Photo Sharing Theme of the Week: Favorite

Question

This week's photo sharing theme: Favorite.

To participate, simply:

1. Choose a family photo that fits this week's theme.
2. Add it to this week's free-space gallery.
3. Reply with an answer below to let us know which photo you're sharing. If you want to include the photo but don't know how, click here.

The photo you share might be featured on the WikiTree home page and in our social media channels as next week's Family History Photo of the Week.

If you use a social network (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) you might want to share your photo there as well. This can be a great way to involve more family members. Many people love seeing old family photos. Be sure to add #52weeksofphotos and #wikitree to your post.

Also see: Profile Accuracy Theme of the Week: Mother's Day.

Comments

I’m trying to add a photo.

It’s been added to the Space but what now?

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Try following these instructions.

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Thanks. I use an iPad and  I was able to get the information but jeepers it is quite a process!

Answer 1

Of all the many photos of my family, this is actually my favorite old photo. From studying the magazine dates, I believe it was taken in 1914. My grand uncle Charles McCleery is behind the counter and is manager of the Harvey System newsstand in Deming, New Mexico. The newsstand is in the Santa Fe Railroad Station. These Fred Harvey newsstands are often considered the 20th century forerunner of the modern day convenience store.

Comments

Your grand uncle looks so smartly dressed Alexis and what a curious assortment of things he had to sell!

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Your photograph is so cool! It looks like a Norman Rockwell print. I do model railroading, and even before I read that this was located in the Santa Fe Station, I was thinking to myself, this is the perfect kind of scene steam-era railroader modelers like to build in miniature.

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Thank you Bryan fit your great comment. I hope it will give you some good ideas for your model.

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Thank you Gillian, this photo has always fascinated me with the cigars, dolls and other toys.

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Thank you, Alexis, for this wonderful photo. It all looks so natural, everyone doing their business, except for the little girl who has 'caught' the cameraman at his work.

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Alexis this is a great photo. I can almost hear the foot steps on the wood floor and smell the wood and cigars. I like the look on the girls face.

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Robin thank you for the comment. I have always thought the little girl was a very interesting part of the photo. She is so well dressed.

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Thank you Stacie for your comment, and I would imagine that there was plenty of cigar smoking on the train.

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ooh and the illustrated magazines ..! and the "bon ton"!

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Brought back memories of news stands, I visited, to buy automobile, steam train and aeroplane magazines in my early years.......then, I recognized Fred Harvey's name from research, last year, which sent me off on a related revisit of trains, stations, routes and geography.  Thankyou, Alexis and Charles McCleery for the trip down memory lane. 

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Gio, it must have been a fabulous fashion magazine!

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Thank you John for your memories.

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Alexis I absolutely love this old photo from 1814, I can certainly understand why this is one of your favourite

Thank you for sharing this wonderful photo

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Susan, thank you for your always nice comment.

Answer 2

This is a favorite photo of my Mom and her Mom.  It's undated, as usual for our family, but must be from the late 1940's.

Comments

My family never dated the photos and most of the time there was no name either. Your mom looks like her mom.

Answer 3

Difficult theme, as I have a great many photos I'm very fond of, but I'm going to go with one I've already uploaded- I put this one up here on WikiTree a couple weeks back when we had the question about artists for the question of the week, but I want to repost it, because it's my favorite photo of my grandfather, who I've been posting a lot of photos of, because he passed away last November. I learnt just this morning of yet another death in my extended family, the fifth in the past year, & I've been making a point of collecting photos for each of those people. Of all of them, my grandfather was the man I was closest to, & I intend to continue working on improving his profile & documenting his life.

As labeled, this was taken September 1968; at the time, William A. Koehnline was serving as the Dean of Instruction at Harrisburg Area Community College in Harrisburg, PA, & this was about a year before he was offered the job of President of the new Oakton Community College in Morton Grove, IL. My grandfather had a lifelong love of art, having been introduced to great works of the visual, musical & literary by his mother, & to certain movements of the art world, especially the surrealists, by his father's sisters: all in all, four women who greatly shaped his character. He wasn't much of an artist in his youth, but beginning in the '60s he started creating many of these fantastical & surreal sculptures of cardboard & other materials he could get his hands on, such as the one displayed here. I've always loved this photo just because of how goofy & joyful he looks in it; I wish I'd known him then.

Comments

He does look joyful and maybe a little goofy. That is a cool creation, I wish we could see it from the front.

