Found Photos Friday: Last 1950s Europe Entry

For the past however many weeks, I've basically exploited a package of 305 slides I bought for $1 at an estate sale. It's been great and some the photos in it have fascinated me a great deal. This post will be the last for that slide box. If you'd like to see all of the slides, including ones I didn't share on the blog entries, simply follow this link.

To celebrate July 4th, we'll go back to the home of freedom -- France. These images, from the Chateau de Chenonceau, are again from the late 1950s. Interestingly, many of the rolls in this box were taken on Agfachrome and Ektachrome, and both lost most of their color in the last sixty years. Today's photos, like the Bunratty Castle photo last week, were taken on Kodachrome and the colors have not faded nor lost trueness at all. So that's pretty impressive.

Found Photos Friday: Castles

It's time for another Found Photos Friday! This box of Europe photos I got at an estate sale for $1 back in January has just been the gift that keeps giving fantastic and interesting photos. It's been hard, though, too, knowing that the people in them are probably all dead and that these photos represent something lost -- the people, the era, and the settings themselves. Sure, Carcasonne castle is probably unchanged, but I found both of these Irish locations on Google Earth and used Street View to see that they look MUCH different now. No permanence exists except the certainty for change. Does that mean, however, that we should not look back upon what we had, mourn for what we lost, and ask why it had to happen that way? To refuse a backward glance is to refuse a forward look and an opportunity to improve.


Baily Lighthouse, County Dublin, Ireland. From the mid-1950s above, and today, below.

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Bunratty Castle, County Clare, Ireland. From the mid 1950s, above, and today, below.

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Carcasonne Castle, France, mid-1950s.


You may recall her from the Paris photos last week.








I suspect this is the same kid who was much shorter and younger in the Grand Canyon photos from two weeks ago. These photos and the Grand Canyon shots were separate by six years, I believe.

Found Photos Friday: Viva France!

These are from the same box as the Amsterdam photos two weeks ago and Grand Canyon photos last week. These two had quite the travel bug. At least in this set we finally get to see the travelers. And, I think I added all of these to my Panoramio account. You can see where (at least most of) these photos were taken, and a few others not in this post. Let me tell you, that took some time and research to do.


Notre Dame


And Nortre Dame again


I think they liked the cathedral.


Interestingly, today, it's much cleaner looking.


CHECK OUT THOSE AMAZING OLD CARS! I love seeing old cars in these slides.


"Don't worry, no one will think you're a tourist."


That bus looks like a smiling anime kids cartoon character and that middle car looks like it has a mustache. A CAR WITH A MUSTACHE!


The Louvre, I think.


I forget this building's name.

Found Photos Friday: Europe in the mid 1950s -- Amsterdam

Back in January I picked up a box full of slides for $1 at an estate sale. The box had about 300 slides from Europe between 1952 and 1958. These appear to be vacation slides as they take in a lot of major tourist locations. Instead of simply posting all 300 photos at once, I'm going to spread these photos out over some number of weeks. Though I shared a photos of Notre Dame on Monday, we'll look at Amsterdam photos this week. About one third of the photos were taken in France, so there will be plenty of time to look at those images.

Each of these Amsterdam photos is from the World's Fair in Brussels in 1958 -- Expo 58. Notably, this as the first major world's far after World War II and lasted six months (from April to October.) Major world's fairs can last up to six months with minor world's fairs lasting less time. The world's fair committee has a tier system for what type of fair will be held and how long it can go on for. The major world's fairs are spaced some number of years apart.

Expo 58 took three years to build with a 15,000-person labor force. Expo 58 was the fifth in a series of world's fairs spanning 70 years in Brussels. It was also the last as Brussels has not hosted a fair since Expo 58.


Atomium at night. I think this is my favorite photo from the whole box. Atomium represents an iron crystal. Each sphere is an iron atom.


In addition to his photos, the photographer bought a number of slides at the fair. The monochrome slides below were all purchased. I suspect that, to cut costs, the sellers used weak chemicals or cut corners as none of the purchased photos' color could be saved. At it was, saving the color on the images that I could often took a LOT of work in Photoshop.