BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Gallery 3): Mail Marks History

DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Gallery 3): Mail Marks History:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MMARKS_131026_010.JPG: Mail Marks History: Stamps and markings on mail reveal transportation and challenges encountered. The effort to move mail ever farther and faster contributed to major advances in transportation technology -- from bicycles to trains, canoes to submarines, balloons to spacecraft. Times of difficulty sparked other innovations in mail delivery. The clues are on the mail.
2. MMARKS_131026_017.JPG: America's Most Famous Stamp Error: In 1918, an error made on a spider press similar to this one produced the inverted Jenny -- the most famous US stamp. No one today knows for sure how the inverted Jenny error occurred. During the second pass, an employee either reversed the plate with the central design -- or reversed the sheet of stamps. The result was an upside-down airplane. To avoid future errors, "TOP" was added to the appropriate side of each plate.
3. MMARKS_131026_031.JPG: Touch an Engraved Image: Feel the design carved into the metal of this die plate. A printer inked the plate, placed a sheet of paper on top, and fed the plate into a spider press. This printing method, called intaglio, is used to print some stamps. Find out how most stamps are printed today in the Connect with US Stamps section of this gallery. After printing on a spider press, the engraved image on the die plate looks like this.
4. MMARKS_131026_054.JPG: History Revealed: Waghorn Cover: British naval lieutenant and entrepreneur Thomas Fletcher Waghorn pioneered an overland mail route between the Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Suez in order to speed up mail delivery between Great Britain and its empire in India. About 200 covers are known to survive with the endorsement "Care of Mr. Waghorn."
5. MMARKS_131026_057.JPG: Clues to a Letter's Journey: How did this mail travel? What route did it take to reach its final destination? How long did it take? What obstacles did the mail encounter along the way? Find answers to these and other questions -- and uncover some fascinating pieces of postal history -- by exploring different kinds of markings on mail. The Clues: * Postage Rates show what services were requested. * Postmarks record where and when mail entered and traveled through the system. * Auxiliary markings give routing directions or indicate special service. * Addresses and handwriting provide information about both sender and recipient. * The envelope's condition delivers clues to handling
6. MMARKS_131026_059.JPG: On Land & Sea: Mail has been delivered in a surprising variety of ways on both land and sea. The origins of modern postal systems date to the 13th century, when printed couriers carried dispatches for governments, churches, universities, and other institutions. Over time, these private systems opened to the public. As populations grew, people tried moving the mail through a range of transportation technologies. Sail and Steam Conquer the Atlantic: Ocean-going ships have transported mail from one continent to another since at least the 1300s. Steamships, introduced in the 1830s, shortened Atlantic Ocean crossings to a little more than two weeks. Over time, more and more steamship companies secured contracts to carry government mail. By the mid-1860s, government mail contracts heavily subsidized the construction and operation of transatlantic passenger liners.
7. MMARKS_131026_067.JPG: April 10, 1912 Letter mailed aboard RMS Titanic: First-class Titanic passenger George E. Graham, a Canadian returning from a European buying trip for Eaton's department store, addressed this folded letter on ship's stationery. Destined for Berlin, it received Titanic's onboard postmark ("Transatlantic Post Office 7") and was sent ashore with the mail, probably at Cherbourg, France. Mail is one of the rarest artifacts from Titanic.
8. MMARKS_131026_071.JPG: Silk Road Letter, 1390: The oldest paper letter in the National Philatelic Collection lies under this panel. It discusses prices of luxury fabrics and spices such as cinnamon and pepper. Mailed by a Venetian merchant in Damascus on November 24, 1390, it was carried by courier to Beirut, where it boarded a Venetian galley. It arrived in Venice on December 26, having traveled 1,650 miles in one month.
9. MMARKS_131026_080.JPG: Britannia Icebound in Boston, 1844: When the Cunard liner Britannia became trapped by ice in Boston harbor, the city's merchants paid for a channel to be cut so their mail would not be further delayed.
10. MMARKS_131026_090.JPG: Spider Press Up until the early 1900s, many stamps were printed on small hand presses like this one. The length and shape of the spindly arms led to the name spider press. Making a multicolored stamp on this press required several impressions. After the printer made one impression, he removed the plates, re-inked them, returned them to the press for the next impression, and re-inserted paper. This process resulted in considerable variations among stamps as well as some major -- even historic -- errors.
