Grandma, Uncle Frank and the Red Baron.

Forensic photo analysis makes strange bedfellows.

I became the caretaker of most of my family photos from both sets of grandparents.  In most families, the “old pictures” gradually fade to oblivion, or nearly as bad, the context is lost turning them into nameless people, from an unknown place and time.  Yet, they are your family, so you keep them. Or at least until generations later a thoughtless descendant puts them in the trash because they are “just old stuff.”

As a child I remember the photos, haphazardly contained in a built-in pine drawer made by the hands of my grandfather, Ralph.  The pictures showed sepia tinted alien landscapes filled with unknown people.  But occasionally I would pull them out and look at them, my own voyeuristic time capsule.  Later, as a teenager enlightened by a college course in archaeology, I asked my grandmother to go through them and write on the back “the provenience.”  My request was honored but in her usual curt style, the words are brief and hide significance.

Years have passed and I am older.  And inspired by the never-ending stream of forensic TV shows, I decided to analyze the photos to see what I could find, which brought me to the photo of Uncle Frank.  Follow along as we investigate.

It is clear from a first impression of this photo, that something important is being celebrated.  The family is gathered for a festive meal, the older couple are the center of attention in some way, perhaps hosting the party?  And the two flags hint at something of greater significance, perhaps a patriotic expression of a larger national event.  Written on the back in my grandmother’s handwriting is “Uncle Frank and Aunt Kate.  In a different scrawled cursive is “House in Percy on Broadway.”  So at least we have the who and where.  Now to find what, why and when.  Let’s start with when.

My analysis began with a digital scan which allowed me to enlarge the image on my computer screen. Then I began to pick out diagnostic items that date the photo.

Under magnification, I found the following:

1.     The silver maple trees in the photo are showing buds not yet leafed out, putting the time of year between about Feb. through April.

2.     I spotted my grandmother (Mary) at this event which gives us an estimated age of 20 and she was born in 1893 so that puts the photo between 1908 - 1918 estimating she may have been between 15 to 25 years of age in the photo.

3.     The table chairs are generic to late nineteenth century but because of the long retention period for furniture is not a useful indicator.

4.     The boy is wearing knickerbockers and a newsboy hat common in the 1920s, but both span over several decades with the peak 1915-1925.

5.     The flags in the photo are the 48-star flags officially in use after July 4, 1912. The Latin phrase “terminus post quem” comes into play. Through deductive logic we can say that the photo must be after July 4, 1912 since these flags would have been unlikely prior to that date.

6.     The Homburg hat is classic Edwardian style ranging from 1890 into the 1930s but peak popularity was 1910 to about 1925.  But even there, usage persisted in some circles.  Think of Al Pacino in The Godfather.

7.     And since we have the identities of Frank and Kate, it was easy to find their date of death, which gives us the “terminus ante quem” of 1920, the date before which the event must have occurred.

The flag analysis was most vexing in that the enlargement quality was poor and flags are more complicated than you would expect.  Here is a sample enlargement:

Notice that the bottom row of eight stars is offset with the row immediately above.  And I can’t be sure, but the next row up also seems to be alternating as well.  After looking through many U.S. flags of the early twentieth century, it most closely matched a 48-star flag found on the Bonsell Americana website. I should add that manufacturers of flags were prone to sell new flags before the actual July 4^th release date so a flag authorized July 4, 1912 would be in the hands of people 6 months to a year earlier.  Arizona became the 48^th state on February 14, 1911, so we are using a 48-star flag range of 1911 till 1959.  Not all 48-star flags are alternating as in this example.  But back then there was more leeway as to the exact placement of stars as well as the flag proportions. For brevity’s sake, I will not show each enlarged portion of the photo, but each item was scrutinized in a similar way. 

A seriation chart of the above data would look like this with the most probable time range 1915 through 1918 during the spring months.

            Flag     Boy     Mary   Frank   Catherine        Homburg           

1925    X         X                     X                                 X

1924    X         X                     X                                 X

1923    X         X                     X                                 X

1922    X         X                     X                                 X

1921    X         X                     X                                 X

1920    X         X                     X         X                     X

1919    X         X                     X         X                     X

1918    X         X         X         X         X                     X

1917    X         X         X         X         X                     X    Easter, April 8, 1917

1916    X         X         X         X         X                     X

1915    X         X         X         X         X                     X

1914    X                     X         X         X                     X

1912    X                     X         X         X                     X

1911    X                     X         X         X                     X

1910                            X         X         X                     X        

Through a combination of evidence, along with Inductive and deductive reasoning I concluded this photo was taken in Percy, Illinois during the months of Feb. thru April and between the years of 1915 to 1918. Further, the patriotic flags hint at a 1918 date which would coincide with the entry of the U.S. action in World War I. And since Easter fell on March 31 that year, exuding the confidence of Sherlock Holmes, I concluded that the photo was a celebration of Easter March 31, 1918.  Boy was I wrong!

I also knew that in those days every time more than 4 people gathered, it was usually reported in the local newspaper. So armed with the above theory, I spent an afternoon looking at microfilmed newspapers at the local library. I did not find any information bearing on my theory during the years between 1908 and 1918,

But, I was finding other random bits of interesting information and just kept going. When I got to February 1925 I found an obituary for my grandmother’s uncle. Here is a small portion of it:

Percy, Ill., Feb 3, - Frank M. Welshan, who has been in very poor health for some time, passed away at his home here last Monday at the age of 80 years, 11 months and 9 days.

He and his wife lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary in Percy April 11, 1917 but Mrs. Welshan passed away on May 28, 1920.

Nailed it! It was a photo of their 50th wedding anniversary taken April 11, 1917. This was the best explanation for what was captured in the photo. Now is this 100% true? No, remember this is a probabilistic conclusion, not fact.  Yet, it would be difficult with the preponderance of evidence to conclude other than this was a fiftieth wedding celebration of April, 1917.  April 11 was on a Wednesday that year, so to further refine, it would likely have taken place the previous or following weekend.  But wait!  Easter Sunday fell on April 8 in 1917, so perhaps it was a combined Easter and Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration on April 8^th 1917!

Sometime later, through DNA, I connected with a relative on that side of the family. I was able to ask her “How would you like to have a photo of your great great grandparents golden wedding anniversary?” And that is what makes this work worth it in the end.

But there is more.

When I research historical events, I have a compulsion to know “what else was going on.”  So, a simple internet search of April 1917 turned up some interesting things.  On April 6, 1917, the House of Representatives officially voted to enter the War in Europe.  So, if our conclusion of April 8^th, 1917, is the correct date for the photo, just two days earlier the U.S had entered the war.  The flag waving is not surprising at all then.  So, so far we have a family gathering celebrating Easter, a 50^th wedding anniversary with the knowledge that war is imminent.  This was also the month that the infamous Red Baron became a household word.  Baron Von Richthofen, aka the Red Baron celebrated over 22 kills that month, taking the total to 52 cementing his name in history as one of the greatest fighter pilots.  Ultimately, he would log 80 kills before his death in April 1918. 

During the 1960s, cartoonist Charles Schultz ran an ongoing storyline in his Peanuts cartoon about Snoopy’s imaginary battles against the Red Baron usually ending in Snoopy’s doghouse (Sopwith Camel) getting shot down.  This cultural fad reached its zenith when the Royal Guardsmen recorded the “Snoopy vs the Red Baron” song released December 1966.   

“Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' up the score.”

Now, here is a thought.  More years have passed since the “Snoopy and the Red Baron” song came out than between the taking of the 1917 photo and the 1966 song.