Man Holding a Child

Object NamePhotograph

Historic Owner Pierce Y. Matthews Jr.

Association USS Intrepid (CV/CVA/CVS-11)

DateDecember 25, 1961

PeriodCold War

Mediumphotographic paper

ClassificationsCommunication Artifacts

Credit LineCollection of the Intrepid Museum. Museum purchase. P2017.05.12

Object numberP2017.05.12

DescriptionPhotograph, Black and white; Horizontal image of a man in a suit sitting down and holding a small child. The child is wearing a dark, long sleeve shirt. The man is holding a piece of paper in his hand. Both are light-skinned. There is a white border around the photograph and the right and left edges are scalloped. The back has “Max Zimmerman-Enderli // Brunngasse 354 // Matte b. Interlaken // Switzerland” and “Christmas Day 1961 // On train in Switzerland” written in black ink and “H176211 Polaroid”, “47”, and “2” stamped in blue and black.

Description from accompanying letter dated January 6, 1962 reads “From Zurich to Schaffhausen a young man and his son were on the way to visit his parents (Swiss) where I gathered his wife already was. He does some kind of work as a civilian in construction, on an airfield at present, but I gather he is dissatisfied and wants some other work – I forget what. His brother is selling Swiss watches in Hong Kong, of all places, and doing fairly well. When he first came into the compartment he told his son to lie down and go to sleep but I requested a picture, took it, gave it to him and he let his son play for the rest of the trip; his son seemed to enjoy my company and he was real active and cheerful, exploring the whole compartment. He was quite surprised to find I couldn’t understand a word he said. He enjoyed being picked up and played with. Youngsters are pretty much the same all over the world. This German-speaking Swiss…(continued 0020 9 Jan 62)… boy pronounced his German in the guttural way that German is pronounced and it was a little humorous to hear this little boy straining out his German in the energetic way that two men pushing a Mack truck up out of a ditch would speak to each other. You would speak to each other. You would expect it from an authoritative Prussian, but not from a little boy.”

For full text of letters, see A2017.05 or ArchivesSpace record https://intrepidmuseum.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/113

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