Archive for the ‘Unknown date’ Category
Colorizing Black and White Images …
This image is an uncropped scan of a glass negative that I have. As usual, I have no clue who the children are or where this photo was taken or the year. Next image is the cropped image.
Here is my first version of the image after I cropped the image and then worked it up in Photoshop. I flipped the image before I started coloring the image …
There still are a lot of areas that I need to improve and I plan on doing some more in the future. I plan on colorizing a few of my father’s old photos, especially the one of the old San Carlos Hotel in downtown Pensacola, but that will is going to take some time to do. The cars, people and details of the building will have to be done individually and those will take time. The next image that I am doing is another glass plate that I have scanned of an unknown baseball team from back in the early 1900’s. Thanks for looking. As I have mentioned before, most of my posts are to my Instagram account so please go and check it out – @frankhardyphoto I believe is how I have it listed. If not, just search Frank Hardy Photography and my account will pop up. Thanks again for taking time to look and please feel free to comment and ask questions.
New York City Harbor …
This is the New York harbor and I am not sure the direction or where this photo was taken. I want to say that the island in the top right of the frame is Ellis Island, but that is entirely a guess. The tip of land to the right of the island is where the Statue of Liberty is located and I am sure of that. The sign in the foreground reads ” Great White Fleet ” and ” United Fruit ” . United Fruit Company has had an interesting history, which would take too long to go into here. Two of it’s products were Chiquita Bananas and Dole Pineapples. Here is a link to United Fruit.
The Great White Fleet was the name of the shipping company that United Fruit owned and operated to transport their products around the world. The link above will also give you some information on the fleet and it too has had a very interesting history. If you like international intrigue, corruption, and the take-over and control of small Latin American countries by the United States and it’s corporations, you are at the right place. These buildings in the foreground are the warehouses of United Fruit in New York / New Jersey. If anyone recognizes any of the areas in the photos, please feel free to comment. Thanks again for looking …
Glass Plate Negatives …
The images that I am going to post today are from glass plate negatives that I purchased off of the Internet a while back. The first one is of a baseball team somewhere from the early 1900’s. No information about the date, team or the players … just an interesting image to me. I plan on cleaning it up and trying to colorize it at some point, but more on that later.
The team is a little short of players, but who cares? They were playing for the love of the game. Now when you watch a baseball game and you see all of the equipment that it takes to field a team, you wonder how these guys got by. I am sure that they would be stunned to see all of the helmets, shin guards, gloves, etc, etc to see what it takes to get a game going. And I am not even going to say anything about what these players are making in salaries today … you know that would probably shock them even more! Next is a couple of kids painting a brick wall …
Here is the whole glass negative scan. How about those outfits that they are wearing to paint in? I have no clue of the year here either, but I would have to say late 1890’s or early 1900’s. More on these later when I have some time to work them up. Thanks for checking back …
Unknown Negatives …
A while back on a post, I mentioned that if anyone had any negatives that they did not want to let me know. I talked to several people and the negatives they had, had that either been passed down from family members or they had acquired some other way … flea market find, garage sale find, etc, etc. Most all were just family snapshots, backyard picnics and vacation candid photos. Not exactly what I was looking for, so I did what any other red-blooded American would do … I went on Ebay and bought some. To me, almost all of the negatives that are posted for sale, fit into that category of family snapshots, backyard picnics and vacation travels. Knowing that I should have been more specific, I was not exactly sure of what it was that I was looking for until I ran across the negatives that I am putting up in this post … images showing everyday randomness from the 1930’s to the sixties. Now, the images do not have to show only America, but anywhere in the world … Europe, Asia, China, Africa. So, I purchased these negatives, scanned them and worked them up in Photoshop. They were in fairly good shape, requiring not much computer time to remove scratches, marks, stains, etc. And as usual, I know nothing at all about them other than the obvious – taken in the 1930’s or 40’s and somewhere in Europe. The location could be Germany or some place that speaks German judging by the words / lettering in the photos. There were three negative and I have worked up two. So here they are …
The first image is an overall view of the market and since the people look clean and well fed, I would say that it is pre-WWII. The second showing a meat market / stall looks as if there might be some type of rationing going on since there is not a wide variety of meat or sausages for sale. If anyone recognizes where this area is, please feel free to comment and share what you know with us. I have one more negative from this purchase that I will post once I get it cleaned up and ready. The last photo is really the reason that I purchased these three negatives and besides the fact that they were less than ten dollars. One problem that you find is that everyone thinks that what they have is more valuable than what it actually is … just because it is old, does not mean it is gold ( that is my own phrase ). There are some negatives on Ebay now where the sellers want tens of thousands of dollars for their negatives!