Answer 4

I have chosen this photograph of my great grandfather William Cartwright, he joined the Manchester City Police force in 1873 and served for 40 years, retiring on a pension at the age of 71 which was very unusual at the time. It was being given this photo that started me on my family history journey and it is the only photo we have of him.

Comments

Gillian, you certainly have a treasure with this photo of your great grandfather. Thank you for sharing your wonderful photo.

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A very interesting photo. ny idea what the chain connects to? a badge, a whistle, a pocket watch maybe?

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Gillian, I agree with Alexis. This photo is very special and your great-grandfather looks so distinguished. Thank you for sharing this.

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This is a wonderful photo. Thank you for sharing this treasure. He looks stern but has a kindness in his eyes.

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He was a Bobby!

Answer 5

A favorite picture of mine, I retired from the Air Force in Washington DC in 2008. Somehow, I convinced my 76-year-old father who had retired from the Army in 1982, to put on his uniform and ride the Metro with me for a photograph together in front of the Pentagon. Security was extremely tight, and there was no where that allowed photography. I approached a horse-mounted policeman and told him what I wanted to do. He said he was sorry, but the entire area was under surveillance, and he could not allow me to take a picture. As a matter of fact, he would have to confiscate my camera. I handed him my camera and he looked it over carefully. He said, "Stand together." and snapped the picture, after which he handed the camera back to me and said "Gentlemen, you must now leave the area."

Comments

What a story! What a lovely policeman and a wonderful memory to have.

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Bryan you were so fortunate to have this photo, no wonder it is your favorite. You and your father are both so handsome in your uniforms. Thank you for sharing your story and photo.

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Cool story.

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Wow what a story, and a cool picture

Answer 6

This is one of my favourite photos, my kids taken about 2004, they loved sitting in the rain. They are on the front door step.

Comments

They are so cute

Answer 7

This was one of the favorite photos of my paternal grandmother, Emma Auguste Lewerenz, née Reher. It was taken in 1943 and showed her daughter Anita Lewerenz (1931-1952) at the age of 13 in school in Leezen, Segeberg County, Schleswig-Holstein Province, Prussia State, German Reich.
Anita was killed in a tragic traffic accident in 1952 at the age of 21.

Comments

Thank you Dieter for sharing such a precious photo of dear little Anita. I love that she is on the front row holding up her hand, probably because she can answer the teacher’s questions.

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Sie ist so ein Schönes Mädchen. I especially like her braided hair.

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She looks so confident, she knows she has the right answer.

Answer 8

This was my father's favorite picture. He carried it in his wallet for many years. His three favorite people: my mother, my sister, and me. His favorite possession was probably this car, whose name was Nancy O. Usually my sister and I rode in the back seat, but sometimes we got to ride in the rumble seat, which magically appeared when my father opened the special door and unfolded it. Then we could climb in through the back seat into the special seat which was just our size. I remember the rumble seat fondly, but I had forgotten that the hood opened from the sides rather than the front, and that it had running boards. I remember posing for this picture. I wanted to be sure everyone could see the apple blossoms I had just picked, and I wanted to be sure that the dog Boots got into the picture. Boots was probably not my father's favorite dog. He used to chase the chickens. The chickens lived inside a fence, but Boots kept forgetting about the fence and crashing into it when he set out after the chickens. But favorite or not, I made sure he was in the picture.

Comments

I really love old cars. You say he named her Nancy O? Any idea why? Could it have been an Oldsmobile per chance? The way you're dressed, it looks like you've just left church, and with the hood up,it looks like you didn't make it home. I know I'm reading way too much into the details.

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Thank you, Joyce, for your wonderful commentary to go with this wonderful photos.  It's very special.

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Joyce,  I wonder....did Boots get to ride in the car?....and with as much enthusiasm as the chicken episodes?  Thanks to Bryan, the car appears to be a '36 Olds 3 window coupe, also known as a business coupe.  Then, 'Nancy O'......Ransom E. Olds.......listened to, as it rolls off the tongue, sounds like..............

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Bryan and John: you know more about cars than I do, but it may have been a Chevrolet, My father was always partial to Chevys. In 1953 he bought a NEW! car, a Chevy Handyman station wagon. As it was a HandyMAN, he gave it the male name Junior. . . but I have not idea why the rumble seat and the hood are unfolded in this picture, unless he just wanted to show them off.

