Drought, Dust, Depression, and War No. 17
The Bitter Years No.2¹

The boy in this image was a subject in at least two of the numerous photos taken in the Omar, West Virginia area in 1935 and 1938 by photographers employed by the federal government in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. There is no background information on this boy available online, who he was then, or what became of him later.

The visits to Omar were part of a larger effort that would take thousands of photographs across America between 1935 and 1943.  Fifteen photographers took over two thousand photographs in West Virginia alone.³

Photographs from the Omar area visits are included in history books, photographic art books, other print media, and, today, on many websites.  Many have been featured in art museums and other photographic exhibits preserving images of a slice of everyday life in Omar and the vicinity during the Great Depression.⁴

Photographer Ben Shahn, a Lithuanian-born American artist is best known for artworks of social realism, left-wing political views, and a series of art  lectures published as The Shape of Content.⁵ 

While Shahn was primarily an artist, in the early 1930s he became interested in photography, capturing street-level views of life in New York neighborhoods.^{6, 7}

In late September 1935, Shahn left New York to work for the Resettlement Administration.  He worked as an artist in the agency’s Special Skills Division and was an unofficial, part-time member of Roy Stryker’s photographic section.⁸

His first photographic assignment gave him the opportunity to travel for a month through the southern United States where photographing scenes of rural poverty exposed him to lives far different from what he had known living in New York.⁹

Shahn later did a painting (1946) called Hunger in which some think the subject resembles the child in the photo.¹⁰ The image was used by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in a voter registration drive.¹¹  It was reproduced in Look magazine in 1947, along with six others “to illustrate a hostile editorial provocatively titled ‘Your Money Bought These Paintings’.”¹² The original painting is in the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art’s permanent collection at Auburn University.¹³

1. The 1962 exhibition, “The Bitter Years 1935-1941,” was Edward Steichen’s last as Director of the Department of Photography at New York’s  Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The images in the exhibition were personally selected by Steichen from 270,000 photos taken for the Farm Security Administration by a team of photographers employed between 1935 and 1941 to document (primarily) rural America during the Great Depression.
2. Poos Françoise. The Bitter Years: Edward Steichen and the Farm Security Administration Photographs. New York: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2012. page 58
3. “The Omar Project: Not a Simple Story.” West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. Accessed September 12, 2021. http://www.wvculture.org…omar….
4. “Introductory Notes: The Omar Project: Not a Simple Story.” West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. Accessed September 12, 2021. http://www.wvculture.org…omar.
5. Shahn, Ben. The Shape of Content. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957. (checkout available at Internet Archive)
6. Shahn had pursued art and, with his wife, made “the traditional artist pilgrimage,” via North Africa and Europe, and had studied great European artists Henri Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Georges Rouault, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Klee.  Dissatisfied with his work inspired by his travel, he redirected his efforts toward a realistic style he used to contribute to social dialog.
   • • “Ben Shahn.” Wikipedia, edit as of July 18, 2021. Accessed September 12, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org…Shahn.
7.  In the early 1930s, though known as a painter, muralist, and graphic artist, Shahn was making formidable photographs. Between 1932 and 1935, Shahn’s street photography showed life in New York city through “the prosaic activities and expressive gestures of ordinary people.” He also “documented demonstrations for expanded work-relief programs and protest marches against social injustice…”  His New York photography addressed such topical issues as unemployment, poverty, immigration, and social reform and their connection to race and class.
   • “Ben Shahn’s New York: The Photography of Modern Times.” Grey Art Gallery, September 13, 2016. Accessed September 12, 2021. https://greyartgallery.nyu.edu/….
8. Gertz, Stephen J. “Book Illustrator Ben Shahn Does Poster.” Booktryst, May 16, 2013. http://www.booktryst.com/….
9. “Ben Shahn’s New York…”
10. “Omar Project: Photos (Page 3).” West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. Accessed September 12, 2021. http://www.wvculture.org…photos3.html.
11. Gertz.
    “…’it represents, perhaps, the best of Shahn’s poster work. One cannot soon erase the memory of the hollow-eyed young face begging for peace. Nowhere is Shahn’s genius for drawing more evident than in the thrust of the pleading hand…Using the image of this child in the context of an election campaign seems to say that in a democracy the first step toward healing the ravages of war is to exercise one’s right to vote’ (Kenneth W. Prescott, The Complete Graphic Works of Ben Shahn, p. 132)”
12. Bailey, Julia Tatiana. “’Realism Reconsidered’: Ben Shahn in London, 1956 – Essay.” Tate, 2019. https://www.tate.org.uk….
13. Shahn, Ben. “Hunger.” Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, 1946. Accessed September 12, 2021. http://jcsm.auburn.edu….

