THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL PHOTO ARCHIVE • FRAMED PRINTS • STOCK IMAGES

The president's daughter with friend Annette Wright aboard the SS America, on the way to Europe. I was fortunate enough to know Ms. Annette Davis Frank, through a family friendship with her daughter. I found this photo in a portfolio that was given to me by her family after she passed away in 2014. She had taken the portfolio on the voyage in 1951. It still had her packing list in it! She was a warm down to earth lady that brought joy into every place she entered.

Note to editor: This was one of two photos that I found and scanned. The other one is of the them sitting on a sofa. I found out that it is part of the Truman Library collection. I did not find the photo I am posting on the Truman Library website, and don't know if it has any copyright.

Picture taken June, 1957 in Maryville TN. Picture of me, Robbie Roberson. I was about 3 years old.

The photographer was Woodhead Photo Co. of Springfield, Massachusetts. Unknown where the photo was taken. It looks like different branches of the military are represented. 9th man from the left 2nd row...could that be Eddie Rickenbacker? He's the only one with wings above his pocket. Perhaps someone may recognize the building.

I've spent my life striving to be half the husbands/fathers these three men were. On the left is my father, last seen here in a photo in which he is standing next to my aunt, his sister who married the man in the middle of this picture, my uncle Gerard. Gerard is one of the remarkable people I've ever known. He served as a medical corpsman during the Korean Conflict and befriended a young Korean soldier who he attended to. They remain friends to this day, Two men in their early 90s, worlds away from each other, chatting in Korean (loudly). The man on the right, my grandfather, was a stowaway from the Azore Islands who landed in Key West at 14 and worked his way up the coast to New Bedford where he joined the US Army by lying about his age. He fought with the Second Division in the Battle of Bellou Woods at the age of 17. He was stationed in rural Germany as part of the Army of Occupation after the war recovering from the effects of mustard gas and met and later married my grandmother.

There I am with my scraggly hair and my cool dark glasses. My little brother is far left, and the other peeps are family friends from those days. In the distance is our '71 Toyota and the mid '60s Dodge van belonging to the our friends.

I'm amazed I was even in the picture. I must have been in a good mood that day.

Chicago's status as the crossroads of commerce in America is well known.
This busy railroad crossing on the city's South side served to personify that fact.
I took this photo at the Ash Street crossing adjacent to the now defunct Campbell's Soup factory, kind of in the spirit of Jack Delano many years before. Over the years I have come to realize that crossings such as these are a maintenance nightmare for their owners because the constant pounding of heavy rail cars tends to wear out the rail heads.

Today the various railroads are engaged in a gradual replacement of crossings like this with "flying junctions" similar to expressway interchanges. It is known as "Operation Create." The first of these was completed at Englewood just last year. 35 mm Kodachrome transparency taken September 2, 1963 by William D. Volkmer.

The summer of 1965 finds my father, mother and brother on location in Tinseltown at 6353 Hollywood Boulevard. We didn't see any celebrities, but we did come across record stores, and my brother is clutching two bags of our gleanings therefrom. What my parents did while we gleaned I'm not sure, but no doubt they met the situation with their usual forbearance. Here in my Kodachrome slide they're approaching one of Dave Garroway's two stars - this one for radio - on the Walk of Fame. Garroway, some might remember, was the first host of NBC's Today Show. Later, they were at Hollywood and Vine, where I was snapped in 1963. View full size.

That's what I like to imagine my future-brother-in-law was telling me as the showdown is about to come in our poker hand here in the living room of our home in Larkspur, California. The "shut up" part was, of course, something I was familiar with hearing often enough from others in non-wagering situations. At my side I had a glass with a finger of root beer, playing the part of whiskey, to emulate (pay homage to?) the saloon scenes in the old cowboy movies I'd watch on TV Saturday mornings. He became my brother-in-law in actuality two years later, and passed away just two months ago. Rest in peace, old friend. My sister took this 2¼" square Kodacolor negative. View full size.

Southern Utah, and my father with our 1971 Toyota Corona. He taught me how to drive stick shift in this car, and several years later, I bought it and drove it for a few more years.

Our cabin would be built near this lake. Good memories.

My younger brother (right) and his pal from across our street. Our Dad took this picture, as he did with most of the others posted here. There was a level of trust that the other kid's parents let him go on an extended trip with our family.

The time is around 1971 or 72. It's southern Utah, east of Cedar City, where eventually we built a cabin which was a great refuge for us for 20 years or so.

"Does this car make me look fat?" I point the finger at this ancestor from Connecticut for my life-long issues with weight. From hereon, all photos of me will be shot in front of a bus, thank you very much.

Bethesda, Maryland, 1947. A teenager takes a break from a laborious day of learning the trade of becoming a brick mason.

Hartford, Connecticut, circa 1931. My father Walter overheard the women talking in the background. What concerned him was when grandma Nellie warned his mother Louise, "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater." The message wasn't lost on the children who stood in wait.

Comment on back of photo says "Evelyn Walker, Green Mountain Falls, 1931." Can anyone identify the Packard?

On the afternoon of March 29, 1960 I had occasion to ride the Jersey Central Railroad car ferry across the Hudson River into Manhattan. Soon after departing the Jersey City terminal I snapped this photo of the Ferry Wilkes-Barre with its patrons anxiously awaiting the boat to dock.

Not long after I took the photo, a similar shot appeared as the centerfold in the Saturday Evening Post magazine. The post captioned their photo as the "Five O'Clock Sailors," which I thought was totally appropriate. This ferry operation is, of course, long gone from the scene. The slow ASA 10 speed of the Kodachrome film of the day seems to have taken its toll on the camera's ability to stop moving objects. 35mm Kodachrome Retina IIIc folding camera. William D. Volkmer