11. MMARKS_131026_096.JPG: Delivering Mail in Cities: As cities expanded in size, so did new methods of mail transport. Trains and buses carried mail over long distances. At the turn of the 20th century, horse-drawn wagons and electric streetcars transported mail within most cities. By the 1920s, motorized postal trucks became the dominant form of urban mail transportation. In the United States, as railroads declined, the post office used buses and the new Interstate Highway System to move mail between cities and serve communities in-between. Bridging Distances Over Land: By the 16th century, the princely family of Thurn and Taxis had united most of continental Europe through a private postal system. In colonial America, similar attempts were made to build post roads along the eastern seaboard. None were successful until the 1750s. Water routes remained dominant until the 19th century, when stagecoaches and then railroads enabled large-scale delivery of mail on land.
12. MMARKS_131026_101.JPG: Sea Post Clerk's chest badge, 1891-1940: The badge worn by railway mail clerks served as the model for this badge belonging to a US Post Office Department Sea Post Office clerk. Railway Mail Service clerk's chest badge, 1899
13. MMARKS_131026_109.JPG: Royal Train RPO cancellation die hub, 1939: In 1939, with World War II looming, Great Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth made a goodwill tour of Canada and the United States. This die hub cancelled souvenir mail on board their train.
14. MMARKS_131026_113.JPG: Sea Post Clerk John Starr March's pocket watch, 1912: This watch probably stopped when RMS Titanic sank in the Atlantic. Recovery ship crew members found it on the body of John Starr March, an American sea post clerk.
15. MMARKS_131026_120.JPG: Sea Post Clerk Oscar S. Woody's set of keys, 1912: American Sea Post Clerk Oscar S. Woody perished when RMS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. Recovery ship crew members found this chain of postal keys on his body.
16. MMARKS_131026_133.JPG: 9/11 New York, NY, postmark handstamp, September 11, 2001: This handstamp was recovered from New York's Church Street Station Post Office, which served the World Trade Center. Clerks used it to mark receipts, parcels, and letters.
17. MMARKS_131026_136.JPG: Fire hose nozzle, September 11, 2001: New York City firefighters used this nozzle to battle the fire at the World Trade Center from the windows of the Church Street Station Post Office.
18. MMARKS_131026_145.JPG: 9/11 Return to Sender UNKNOWN handstamp, September 11, 2001: The Church Street Station postal employee used this 'Pointing Hand' stamp to return a mail piece to its sender, when the addressee was not at the address indicated.
19. MMARKS_131026_148.JPG: Mail Marks History In Times of Trouble: Disaster covers provide physical evidence of mail service that was disrupted by natural or human-caused events -- including earthquakes, fires, floods, tornadoes, tsunamis, epidemics, bombings, wars, and robberies. Although the postal service makes great efforts to continue delivery, such disasters interfere with part or all of postal operations. Surviving mail is often rare.
20. MMARKS_131026_153.JPG: Undelivered 9/11 cover, September 11, 2001: On September 11, US Postal Inspectors, aided by the National Guard and local police, retrieved mail at Church Street Station, which served the World Trade Center, and took it to the main post office for processing.
21. MMARKS_131026_155.JPG: Undeliverable 9/11 cover, September 11, 2001: The postal service held World Trade Center mail for three months before returning unclaimed mail -- the first time in the service's history that mail was allowed to remain unclaimed for so long.
22. MMARKS_131026_159.JPG: Cholera fumigated mail, 1831: During the war for Greek independence, when this cover was mailed, cholera moved from Asia to Europe. The hand-stamped cachet refers to the French General Headquarters Army of Morea, the name of Greece's Peloponnese Peninsula at that time.
23. MMARKS_131026_164.JPG: Cholera fumigated mail, December 1, 1774: Inspectors cut slits so sulphur fumes could penetrate inside when they disinfected this cover at a quarantine and fumigation facility in Malta before sending it on to Marseille, France. The treatment caused discoloration.
24. MMARKS_131026_166.JPG: Cholera fumigated mail, November 19, 1848: Venice and Bologna were located in separate countries when this letter was sent. Postmarked in Venice, it was disinfected at the border and marked "disinfettata" in Bologna.
25. MMARKS_131026_170.JPG: Cover inspected for anthrax addressed to Vice President Richard B. Cheney, July 18, 2002: This registered cover from Nigeria passed White House Security clearance, as indicated by the hand-stamped check mark and number 120. The number identifies the examiner who processed the piece.
26. MMARKS_131026_173.JPG: Cover inspected for anthrax addressed to the Office of the Vice President, October 18, 2001: Even mail between government agencies was subjected to inspection. The Federal Aviation Administration sent this letter to one of Vice President Richard B. Cheney's special assistants.
