Puerto Rico, 1940s and 1950s

My name is Tom Lehman. My parents worked in church service projects in Ethiopia from 1948 to 1950 and in Puerto Rico from 1952-1956 and 1959-1961.

In late 2005 I bought a slide scanner, scanned the slides my father had taken while in Ethiopia and Puerto Rico to make copies for family members. I posted some of them to Flickr, an Internet photo sharing site. The reaction amazed me.

For many viewers, these slides were a record of their history, of a way of life that has disappeared. The slides were a window into the past.

I decided to see if others had similar slides I could scan that would add to and enrich the collection. There were, and the project was born.

To see the project photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlehman/

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The people who took these pictures were members of the Mennonite and Church of the Brethren churches, two of the historic peace churches. During World War II, members of these churches, who were conscientiously opposed to serving in the military, served in Civilian Public Service (CPS) in projects of national importance.

In 1898, as a result of the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. At the time, most of the land in Puerto Rico was owned by a few wealthy families, with most people living in poverty. During the New Deal, the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) began to redistribute land, build concrete houses, clinics, schools and community centers. When World War II began, the government wasn't able to keep these programs going. The door opened for CPS workers to continue some of these New Deal programs in Puerto Rico.

In 1942, Church of the Brethren CPS men began work at Castañer on PRRA facilities, starting a hospital, the first in rural Puerto Rico. In 1943, Mennonite CPS men came to La Plata and opened a hospital there. Several hundred persons served on these two projects over several decades doing medical, agricultural, educational, social, recreational, and economic development work.

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These photos show a landscape and a way of life in transition. I'm putting them online for people to enjoy, to learn about the past, to connect to their roots. I hope educators and scholars can find uses for them.

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I've been fortunate enough to be able to obtain slide collections from people who took photos in Puerto Rico in the 1940s and 1950s (or from their children), preserved them all these years, and now have been kind enough to let me borrow and scan them.

I don't know what is in the slide collections until I scan them.

I add Flickr tags to the photos to make them searchable, so you might try typing what you are looking for in the "Search t13hman's photos" search box. Put quotations around a two word search, "San Sebastian", but Cayey.

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I want the information about the photos to be as accurate and complete as possible. If you have corrections or other information about places, customs, and so on, shown in the photos, please add a comment to the photo. I update the titles and descriptions of photos based on information in the comments.

