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Hold'er Newt

~ Old Northern Dutchess Life

Hold'er Newt

Category Archives: Color Slides

Smudge Pots

27 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Apple Farming, Color Slides

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apples, farming, John Losee, kodachrome, Losee, photography, red hook, upper red hook

It’s already 30 degrees and heading down to the high teens tonight. This is normally not a problem for our local fruit growers, like my cousins in Red Hook, but due to the freakishly warm weather earlier in the month, the trees have begun to bloom already. It’s only one night, but it could be devastating to the fruit crop.

In the past, orchards in danger were sometimes protected by smudge pots, as my grandfather did for his apples in the 40s. You can read more on what smudge pots were here at Wikipedia.

"Burning Smudge Pots", May 10th 1947 by John Losee

From the looks of them, they were most certainly DIY and not exactly safe…

"Smudge Pot Steam Explosion" May 10th, 1947 by John Losee

I hope the blooms make it through this frosty night!

Blithewood

02 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Color Slides

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annandale, bard, blithewood, John Losee, kodachrome, photography, red hook

“Zabriskie Mansion” November 23rd, 1942 by John Losee

This photo was taken of the mansion in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY while it still belonged to the family and before it was used by Bard College.  I was confused at first because the name Zabriskie didn’t ring any bells and I thought that Grampa must have taken this picture from his beloved Cruger’s Island (just North of Bard) and mistook this for Ulster County. Then I googled “Zabriskie mansion” and the light went on.

“In 1899 Captain Andrew C. Zabriskie, a cattle breeder, numismatist, and antiquarian, purchased the estate and retained Francis Hoppin, an alumnus of the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, to design a manor house and garden. Hoppin produced a house in an eclectic, grand style, blending architectural and decorative elements from centuries of English mansion design with the latest turn-of-the-century technology. Captain Zabriskie’s son donated the estate to Bard College in 1951.” – Levy Institute/Bard College

  Click here for Google maps to see exactly where it is.

“Cider Sign”

01 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Apple Farming, Color Slides

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apples, John Losee, kodachrome, photography, red hook

“Cider Sign” September 19th, 1941 by John Losee

The image directly before this one is labeled “Denino’s Cider Mill”. Whether this sign is for part of Denino’s operations or not is uncertain. I’ve googled but come up empty handed as to exactly where this was, but judging by the other images on the roll, it could not have been far from Red Hook, NY.

Grampa would take his culls (apples that had some defect found after picking and could not be sold as-is) to be processed into cider. See the earlier post “Picking Kings” showing a pick up truck loaded with drops and Grampa’s dog, Amos in the driver’s seat.

“Catskills at Sunrise”

30 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Apple Farming, Color Slides

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John Losee, kodachrome, photography, upper red hook

November Series

“Catskills at Sunrise” November 22nd, 1942 by John Losee

This image was most likely taken in or around Red Hook, NY. If so, there are a good deal more houses in this view today than there were in 1942.

Good-bye, November!

Hornet’s Nest

15 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Color Slides

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20th Century, John Losee, kodachrome, photography

November Series

“Hornet’s Nest” November 20th, 1942 by John Losee

Up on Turkey Hill

12 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Color Slides

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20th Century, kodachrome, photography, red hook

November  Series

“Berkshires East from Turkey Hill” November 18th, 1942 by John Losee

I can see my house from here! Grampa Losee lived west of Turkey Hill (west of Pine Plains and East of Red Hook, NY).

“Elmore + Clint + Two Bucks”

11 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Color Slides

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20th Century, Fraleigh, hunting, John Losee, kodachrome, photography, upper red hook

November Series

“Elmore + Clint + Two Bucks” November 15th, 1942 by John Losee

Elmore is our cousin Elmore Fraleigh 1909 – 1995 who lived at and worked Rose Hill Farm in Red Hook, NY. I do not know who Clint is, but he’s probably a local as well. Data from Grampa’s slide diary indicate that the picture is local, but not exactly where these gentlemen are. Grampa and his friends were avid hunters, fowlers and fishermen even before the war and hunted both for sport and for food.

Next post, I think I’ll introduce you to Fred.

John Losee color slide collection

09 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Color Slides

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20th Century, John Losee, kodachrome, photography

Left: John Losee’s slide diaries.

I am the custodian of my grampa John Losee’s color slide collection, which numbers over 7,600 individual slides. One of the most unique subjects details his years as an apple grower in Red Hook, NY in the 1930s and 40s. Although family snap-shots do make up a great many of the images in the collection, he was just as likely to photograph an insect or rock or landscape that struck his scientific sensibilities. It didn’t surprise me, as I indexed the images, to put any given shot from a family vacation into the categories “archaeology” or “geology” – not many families can claim such excitement!

I spent the last couple years indexing all of his slides and categorizing them as well so I might make interesting slide shows of them. It wouldn’t have been such an easy task but for grampa Losee being so well organized. Some might say “obsessive/compulsive” or “anal-retentive” but I think he was just an engineer who ended up having to be an apple farmer and later a teacher who loved to take pictures. He kept a tiny notebook with him anytime he brought his cameras with him and jotted down the date, the number of the shot, the subject matter and the camera settings and filters used to capture the image. At the top of most pages he also noted when he sent the rolls to Kodak and when he got them back.

Right: This hand-made storage box had only a few hand-bound glass slides when I got it, most of them were commercial paper slides.

When I began work on the slides in May of 2009, they (and my granfather Hermans’ slides) had been in the attic of my garage freezing in winter and baking in summer for the better part of a decade. Many were in carousels (all of the Hermans’ slides were in 40 of them!) but most were stored either in the little yellow Kodak boxes they came in, in special plastic or metal slide storage boxes or in DIY boxes grampa made himself, like the one seen above.

 Left: My 21st century archival storage system for the slides with Grampa Losee’s markings.

I decided that if I wanted to print them, scan them, share them, I would have to organize them. I labored over whether I would destroy a part of the collection if I moved them from their original locations were grampa intended them to be. This was solved by marking their original location in my database. I also felt he would really, really like the sharp, uber-organized way I would be able to pull any image I wanted quickly and easily by putting them all in one place and making the database for them. He had already given them catalog numbers, himself, so organizing them in this way was easy. The new system is working like a charm! I have a photo of grampa Losee sitting in front of a slide-projector screen hanging on my wall in my work room that looks down at me while I work on them. I think he’d approve.

John Losee 1907 – 1983

“Sunset – Llewellyn”

08 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Color Slides

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20th Century, John Losee, kodachrome, photography, red hook

I’m still working on a series of posts about urban renewal in Poughkeepsie, so in the mean time, here is a first post in a series of images taken locally in November.

“Sunset – Llewellyn” November 22nd 1942 by John Losee

Llewellyn’s was further down the lane from our cousin’s farm, Fraleigh’s Rose Hill Farm (still in operation!) in Red Hook, NY

“Tire Shortage”

07 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by SKH in 20th Century, Color Slides

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20th Century, John Losee, kodachrome, photography, red hook, WWII

As you probably know, during WWII many things were collected and recycled for the war effort like metal and rubber. Grampa Losee cleverly titled this “Tire Shortage” but it was most likely the truth to the image. Not only are these gentlemen changing a flat, they are probably worried about how many times they’ve patched the same tire over and over. This was probably taken along Rt. 9 in Red Hook, NY.

“Tire-Shortage” 4/12/42

I finally remembered the other day where I had put grampa Losee’s civil defender arm band, too late now for the “Buried Liz” post about civil defense, but not far from the subject of this post. The location was a lot safer and more obvious than I had given myself credit for!

 

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