27. MMARKS_131026_179.JPG: Cover inspected for anthrax addressed to Vice President Richard B. Cheney, October 22, 2001: The red check mark and "Cleared" security marking show that the Secret Service approved this cover postmarked Charlotte, North Carolina, for delivery to the Office of the Vice President. In September 2001, letters faced with anthrax began appearing in the mail.
28. MMARKS_131026_185.JPG: Sent to quarantined ship, September 18, 1926: Before ships arriving in New York could dock and unload passengers and cargo, they had to undergo a health clearance. The addressee of this cover was awaiting clearances about RMS Franconia, which had sailed from Liverpool. A mail boat carried the piece to the ocean liner.
29. MMARKS_131026_188.JPG: Zinc ball mail, January 1, 1871: During Germany's 1870-1871 Siege of Paris, the French tried to deliver mail to Paris by placing letters inside zinc balls and floating them down the Seine River. The experiment was not successful, but some balls -- and the letters inside -- were retrieved after the siege.
30. MMARKS_131026_191.JPG: Pigeon mail, November, 1870: During the Siege of Paris, balloons moved mail and carrier pigeons out of the city. The pigeons carried an early form of microphotography that enabled 16 pages of text to be placed on a 1-1/4" by 2" piece of film. Of about 400 pigeons released, only one in eight returned.
31. MMARKS_131026_194.JPG: San Francisco earthquake, April 24, 1906: Postmarked six days after the devastating 1906 earthquake, this cover arrived in Washington, DC on April 30 with 4 cents postage due. Makeshift post offices in San Francisco accepted mail without postage and sent it to the receiving post office, where postage due was assessed and collected from the request.
32. MMARKS_131026_198.JPG: Hurricane Katrina resumption of mail service, April 3, 2006: Katrina struck New Orleans on August 29, 2005. This letter was postmarked on the first day normal first class mail service resulted. For seven months, New Orleans mail was processed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, causing delays of up to a week for mail addressed just across town.
33. MMARKS_131026_211.JPG: Ministry of War, Japan, to Wright Cycle Company, July 18, 1906: In an effort to sell their airplane and patent rights, the Wright brothers negotiated with the war officers of several countries. This envelope may have contained correspondence related to patent rights.
34. MMARKS_131026_217.JPG: T.C. Lowe, Chief of Aeronauts in Union Army of the Potomac, February 16, 1862: During the Civil War, balloonists performed reconnaissance observations to count troops and locate positions. This envelope from Union Gen. Daniel Butterfield contained orders to send up signal balloons.
35. MMARKS_131026_221.JPG: Balloon Jupiter first officer airmail, August 17, 1859: On August 17, 1859, John Wise carried 123 letters and 23 circulars from Lafayette to Crawfordsville, Indiana, in his balloon Jupiter -- the first official flown mail in the United States.
36. MMARKS_131026_228.JPG: Siege of Paris balloon Ville de Paris, December 15, 1870: During Germany's Siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War, balloons carried people and mail out of the city and over enemy lines. The aeronauts on this flight were arrested after landing and held as prisoners of war.
37. MMARKS_131026_232.JPG: Graf Zeppelin and catapult combination flights, September 19, 1934: This is the only known example of zeppelin cover franked by a revenue duck stamp, which was not valid for postage. Markings show that it traveled over 10,000 miles, from New York through England and Germany to Rio de Janeiro, via at least six modes of transportation -- without detection.
38. MMARKS_131026_237.JPG: Charles Lindbergh solo transatlantic flight cover, May 20, 1927: Lingbergh autographed this piece of unstamped, unofficial mail -- one of only four known pieces carried on his first solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris, along with six letters of introduction. Due to concerns about the aircraft's weight, carrying additional mail was out of the question on the risky flight.
39. MMARKS_131026_243.JPG: Charles Lindbergh solo transatlantic flight letter, May 16, 1927: Lindbergh signed this enclosed letter to document that he carried the envelope across the Atlantic Ocean.
40. MMARKS_131026_246.JPG: Amelia Earhart solo transatlantic flight, May 20, 1932: On her historic solo slight across the Atlantic, Earhart carried 50 pieces of unofficial mail -- each postmarked before and after landing, cacheted, numbered, and autographed to document the record-setting event.
41. MMARKS_131026_249.JPG: China Clipper Hawaii transpacific flight, December 5, 1935: This cover flew from Honolulu to San Francisco one the final return leg of the world's first scheduled transpacific flight. A 25-cent airmail stamp with a head-on view of the Pan American Airways seaplane China Clipper was issued for mail carried on the new San Francisco-Manila route.
