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December 11, 2007
Queries
Here'a another photo that perhaps someone can help me with- now I'm 99% sure these guys are headed off to WWI (the photo was taken in 1917 in Aurora, Illinois and in other photos there are men in army uniforms) but I was wondering if there were any WWI experts who would know for sure.
I'll be using this photo in a book project I'm working on that should probably be out in early Spring 2008- I'm really excited about the book and of course I'll have lots more details about it as we get closer to it's release.
On another note- this is your last chance for suggestions for a Square America redesign. I'm pretty committed to adding a search feature that would allow you to search by date, location, etc... (and also adding a lot more photos that might not fit into the current site) though of course I'll still be curating shows like I do now. If there's anything you'd like me add or change about the site please let me know. I'll also be making some changes here at the Boat Lullabies, the main one being posting photos on a more regular basis. But I've also considered adding some other content such as interviews with other collectors and maybe weekly (or more likely bi-weekly) short essays on individual photos. If you'd rather see me just stick to posting photos that's okay too- now's the time to make your voice heard!
Posted by nick at December 11, 2007 11:08 PM
Comments
Aurora IL?!? That's my hometown of 23 years! I still live there too, and I'm kinda curious.
Are you local to Aurora? I saw some pix you had from Elgin/St. Charles...
Anyway, good pix!
Posted by: Nathanael at December 12, 2007 09:48 AM
Nathanael- I live in Chicago but alot of the dealers I buy from are out in that St. Charles/Aurora area so I do wind up with a good number photos from that area.
Posted by: nick at December 13, 2007 01:58 AM
Any changes you make will be wonderful additions to the site, as long as you keep the daily(almost) Boat Diaries--it's part of my morning routine, seeing the new photo you've posted at two a.m. Is there any chance you could have a "viewer" section, where we could send you a non-professional photo from our own albums/boxes of photos (with explanatory notes) and you could post one or two a week?
Thanks for your dedicatin to this site,
Jeannie
Posted by: Jeannie at December 13, 2007 04:33 AM
Sorry for my mistake in that last entry--I mean Boat LULLABIES. I think of it as a photo diary of our lives, so "Boat Diaries" is what I call it in my head.
--Jeannie
Posted by: Jeannie at December 13, 2007 04:35 AM
Jeannie- Thanks for the suggestion. I'm pretty committed to keeping Square America limited to my own photos (for a whole slew of reasons) but perhaps I could do some viewer submitted stuff here at the Boat Lullabies. I'm not sure I'd get enough submissions to make it a weekly feature but maybe once a month would work. I still have some reservations but I'll certainly consider it.
Posted by: nick at December 13, 2007 10:48 PM
Not sure if you've thought of this already, but if you're considering a tagging/categorization system, maybe you could set up a system for subscribing to one or more individual categories or tags via RSS? That way someone who's interested in a certain type of pictures you post could easily watch your site for new postings of that type. Just an offhand idea.
Posted by: Ian W. at December 14, 2007 08:42 AM
Ian- I'm definitely going to try to add an rss feature, I hadn't considered seperate rss feeds for seperate tags but that's an interesting idea and shouldn't be too hard to do.
Posted by: nick at December 14, 2007 03:15 PM
You really need more photos of pie.....
Posted by: Ron at December 15, 2007 06:02 PM
If you are certain that it was taken in 1917, then it would be the new draftees heading for training camps. They wore civilian clothes until the Army provided uniforms. Sometimes, this took a while due to shortages, and they drilled in their civvies. Eventually their civvies, and those suitcases, were sent back home by Railway Express, American Express, or the Post Office.
I have a few images on my website and Flickr of WWI subjects. Try:
http://swansongrp.com/picdocs/fun.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobswanson/sets/72157594242163218/
Hope this helps.
Bob Swanson
Posted by: Bob at December 16, 2007 08:26 PM
They are on broadway between new york and downer st. heading south to the train station.It has since been moved about a mile north where the "roundhouse" section is. new york was called "fox" st. back then.
nick, you can email me at the above.
great site!
Posted by: bob at June 19, 2008 01:23 PM