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No, Bryan, we were not dressed for church. In 1950, women and girls wore cotton dresses most of the time. Here's a picture of us dressed for Easter 1950. My parents are wearing the same clothes they wore at their wedding in 1939. My sister and I are wearing coats my grandmother made us, and patent leather shoes.

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Ah ha!  Joyce, you are correct......a Chevy it is......confirmed by the 2 parallel horizontal moldings on the side of the hood, which are different on the Olds.

Answer 9

This is my favorite photo of my Dad ( Richard Campbell ) and his sister( LaVelda Campbell ). They were children of a coal miner. They were very close and she always looked out for her little brother Donald. 

Comments

Yes, it looks like sis has everything under control.

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Deborah, I remember you, previously, identifying the 'trestle photo' as for coal cars and, then, on last weekends 'chat' found myself researching coal mining in Centerville, Iowa and, now, getting to know a coal mining family......lovely! 

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Yes, my Great Grandfather worked the coal mines around Glasgow Scotland. In 1868 he set sail to America, the land of dreams and worked the coal mines of Sharon and Scot Haven  in Mercer co. PA. In 1882 he moved his family by covered wagon to Appanoose co. Brazil Iowa where he worked various mines and had his own drift mine and supplied the locals with coal and became a local preacher.

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Great to know more to the story.  

Answer 10

This is my favorite picture of my grandmother and 4 of her siblings taken in 1919 or 1920. My grandmother, Edith Mae Johnson 1910-1991, is the oldest child. Also, in the photo are her parents, Travis Preston Johnson 1886-1960 & Hettie Mae Brownlow 1893-1975, and Hettie's mother, Texanna Jordan 1861-1939. The siblings are Doshia Lee Johnson 1911- 1987, Charles Radford Johnson 1913-1981, Maggie Frances Johnson 1915-1950, and Harry George Johnson 1918-1951. When I look at my grandmother in this picture I can see how much my mom, my cousin, and I look like her and each other. I will be working on Maggie's profile this week, Johnson-59632. I never got to meet her she died at 34 yrs old leaving 8 children from 3 to 17 yrs old. She died just 6 months before her brother Harry. I have already worked my grandmother's profile.

Comments

A wonderful family photo, Stacie.  I, also, especially enjoy 'old' automobiles.....that are new. 

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I enjoy the automobiles too, you can see their old wagon in the back ground.

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I see the wagon......and recognize the car, by the radiator, as a Twin Six Packard......an impressive automobile!

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John thank you I had no idea what kind of car it was.

Answer 11

My dad enjoyed photography; he enjoyed taking the photos, developing and printing the photos. When we were children we never knew when we would turn around and find him with a camera in his hand or he might gather us up along with our friends to take posed action shots -- like playing cowboys and indians in our backyard. Sometimes his photos were published in the local newspaper.

This is one of my favorites, my brother, in about 1960, when he was about three years old. Obviously it's a posed photo. My dad seemed very good at getting the look he wanted out of us.

Comments

Robin,  I am enjoying this photo of your brother.....growing up in the black and white era, I thought the photos showed much character.

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Robin, how wonderful that your father took the photos and then developed them and printed them himself. This is a fabulous photo—with the central focus being his eye and his head resting on his dear little hands. What a precious photo.

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Thank you, John. I agree often black and white photos do show things we miss with color.

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Thank you, Alexis. I agree, he does look precious -- but he was certainly all boy. I'm glad my dad was able to capture this side of him.

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Robin what a amazing photo a gorgeous of your brother

Thank you for sharing

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Thank you, Susan! (Glad to see you back!)

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You are always so sweet Robin wonderful to be back.

Answer 12

I have many, many favorite photos.  This photo of my grandfather and his Uncle Art and Art's partner, Albert Elsey, with Grandpa's dog Fibber Magee is one of them.

Comments

Mark.....Back in '53/'54, when at Ft. St. John in northern B.C., I used to listen to Fibber Magee and Molly in the evening, when the radio reception was good.....did Molly take the photo?

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Gorgeous photo Mark of your granddad and you his uncle, what an adorable dog

Thank you for sharing this wonderful photo

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Thank you, Susan.  My grandfather had a series of Irish setters, beginning with Fibber Magee, who were like members of the family.  I knew Terry McGuire and Rusty I and II.  They were all wonderful dogs, although dad always said that Fibber was the best of the bunch, incredibly smart and attuned to each member of the family.