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Slide Collections Scanned

Pulguillas, 1950s

Photographer	Place and dates in Puerto Rico
Dr. H. Clair Amstutz	La Plata, Oct. 1944-Aug. 1947
Clarence Baer
Luke Birky	La Plata, Mar. 1947-June 1950; Oct. 1950-1952(?))
John Brandeberry	La Plata, July 1948-1951
Paul Brenneman
Homer Burke	Castañer
Dick Burkholder
Lowell Cender	La Plata, early 1950s
Joanne Church	Castañer
Ron Collins	La Plata, early-mid 1950s(?)
Bill Coston	Castañer, 1942-46)
Carl Crandall	Visited PR in 1958, 1962, 1965)
Amos Delagrange	Aibonito, late 1950s
John Driver	La Plata, Nov. 1945-July 1948
Robert Ebey	Castañer, 1948-early 1950
Robert Ehret
Carl Epp	La Plata, Sept. 1943-Mar. 1946
Rohrer Eschleman
Caleb Frantz	Castaner, Nov. 1943-June 1950 (had camera summer 1949-June 1950)
David Furman	Rio Piedras, 1954-74
Dr. Lavern Gerig	La Plata, 1956-58
Clayton Gingerich	La Plata, July 1946-Jan. 1948
Carol Glick	Pulguillas, principal at Escuela Menonita Betania
Evelyn Good	La Plata, 1947-1950
Maynard Good	La Plata, June 1949-Jan. 1951
John Grasse	La Plata and Aibonito, mid-late 1950s
Lawrence Greaser	La Plata, Jan. 1946-Jan. 1947; Aibonito for a number of years afterwards
David and Mary Groh	La Plata, late 1950s
Dwight and Imy Hanawalt	Castañer, 1942-46
Ellwyn Hartzler	La Plata, 1949-1950(?)
Don Heiser	Aibonito, pastor
David Helmuth	Aibonito, pastor
Roy and Glennys Henry	Barranquitas, 1948-49
Dean Hochstetler	La Plata, 1949-1952
Justus Holsinger	La Plata, July 1943-Apr. 1946; Sept. 1948-June 1952
Maurice Hooley	La Plata, early 1950s
R.J. Hower	La Plata, late 1940s-late 1950s or early 1960s(?)
Dean Kagarise	Castañer, late 1953-mid 1955
Allen Kanagy	La Plata, 1955-56
Martha Kanagy	Pulguillas, teacher at Escuela Menonita Betania
Dale Kaser	La Plata and Aibonitos, 1950s
Dr. Ben Kenagy	La Plata, mid 1950s
John Kidwell
Amos E. Kreider
Paul Landis	La Plata
Melvin Lauver
Paul Lauver	La Plata, Pulguillas, Cayey, 1946-1957
Orpha Leatherman	La Plata, late 1940s; Cauahtemoc, Mexico, early 1950; Rancho Veloz and Sagua la Grande, Cuba, mid-1950s
Paul Leatherman	La Plata, Dec. 1945-Nov. 1948
Carl M. Lehman	La Plata, Sept. 1943-Dec. 1945
Elmer Lehman	Aibonito, 1954-56
John Lehman	La Plata, 1952-56; Pulguillas, 1959-61
Allen Martin	La Plata, 1949-52; 1961-68
Horace Martin
Jason S. Martin	La Plata
James Miller	Castañer, 1960-62
Stanley Miller	Barranquitas, principal at Barranquitas Baptist Academy
John Murray
Wilbur Nachtigall	La Plata, June 1943-July 1947; Palo Hincado, 1949-1954
Eldo Neufeld	La Plata, 1949-1950(?)
Addona Nissley	La Plata, Dec. 1948-Aug. 1950; returned for a number of years
Clarence Peckover	Castañer
Dr. Delbert Preheim	La Plata, Sept. 1943-Apr. 1946
Esther Rinner	La Plata, July 1947-Jan. 1949
Dale Roesch	Castañer, 1948-49
Patricia Santiago	La Plata
Erwin Schrag	La Plata, July 1943-Feb. 1946
Marvin Sherman	Castañer
Dr. Lee Smith	Castañer, 1955; 1958-59
Marvin Smoker
Jim Snyder	Aibonito, late 1950s
Don Sollenberger	Castañer, late 1940s
Loren Stichter	late 1950s
Victor Stoltzfus
N. Paul Stucky	La Plata, Dec. 1943-Dec. 1945
Oliver Stucky	La Plata, 1949-1950(?)
Fred Swartzendruber	La Plata, 1949-51
Wayne Swartzendruber	La Plata, mid 1950s
Paul Tieszen
Jim Tomlonson	Castañer, mid 1950s
Charles W. Toth
Dick Weaver	Rio Piedras, early 1950s
Elmer P. Weaver
Paul Weaver	Castañer, 1941-46
Gladys Widmer
Margarita Will
Gerald Wilson	Pulguillas, 1957-65
Leroy and Maxine Yoder	La Plata, Pulguillas, 1960-75
Orris Yoder	La Plata, Aug. 1950-
Robert Yoder	La Plata, early 1950s
Harold Zehr
Floyd Zehr

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Conditions of use

1. Personal use
You don't need to ask permission or notify me to:
-- Copy up to 25 photos to your own computer
-- Print out up to 25 photos for your own use
-- Link to the photos on your website or blog

2. Non-profit educational or scholarly use
You don't need to ask permission to use the photos in the classroom (I would appreciate an email letting me know how the photos are being used).

You don't need to ask permission, but you do need to notify me to:
-- Publish photos in a non-profit educational or scholarly publication or broadcast medium
-- Exhibit photos in an exhibition (as long as no admission is charged to see them)

If you publish any of the photos in a not for profit educational or scholarly publication or exhibit them, you must:
-- list the names of the photographers in the credits
-- send me a copy of the publication or DVD of the program

3. Commercial use
The photos are not available for commercial use.

If you have any questions, contact me at telehman@gmail.com.

