns
On reverse:
This is Glenn and I
By the Lake and our
House in the distance
that we was living at.
(Grammar was obviously not her favorite subject.)
On reverse:
Earl Bostick
Photrographer:
G. S. Thompson
Dublin Texas
(From Ancestry.com: Holmes Earl Bostick was born 27 Feb 1915 and died 07 Mar 2002
Father was Chesley Butler Bostick (1856-1957) and mother was Mattie Maude Mooney (1873-1950, both of Alabama.)
On reverse:
WIlliam Nyquist No 1
(???????) No 2
Oscar Carlson
Gust Lilja No 3
Joe Nyquist No 4
On reverse:
Gordon Wingate
Harry Wingate
James O'Connel
Bruce Harrington
Harlow Trescott
Richard Clancy
2nd row
Leon Voster
Dana Colingrove
Jimmy Homet
John O'Neal
Paul Heath
Acker Smith
Richard Homet
John Cole
Charles Brown
George Shuster
3rd row
Alice Phillips
Hazle Cole
Agnes A.
Margorie Vosler
Marlyn Ward
Marie Thomas
Betty Jane Douglas
Olitta Morse
Evelyn Benson
Joyce Temperato
Helen Redman
Teacher
Miss Snyder
On reverse:
W. E. (?)rter (perhaps Foster) & Wife
Too (For)
Wm & Mrs. W. H. Atkinson
Taken Sept=11=1903
Sllelm P U (?)
or perhaps Salem PA
On the front, embossed at bottom, barely visible: W. P. Young, Columbia, Tenn.
On Reverse:
Top
Joseph Reese civil war
Seneca Reese Athens Georgia
Jesse E. Reese Pana Ill - Georgia
Bottom
Egvert Reese Chicago
L. D. Reese Crestor Ill
William Reese (half brother) Proffessor Kansas
Reunion held at Jesse E. Reese home
1912
On reverse:
Long Beach Cal
Sept 7th 1926
Great Grand Mother
Ida May McGiffin
Great Grand son
James Webb Powell Jr.
Two names, two different generations, two generation apart.
I found Ida May McGiffin (1855-1934), but I haven’t discovered her maiden name yet. She and David G. McGiffin (1848- ) married in 1873. I can find only one child, Edna T. McGiffin (1874- ).
Edna T. (1874- ) married Albert M. Leitzell (1876- ) and they had only one child that I can find. Her name was Velma Leitzell (1899-1995). In the 1930 Census, Ida May McGriffin (1848- ) then 70 years old, was living with Edna T. and spouse Albert M. Leitzell and is listed as mother-in-law to the head of the household.
In 1917 daughter Velma Leitzell (1899-1995) married Webb J. Powell (or J. Webb Powell, depending on the census) (1896- ). They had two children: One daughter they named Edna A. Powell (1920- ) and one son named James Webb Powell (1921-1981).
On reverse:
To Sharon
from
Dorothy
P. S. you are an ugly
little gril
& stay that way.
Dot Luttle
On reverse:
This is me and Miss
tudlewink
This is Lees
Birtha
Raberson
Aunt Megs
Bertha & baby that died
On reverse:
Aunt Meg & Uncle
Tom
give t his to Aunt
Mags kids if you
want to
Received your
package all O. K.
Martha sends thanks
for same. She is
busy using some
of the stuf/things now
making dol dresses(?)
Dear Mother find
enclosed a little
Xmas present
from Martha and I
Martha and Marg Wen(?)
both have the
grip, but improving
Lots of love to
you both from us
all. Avelitte and Martha
On reverse:
this is a crowd that were
at our house. quite
a bunch of cute
little kids. Mrs
anderson taken the
picture. That is her
baby I am holding.
There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
The most popular photographs 
An album of the most requested photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Area 51 and a Half 
You are probably not authorized to see these.
Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! 
This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.
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All images are the property of Lost Gallery and the author. Permission must be granted for their use. All rights reserved.
THE KIDS 
It is always a mystery how a photograph of any of these precious children could end up lost or abandoned.
Here are a few.
You will probably say "Ooh..." at least once.
Dee and the Business School 
The beautiful Dee. A curious story, What do you see?
WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
"What are they doing?"
Great photos and interesting, if sometimes confusing, notations. I imagine Earl Bostick looking fairly similar to his baby self when he was an old man. As for Aunt Meg, I wouldn't mess with her.
ReplyDeleteThanks Christine H. Yes. Aunt Meg looks as if she gets her way often.
ReplyDeletetashequWell that first couple Made in Dallas certainly are a puzzle aren't they? And what a great school photo! I have one where the teacher went in and wrote the first name of every child on the front of the photo.
ReplyDeleteAs to Dorothy...let's hope she was talking about a Buick.
Thanks Tattered and Lost. I found three different school photographs in this format together. One has nothing written on it but the other has Helen R. on the reverse and appears to have the same teacher.
ReplyDeleteI can't figure Dorothy either.
Now I'm trying to figure out why I began my post with some foreign language, though I have no idea which one. Martian?
ReplyDeleteActually I think it was the "I'm not a robot" word in the wrong place. But hey, it ads flair.
Hey, I was impressed. I just figured it was another one of those many things that I don't understand and probably never will.
ReplyDelete