So, if anyone come across any negatives that fit the criteria that I mentioned earlier, before you throw them away, think of me. And, if anyone recognizes anything in these two images which would help me locate the place or the time frame of them, please let me hear from you. Thanks again for looking and I hope everyone had a safe new year … Frank
Bronson Field …
These are some negatives that I purchased on Ebay of local air base Bronson Field. I am not exactly sure where Bronson Field was located, but I want to say it was located somewhere near Perdido Bay. I might be completely wrong there and the people that I purchased them from were not exactly sure either. I cropped this negative to show just the flight line and the plane that is taking off below …
There is one other negative that I received and it shows the control tower along with the planes …
And like the one above, I cropped out everything and just showed the flight line …
The photos are nothing really special and you can tell that they were taken by an amateur, but the old cars and planes are interesting. If anyone runs across anymore images like these on Ebay or anywhere else, please let me know. I used to look on Ebay, but you can end up wasting a lot of time with just the shear volume that is on the site. Most of it, to me, is a lot of junk / mess that people think are really valuable and exciting and I am not good at filtering it out. Also, if you run across something at a flea market locally let me know. Thanks again and if anyone knows something about Bronson Field, let us know … Frank
Hygeia Bottling Company for Coca-Cola in Pensacola Florida …
I have had this image sitting around for years and was surprised that I had not posted it yet. I went back through 390 something posts and could not find where I had put it up, so I decided to post it. The Hygeia Bottling Company had the franchise to produce and bottle Coca-Cola in Pensacola Florida when Coca-Cola first came out. I obviously did not take this photo or did my father … someone had brought me a photo to copy and I just saved me a negative. That was over thirty years ago and so I can not remember who, why or what for, but it must have impressed to save a negative. I have no clue where this is in Pensacola or the year the photograph was taken. Maybe if someone could tell the make and model of the car on the right hand side of the image, we could establish a year for the photograph. I wonder if this is the train tracks that run parallel to Wright Street or the tracks out on Border Street in Brownsville. One more thing, I have started using my Instagram account and posting all different examples of my photography and these photographs from this site. Some images have not been posted on either blog yet, so it is just not repackaged or redesigned images for Instagram. I am just trying to find new ways to attract viewers to my blogs and create new interest in my photography. I have enjoyed posting on Instagram since you get instant responses and there are a lot of new people that I can be exposed to that I otherwise would not. I still do not have a Facebook site for my photography and somewhere I am going to get around to putting one up. I really like my blogs and the people that I have reached through them and I have no plan of slowing down, even though that I have had them for years. It seems that people are so fickle now days and what is popular today will not be two or three years from now. Thanks again for looking and if anyone knows anything about this image, please let us hear from you. Also, if anyone has seen this image before, let me know. Please check back … Frank
Pensacola In The Early 1900’s …
These are images that someone had brought to me thirty years or so ago to copy and make prints. I must have given the negatives to the person because all I have are the prints. The thing that impressed me about these images was how sharp they were. Whom ever the photographer was that photographed these scenes must have had an incredibly sharp lens, along with fact that were shot on 8×10 film. I have seen 8×10 images that were no where near as sharp as these prints. The prints that the person brought to me were contact prints, so I am sure that that played a part in the prints sharpness. The image above was of the Escambia Hotel. I have no idea where the hotel was located, but I would imagine that it was either in North Hill or in downtown Pensacola. I also believe that these prints were taken somewhere around 1910. The next one is of the train station in downtown Pensacola …
This is the old L&N Train-Station in downtown Pensacola. The Crown Plaza Hotel across from the Pensacola Bay Center on Garden Street is there now. The street in the back of the station is Wright Street. I can remember this station as a kid in the 1950’s. I would go down there with my father and pick-up packages that would come in on the train. The floor inside the station was black and white tile in these geometric patterns. It was all open – no air conditioning – and I always remember it having lots of people coming and going, sitting around waiting for their train or to pick-up someone or moving packages all over the place. I was too young to really understand what was going on, but it did fascinate me with all the activity. The next image is one of Ferdinand Square on Palafox Street …
The building on the left side of the frame is what today is called the TT Wentworth Museum. At one time it was the Pensacola City Hall. You can read the signs on the side of the buildings in this image and the ships in the harbor is visible. This park is still pretty much today as it was over a hundred years ago, except with more foliage from the trees and the shrubs. I do not put up many other photos from other photographers unless I think that the images are somewhat relevant to Pensacola or are related to other photographs that I have posted in the past. And I think that these fall into that last category … anyone from Pensacola can relate to these images. Thanks for looking and I have some more current images that I will post shortly. As always, all comments are appreciated … so if anyone out there remembers the old L&N Train Station or the Escambia Hotel, please let us hear from you … Frank
First Methodist Church …
This photo of the First Methodist Church in downtown Pensacola Florida must have been made around 1920 or so … and that is just a guess on my part. This image was made from a copy negative that I scanned years ago, in fact, I do not remember it all. So I do not know where it came from and I hesitate to say that my father made this photo … he was born in 1915 and this had to have been made around that time. Notice that there are trees out front and there is no railing on the front steps. I have never seen this photo anywhere before and I have seen a lot of photos showing the different ” stages ” of First Methodist Church on Wright Street in Pensacola Florida. Maybe some First Methodist Historian can give us a clue. Thanks for looking …
Frank Hardy Made My Photographs Two 
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