Don wrote,
............I contacted a Mr. Lester who is supposedly a
experienced researcher at NARA, College Park, MD.
He says that the US Army "took pictures of everything they bought"
with respect to vehicles. True?
A specific Willys or Ford jeep wouldn't be there, of course, but what
about my weird panel?
What do you say Mr. Gilmore, Doyle, Stephens, Vaughn, Lathrop?
...................
Well.......I don't know it they took a photo of EVERYTHING...........but
there are photos of most everything. You must know where to look though.......
You can't just go there and look in one file and find every photo......
I have been through over 34,000 photos just in the Army contact print
boxes alone. And this was just from 1940 to mid 1943!! This does not
include the USMC, Navy, Coast Guard or civilian photos that I have looked
through.
I don't have time right now to give a crash course in Archive digging.
Maybe if I have time this weekend I'll post a overview of how to go about it.
REMEMBER.........you are the only one who really cares about getting a
photo of your vehicle. The people who work at the National Archives are
very helpful but....they just don't have the time to go through the
thousands of photos to find what you might need. You have to take at least
a week and go digging for 12 hours a day to really find the "gold".
First thing to do is to go to the Henry Ford Archives in Dearborn
MI. Start where your vehicle started from. You are more likely to find
photos there than the Nat. Archives but you must go and dig yourself.
A good tip.........don't think of what your vehicle is......but what it
also is! It is a panel truck but it may be found under such obscure photo
titles as "lockers", machine shop, service truck, maintenance truck,
airfields, shipyards, and even surplus. These are all photo titles. I found
some great photos of GP's in a file labeled "visitors" and others in "radio
installations".
Jim
NOTE NEW ADDRESS----NOTE NEW ADDRESS---NOTE NEW ADDRESS------AS OF
JANUARY 4, 2001---------
Jim Gilmore
13 Broadway 3rd floor
Jim Thorpe, PA. 18229
570-325-5216 phone
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