50 Years Ago No. 1

Civil War Era Photographic Portraiture No. 4
Originally Published in American Civil War Chronicles

Title: [Five enlistees from Co. K, 11th Ohio Infantry Regiment, one in uniform and three in hickory shirts, at Camp Dennison, three with bayoneted rifles]
Date Created/Published: [United States], [May 1861]
Medium: 1 photograph : ambrotype ; plate 82 x 70 mm (sixth plate format), case 92 x 80 mm + 1 manuscript fragment.
Summary: Photograph shows soldiers who enlisted Greenville, Ohio, identified as (left to right) Lieutenant Wesley Gorsuch, Private Francis M. Eidson, unidentified soldier, Brigadier General Joseph Washington Frizell, and Doctor Squire Dickey, a surgeon candidate who did not muster.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-55740 (digital file from original)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Access Advisory: Use digital images. Original served only by appointment because material requires special handling.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Notes:
….Title devised by Library staff.
….Date and soldiers’ identifications from: “Through The Camera’s Eye: Part One, Ohio Soldiers 1861,” by Larry M. Strayer and Brad L. Pruden. Military Images, volume XXVII, number 1, July/August 2005, page 6.
….Text on manuscript fragment: “Left, Capt. Gorsuch, Colonel Frazell, 3rd unknown, 4th Frank Eidson, private Squire Dickey, surgeon. Company from Greenville, Ohio.”
….Case: Berg, no. 4-17G.
….Gift; Tom Liljenquist; 2017; (DLC/PP-2017:171, formerly deposit D073)
….More information about this collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.lilj
….Purchased from: Larry M. Strayer, June 2017.
….Forms part of: Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of Congress).
….Forms part of: Ambrotype/Tintype photograph filing series (Library of Congress)

Library of Congress file permalink

___________
Mike’s notes:

Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject

Before retouching:

Dust, Drought, Depression, and War No. 16

On December 7, 1941, USS Thresher (SS-200), carrying live torpedoes, was nearing the Hawaiian Islands, returning from a simulated war patrol when she received word of the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese aircraft. A relatively new vessel, she had been launched only 20 months earlier.  She would go on to become the most decorated US Navy submarine of World War II.¹

New Submarine Is Launched

GROTON, Conn., March 27 (UP)—The Thresher, one of six submarines constructed under the Vinson act, was launched today at the Electric Boat Company yards. Mrs. Claud A. Jones, wife of a naval captain, was the sponsor. The Thresher is the seventeenth boat to be built by the company since 1933 and is 300 feet long. Its displacement is 1,745 tons, as defined by the London treaty for the limitation of armaments. Its mean draft at standard displacement is 15 feet, and its largest gun is three inches.

Thresher I (SS-200)²

While cruising on the surface nearing the end of the simulated war patrol, Thresher encountered heavy seas during which Seaman Second Class (equivalent to today’s seaman apprentice) William D. Grover was severely injured when he was thrown against supports for the periscopes. A junior medical officer and corpsman from the tender Pelias (AS-14) were sent to the USS Litchfield (DD-336) prior to its embarking to rendevous with Thresher where it was to escort Thresher lest she be mistaken for a hostile submarine.

Thresher received word at 0810 on 7 December 1941 that Pearl Harbor was under attack by Japanese planes. Litchfield promptly set off to join American light forces departing from the harbor, leaving Thresher alone to conduct her first real war patrol. However, the destroyer was ordered back to escort the submarine; radio contact between the two ships was established; and a rendezvous arranged.

