Friday Family Photo

This is such a great photo, I wish I could tell you more.


The information on the back is that it was a "barnstorming airplane pilot" in 1916 in a field at the O.D. Buck farm in Franklin Grove, IL. For those of you who are from Mt. Morris, the Bucks were parents of Lucille Kinsley, wife of our high school principal; like my grandparents, the Bucks were members of the Church of the Brethren in Franklin. The little girl in the white dress and hat holding her father's hand is my mother. She's much more interested in her brother Leslie, who is taking the photograph--he would have been about 14 years old. You can see some automobiles over on the left, one of which they would have driven to see the plane. The pilot charged $2.00 for one or two customers to go up with him. I suspect the little boy on the right might be Clare, my mother's other brother (1910-1944). He died in WWII as an aerial engineer for the 24th Mapping Squadron of the 8th Photo Group, Reconnaissance (10th Air Force) which served in the China, Burma, India theater. Sort of ironic when I look at this photo seeing what may have been his early interest in planes.

There are lots of elements of 1916 high-tech in this photo--a young teenager with a camera (this print I scanned was made from a glass plate--he also did his own developing), an airplane, electrical poles with lots of lines, and numerous automobiles. With a magnifying glass I can see 3 women in the most visible car. The women seem to be wearing hats, and the men dress clothes, so it might have been a Sunday.