Just Peachy

I finally got around to scanning an envelope of slides that was just labeled Kodachrome slides.  I had no idea who they were, so I thought I'd post them as Anonymous Family slides.   

Anonymous Family slides have played an important role in slide shows around here. The architect who steals my covers loves to take pictures when he travels and he used to invite friends to see slide shows from these trips. The problem is that he tends to only take pictures of buildings; human subjects are few and far between. To keep the audience from falling asleep, he would insert slides of the Anonymous Family in between every dozen or so building images. We still don't know who that Anonymous Family was, but they went on lots of trips to national parks and wore a lot of plaid--and they were popular with the slide viewing audiences. The image below reminded me very much of those slides.

Elizabeth with Mom and brother

It didn't take me long to realize that this was not an anonymous family though. These slides are from Elizabeth Brady Cabot Winslow's family. (See previous post on Elizabeth and on her father Hugh.) I thought I recognized her, but the photo with her brother and father is very recognizable. These are all from the mid/late 1940s.

Elizabeth with Dad and brother

Elizabeth with Mom and brother in front of peach tree

Maybe someone they knew was in the car ahead? Otherwise I can't imagine the reason for this photo.

Included in these slides are a good number of images with a finger across the top. Makes you grateful for digital cameras, doesn't it? At least you don't have to pay to have them developed.

Hugh Winslow and Elizabeth Brady Cabot Winslow

On Monday I posted photos of Hugh Winslow at West Point and in Japan. I thought that was going to be the end of that, but discovered that there's much more to the story. So, here's a follow-up post.

Hugh was born in Montana in 1897  to parents William Henry Winslow and Josephine Whitaker Winslow. He had a sister, Irene, who was born in 1892. I don't know what became of her, but here's what she looked like when the family lived in Fort Collins, Colorado, circa 1920.

He also had a brother, William Henry Winslow Jr., born in 1895, but if I have any photos of him they aren't labeled.

Hugh married Elizabeth Brady Ferguson (1904-1987) in 1939.  Here's a strange photo of the newlyweds.

They had two children, Elizabeth Brady Cabot Winslow (1941) and Hugh Whitaker Winslow Jr. (1942). Again, I may have photos of Hugh Jr., but I can't say for sure. I do have photos of Elizabeth though. Here she is as an infant with her father.

And here she is later in life. The first three photos were taken at a Chanticlair photomat in Paris. The folder promises 6 photos in 6 minutes. There are only three left.

 I'm not sure where this one was taken, but it looks like a passport photo.

What I do know is that something went tragically wrong in Elizabeth's life. If you read the résumé that she posted in 2002, you'll see what I mean. I fear that she is no longer alive. It would be easy to read the  résumé and laugh at her craziness, but if you view it in the perspective of the family history and the youthful pictures full of hope and promise, it's clear what a terrible tragedy this is. Elizabeth needed help, not ridicule.You can see more photos of the youthful Elizabeth here.

All of the West Point pictures as well as these and many others once belonged to Elizabeth. Some were in a manila envelope sent to her by her mother. We had others, including a box of her entire modeling portfolio, that were sent off to a paper auction in 2009 following my father-in-law's death. It's likely that he bought a lot of her belongings at a sale years earlier. I think we still have some modeling film footage though (updated - see below). In any case, somewhere along the line Elizabeth lost possession of all of these photographs, whether by choice or by accident I don't know.

Here's a short snippet of some sort of a modeling test film.

Here are some additional photos that are probably Elizabeth's ancestors.

Hugh Winslow at West Point

This is from a big envelope of military photos formerly belonging to Hugh Whitaker Winslow. Many of the snapshots are from his early days at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Hugh was born in Montana in 1897, and graduated from West Point in 1920. There are also later pictures of him in Japan after World War II.

Here's a handsome portrait of Hugh taken in Fort Collins, Colorado where his family lived.

Here are some of the snapshots from West Point.

Hugh on the left

This  young lady may be a girlfriend or she may be Hugh's sister Irene.

These snapshots below appear to be from some initiation rituals or pranks of some kind. I don't think Hugh is in any of these pictures. The first one looks like nude cadets are being doused with a bucket of water.

Here's Hugh in Japan. His description on the back of the photo:
Dinner given to officers of the 64th Filed Artillery by the Mayor of Mishima a dinner at Yamida Hotel in Nagaoka Hotel 16 Nov 45. Do I look sufficiently bored?
Japanese children peeking in from rear.

The last photo shows Colonel Winslow in Hairo, Japan in 1952. Winslow married and had two children, Elizabeth and Hugh Jr. He died in 1982. Sadly, things did not turn out very well for daughter Elizabeth. More on Hugh and family on Wednesday.

For an interesting read, you may also want to look at the post on Hugh Winslow at a website called Passport Land, hosted by a collector of old passports.