Lost Gallery: Turn It Over! There's Something On The Back

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, sometimes a century.

On the reverse:
Uncle Dick

Photographer:
The Canvas
operated by
Vandike & Onderkirk

On the reverse
Sun. June 9, 1929
14 years old

On the reverse:
Sun. June 9, 1929
14 years old

Osva (crossed out)
Orval Rexroat

on the reverse:
Orval Rexroat

On the reverse:
He thinks he is some
body - and he is so
Mary Jo thinks

Photographer
Backstrom
Temple and Cameron
Texas

On the reverse:
Pearl
newlyweds
Mr. & Nrs. W. H. Morris
Father's Name
William Henry Morris, SR
Sara Virginia Pearl Fletcher

Mama was 14 yrs when
she married Daddy and
he was 19 yrs

Fake holdup
On reverse:
Davis SoM 2/c Ill
Carroll PhM 2/c NY
Weiss F 1/c NY

Note: the information is different on the front.

on the reverse:
Mary Ella Maxwell Locker
Cousin Alice Sqires Mauldin
Uncle Jeff Allen
Great Grandma Maxwell

on the reverse
E B Henley

Photographer
Chambers
Brownwood, Tex.

On the reverse:
Jeffery RM 2/c Fla
Hows GM 3/c Tenn
Damico S 2/c Conn
Stempirn Momm 2/c N.Y.

on the reverse:
Robert L Evans
James Bryan Lewis

Photographer
Elite studio
109 West High Ave.
Oskaloosa, IA

On reverse:
Davis S 2/c Conn
strong F 1/c Kentucky

on the reverse;
Atlantic Fleet Steaming
out of the Hudson River
for San Francisco via
Panama Canal. 6 or 8
Vessels in a row
Jane

on the reverse
My kitchen, pretty
nice isn't it?

on the reverse:
Harbor and Parliament Bltd
First thing you see on entering
Victoria, B. C. Canada

On the reverse:
This is a Korean guard house

On the reverse:
These are some of the native
tombs on Okinawa. They bury
their dead inside these tombs, which
are supposedly built in the shape
of a womans womb & represents
a second birth c I didnt know a
womb was shaped like that did you?

On the reverse:
Gilt Frame
No 66 Gilt frame
same as 1st order

same as 1st order
1 copy crayon
WJ Schwartz, Hanover, Kans

on the reverse:
Taken last
summer before
I had my
hair bobbed
at my uncle
Georges Farm
near Malvern.
Friend in Clarinda
Iowa

on the reverse:
Vivian Swanson

Mable &
Tony, Brother to Geo.
Swanson

reverse:
Irene Swanson
Fred Swanson daughter
brother & Geo. & Reuben
Milton, Joe
Ester & Stella

On the reverse:
I must of seen a dress
I wanted sure a sad
looking pair eh

On the reverse:
Barnies Girl
Pattie Pie

on the reverse:
Dear Cousin,
I am sending
you a picture of
myself and Mama
Webbie Lou

On the reverse:
Jane Nay
Louise Converse
age 18?
423 Maple
Alva Oklahoma

Cant get enough? There's more!
Click Here:
TURN IT OVER! THERE'S SOMETHING ON THE BACK
Then click "OLDER POSTS" at the bottom of each page.

Bassingbourn 1944
Long lost negatives taken during the winter of 1944-45 at Bassingbourn AAF base in England.

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 usually disappeared on the way home from the photo processing shop.

And don't miss
Cabinet Card Gallery
Square America
Tattered and Lost
Vernacular Photography
The best
FOUND PHOTOGRAPH
sites on the web.
And for postcards try
POSTCARDY
Go see what's going on over at
Sepia Saturday!

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.