Belvedere Park, 3600 SW Admiralty Way. West Seattle, looking across Elliott Bay to Seattle.

These two shots were taken prior to 1966. The 25 foot totem pole in the picture was 

".... a gift to the city in the 1930s from E. "Daddy" Standley, owner of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the downtown waterfront and a booster of the viewpoint, from his collection. It was carved by Bella-Bella Indians from the Queen Charlotte Islands.

It became famous from use on postcards and telephone directories. Deemed beyond repair in 1966, its replacement was carved from a cedar log cut from Schmitz Park. Robert Fleischman and Michael Morgan, both Boeing engineers, donated some 300 hours of work carving the new totem."

My photo editing skills and current tools prevent me from developing the negative well enough to show the skyline of Seattle.  However, the second photo is clear enough to identify many Seattle icons ranging from the Smith Tower, St. Joseph's Cathedral, and the Viaduct.

The Aurora Bridge

These photos appear to be on the Fremont side of the Aurora Bridge, looking south to Queen Anne hill.  There are railroad tracks in the foreground of the picture, which helps to place this on the Fremont side of Lake Union.

A contemporary view can be seen here on Google maps streetview.  This view is from J.P. Patches Place, a section of 34th Ave. North that was named after the famous local television clown J.P. Patches.  The street was christened by J.P.'s granddaughter, Christina Frost, in June 2013.  If we are lucky, maybe we'll find a picture of J.P. somewhere in this stash of old negatives.

The George Washington Memorial Bridge, as the Aurora Bridge is formally know, was built from 1929 to 1932. It was opened on February 22, 1932, on George Washington's birthday.

A Seattle Photo Journey

In the late 1990's I found a collection of medium format photo negatives at the Burien, Washington Value Village.  They intrigued me and I promptly bought them.  I explored the collection, gently pulling negatives out of thin paper sleeves, one at at a time. Some sleeves were labeled with locations of family vacations, other just first names of the subjects.  Many revealed slides in deteriorated states, unrecognizable or soon on their way there.  Without context, they provided a slew of visual mysteries based in my hometown, Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest.

They mostly appear to be from the 1950's through the 1960's. There are tantalizing photos of hydroplanes on Lake Washington, family vacations to the Tetons, and cool old Studebakers, but the exact dates have eluded me. Granted, I haven't spent any time since their acquisition on discovering their stories. As John Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans."  In the twenty years since I found them, I've been busy with my career, my family, and my education.

The other night, I was reading, or more exactly, discussing one of my daughter's favorite books with her, Flotsam (by David Wiesner).  It is a wordless and beautifully illustrated book based on the premise of child's discovery of an old Brownie camera on the beach.  The child develops the camera's film and begins to discover stories through time, with other children.  If you haven't experienced this book, do so soon. Better yet, share it with a child or friend with a child's curiosity or love of creative storytelling.

I have a few old film cameras  on my bookshelves. They are beautiful objects to me. Sophia, my daughter, has at times been interested in learning more about them, sparked by Wiesner's book and their innate analog uniqueness in today's digital terrain.  These two experiences sparked the idea for this blog.  By sharing these photos I hope to learn more about the people and places in the photos and make a journey of discovery out of them for my daughter and myself.

I don't dismiss the fact that I'll be using digital techniques to share these tangible, analog images and stories with you.  I believe that will be part of the fun with my daughter to digitally create the images and have discussions about the few clues available to expand on the images and share them.

We have no specific order or process. It will be a fairly random process, and when the opportunity arises, we'll try to bring some chronological order to these images. Perhaps it will all make sense, or perhaps you will make some sense out of it. If nothing else, I hope there will be some interesting conversations sparked by these images.

Welcome and enjoy the journey.