The Sunday porch: catching up

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Two women, by Michael Francis Blake, Duke University Libraries Commons on flickr“Snapshot, two women sitting on the front porch of a house, unidentified,” ca. 1912-1934, by Michael Francis Blake, via David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University Libraries Commons on flickr.

Blake was one of the first African-American studio photographers in Charleston, South Carolina.  His collection at Duke consists of 117 photos in an album entitled “Portraits of Members.”

. . . our effort to open the gift of the world,
our hope to find years
in this box we tear apart.

— Allan Johnston, from “Evening Conversation“

The Sunday porch: Santa Barbara

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The Sunday porch:enclos*ure- Casa de la Guerra, Calf., 1936, HABSLa Casa de la Guerra, Santa Barbara, California, September 1936, by Henry F. Withey for an Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS),  via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The adobe house was built between 1819 and 1826 by José de la Guerra y Noriega.  His descendants lived in parts of the house until 1945 (other parts were renovated as offices or shops after 1919).

“It is unquestionably the major monument of the Spanish and Mexican period in Santa Barbara. Architecturally it is also of great significance for the part it played in the creation of the 20th century Spanish Colonial revival in southern California,” according to the 1937 HABS report.

The house still stands and is open to the public as a museum.
 

Life in gardens: tea in Egypt

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Tea in Egypt 1, Matson Col., LoCTea time in the front garden of Mena House, an hotel in Cairo, Egypt. Taken between 1934 and 1939 by the Photo Department of the American Colony of Jerusalem, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (both photos).

I think that tea has come too late for the lady in the foreground, who seems to have nodded off.

Tea in Egypt 3, Matson Col., LoCView of a pyramid from the front porch, Mena House, Cairo, Egypt.

The hotel opened in 1890 and featured Egypt’s first swimming pool.  Famous guests have included British and Egyptian royalty, Winston Churchill, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Charlie Chaplin.