Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (297-300)

26 days ago

Several years ago I bought a flatbed scanner with a slide adapter to scan some old film slides that my grandparents had. After I finished scanning those, I picked up several batches of slides from Goodwill and on eBay out of curiosity. I am not sure why these commonly wind up at such places but I know that at least some of them have ultimately come from estate sales. Maybe family members just don't know what to do with them. I've seen them advertised as being for arts and crafts but I was more interested in the actual contents. Each slide is literally a snapshot in history. These pictures span from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s. There are thousands of these slides. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here as an interesting way to look back at the past.

I'm using the term "batch" to refer to a group of slides I bought in a single purchase. Usually they are from the same ultimate origin. Typically, a batch will have 100s or even 1000s of slides.

I'm using the term "set" to refer to a subset of a batch that I scan together. There are normally four slides in one set because that's how many slides my scanner can scan at once. Likewise, a post will typically have one set of four slides. It's just easier to keep track of that way.

This batch contains photos spanning from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. Other than these slides coming from eBay, I have no idea of their ultimate origin other than the clues provided in the photos themselves. The photographer seems to have been from Lansing, Michigan and many of the photos are from there.

These were all scanned with an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner.

These photo were all likely taken in the late 1960s to early 1970s in Michigan.

The first photo is undated and features a gravestone. While not an extremely interesting photo, it is interesting for the fact that it goes a long way towards identifying the likely photographer. Based on the name and dates, it was pretty easy to determine that this grave belongs to this individual: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/961M-FS8. More info along with a photo of the same gravestone can be seen here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9420816/ernest-oran-uptegrove. So this photo was taken at Evergreen Township Cemetery in Sheridan, Montcalm County, Michigan. Moreover, at the first link above, children are listed for this individual including Mary Ann Uptegrove. Information on her can be found here: https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LVH8-7LG. She married a man named Herbert Edison Kipke I. The Kipke name is familiar as it has appeared on a number of slides from this batch. So all the photos from this batch were likely taken either by Herbert, Mary, or one of their children who are listed at the above link. In the 1950 census entry for Herbert, his occupation is listed as "Recreation Also Promotion Of Softball In State". Given that many of the photos from this batch have been of parks, playgrounds, recreation facilities, and softball games (as well as other sports), I suspect he is the most likely candidate for photographer. Herbert died in 1987 and his wife died in 2008 so one of their children must have inherited these slides. A couple of these children died just a few years ago which would line up with when I picked these up off of eBay (probably purchased by the seller from an estate sale).

The second photo was processed in June 1970 and features a bunch of people having a meal. They appear to be at the desert phase but there's not much context to go on as far as why they were all gathered here.

The third photo is undated but is labeled "Backyard" and features some flowers. This is presumably the backyard of the photographer's house.

The last photo was processed in June 1970 and appears to feature the same get-together as seen in the second photo. In this one you can see a basketball hoop so this was apparently in a gym or recreation facility.

_Backyard

See the previous post in this series here.

The entire batch that has been scanned and uploaded so far can also be found here. This also includes higher resolution versions and versions with postprocessing.

Check out some of my other recent posts:

Computer + Video Games (April 1991)
https://ecency.com/@darth-azrael/computer-video-games-april-1991

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (293-296)
https://ecency.com/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-lot-6-293

Compute!'s Gazette (February 1987)
https://ecency.com/@darth-azrael/compute-s-gazette-february-1987