I have scanned hundreds of photos for the New Ipswich Historical Society.  The majority of these are fairly mundane. They include photos of homes, formal portraits,  graduation photos,  and town events.

However I am always glad to find something that can’t be explained, something that makes me wonder about the backstory . Sometimes I can figure it out, sometimes a reader can fill in the details, and sometimes we have to let the mystery be. Here are two examples.

The Tourist

Isn’t this a great photo? The photo was captioned  “The Tourist”. Was the photo taken in New Ipswich? Did she make the chair? Was a cap and partial cape fashionable? There is no way to know. I cannot solve the puzzle. We had chair factories in town, but this is a bit more primitive. I’m baffled.

War Games for Colleges

At first glance I thought this photo was taken in WWI. It had the look of something taken in that time. However that would not explain why the women and boy were at General Pew’s Headquarters. This couldn’t be the front lines. I was was confused by the caption “Red ????”, could that be Red Army? Was this just a simulation? A war game between the Red and Blue?

This is where Google came to my rescue. I did a search of Brigadier General William A. Pew and discovered a New York Time article that was published December 21, 1915.

WAR GAME FOR COLLEGES. Proposed by Gen. Pew to a Cheering Crowd of Harvard Men. CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 20. — a war game between regiments composed of students of Yale and Harvard Universities was proposed today by William A. Pew, retired, Brigadier General of the National Guard of this State, at a meeting of Harvard students at which 1,200 enrolled for military training.

Harvard and Yale probably had great fun playing at war in 1915. I bet they never counted on it being for real in 1917. This is why we study history.