42. MMARKS_131026_253.JPG: Tuskegee air crew in WWII, December 15, 1943: African-Americans who participated in air crew, ground crew, and operations support training in the Army Air Corps during World War II became known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Their unmatched success led President Truman to desegregate the US military. Sgt. Alexton Squire Boone Jr., of the 99th Fighter Squadron, sent this letter.
43. MMARKS_131026_258.JPG: Howard Hughes world flight, July 10, 1938: Aviator Howard Hughes's world flight began and ended in Brooklyn, New York, in a Lockheed 14 twin-engine passenger plane. The flight took 3 days, 9 hours, and 17 minutes -- shaving more than four days off the previous record. An Aviation Manufacturing Corporation vice-president sent this envelope to Postmaster General James A. Farley.
44. MMARKS_131026_261.JPG: Transpolar world-flight, December 1, 1968: Passengers paid $10,000 for a seat on the first commercial flight to cross both poles and touch down on all continents. The reverse features additional rubber-stamped cachets from various stops.
45. MMARKS_131026_265.JPG: Graf Zeppelin world flight, August 7, 1929: The first passenger-carrying flight around the world covered 21,250 miles in five legs from Lakehurst, New Jersey, back to Lakehurst, and returning to Friedirhcshafen, Germany. Posted from Montreal, this cover was put on board Graf Zeppelin in Lakehurst and flown to Germany. US postage of $1.05 for the first leg appears on the reverse.
46. MMARKS_131026_268.JPG: Challenger Space Shuttle, August 30, 1983: Dated August 14, when the launch was originally scheduled, this cover's cancellation includes NASA's 25th anniversary slogan. The cachet reproduces the patch design for the eighth Space Shuttle. The astronaut crew autographed the envelope for USPS, which had sent a payload of mail.
47. MMARKS_131026_271.JPG: Regulus first official missile mail, June 8, 1959: Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield sent 3,000 letters to President Dwight Eisehower, government officials, postmaster generals worldwide, and former Smithsonian philatelic curator Franklin Bruns, Jr. The letters traveled via a US Navy Regulus I missile fired from the USS Barbero submarine to a naval air station in Florida.
48. MMARKS_131026_277.JPG: Concorde (UK) maiden flight, April 9, 1969: THe world's first supersonic airliner cruised at 1,450 miles per hour. The flight from London to New York on the British-made Concorde 002 took 3 hours and 22 minutes.
49. MMARKS_131026_282.JPG: In Times of Trouble: Wars, natural disasters, epidemics, and other types of adversity have an impact on mail, leaving behind objects that bear testament to history. Pieces of mail that survive challenging circumstances such as these provide evidence of how normal communications were disrupted and how postal authorities coped with formidable obstacles. With the help of innovation ideas, clever inventions, and persistence on the part of postal employees, the mail usually managed to get through -- even during the most difficult times.
50. MMARKS_131026_283.JPG: Epidemics: Authorities have treated the mail in different ways to halt the spread of dreaded diseased they feared would travel with the correspondence. We now know diseases such as yellow fever, plague, cholera, and influenza cannot be transmitted by handling objects such as mail. However, in 2001 the deliberate introduction of anthrax virus to mail killed people, including postal employees.
51. MMARKS_131026_286.JPG: War: Wartime censors have inspected mail to and from military personnel, as well as international civilian mail, to ensure it contained no sensitive information that could fall into enemy hands. Censors also look for evidence of codes and secret inks. Prisoners-of-war mail has been tightly censored -- as has the mail of military staff and civilians during World War II.
52. MMARKS_131026_290.JPG: Disaster and Crime: Natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and tornadoes can disrupt the mail -- as can crimes like train robberies. In the aftermath of such challenges, the postal service makes great efforts to deliver the mail, including repairing mail and waiving fees. As inscribed on the General Post Office building in New York City: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
53. MMARKS_131026_297.JPG: Perforating paddle, 1899: The Montgomery, Alabama, Board of Health used this nail-studded paddle to perforate mail before fumigating it with surfur fumes -- a precaution against yellow fever.
54. MMARKS_131026_302.JPG: San Francisco earthquake mailbox remnant, 1906: When the 1906 earthquake struck, it shook this mailbox front installed in San Francisco's main post office. The mailbox survived and remained in use until 1972.
55. MMARKS_131026_311.JPG: Survivors: The postal objects in this case have endured a war, epidemic, fire, flood, earthquake, and armed robbery. The mailbox remnants weathered two of the worst disasters in the history of the United States -- the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed much of the city and killed more than 3,000 people; and the 1889 flood that wiped out the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing more than 2,000 people.