At the pre-appointed time, Thresher poked up her periscope to have a look, and noticed a destroyer, similar to Litchfield, approaching, bows-on. The submarine’s commander and a signalman felt certain that the oncoming ship was Litchfield. Nevertheless, instead of a warm reception from friends, she got a hot reception from what proved to be the light minelayer Gamble (DM-15), which opened fire on the submarine as soon as her black conning tower broke the surface.

Quickly reappraising the situation, Thresher immediately went deep to avoid the attentions of “friendly forces.” She again tried to enter the harbor on the 8th, but was driven off by depth-bombs from a patrol plane, before the seaplane tender (destroyer) Thornton (AVD-11) finally arrived to provide safe-conduct for the submarine at midday on the 8th. Sadly, Seaman Grover steadily worsened and died before the boat reached port.

A World War II hero³

Battle-tested through 15 war patrols, Thresher was awarded 15 Battle Stars and a Navy Unit Commendation, making it the most decorated US submarine of World War II.  A Tambor-class, diesel-electric submarine, Thresher was built by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She had six bow torpedo tubes and four stern tubes.  Initially equipped with a 3-inch deck gun, the ship’s deck gun supports had been strengthened during construction to accommodate a 5-inch gun if experience warranted it. Less than a year after the Pearl Harbor attack, an encounter on Thresher’s fifth war patrol tested the capabilities of the 3-inch gun.

On patrol about 30 nautical miles to the west of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in the Makassar Strait, Thresher came across a small enemy tanker that had grounded on a reef.

October 31, 1942⁴

The need to use 26 rounds of 3 inch 50 caliber ammunition to sink a small grounded tanker showed that changing out to a 5-inch deck gun was warranted.  This was accomplished in Freemantle, Australia, during the refit period following the fifth patrol.

Besides war patrols in the Pacific, American submarines also participated in covert operations.  In July 1943, off Negros Island, Thresher delivered supplies and ammunition to Filipino guerillas resisting the occupation by the Japanese.⁶ “All of the cigarettes, matches, soap, razor blades, candy, etc. were voluntary contributions of the crew of the Thresher and attest their admiration for the Commandos and the work they are doing.” “A suitcase full of intelligence documents was brought aboard and will be forwarded to the proper channels.”⁷

__________

The ship was named for the thresher shark, solitary creatures that keep to themselves.  When hunting schools of fish, they are known to “whip” (thresh) the water, swatting smaller fish and stunning them before feeding.⁸

Thresher was the subject of two episodes of The Silent Service, a 1950s syndicated anthology series produced by Universal Television, once one of the most prolific US TV program producers.⁹

• Season 1, Episode 3; aired April 17, 1957, “The End of the Line;” The USS Thresher is caught at the end of a Japanese destroyer’s grappling hook and attempts to shake itself loose.^{10, 11}
  
• Season 2, Episode 6; aired April 11, 1958, “The Thresher Story;” Torpedo test goes wrong and fired with the outer door still closed. It has to be disarmed or boom. Thresher adds a 5″ gun for surface action in 42. US Torpedoes were bad at that time. The 5″ gun saved the Thresher in a duel with a Jap ship.^{12, 13}
  • A young Frank Gorshin plays the hapless Torpedoman 1st Class Larkin, who is at fault for the failed torpedo test and, later, saves the day as the gunner on the 5″ gun.

