Oddity of the Week: Snaps from the Revolution
Created | Updated Aug 10, 2014
We love travel snaps. The good news is, nobody shot the photographer.
Snaps from the Revolution
When businessman James Maxwell Pringle travelled to visit his company's bank branch in Petrograd, Russia, in 1917, he took his camera along. After all, he might as well mix business with pleasure. A few holiday snaps might not be amiss.
Mr Pringle landed in the middle of the Russian Revolution. His photo collection provides fascinating documentation of a turbulent period in Russian history. The collection has been donated to the Library of Congress, so you can read and view more photos, if you like. It's a way to take a peek into the past.
Pringle makes us think. What must it have been like to be a foreign business traveller at such an unsettling time? Also: what value might our own casual snapshots have someday? Maybe some historian at a future stardate will be dying to know about the postboxes of the Isle of Wight.
Keep your cameras handy!