56. MMARKS_131026_316.JPG: Johnstown, PA, flood mailbox remnant, 1889: On May 31, 1889, a dam ruptured in Pennsylvania's Conemaugh Valley. The ensuing flood destroyed the town of Johnstown. The front of this iron mail collection box survived.
57. MMARKS_131026_322.JPG: By Air & Space: Aviation technology forever changed mail delivery in the United States as well as around the world. From the 1800s on, a wide variety of air and space craft were used to move the mail. Over the years, these craft have increased greatly in speed, size, sophistication, and endurance -- revolutionizing global mail delivery. Markings on mail record the major transitions and milestones that have occurred in airmail service worldwide over the last two centuries.
58. MMARKS_131026_325.JPG: Balloons to Zeppelins: Balloons and gliders carried the first airmail. By the 1920s, zeppelins had established postal routes over long distances. The May 6, 1937, Hindenburg disaster ended this golden era of airships. While attempting to land at Lakehurst, New Jersey, the airship burst into flames. Within 30 seconds, it was destroyed. Two-thirds of the passengers and crew survived -- but most mail burned.
59. MMARKS_131026_329.JPG: Biplanes to Jets: On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. As the 20th century progressed, the speed and reliability of airplanes improved considerably and transformed communication, moving the mail further and faster than ever.
60. MMARKS_131026_331.JPG: May 6, 1937: Hindenburg disaster card: Under this panel is a piece of mail salvaged from the wreckage of the airship Hindenburg. The burnt card reached its address in a glassine with an official seal. At least 360 letters and cards of the more than 17,000 pieces of mail on board the airship survived the disastrous fire.
61. MMARKS_131026_344.JPG: May 8-27, 1919: NC-4 Transcontinental Flight cover: The envelope under this panel is the only piece of mail carried by the NC-4, the first airplane to fly across the Atlantic Ocean from the United States to Portugal. An aviation machinist wrote the letter to his brother in the American Expeditionary Forces in France.
62. MMARKS_131026_347.JPG: Pilot Eddie Gardner's aviation goggles, 1921: One of the first pilots hired by the Post Office Department, Eddie Gardner set a record by flying from Chicago to New York in a single day (September 10, 1918). He was wearing these borrowed goggled when his airplane crashed during an aviation tournament in 1921. He died from injuries.
63. MMARKS_131026_353.JPG: Regulus missile mail container, June 8, 1959: In 1959 the US Navy fired a Regulus 1 missile from a submarine, directing it to land 100 miles away in Florida. Inside were this and another container holding 3,000 letters -- the first and only time a US missile carried mail.
64. MMARKS_131026_360.JPG: Regulus 1 missile fired from USS Barbero
65. MMARKS_131026_363.JPG: Rockets to Spacecraft: In the 1900s, scientists used balloons and rockets to explore the stratosphere and space for the first time. Only a few of these space missions carried mail, either privately by astronauts or as payload. Markings on this mail document these early space explorations as well as later space flights and missions.
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Description of Subject Matter: Mail Marks History
September 22, 2013 – Permanent
The markings on mail provide valuable clues to the surprising ways mail has been transported over time, revealing challenges and even disasters encountered along the way. Learn to analyze and decipher these marking by tracing the journeys of three historic letters and investigate markings on mail transported on land, across seas, by air, and in space. Among the many historic artifacts on view are a 1390 Silk Road letter; a letter mailed aboard the Titanic during its first and only voyage; Amelia Earhart’s brown leather flight suit; a mailbox remnant from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake; and a mailbox from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Gallery 3): Mail Marks History) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
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- 2014_DC_SIPM_Stamp_Salon: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Gallery 5): National Stamp Salon (1 photo from 2014)
- 2013_DC_SIPM_Stamps_World: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Gallery 1): World of Stamps (27 photos from 2013)
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- 2014_DC_SIPM_Stamps_Globe: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Gallery 6): Stamps Around the Globe (34 photos from 2014)
- 2015_DC_SIPM_Stamps_Globe: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Gallery 6): Stamps Around the Globe (135 photos from 2015)
- 2013_DC_SIPM_Stamps_Globe: DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Gross Gallery 6): Stamps Around the Globe (23 photos from 2013)
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) Postal Museum] [Display ALL (Smithsonian) Postal Museum photos] [Museums (History)] [Museums (Other)]
2013 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000 and Nikon D600. Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS [to which I added a week to to visit sites in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee], and Richmond, VA), and my 8th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including sites in Nevada and California). Ego Strokes: Aviva Kempner used my photo of her as her author photo in Larry Ruttman's "American Jews & America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball" book. Number of photos taken this year: just over 570,000.
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Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].