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I scan the slides using a Nikon Coolscan V ED at 2,500 pixels per inch, producing a 26MB tiff file. Some of the earlier photos were scanned at a lower resolution.

The scanner software has a variety of photo enhancement features. Dark photos can be brightened, faded colors can be restored. My current practice is to scan first without adjustment, then rescan if needed to obtain the best possible photo.

To help make sure the photos are preserved I'm giving copies on CD to two archives, the Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín in San Juan, PR and the Mennonite Church USA Archive in Goshen, IN.

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1. Scan at the highest resolution you can afford. Storage is cheap. You don't ever want to have to scan a photo twice because you need more detail. I scan slides at 2,500 pixels per inch, resulting in a 26MB TIF file.
2. Scan in a lossless file format, meaning no information is discarded in compression. TIF is the predominant photo file format. I save TIFs as preservation masters, making JPEGs for use as needed. Irfanview is an excellent free program I use to convert TIFs to JPEGs and to reduce file sizes.
3. Make at least two copies of every photo you intend to keep, on different hard drives, on different media (hard drive, DVD, in the cloud), in different locations if possible. Hard drives can go bad, DVDs degrade over time, cloud storage companies can lose data or go out of business. Your best chance of preserving digital information over time is multiple copies.
4. Keep records with information about the photos. I maintain a spreadsheet that has been invaluable. I record with the following information (when available) for each slide:
   1. Date scanned
   2. Unique sequential number
   3. File name of the photo
   4. Slide type (Kodak, Kodachrome Transparency, etc.). This can help date the slide. See the Kodachrome slide dating guide
   5. When the photo was taken
   6. Place the photo was taken
   7. Persons in the photo, if known
   8. Description/Notes
   9. Owner of the photo collection
   10. Country
5. Comments
   • File name of the photo: the file name I assign consists of a unique sequential number followed by a description of the photo; for example: 2587--Ox teams in field, carts being loaded with sugarcane.tif. This lets people refer to a photo by its number and I can easily look it up in the spreadsheet and get the full information. It's easy to find information on people, places, etc. by searching within the spreadsheet.
   • Slide type: I don't always have a date the photo was taken, and the slide type can help date it. There is a handy Kodachrome slide dating web page that is very helpful.
   
   
6. Cleaning slides. If a slide has dust, dirt or mold that can be removed, it will improve the quality of the scanned image. You have to be very careful though, as slides can easily be damaged. If in doubt, don't clean, use Photoshop to remove blemishes. Here's what I've learned.
   1. Make sure you know which is the emulsion side of the slide. It's the rough side that faces the screen. The other (base) side is smooth. If you get the emulsion wet it will smear.
   2. Some dust and dirt can be removed from the emulsion side of a slide. I bought a yard of flannel which I cut into nine 12 inch square pieces to brush off the dust lightly. (photo)
   3. If slides haven't been stored in a closed box, they may have a greasy film on the emulsion side. I breathe on the slide as you would to clean glasses, then rub gently with the flannel cloth. Don't try this with slides with just "Kodachrome" on the mounts (pre-June 1949), as the emulsion is softer than in later slides.
   4. Don't attempt to clean mold from the emulsion side. It has usually eaten into the emulsion, and attempting to remove it will damage the slide.
   5. Dirt and mold can be cleaned with some success from the base (smooth) side of the slide. I use filtered water and a clean 100% cotton cloth. I wrap the cloth around my index finger, get a drop of the filtered water on the cloth, and gently rub off the dirt or mold. I use a clean area of the cloth to dry the slide. Again, this is for the base side only.
   6. Launder your cloths after cleaning a few slides.
   7. I examine each slide to see if cleaning is needed. I use a magnifying glass and hold the slide up to a sheet of white paper taped to a the back side of a downward facing desk lamp. This works much better than a slide viewer.

Here are some photos showing the process I use.

To get in touch, email me at: telehman@gmail.com

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