Photographs

Most military medal collectors are also interested in military photos. Starting with the family albums and eventually those found in antique malls and flea markets most of the photos are of the snap shot type sent home to or taken by family members of their loved one in uniform. Therefore most are centered around the subject person, a smiling face sometimes showing off the new stripe or posed with a weapon for the camera. At first glance one might think that these would be of interest only to the family but look closer. Many clearly show insignia, medals, ribbons and badges being worn. Some times good weapon details are visible. Check the backgrounds for buildings, equipment and other interesting activities which may have been going on. Case in point right out of my family photo archive is the photo illustrated below which is dated July 23, 1942. This is my father standing in front of the Camp Claiborne entrance in Louisiana where he did his basic training. The photo was taken to show his family where he was. They didn’t think it was a very good picture of him but keep it anyway. The camp does not exist any more and just the stone base of the entrance remains today. There is a Camp Claiborne historical site on the internet. When I sent a scan of this photo to the owner of the site he was very interested in it because in all his years of collecting the camp’s history and photos he had never found anything showing the gate as it originally looked. Never under estimate the potential historical value of any photo.