Speed Graphic negatives from 1940 discovered

tbm · Mar 29, 2008

I just discovered some of my father's 1940 images captured with his Speed Graphic camera that illustrate the enormous details film and lenses were able to grab at that time. Gads, I'm amazed! It makes me want to buy a medium format camera today! Three of the images, of Mount Rushmore, are at the following link:

http://flickr.com/photos/21652620@N08/

Andy K · Mar 29, 2008

Wonderful photographs. It must be fantastic to have such historically significant records in the family!

rwyoung · Mar 29, 2008

No, you want a large format camera... 4x5 is generally considered part of the large format family today...

Cool stash of negatives to have! I'm slowly working my way through a shoebox full from my Grandmother's basement. Includes all kinds of different format sizes including some 1/4 and 1/2 plate glass negatives from just before the turn of the 20th century!

tbm · Mar 29, 2008

RW: I'd love to see some of the images you found in her basement. Let us know if you will be posting them somewhere on the Web.

Paul Goutiere · Mar 29, 2008

These are fantastic images. It makes a person wonder why the old Graphics were set aside.

The only problem I have with these images is I'm now considering Large Format again. Crown Graphics, Speed Graphics and Busch Pressmans are out there still, ready to go, for not much money.
I used Graphics in the early 60s for a small daily newspaper. Almost always handheld, always with 4x5 filmholders, always with a flash attached. They are very easy to use for such a large camera.

Photo Engineer · Mar 29, 2008

Well, seen from the other side of the mountain is a continuation of those carvings called Mt. Tushmore.

Very nice pictures. I have family 4x5s from that era as well, but not as spectacular.

PE

Jim Noel · Mar 29, 2008

In 1940 4x5 was considered Medium Format. How times change.

jmooney · Mar 29, 2008

Those are amazing! Not only as a family record but as a record of this history of the US as well. I've often admired the photos shown to me by my great aunt taken in the 30's and 40's. The sharpness, definition, and detail in the images are stunning. It makes me wonder why after nearly 70 years of technological advances my images don't look that good....

I've also looked at your WWII Italy images, again stunning images and fascinating as an heirloom and work of history.

I'm fascinated by old negatives and I haunt eBay for them at times. I'm planning once a get my darkroom up and running doing a "Found Photography" project, printing and displaying old negatives I've collected from various sources.

Take care,

Jim

pentaxuser · Mar 29, 2008

History in the making. Wonderful shots. What amazes me is how they sculpt such gigantic figures correctly when they are that close. with all your negs it looks as if there is at least a small exhibition's worth here in the local library at least.

pentaxuser

rwyoung · Mar 29, 2008

tbm said:
RW: I'd love to see some of the images you found in her basement. Let us know if you will be posting them somewhere on the Web.

http://www.rwyoung.net/oldnegs/

From a VERY tightly coiled roll of 35mm Kodak something or other. Probably taken by my Uncle (Dad's brother) before WWII. I believe he had an Argus C3.

The roll is quite deeply scratched along its entire length. It lived for 50+ years coiled up in its metal Kodak canister.

tbm · Mar 29, 2008

RW, I really like the two burial photographs despite their poor quality (scratches, lack of contrast, etc.). I found them to be humerous and journalistic in nature.

rwyoung · Mar 29, 2008

tbm said:
RW, I really like the two burial photographs despite their poor quality (scratches, lack of contrast, etc.). I found them to be humerous and journalistic in nature.

Those aren't "real" graves. The real "Boothill" had long since been moved. What you are seeing is the 1930's tourist trap display.

As an aside, there was a real Boothill Cemetery (I don't recall its real name right now, "Boothill" was a nickname applied to many such frontier cemeteries). The graves were exhumed when the land was slated for a school and later the city hall. All the graves that could be located were moved to the "new" cemetery. Later, when the Boothill museum building was constructed on the site across from the city hall, they found an unmarked grave, more or less in the middle of what would become the original musuem building. The grave was incorporated into the museum display. As I understand it, for many, many years it was open with just a simple railing around. The bones were left at the bottom. As a child I can remember visiting the museum and by that time they had built a platform and covered over the grave with lucite. However there were a lot of coins down there! People had used it as a wishing well. Later in the 80's they covered the lucite and sometime after that I believe the grave was exhumed and the remains re-intered. I have a vague memory of reading that the remains were most likely that of a young Native American girl. But on that point I could be quite wrong, just haven't taken the time to re-research the point.

Photo Engineer · Mar 29, 2008

RW;

As you drive east from Tucson to the site of the O.K. Corral fight, you come up a rise and on your left there is one of the classic "Boot Hill" cemetarise. Then entire city is a memorial to that event, and they claim that it is all the 'original'. On the west side of the city though, everything is 'fake' being the sets for the Bonanza TV series. They put on daily shows of 'gunfights' for tourists. There is, of course, no "boot hill" here.

PE

rwyoung · Mar 29, 2008

Yep. Been there. I worked at Boothill Museum in Dodge City for a couple of summers. Technically I was a "Historical Interpreter". But I also worked in the printshop (learned to handle the letter press and set type, fun), drove the stagecoach (rides for tourists, two and four horse team, and appeared in parades) and died violently two times a day in mock gunfights. Only one trip to the emergency room to be examined for a concussion. I missed my mark during a fistfight and ended up flipping over a guy and landing on my head. Out cold. No memory of the following 1/2 hour but I was told I hit all my other marks and emptied my pistol... Black powder .44's and shotguns can be quite fun (and dangerous)!

We now return this (unintentionally hijacked) thread to its regularly scheduled topic, "found negatives"... Here we see that my great-grandmother was a trendsetter, hanging babies out windows LONG before the Gloved-One was even a twinkle in somebody's eye! I believe the other photo is my great-grandfather holding either my uncle or my dad as a very newborn baby.

PamelaHL · Mar 30, 2008

The WWII photos from Italy are amazing. Thank you for sharing them.

mabman · Mar 30, 2008

tbm - great found photos! Also I see someone who takes as many cat pictures as I do - although yours are better quality

sjperry · Mar 30, 2008

Points out that a larger negative will produce more image quality. One question. Do you know what lens was used to get the close up of Lincoln?

tbm · Mar 30, 2008

Steve: No, I don't know which lenses he used on his Speed Graphic. He died a few years ago and I have not found any diary-type documents that reveal those details, unfortunately.

vdonovan · Apr 3, 2008

Inspiring photos. Hey, what's that camera around your father's neck in the photo with Borglum? Looks like one of the old 6x6 folders, like an Agfa Isolette (or its Ansco equivalent).

dfoo · Apr 4, 2008

Great photo-set! The images from World War II were incredible.

tbm · Apr 4, 2008

vdonovan said:
Inspiring photos. Hey, what's that camera around your father's neck in the photo with Borglum? Looks like one of the old 6x6 folders, like an Agfa Isolette (or its Ansco equivalent).

I don't know what camera that was but you are probably pretty accurate in your assessment of what it likely was.

Speed Graphic negatives from 1940 discovered

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