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August 1942. Mechanic Mary Josephine Farley works on a Wright Whirlwind motor in the Corpus Christi, Texas, Naval Air Base assembly and repairs shop. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Howard R. Hollem.
Interesting with all the comments on colourization, that here is another colourized shot.
My first job in a photo studio was making prints for the artist downstairs to colourize. We would make a black and white print, and then "sepia tone" it (boy, that smelled). The sepia would add the warm tones to areas not painted. On the back of the print we would write all the colours to be used -- "complexion," "hair colour," "eye colour," "misc." She would then use transparent dyes to add the colour and varnish over it (or "fixative" in the later years).
I am uploading a photo of her in her WASP uniform taken in 1943.
[Thank you, whoever you are! - Dave]
Makes you want to go find a DeLorean and a flux capacitor.
This touching photograph is quite similar to a painting by Norman Rockwell.
“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” Dorothea Lange
This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. I found this in the Archival Collection at Texas Woman’s University.
“Mary Josephine Farley Tilton, Letters, 1943-1944, 5 folders. Native of Aransas Pass, Texas. Worked as an engine mechanic and Link trainer instructor during World War II, then joined the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP), class 43-W-4. Later was commissioned in the Air Force. Served in Germany during the Korean War. Graduated in 1965 from Midwestern University with a B.S. Degree in Elementary Education and became a teacher. Letters (all photocopies), written to her family, document Tilton's experiences as a WASP trainee at Avenger Field Sweetwater, Texas, and a ferry pilot based at Love Field, Dallas, Texas. Also includes news articles and a copy of "The Flying V," newsletter of Love Field's ferrying group and a color copy of photograph [1943 or 1944]. Gift of Mary Josephine Tilton, 1995.
Yeah I'm 51 and whenever I look at these beautiful women I have to keep reminding myself that they were all born before my 79-year-old mother.
There's something about them though that makes them seem more in synch with our times than the women of say a decade later. Don't know what it is.
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