1. “USS Thresher (SS-200).” Wikipedia as of June 17, 2021 edit. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://en.wikipedia….Thresher_(SS-200).
2. “Thresher I (SS-200).” Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History and Heritage Command. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://www.history.navy.mil….
3. Kerr, D. Allan. “Original Thresher Was World War II Hero.” Seacoastonline, February 18, 2013. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://www.seacoastonline.com….
4. “USS Thresher (SS-200),” Submarine Action Report. October 31, 1942. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://issuu.com…ss-200_thresher
5. verb
   gerund or present participle: kedging
   (with reference to a ship or boat) move by hauling in a hawser attached to a small anchor dropped at some distance.
6. Kerr
7. “USS Thresher (SS-200),” Special Mission Report (pdf). July 9, 1943. Accessed September 9, 2021.
8. “Thresher Shark.” Wikipedia, as of July 28, 2021edit. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org….
9. “USS Thresher (SS-200).” Wikipedia…
10. “‘The Silent Service’ The End of the Line.” IMDb, aired April 17, 1957. Accessed September 10, 2021. https://www.imdb.com….
11. “Silent Service S01 E03: The End of the Line.” YouTube, March 29, 2014. Accessed September 10, 2021. https://www.youtube.com….
12. “‘The Silent Service’ The Thresher Story.” IMDb, aired April 11, 1958. Accessed September 10, 2021. https://www.imdb.com….
13. “Silent Service S01 E03: The Thresher Story.” YouTube, aired April 27, 2014. Accessed September 10, 2021. https://www.youtube.com….

Dust, Drought, Depression, and War No. 15
The Bitter Years No.1¹

Taken by itself in a photographic art exhibition with no other information or other related images than what is on the caption card one could assume that this photo is making a statement on race in 1941.

However, in neighboring photographs in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, the picket line is actually a mixture of black and white strikers.  In one photo, a white man carries a sign that says, “Mid City Realty Unfair—Underpays his Workers—Overcharges his Tenants—Support the Strike.” In another photo, a black man carries an identical sign. A number of other photos are available from the Library of Congress.⁴

There is essentially no information online related to these images and the picketing of Mid-City Realty.  Some of the few websites that have any of the images make unfounded assumptions.^{5, 6, 7}

1. The 1962 exhibition, “The Bitter Years 1935-1941,” was Edward Steichen’s last as Director of the Department of Photography at New York’s  Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The images in the exhibition were personally selected by Steichen from 270,000 photos taken for the Farm Security Administration by a team of photographers employed between 1935 and 1941 to document (primarily) rural America during the Great Depression.
2. Poos Françoise. The Bitter Years: Edward Steichen and the Farm Security Administration Photographs. New York: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2012. page 60.
3. Vachon, John. “Picket Line at Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois.” July 1941. Library of Congress. Accessed September 9, 2021. www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017746824/.
4. Other related photos:
   • Untitled photo, possibly related to: Picket line at Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois
   • Untitled photo, possibly related to: Picket line at Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois
   • Picket line in front of Mid-City Realty Company. Chicago, Illinois
   • Picket line in front of Mid-City Realty Company. South Chicago, Illinois
   • Picket line in front of Mid-City Realty Company. South Chicago, Illinois
   • Untitled photo, possibly related to: Picket line in front of Mid-City Realty Company. South Chicago, Illinois
   • Untitled photo, possibly related to: Picket line in front of Mid-City Realty Company. South Chicago, Illinois
   • Untitled photo, possibly related to: Picket line in front of Mid-City Realty Company. South Chicago, Illinois
   • Girl in picket line. Mid-City Company, South Chicago, Illinois
5. “Picket Line at Mid-City Realty Company in Chicago, Illinois, July 1941.” IDCA, August 27, 2020. https://iowaculture.gov.
   “This photograph shows African Americans standing in a picket line outside a midtown business in Chicago, Illinois, in 1941 protesting the discriminatory wage gap between African Americans and white people in the workforce.”
6. “Support the Strike: 1941.” Shorpy.com. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://www.shorpy.com/node/25349.
   “Girl in picket line. Union picketing for increase of $8 weekly wage. Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois.” The only information that I was able to glean from the photos regarding the wages was that it was too low, $8 a week. Increasing the wage by $8 would be doubling the pay which would be an extremely unlikely demand.
7. “Understanding the Great Migration; Resource Sheet No. 4.” Center for History Education Online Lessons. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://www.umbc.edu/….
   “In ‘the Promised Land’ of Chicago, many black migrants still had to join picket lines to fight for fair wages. Some foremen in various companies discriminated by placing restrictions upon the promotion and advancement of black workers, frequently preventing them from earning higher wages.”