Answer 13

This is probably one of my favorite photos, simply because it is a look into a fairly normal day. This photo was taken sometime in the 1950s, and it features my grandparents Robert D. Ward & Patricia J. Ward (Stewart). It also shows my Great-Grandmother Mildred L. Goodson (Defendorf) standing behind Patricia.

Comments

It is interesting, Robert, what stories a photo can tell.....thankyou for that opportunity.  

Answer 14

This must have been my favorite photo, as I carried it in my wallet for years, when I set out to conquer the world.  My father, William Henry Thompson, age 28, on an 'Atlantic' steamship in 1928.  He had just ridden across North America on his Harley Davidson motorcycle enroute to the U.K. to get married.                                                                 

Comments

John, your father certainly had movie star looks. I can see how this could be a favorite photo.

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Thankyou, Alexis.....He is cousin Rex's uncle.

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John, I can understand why you would carry this photo when you "set out to conquer the world" as it sounds as if your father was also doing that. Imagine riding a motorcycle cross country in 1928! And then boarding a steamship so he could get married. Sound like quite an adventure -- thank you for sharing this.

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Robin,  He was my link to past ancestors and how they wished us to behave.......I hope to pass the same along.

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I am still a bit confused by this romantic tale. He rode his motorcycle from British Columbia to New York by way of Arizona (hardly the most direct route). He then got on a ship for England. What did he do with the motorcycle? Did he say farewell to it in New York, or bring it on the ship? In this picture he is wearing his dress-up clothes. Did he bring them from home on his motorcycle too?

We have a family story that my great-grandfather rode a bicycle from his home in Roxton Pond, Quebec to Cohoes, New York, where he married his sweetheart, but there is no way of proving this story.  He neglected to mail anyone a postcard on his trip.

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Joyce,  My father left Kelowna early in 1928 and due to the weather and lack of highways travelled south to Pasadena, California, across Texas and on to New York, where, as he told me, he quickly sold the motorcycle.  Having been a young Royal Navy officer in WWI he was capable of travelling light in regards to the large duffle bag on the back of the Harley.                                                                 

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Wow John your dad look gorgeous like a Hollywood actor

Thank you for sharing this wonderful photo

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Thankyou, Susan. His younger brother, "Jack", was a Broadway stage actor in New York.                                           

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That is understanding, he is a very handsome man too.

Thank you for sharing this

Answer 15

Favorite? Oh, wow! There are so many old family photos that I like a lot for various reasons. This may be my favorite photo of my mother, Florence McClain (1910-2002), as a teenager, even though it has some minor flaws. She was 14 here, picking sweet peas outside the family home in Tallman, Oregon, USA. All her life my mother loved to grow flowers. I wish I knew who took this photo, because I'd love to credit the photographer. I love the lighting and composition. (As far as I know, this was just a family snapshot.) For a photo that is nearly 100 years old, it seems remarkably sharp.

Comments

Thank you Lloyd for sharing such a lovely photo of your mother, and you are right about it being so sharp for a photo nearly hundred years old. I have a bunch of photos that are sadly very faded.

Answer 16

This has always been my favorite photo of my maternal grandfather Virgil Scott Miller.  He is aside his old Maxwell with two of his cousins in the back seat, Lewis and Shawhan.  I colorized this photo a few years ago.  Photo taken c.1915 outside of Hutchinson, Kansas.  I call it "Bourbon Breakdown", since it was a dry state.

Here's the original.

Comments

Thank you Scott for sharing such a great photo of your grandfather Virgil Miller. I love the way you are able to colorize photos.

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Scott......I'll raise my arm to these photos.  

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Ha!  Thanks John!

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Terrific photo, Scott.  Looks like Bourbon Breakdown is going downhill.  My grandfather used to climb hills in reverse because the gas shifted in the tank going forward bringing the car to a sputtering stop.

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Scott thank you for sharing this wonderful photo, what a gorgeous car

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Very interesting Pat!  I always thought that going up hill in reverse was my other grandfather's, Orie Lee, idea!  "...Orie would drive his Model T truck over the San Bernadino Mountains south to the watermelon fields and fill his truck so heavy with watermelons he would have to drive backwards in reverse to get the big load over the mountain into Los Angeles. Reverse in the lowest gear, lower the first!   Never heard the 'gas tank' story but it makes sense!  Thanks!

