Thanks to an NPR blog, I’ve learned of an extraordinary blog that seems St. Louis based. It ranges from political content to historical stuff and beyond, in a way that I associate with the early days of the blogosphere but thought might have been gone.
The first picture might be the earliest photograph of a human being, from St. Louis in 1838. Even if it isn’t the earliest, it’s a beautiful picture. Look very carefully, and you’ll see a guy perhaps having his shoes shined.
And then there’s another one:
The second remarkable picture? Look at the guy with the guitar.
It’s Jimi Hendrix, in 1961.
There’s a lot else going on in this blog (e.g. the only known film of Mark Twain) Check it out.
h/t jlw in comments.
Photograph quality much improved from 1826 to 1836
IF you did not see this, this thread is as good a place as any to drop this:
There is an interesting web site about Paul R. Williams, a black architect who designed the original St. Jude Hospital, the Ambassador Hotel in LA, etc. Pretty interesting stuff.
Cut & paste the link: http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org.
The 1838 photo is amazing. Good post although you probably won’t get 38 comments on this one. Aren’t you ready to throw out some more red meat?
I have to say I spent a good deal of time on the photo slant to the blog and stopped by a couple of stories. Thanks for the mention…bookmarked for future refs. Also, took a few ideas…
Thanks so much, Tom, for the very kind words about the Goombah. A lot going on here too.
Oxford? Faulkner. Very cool. Nobody famous ever came out of Hokumburg—unless you count moonshine runners.
—Gig
[...] Hokumburg Goombah is a local blog encountered via distant sites. NMissCommentor pointed to it in reference to an amazing discovery in photography. NPR‘s Robert Krulwich posted First Photo [...]