Library of Congress information for the image:

Title: Picket line at Mid-City Realty Company, South Chicago, Illinois
Creator(s): Vachon, John, 1914-1975, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1941 July.
Medium: 1 negative : safety ; 35 mm.
Reproduction Number: LC-USF33-016151-M5 (b&w film neg.) LC-USZ62-130701 (b&w film copy neg. from file print) LC-DIG-fsa-8a33115 (digital file from original neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs
Call Number: LC-USF33- 016151-M5 [P&P] LOT 1073 (Possible associated group of images)
Other Number: F 663
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes:
…..Title and other information from caption card.
…..Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.
…..More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi

_____
Mike’s notes:

Image restoration note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
– straighten image

Image restoration is the process of using digital restoration tools to create new digital versions of the images while also improving their quality and repairing damage.

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 153 of over 1200 images

Dead Indian Pass, a metal sculpture commemorating the
1877 flight of the Nez Perce through this area of Wyoming

The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, a forty-six-mile paved highway in Wyoming, closely follows the path Nez Perce took when they fled the US Army in 1877. While most of the Wyoming 296 route is through a series of open valleys surrounded by tall forested mountains in the Absaroka Range, it also climbs over an 8048-foot high mountain gap named Dead Indian Pass includes numerous twisting ascents and descents of large hills and crosses lower passes.²

The views of the higher peaks of the North Absaroka Mountains are excellent. But just as interesting is the superb view of the deep canyon that the Clarks Fork Yellowstone Flows through—from above it seems that the earth essentially split apart, allowing the river to pass through it.

The Nez Perce are an indigenous people of America who are believed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau for at least 11,500 years.  The first contact with whites likely occurred in the late 18th century when French Canadian fur traders visited the area regularly.  In 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition encountered the tribe, William Clark referring to them in his journals as the Chopunnish.

In the Treaty of 1855, the Nez Perce ceded 7.5 million acres of land but retained all traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering rights.⁴ Soon afterward, the ceded land was declared open for settlement, and rough-and-tumble miners and land hunters soon poured in, many of whom thought nothing of pillaging and killing Indians. After several other tribes retaliated, the US military responded, with Nez Perce fighting alongside the Americans in two September 1858 battles.  By the summer of 1862, there were nearly 20,000 whites in the area around the new town of Lewiston, named for Meriwether Lewis, with enough political power to demand the removal of the Nez Perce.⁵ The U.S. government initiated another treaty council that would shrink the 1855 reservation by 90%, a reduction of over 5 million acres. The bands living outside the proposed boundaries walked out and refused to endorse the 1863 Treaty.⁶

Where the American government saw one tribe, individual Nez Perce leaders had always regarded their bands as separate and independent.  Every band was self-sufficient, getting their own food from the land, and creating their own tools and clothing.  There was no governing body or chief over all of the tribes. After the 1863 council, the bands whose leaders signed the treaty were known as the “treaty” group. Those who had walked out were the “non-treaty” bands.  The chief of one of the non-treaty bands, Joseph, “was so incensed he tore up his copy of the 1855 treaty and his Gospel of Matthew… before he rode home.”⁷

The 1863 Treaty became known by the Nez Perce  as the “Thief Treaty” or “Steal Treaty.” It created the conditions that would eventually lead to an armed clash between the Nez Perce and the US Army.⁸

Hostilities that had been developing between the non-treaty Nez Perce and settlers became violent in 1877.  In May, after several attacks by the US Army the bands moved from their homelands towards the new reservation. On June 14 and 15, vengeance raids by warriors killed at least eighteen settlers.  The first major engagement with the US Army was at White Bird Canyon, Idaho Territory, on June 17, a lopsided victory for the Nez Perce. Thirty-four U.S. Cavalry were killed, two soldiers and two volunteers were wounded while only three Nez Perce warriors had been wounded. Outnumbered two to one and fighting uphill with inferior weapons, the Nez Perce used their knowledge of the terrain to win.⁹

