Turn it Over! There's Something on the Back! - July 2014

Sometimes there is some writing on the reverse side of a found photograph. 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.

On reverse:
Jerry Judy
Barnes Ruby
Logue Studio
Quality Prints
Feb 8 1938
Pine Bluff, Ark.

On Reverse:
Sis & Iva
This is now
Mrs. E. Nevis
Mis Iva Glenn Reid
Caloma, Calif
Stockton Calif

(Greatly enhanced) Looks like just a bunch of numbers.

On the reverse:
Mattie D.
Babyn G.
Florence L.
Kate C.
Artie C.
Hazel P.
Lilia N.
Lorene W.
Frances G.
Maude F
Lila W.
Ada B.
Litha B.

You're pretty much on your own for this one. Here's what I got:
Sentinel Butte N. Dak. 18de
April 1912
Kere Mrs Mattson of Familil.
Ja des favde vares mid ousk on min tanke ogsoa
al besogt dre da jig var i siouxt fallo mendes
bleu ikke alligvel jey var til clowa og besogte mine fordldre
og des tog en hel mooned og sas bleu tiden for kars og sad
mad eg da ofsoo fortelle den nyhed as gig er ingags i
og siskab iggen med en mand bed navn Malkalm
Paulson fra Christine (N. Dak.) ( Christine er en liden by tolved Fa
jeg sender dette Billide al Vennerne Som var i vos Brylly N
som bleu hals i garretson S. D. i Pastof Salems Lyim. Du
Sunes Maask del vas rarl jiggiftel mig iggen, men reg
haar nu fordog at farme allene i 3 aar siden Mr Rogness dode
men des varals for trish. Ker hilsen Sophie Paulson ( mere siden

On Reverse:
How do you like
my feet ha-

On Reverse:
Lucile & Ben Burton
50 Wedding anniversary
Clair & Fred Standing at
back and Artie on end
getting ready to pour juice

On the reverse:
Aaron and Mabell
This is a "snapshot
picture of our home. You
cant see any of the
upper story for the trees
was taken at 4:00 o'clock
one Sunday afternoon.
Flora

On Reverse:
Dad
Mr G. A. Fast.
Fielding Sask.
Canada
Wedding.Party.
19.June

AZO postcard design used 1904 -1918

On the reverse:
Geo H. Fast & family
Agusta, wife (Marie
Bill, Hester
Leana Art
& Walter
(Killed in Act
World War II

RPPC design in use 1908 - 1911

On the reverse::
This is our home
where we're living
in. its me and onkle
my son and daughter
and you cousin Lizzie
from your aunt -
Emelia Birnbaum

Solio post card design in use 1903 - 1920's

On the reverse:
Alfred Binn
Little Kennety Putnam
Marshal
Born June 18th 1931
Picture taken June
19th 1932 - Go Harvard
Los Angles

On the reverse:
Taken Aug. 1938
Kennnith will be
8 in June 1939
Robert will be 6 in April 1939

Miss Laura Rightman
Lameville
W. Va.

plus some things that look like algebra.

On Reverse:
Grup of Young People
of F??I?? ??? and ?allan ???
T????

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

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.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

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?"

Let's All Go To The Movies - Once a Sinner

Occasionally the search for old photographs finds your LOST GALLERY curator in the darkest corner of a junk shop, elbow deep in a hat-box of ephemera. It's rare, but occasionally we see a familiar face ...

Recognize that guy on the right?

Well, it's Joel McCrae. He's on the left in this still.

These scenes are from a 1931 movie called "Once A Sinner" and starred along with Joel McCrea, Dorothy Mackaill, John Halliday and C. Henry Gordon. It is called a "domestic drama" by one film review.

Joel McCrea plays Tommy Mason, an inventive fellow who is working on a device to transmit sound and pictures over the telephone. Pretty fanciful, huh? Remember, this is 1931.

The actual story is rather convoluted but there is a SYNOPSIS HERE if you are that interested.

A print of this film survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archives.

There is also a British film by that title starring Patricia Kirkwood and Jack Watling. It was made in 1950 or 1952 depending on which review you are reading. It's another story entirely.

Can't get enough?
Try some of these other pages that feature found movie stills or "lobby cards" found in LOST GALLERY.
Ben Turpin
Destination Moon
Flight To Mars
Rocketman
The Flying Saucer
When Worlds Collide

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 10,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

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.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

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?"

Album - The French Set

Here is a group of photographs that came from an unsorted pile in an "antique store" in a small town in Kansas. Since most of them seem to have come from the same roll of film, they are presented here as an album.

All of them have a message on the reverse except the one at the right. It is a sunrise or a sunset taken from an upper window.


For all of the rest, the reverse is presented just to the right of the snapshot.

What can we learn from this set of snapshots taken in the mid 1940's, somewhere in France?

We learned about things that interested one person, or what he thought would interest the folks he was sending the snaps too. We learned we should be more detailed in our notations on the reverse. Wouldn't it be nice to know a few last names and a few more dates? Maybe a more specific location?

Keep that in mind when you are making notations on the backs of your snapshots. What? There are no more snapshots? Just digital files...I see. Well, now we learned something very ominous, didn't we?

Go back to THE MAIN INDEX PAGE

There are now more than 4,000 photographs in the Lost Gallery.
Or try out the NEW BACK PAGE INDEX

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.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
One Man's Treasure
Penny Tales
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.

And for postcards try
THE DAILY POSTCARD.
POSTCARDY

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?"