1947 Color Slides - NOT Kodachrome!

[doubs43]

Here are two quickly scanned color slides from 1947 on 6x6 format. The first person to correctly identify the brand of film used will get a big "Congratulations"!

I hope to later work with these two images and the remainder of the roll to correct the blemishes that are all too obvious but after 60 years who doesn't have a few here and there? The film has been stored in the original mailer all these years. Postage paid was 1 1/2 cents for 4th class mail. I have no idea what camera was used but it's possible it was a Rolleicord.... pre-war, of course.

The first image is of a man who was like a second father to me growing up. A Navy Vet of WW2, he's sadly passed away 8 or 9 years ago.


Mickey wanted to see the Point of Rocks railway station in color. While the intensity of the colors are not as vivid as a recent picture would show, what's seen is the station as it was 60 years ago when the control tower on the right was still there. Note the baggage carts on the platform in front of the station.


Walker

[nikonbob]

Walker

Would the film be Agfa?

Bob

[mickeyobe]

Walker,

If photography did nothing other than preserve such memories as you have in these photos it would still have to be called one of the world's most important inventions.

Is the film Ektachrome?

Mickey

[doubs43]

Bob & Mickey, not Agfa or Kodak film. Hint: The name was also used on some rather inexpensive cameras from that time period and later years.

Walker

[mickeyobe]

Anscochrome?

[doubs43]

mickeyobe said:

Anscochrome?

A BIG "Congratulations" to Mickey! Anscochrome is correct. The slides are still in the original mailer with a postmark of 4-6-'47. They were processed by "ANSCO Color Laboratory, BINGHAMTON, N.Y."

It's my thought that being kept in the dark all these years has reduced the fading and kept the slides reasonably decent. There are other interesting shots on the roll that I'll get to later but I wanted you to see the RR station as it was 60 years ago.

Walker

[SidW]

As usual, the dust has settled before I turn up!

I think Agfa wasn't a bad suggestion. Walker's pictures haven't thinned much, but have tended towards magenta (and the patches of grass have lost their green). Just like my own Agfa transparencies from the late 1950s.

The few Gevachrome transparencies I have are indeed transparent now, nothing left on them, absolutely clear. Not like these two pictures.

I have plenty of Ektachrome slides from that period - all have yellowed heavily, sometimes evenly, sometimes in spots. Not at all the colour shift we see above.

[doubs43]

Sid, IMO Agfa was an excellent guess and would probably have been mine had I not known. I still marvel at the quality of some of Dr. Paul Wolff's color images taken on Agfa film before and during the war.

My oldest Kodachromes date to the late 1960's and early 1970's. They've held up quite well. Ektachrome generally doesn't do as well over time.

I hope to find more color slides in my father's collection although the 35mm color negatives I've seen so far are not in good condition with many having stuck together. They were poorly stored in a damp basement and I should have brought them home years ago.

Walker

[mickeyobe]

Walker,

"The negatives are still in the original mailer with a postmark of 4-6-'47. They were processed by "ANSCO Color Laboratory, BINGHAMTON, N.Y."

Were these slides made from negatives?

Mickey

[doubs43]

mickeyobe said:

Walker,

"The negatives are still in the original mailer with a postmark of 4-6-'47. They were processed by "ANSCO Color Laboratory, BINGHAMTON, N.Y."

Were these slides made from negatives? Mickey

My mistake, Mickey. I've corrected it to read "slides". They are 6x6 positives.

Walker