After the White Bird Canyon battle, the Nez Perce embarked on an arduous trek, crossing Lolo pass into Montana Territory, dipping into and crossing the new Yellowstone National Park and a small portion of Wyoming Territory, and then heading north toward Canada, a roughly 1,170 miles (1,880 km) journey. After seeking the aid of the Crow tribe, they fled further north when refused, hoping to gain sanctuary with Sitting Bull’s Lakota Sioux, who had fled to Canada in May.¹⁰

Nez Perce strength during the 1877 war was estimated at a few hundred warriors. Traveling with many noncombatants, they had no formal military training.  The US Army used several thousand soldiers during the campaign, many with years of military training and experience, commanded by veterans of the Civil War.  By October, winter was approaching and the lack of supplies combined with the long travel over rough terrain had taken its toll.  After a five-day battle, Chief Joseph surrendered his remaining forces.¹¹

______

Origin of the name¹²

There are two accounts of the naming of Dead Indian Pass. The first refers to the Nez Perce flight in 1877. A Nez Perce was reputedly killed near the pass and it acquired the name. The second account states that in 1878 Col. Nelson A. Miles and his soldiers encountered a group of Bannock Indians. The Crow Indian Scouts killed a Bannock and buried him here.

Post Endnotes

1. I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.
2. “The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway in Wyoming: Information, Photos and Maps.” Big Sky Fishing.Com. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.bigskyfishing.com….
3. “Nez Perce.” Wikipedia, most recent edit September 5, 2021. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://en.wikipedia…Nez_Perce.
4. “Treaty of 1855.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.nps.gov…1855.htm.
5. “Aftermath of 1855 Treaty.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.nps.gov…aftermath-of-1855-treaty.
6. “The Treaty Period.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.nps.gov….the-treaty-era.htm.
7. “Treaty of 1863.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.nps.gov…treaty-of-1863.htm.
8. “The Treaty Period.”
9. “Battle of White Bird Canyon.” Wikipedia, most recent edit June 18, 2021. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://en.wiki…White_Bird_Canyon.
10. “Nez Perce War.” Wikipedia, most recent edit August 9, 2021. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://en.wikipedia…Nez_Perce_War.
11. Kennaly, David. “The Nez Perce War of 1877.” U.S. Army, October 1, 2009. https://www.army.mil….
12. “Dead Indian Pass.” Wikipedia, May 25, 2021. https://en.wikipedia….Dead_Indian_Pass.

Series Notes:

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay, Flickr, and Pinterest.
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image-sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 152 of over 1200 images

Autumn Teton Thimbleberry, Along Cascade Canyon Trail;
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, September 19, 2007

Rubus parviflorus²

Rubus parviflorus, commonly called thimbleberry, (also known as redcaps) is a species of Rubus native to northern temperate regions of North America. It bears edible red fruit similar in appearance to a raspberry, but shorter, almost hemispherical. Because the fruit does not hold together well, it has not been commercially developed for the retail berry market, but is cultivated for landscapes. The plant has large hairy leaves and no thorns.

Rubus parviflorus is native to western North America from Alaska south as far as California, New Mexico, Chihuahua, and San Luis Potosí. Its range extends east to the Rocky Mountains and discontinuously to the Great Lakes Region. It grows from sea level in the north, up to elevations of 10,000 ft. (3,000 m) in the south.

Thimbleberry fruits are flatter and softer (more fragile) than raspberries, but similarly have many small seeds. Because the fruit is so soft, it does not pack or ship well, so thimbleberries are rarely cultivated commercially.

However, wild thimbleberries can be eaten raw or dried (the water content of ripe thimbleberries is quite variable), and can be made into a jam which is sold as a local delicacy in some parts of their range, notably in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan. Thimbleberry jam is commonly made by combining equal volumes of berries and sugar and boiling the mixture for two minutes before packing it into jars. Without sugar, the cooked berries, with a distinguishing sweet-sour taste, keep for a few days in the refrigerator.

Post Endnotes

1. I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.
2. “Rubus Parviflorus.” Wikipedia, most recent revision July 27, 2021. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://en.wikipedia….Rubus_parviflorus.

Series Notes:

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay, Flickr, and Pinterest.
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image-sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

I first released this video 5 years ago, with the title “September 11 – Remembering after 15 years.” This version replaces the introduction with a title screen saying “Remembering September 11, 2001” so that it’s not tied to any other time other than the original events.

