Archive of Nineteen Photographs

[Montauban, France, 1942. Eighteen black and white original photographs (each 12.5 x 17.5 cm.); with one photo postcard (13.5 x 8 cm.) with manuscript note on the verso. Nineteen original photographs depicting children and staff at an orphanage in Montauban, in Southwest France. Included are images of children eating, food being prepared and served, children in the classroom and school yard, and receiving medical care. The children are of various ages, perhaps from three to ten years of age, and the photographs are well done, not snapshots. Images of the staff (truncated) seem to focus on one man, presumed to be John H. Wood, the Director. The message on the postcard states, "A Mr. John H. Wood Directeur et bienfaiteur de notre regrette fils Sebastien decede le 13 d'Abril, 1942, en preuve de reconnaisance, Famille Serra, Montauban 25-4-42. France." The young man on the postcard is, we think, the son Sebastien who may have been killed in battle or the resistance. Monatauban was part of the Zone Libre, eventually breached and occupied in November of 1942. Very good condition throughout. (Inventory #: 9641)