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Scott, if the gas tank wasn't full, you couldn't get up a steep hill by going forward.  You backed up the hill.  But carrying a heavy load like watermelons, that makes sense too.  Dad said the gas tank was under the front seat.  You got out of the car, lifted the front seat cushion and used a wooden stick to test how much gas you had.  Ah, the wonderful world of primitive cars, gorgeous to look at, challenging to drive.

Answer 17

This is one of my favorite family photos.  She was my great-grand aunt.  Winnifred “Winnie” (McCance) Adams. Ca. 1925 [McCance-105]

Comments

Thank you Jared for sharing such a beautiful photo of great-grand aunt Winnie.

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Winnie is beautiful! And she looks very sure of herself, looking straight into the camera. Thank you, Jared, for sharing this photo.

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Winnie my favorite too!  Great photo!

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Lovely photo of Winnie; her choice of hat and pearls, most becoming.

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Jared your great aunt Winnie look adorable

Thank you for sharing

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A beautiful photo, Jared, and, I think I would have a hard time telling her apart from her sister, Ora, your great grandmother.

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Thanks John.  Thanks everyone

Answer 18

5 Feb 2021.. Looking out over the Lower Fraser Valley B.C.     from our sundeck... one of my favorite photos..                       

Comments

Thanks, Kathleen, for such a lovely picture. These photo challenges are fun because there are so many different kinds of pictures.

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It's just midnight......no moon tonight......the coyote pack has just started howling as they chase a rabbit on the dike road below the tall trees.

Answer 19

Here is my dad in late August of 1952 waving goodbye to his family as he boards the plane in Taipei to come to the United States.  His first destination was a post-graduate fellowship in obstetrics at Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital in New Jersey.  He was 28.  If you zoom in on the photo, you can see his big grin.  This is a favorite photo of mine, but also one that always hits me in the gut because I can imagine how many emotions were a part of his departure from Taiwan.  Throughout his life, my father was something of a pack rat.  In this case that was good because he even saved the card that he received on this Northwest Airlines flight granting him membership in the International Date Line Club!

Comments

In 1952, his family could probably come onto the tarmac to wave goodbye, except for the person who was too busy with the camera to wave. They too must have had mixed emotions. Thanks for an interesting picture.

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Betsy,  As I zoomed in on his smile it occurred to me, at age 28 he was at the same age as my father, starting one of his own journeys.

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Hi John—Do tell.  What was your father’s journey at that age?

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Betsy,  His journey was from the west coast of North America, by road, to New York, then to England......the distance travelled......similar to that of your father.

Answer 20

I've shared this before but I'd have to say this is my favourite picture. A picture that far back has to be a treasure. It was in a book about the family history I came across last year written by a cousin who was a school teacher and went to Germany about twenty some years ago and researched the family origins there. She's deceased now and she did not indicate how she found the portrait from that time period but she was meticulous in her research so I have to assume it really is Johannes (no surnames then), my oldest known ancestor (great x10 grandfather) who lived in Gorinchem, Holland (origin of our family name). Nothing is known about Johannes but his dress indicates someone of some means (who else could afford a portrait) and his son was a merchant who moved to Germany where the descendants owned a mill (die Schabenmühle) in Westhofen 1654-1746 (building still exists) until the last known of the line ... two brothers ... came to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1752. (The date below is his birth so my guess is the portrait would be about 1560-1570 thereabouts.) 

Comments

I give up. Google Translate tells me they had a "scraping mill." What do you suppose it scraped? Johannes is a handsome dude. Do you look like him?

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It was some sort of grain mill, at one point it was called an oil mill so presuming they pressed grain to extract oil. The history of the mill was printed in a German book and I have a copy of the pages that I've been translating. The last part is missing but that was after my ancestors left Germany. It's fascinating. I contacted the town office of Westhofen and the mayor emailed back with the location of the building. Some information is on my web site here. However the name "Schaben" as far as I can tell came from the name of an earlier owner which was spelled similarly. (If you try to translate the name as two words, Google Translate gives you "scraping mill" however if you translate "schabenmühle" as one word, it gives you "cockroach mill" .)

As for looking like him, your guess is as good as mine (I'm a lousy judge of that). My picture is on my profile - along with four previous generations of fathers/grandfathers if you backtrack their profiles. Nice portrait of my Great Great Grandfather there - he would have been my second choice for this question.

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Excellent portrait, Roderick.  Johannes looks as if he is with us today!