Much has happened in the years since the planes flew into the World Trade Center. The world seems far different, with terror attacks occurring all too frequently around the world, terror attacks that gain little or nothing for those who plot and plan them.

The first several images are from several years to a month before the attack. They simply show New York City with the twin towers still standing.

The music track used is “September 11, 2001 – Theme from the Last Castle” by Jerry Goldsmith. According to YouTube, videos using this track are viewable everywhere except Germany.

Image used in this video are public domain, accessed from the Library of Congress or the U.S. National Archives. Images are viewable in a Flickr album at https://www.flickr.com/photos/exit78/albums/72157672313859131

Dust, Drought, Depression, and War No. 14¹

The Shavano, a local mountain route narrow-gauge train in Colorado, operated round-trip daily for 3 1/2 years, ending on November 24, 1940.  It ran from Salida [7,083 ft (2,159 m)] over Marshall Pass [10,842 ft (3,305 m)] to Gunnison [7,703 ft (2,347 m)] in the morning, returning in the evening. Today, a gravel road still follows the old railroad route over Marshall Pass but is closed to wheeled vehicles during the winter.²

The train’s name came from Mount Shavano, a 14,231-foot (4,338m) summit located in San Isabel National Forest.  It lies just east of the Continental Divide and west of the Arkansas River rising 7,200 feet above Salida.  The mountain was named for Ute Chief Shavano.³

War chief of the Uncompahgre (Tabeguache) band of Southern Utes and a close friend of Chief Ouray, Shavano had a deep mistrust of white people and the government.  A violent temper and propensity for hard-drinking led government administrators to block Shavano from becoming chief after Ouray’s death. Serving as one of the medicine men for the tribe, in 1885, Shavano was shot twice in the back by Sarrup, the father of two sick boys Shavano had failed to save. Someone had told Sarrup that Shavano had poisoned the boys. Shavano died three days later.^4,5

Call Number: OP-8479
Title: D&RGW train (Narrow Gauge), engine number 479, engine type 2-8-2
Credit: Denver Public Library Special Collections
Alternate Title: Denver & Rio Grande Western train (Narrow Gauge), engine number 479, engine type 2-8-2
Creator: Perry, Otto, 1894-1970
Date: 1940
Summary: Train #315, The Shavano; 4 cars, snow, and steam effect. Photographed above Mears Junction, Colo., November 17, 1940.
Description: 1 photonegative ; 9 x 14 cm; 1 photoprint (postcard) : silver gelatin, black and white ; 8 x 13 cm
Part Of: Otto C. Perry memorial collection of railroad photographs
Type of Material: Film photonegatives; Photographic postcards; Silver gelatin photoprints
Subject: Locomotives; Railroads–Trains–Pictorial works; Narrow gauge railroads; Railroad locomotives–Colorado–Mears Junction; Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway Company; Railroads, Narrow-gage.
Format-Medium: Photograph

Denver Public Library Digital Collections item permalink.

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Mike’s notes:

Image restoration note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
– straighten image

Image restoration is the process of using digital restoration tools to create new digital versions of the images while also improving their quality and repairing damage.

1. While the main theme of this project is the bitter times between the 1929 crash of the stock market and the end of World War II, some of the items covered will be other interesting and historical material from the period.
2. “Shavano (Train).” Wikipedia, last edited May 11, 2021. Accessed September 7, 2021. https://en.wikipedia…Shavano_(train).
3. “Mount Shavano.” Wikipedia, January 28, 2021. Accessed September 7, 2021. https://en.wikipedia….Mount_Shavano.
4. Morreale, Don. “Menu.” YourHub, December 3, 2020. https://yourhub.denverpost.com/blog/2020/12/a-colorado-panorama-chief-shavano-and-josephine-speer/270819/.
5. Hogue, Una. “An Indian Chronicle & a Sketch on the Life OF Shavano: …” Salida Regional Library, 1920. Accessed September 7, 2021. http://salidaarchive.info…Life-of-Shavano.pdf.