Cool picture at Shorpy today...

[Jim Galli]

Cool photo at Shorpy.com today.

Washington, D.C. "Lt. W.L. Richardson, 9/5/25." Walter Richardson, Navy photographer who survived the crash of the airship USS Shenandoah three days earlier. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

5X7 Top Handle Speed with a #8 7A B and L Protar

[Mark MacKenzie]

Shorpy is great. I go there often.

Hey... I have that camera. Not the lens though.

[John Kasaian]

Egads! Thats a 5x7 Speeder! What splendid taste in cameras! Plus he's sporting a very cool necktie

[Struan Gray]

Looks like Frank P.

[203Ektar]

Lt. Richardson was the father of the Photographer' Mate rating in the US Navy. The following is from the US Navy rate training manual "Photographer's Mate 3 & 2" 1966 Edition;

"When aircraft entered the Naval Establishment in 1913, photographs were used in a more or less haphazard way to augment the records and show the results of structural failure in the materials being used. Then during the winter of 1915-1916 at Pensacola, Florida, W.L. Richardson SC 3/c (Ship's Cook, Third Class), USN, began taking pictures of the various activities connected with the Flight School. These pictures proved so useful, that he was designated as official photographer. Richardson later carried his camera aloft and received credit for taking the first aerial photograph for the Navy."

"In a few months, Richardson was transferred to what later became the Bureau of Aeronautics, to organize the photographic division and plan a school for photographers. His plans were approved and Richardson was commissioned an ensign and given charge of the new division. In 1918 a photography school was established at the Naval Air Station, Miami, Florida. However, with the signing of the armistice, the school was closed. Then in January 1920, another school was established at the Naval Air Station, Anacostia, DC."

......." In August 1923 the school was moved to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, where it has since remained."

An earlier edition suggested that the Graflex (Reflex) was unsuitable for photographing carrier landings.

When I attended the school in 1978, the very first camera we used was the 4x5 Speed Graphic, and later on, the 4x5 Graphic View II.

[Jim Galli]

I usually check Shorpy daily. Love the old stuff. This one mesmerizes me for some reason. John Vachon.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/15746?size=_original#caption

[Jim Cole]

Yeah, that's definitely your kind of picture. Is the lever on the hub of the steering wheel to activate the horn?

[Jim Galli]

Yeah, that's definitely your kind of picture. Is the lever on the hub of the steering wheel to activate the horn?

Sure the button is for the horn. Lever probably for the headlights.

[goamules]

Nice. I like cars before the controls were standardized. Of course we remember the dimmer button on the floor, but a guy showed me his old car once that had a starter button on the floor!

[Chauncey Walden]

Garrett you're way too young. I remember not a button but a pedal on the floor that manually engaged the Bendix and finally made electrical contact with the starter motor at the end of travel.